‘The Flash’ Episode 1.4 “Going Rogue” (8 out of 10) Starring Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Rick Cosnett, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Tom Kavanaugh, and Jesse L. Martin. Guest starring Wentworth Miller and Emily Bett Rickards. Tuesdays on The CW
This is a showdown I’ve waited for since “The Flash” was first announced. I’ve always said that a superhero is only as good as his villains–a big part of Batman’s popularity is due to the residents of Arkham Asylum. The Flash has his own extensive Rogues Gallery, and it’s usually headed up by the supervillain we meet this week, Captain Cold. Flash ends up with more dangerous villains, like Reverse-Flash and Gorilla Grodd, but Captain Cold is one of the five or six villains that form a team of sorts. Even more than a team, the Rogues become family.
This episode gives us the origin of Captain Cold, aka Leonard Snart. The son of a con, he dropped out of high school and has been a small time crook ever since. Lately he’s had a string of successes, and has his own gang of a few thugs who help him on heists. All that changes when he runs into the Flash, who inspires Snart to “up his game.” He ends up with a freeze gun, technology stolen from S.T.A.R. Labs. Turns out someone at S.T.A.R. was developing technology that was capable of stopping the Flash–they’re the superhero’s closest allies, but someone there is turning against him. It’d be like Jimmy Olsen having a stash of Kryptonite in the Daily Planet building. Which maybe he does. You can’t trust gingers. So Snart ends up with a freeze gun, and it changes his world.
Captain Cold and the other Rogues are more in the criminal game for the adventure and profit than outright hatred of the Flash. He tells his crew “we don’t shoot guards or cops unless it’s our only option. We don’t need the heat.” Rather than draw in even more guards and cops and superheroes, Snart likes to keep things relatively civilized. Sure he’s stealing enormous diamonds and robbing banks–but he does it with a smile. He’s no Robin Hood or Butch Cassidy–but he’s not a sociopath either. That said, he does hurt Flash enough that it makes Barry Allen up his own game–he recognizes that Captain Cold might be a new kind of villain–and he’s right. Snart even has a grudging respect for the Flash; you can see this is a battle that neither is going to win anytime soon.
Captain Cold might be a new kind of villain
The B-story here is that Felicity Smoak is visiting from Starling City (and from sister series “Arrow”). She and Barry had a little sumpin-sumpin when they met about a year ago, and she’s in town to check out Barry, and the Flash, and S.T.A.R. Labs. At some point a character calls them “adorable nerds,” and it’s true. They’re cute, they’re smart, they know each other’s secrets…and they’re both suffering the sting of unrequited love. I’ve seen internet speculation that they’ll eventually end up together–that Felicity will jump ship to “The Flash” sooner or later. I can see it happening, but it would leave a void on “Arrow” that would be hard to fill. She quickly integrates with the S.T.A.R. Labs team, and help Barry out on this particular case, both in and out of his superhero costume. Which is a verbal gaffe/double entendre that she herself would make, so I’ll go ahead and leave it. She’s a favorite character of mine, and it’s nice to see the chemistry between Felicity and Barry.
This was an enjoyable episode, with enough story, adventure, and seeds planted for future events that it’s also likely to be a key episode for the season. It also might be the first time that Barry gets mad at his teammates, showing a wider range of emotion than “gee whiz,” and “somebody’s gotta stop them!” We’re starting to see some fractures in the S.T.A.R. Labs team; I don’t know if they’ll widen or not, but each of the characters is becoming deeper as the season moves on. Happily, that doesn’t mean they’re becoming darker. Just more interesting, more complex. It’s still the CW, but they’re playing as smart as they can. And “The Flash” is moving forward.