The Flash "Going Rogue" Review: Flash Freeze

The Flash S01E04: "Going Rogue"

As many of you know, around these parts, we always try to give new shows the TV.com 4-Episode Test. Sometimes four episodes is enough; sometimes it isn't. Sometimes all you need is one. In the case of The Flash, I've been pretty on-board since the start. I dig the show's tone and aesthetics, it features a remarkably solid cast of actors (even if some of their characters aren't totally up to snuff yet), and the writers are doing a fine job of balancing the superhero action against the personal drama. However, I've known for awhile that the strength of my "yes, you should keep watching" recommendation would hinge on the merits of "Going Rogue," an episode that I've been looking forward to, and an episode that I was hoping would address one of my big complaints about The Flash's first three episodes: The villains were all dullards.

So, thank goodness for The Flash's version of Leonard Snart, a.k.a. Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller). Thank goodness for a script from Geoff Johns (an unabashed Captain Cold fanboy) and Kai Yu Wu and the direction of Glen Winter, who's turned in some of Arrow's best-looking episodes and has now helmed the best-looking episode of The Flash thus far.

Yeah, I really loved this episode.

Let's start with Snart, a name I will never ever tire of. Even though I've championed The Flash's Freak of the Week format, I've been wanting more interesting freaks—freaks with personalities. Apparently, when the particle accelerator gives bad guys their powers, it somehow strips them of intrigue. Snart doesn't have any powers; he doesn't even have a high school diploma. But he's meticulous, he's observant, and he's ruthless. And those are actual adjectives I can apply to Snart because The Flash let him do stuff other than embark on thunderstorm sprees or want revenge. He plans his heists with care and tries to avoid racking up a body count. He scrutinized the way Barry operated and didn't allow for unnecessary loose ends. In short, Snart is a professional.

Professionals are dangerous, especially when you're just a kid in a friction-resistant red suit; a professional who happens to have a cold gun that dramatically slows down a kid in a friction-resistant red suit is doubly dangerous. Until now, Barry has benefited from dealing with bad guys driven by singular goals, and he's had the support of a team that's helped him isolate those bad guys' weaknesses. But Snart isn't single-mindedly obsessed, and even when Barry's allies showed up to save him in "Going Rogue," the outcome was more of a draw than an outright victory since Snart still got away with the diamond he wanted. Snart's just smart enough to know when to make a strategic retreat if he doesn't have all the facts, and Snart is clearly someone who likes having all the facts.

In any case, The Flash has finally offered up a villain who's genuinely worthy of the term, and a nemesis, even. It's great that Snart sees Barry not as an obstacle, per se, but as a reason to get better at his "craft": being a professional criminal. Perhaps he's grown bored with outwitting Central City's police department and is eager for a new challenge? While Snart may exhibit some pride, he doesn't have that normal villain ego, either. Some villains would want to get back at the Streak for foiling their plans, but not Snart. In a sure sign of his menace, he took over for Harrison as the subject of this week's end tag, in which he handed over the heat gun to Mick, an old friend who likes to play with fire.

I never really watched Prison Break, so I'm no expert on Wentworth Miller's acting chops, but his restrained performance as Snart worked pretty well for me. For a character who we just met, it seems like there's a remarkably solid throughline between the script and the show's intentions and Miller's performance. Small touches, like the line about Barry's age, or the way he half-smirked and glanced up at the sky when Cisco called Snart Captain Cold, gave the character a little extra something beyond criminal cunning, and I appreciated the extra effort.

As for the episode's S.T.A.R. Labs story, it was Cisco's turn to take center stage... kind of. Generally, the excuse of, "Oh, yeah, I built this cold gun because I didn't know if I could trust you, Barry" coupled with an off-screen robbery of the lab would qualify as the sort of plot contrivance I'm never happy to see. Plus, when it comes to character moments, Cisco certainly got the short end of the stick compared to Caitlin in last week's episode and Joe in the one before that. But the overall quality of the Snart plot made me forgive the back-bending that "Going Rogue" did in order to justify the origin and existence of the cold gun, even if it was the sort of thing The Flash shouldn't make a habit of. While narratively withholding information that later ends up in a FLASHback (which were thankfully absent this week) is sort of excusable, here it was just kind of clunky. Perhaps reversing the order of the scenes where Snart acquired the gun and Cisco and the team realized it was missing might've smoothed things out a little? Of course, it did help that Harrison was very angry about the cold gun's creation and theft. Like, angry enough that I thought he was going to remove his glasses, get up from his wheelchair, and stab Cisco in the gut right there in that room. Scary.

The tensions surrounding the cold gun were sort of too wishy-washily wrapped up for me, so I hope they'll resurface as the S.T.A.R. group and Barry sort of work out their team dynamics. In that regard, Felicity visiting from Starling City and Arrow served a valuable purpose: to help guide Barry in such matters. Indeed, much of The Flash has concentrated on, "Barry learns an important fact about being a superhero!"—which makes sense, since he's still figuring everything out—and Felicity teaching this week's lesson instead of Joe was a nice change of pace.

Now, if you don't watch Arrow, this next bit may be meaningless for you, but since Felicity exists on both Arrow and The Flash, you'll have to pardon me getting a little frustrated with how both shows are making use of the character. It doesn't really matter if you're a 'shipper; Barry and Felicity's smooch in "Going Rogue" constituted some pretty ridiculous emotional manipulation. Is she attracted to Oliver or Barry? How serious can she be about Ray Palmer if/when Arrow gets around to that arc? I understand that Felicity's in a weird emotional state given Oliver's behavior, and goodness knows Barry's in a similar boat with the whole Iris thing, so the complicated nature of Felicity's feelings for the men in her life may lead to all sorts of flirty and kissy moments as she sorts herself out. But the events of this episode also kind of felt like 'shipper pot-stirring for the sake of 'shipper pot-stirring, especially because I was sort of thrilled with the idea of Felicity and Barry being friends. I guess she can only be friends with Diggle and Roy?

Okay, Felicity-related stuff over, back to just The Flash. Though all we have left are Eddie, Iris, and Joe.

This may've been the first episode where that trio wasn't absolutely terrible. Part of that is due to the humor of Eddie turning on the radio to hear "When A Man Loves A Woman" and "Let's Get It On" coupled with his lack of knowing the name of Han Solo's ship that kept it afloat, and it was the first time I think I actually had an opinion on Rick Cosnett; he's really good at awkward reaction shots. Mostly, though, it was that heart-to-heart between Joe and Iris that made it work for me. It yielded the sort of mature conversation that I was worried might not happen, and that's what allowed it to click. It also helps that Joe is probably the best TV dad in this vein since Keith Mars on Veronica Mars.

That The Flash managed to make that scene work well enough is a sign of its growing confidence, narratively. The Iris and Eddie plot continues to be its weakest part, but it's not intolerably weak, either. Yes, they'll need to sort out how to avoid making it feel ridiculously repetitive any time Iris and Barry interact because Felicity won't be around to mix things up every week. Leonard Snart is a great step forward in the villain department. The show's humor and tone are both great. The radio stuff was pretty funny, but the shot of the trivia team decked out in Star Wars outfits? It was very funny, and it was a gag that the scene didn't need, but the show tossed it in anyway because why the hell not? That kind of an attitude may be the show's biggest strength.

Well, that and its visuals. I mentioned Glen Winter at the start of this review, so I'm going to close with him, too. Winter was Arrow's director of photography; unlike directors, which change from episode to episode, directors of photography remain somewhat constant in order to help maintain a consistent sense of style. Winter has gone on to become one of Arrow's best directors, and with "Going Rogue," he became The Flash's best director, too (sorry, David Nutter!). It's not just that Winter gets big sequences, like Barry racing the cold gun beam or the entirety of the train sequence; both were very impressive. But the fact that he adds texture to scenes that would be fine without any is hard to resist, because why the hell not? Consider this shot:

It was, as Carrie noted, gorgeous, and given that it was basically exposition, it didn't need to be gorgeous. That it was says a lot about the energy being put into the show, and the care that Winter devotes to it. Even an insert shot of the radio dial in the car gave that car a bit more of an existence than it would've had if Eddie's hand had simply moved prior to the start of a song. It's the big and the small things that matter. The Flash still has a few small kinks to work out, but if "Going Rogue" is any indication, those kinks may not last much longer.

LEFT IN THE DUST

– "For the record, I crushed it at Operation and Ping Pong." I love that Barry spent his day off testing his new abilities in a lab.

– Felicity had about 80 costume changes in this episode, which seemed really excessive. I know many of us enjoy seeing Felicity in all sorts of killer dresses, but The Flash may've gone overboard here.

– So Felicity overheard Barry and Oliver talking on the rooftop in the pilot, which is how she knew Barry was out of his coma, and then she pieced it together that he was the Streak she was reading about? That didn't seem like a quick plot-hole patch at all.

– No new episode next week! Enjoy the week off!

What'd you think of "Going Rogue"?