‘The Flash’ Episode 1.16 “Rogue Time” (7 out of 10) Starring Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Rick Cosnett, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Tom Kavanaugh, and Jesse L. Martin. Guest starring Liam McIntyre, Malese Jow, Wentworth Miller, Dominic Purcell, Peyton List. First broadcast March 24, 2015.
When we left Barry Allen he had just accidentally time traveled. Not far, only skipped back in time one day…but it was a pretty horrific day. Weather Wizard had captured and tortured Joe, and had sumoned a tidal wave to destroy Central City. Even worse, Captain Singh had been attacked by Weather Wizard, putting him in the hospital and probably paralyzing him. Even worse, Cisco had sussed out that Dr. Wells was actually Reverse Flash, and Wells killed Cisco with a vibratey-hand-through-the-heart. Even worse, for those of us who don’t think near-incest is all that cool, Barry had revealed his secret identity to Iris, and they had some quality smooching time. Gross.
Oh yeah, spoilers.
But with Barry sent back in time one day, all of this could change. It takes him a few hours to figure out what’s happened, but when he does, he makes rounding up Weather Wizard his first order of business. Easy peasy, Mark Mardon is in a cell at S.T.A.R. Labs. Dr. Wells slips out, warning Barry that if you undo one tragedy by using time travel, time will find a way to resume it’s course. Different tragedies, sometimes worse, will result.
undoing one tragedy will only multiply them
Barry sees that immediately as he breaks up with Linda Park, and goes straight to Iris, asking her for a coffee date. Iris agrees, but once she sees where the creepy wind is blowing, kicks him to the curb. Dr. Wells tells Barry that the traumatic events in the other timestream didn’t happen, therefore Iris didn’t have those feelings for Barry uncovered, therefore…no weird happy ending for Barry and Iris in this particular timeline. Not yet, at least.
Other events replay, but differently. Last week, it was Reverse Flash who tortured Cisco, who had ditched his brother’s birthday party. This week, Cisco goes to the birthday party, and it’s Captain Cold and Heat Wave who torture Cisco and his brother. Reverse Flash still kills someone with a vibratey-hand, but this time it’s a reporter who was uncovering Wells’ role in the Simon Stagg disappearance. Wells and Cisco end up having a heart-to-heart in the basement of S.T.A.R. Labs, but it doesn’t end with Cisco dead. So that’s nice.
Captain Cold and Heatwave are the main villains for the episode, and this time they’re joined by Lisa Snart, AKA Captain Cold’s sister, AKA Golden Glider. She’s the flirty bait that’s used to trap Cisco, and he’s forced into rebuilding a Cold Gun, Heat Gun, and now a Gold Gun (???) for Lisa. The Gold Gun appears to encase people in gold…which seems to obviate the need to commit robberies in the first place. Then again, the classic Golden Glider had superpowered ice skates, and the current comic book version has golden ribbon/tendril things that extend out from her body. If anything a Gold Gun makes more sense. The villains also torture poor Cisco’s brother until Cisco reveals the secret identity of the Flash. I’m starting to wonder if Cisco will be the South Park’s Kenny of “The Flash,” tortured or killed by a different villain in each timeline. That…I might actually like that. But I like Cisco too much for it. Don’t do it, producery people.
I’m really, really liking Wentworth Miller’s take on Captain Cold. It wasn’t at all what I expected it would be, but my only non-comic book experience with Cold has been on like, “Challenge of the Super Friends.” He’s creating this character pretty much from scratch, and he’s got a menace and a charisma and a glee that’s not as unhinged as a Batman villain, but makes for compelling watching. He’s emerging as the leader of his gang of villains, who get named “the Rogues” and “Rogues Gallery” in conversation with Barry at the end of the episode. This conversation is my favorite part of the episode — asking Cold why he’s doing these things, why doesn’t he go straight, get a job, leave Central City — and it boils down to Cold…being bored. He doesn’t want to live a normal life, he doesn’t want to get a job, he enjoys commiting crimes. Flash negotaiates him down to “okay, can you do those things, but not kill people?” …and Cold agrees. For the last few decades, the Rogues have been anti-heroes in Flash comic books, with a sort of honor code of their own. Still villains, certainly, but come to fight alongside the Flash as much as they fight him. It’s an interesting, complicated kind of villainy, and we’re seeing it take shape here. With the announcement that Captain Cold will be a lead character on CW’s next DC Comics television project, I’m interested to see where this will lead.
Will the events of this episode be enough to turn Barry away from the idea of using his powers to time travel? He tried to do it again in the lab, and failed. If going back in time one day caused so many changes to the timeline, what would happen if he went back 15 years and saved his mother’s life? I’m guessing we’ll be seeing some answers to these questions in the coming weeks.
Next week, we get Mark Hamill reprising his most famous role. No, not Luke Skywalker. No, not the Joker. The Trickster! Aw, yeah. This will be good.
