“I want you to take a moment and think about all the things that define your life. All the people you love; your job, your co-workers, your home. And now imagine if one day, in a flash, all of that vanished. Would you simply accept your new life and continue on? Or would you do whatever it takes to get back what was taken from you? Because I can assure you I will get everything that was taken from me”.
This week, the Reverse Flash means business and so does the show by delivering an outstanding episode that’s set up the season climax and plenty more while still making an immensely entertaining episode in itself.
Rogue Air – When Harrison’s future tech starts bringing the particle accelerator back, online Barry is forced to take drastic measures over their imprisoned metahumans, less they be killed when it reactivates. This involves one very unpopular team-up and more than a few problems.
So tonight there’s going to be a jailbreak, somewhere in this town... or not really as in the face of the prisoner transportation dilemma (the episode name becoming a great play on Simon’s West’s classic Con Air). The morality and justification of the STAR Labs metahuman prison becomes a heavy talking point. It’s been teased in a couple of prior episodes that something would happen with the inmate residents, but instead of asking if they can contain these powered individuals indefinitely, the question becomes whether they should. The best catalyst becomes Joe trying to enlist the help of Central City’s DA for transport assistance. Although she previously hinted at a Flash co-operation stance back in episode 19, here she becomes a great moral anchor as she reminds Joe what he really knew all along. That despite their noble intentions, the team’s actions are still “unlawful imprisonment”. Even if they can contain their villains, the incarcerated still have human rights that they are in no position to fulfil. When Peek-a-Boo busts out and starts beating on Catlin about how horrible her incarceration was you actually feel for her and the borderline inhumanity of her treatment. How would Barry feel is father was locked up this way and he couldn’t even visit him? This moment of villain apathy also sets up a much larger theme for the episode revolving around its star performer, Leonard Snart/Captain Cold.
It’s long been announced that Snart would be a season regular on the upcoming Flarrow-verse spin-off (now christened Legends of Tomorrow) but the recent snow synopsis marked him in more of an anti-hero capacity than a straight up villain. This mutual interest Flash team up goes some way to investing an audience into this being a good thing but crucially does not feel like the leg work of a setup for a single second. Wentworth Millar has impressed in all three of his prior outings this season, but here he takes it to another level, seething with manipulation and self confidence when working his position of advantage against Barry, blunt and downright hilariously bantering with heroes and villains alike. And of course, you have to love the irony of his character acting in a prison warden style role after his many years on the Break. There’s even a couple of good is his own code on honour, such as keeping his promise over not revealing Barry’s identity even to his sister. Yet while laying the grounds for his departure it still, manages to enhance his position on the Flash show (it’s confirmed he will still also feature in Flash season 2) by further developing Rogue society and leaving the door open for several new potential members to join the party by simple means of a favour system. This feels nicely in keeping with the comics in which many Rogue members often didn’t like other but teamed out of necessity or mutual gain when it suited them. A good supporting entry goes to sister Snart, Lisa, who gets some of the episodes best laughs by spending most of it playfully flirting with Cisco. His reactions are priceless as knows full well he’s being played still can’t help flashing a grin of satisfaction from time to time at the idea of Lisa finding his smarts sexy, “really not enjoying being one of the good guys this week”. Catlin’s interjections are also very fun.
The most admirable thing about this episode is how easily could have collapsed upon itself. It’s both a big Rogue and big Reverse Flash episode with an almost Age of Ultron sized cast (Peek-a-Boo, Prism, Deathbolt, Mist and Liam “I’m Spartacus” McIntyre’s Weather Wizard” return as feature inmates) yet still finds time for everyone. The Helbing brothers, Aaron and Todd, have previously done this successfully with their prior episode scripts, (including the excellent mid-season finale and episode 15s Out of Time) but here they really rise to the greater challenge. Harrison Wells is primarily a framing to the episode, forming the setup and climax, while departing for the Rogue events but still feels relevant in no way a rushed part of the episode. The guest appearing faces of the big Flash/Reverse Flash showdown may have been long spoiled in past promos (though not here just in case) but that takes nothing away from the show stopping mass fight that goes down with so much to enjoy. When Harrison Wells declares “this is going to be fun” he could easily be breaking the 4th wall. In terms of action, the preceding Rogue battle royal must not be overlooked despite the effects heavy speedster showdown that follows. It boasts plenty of highlights like Catlin getting prism hexed and in general a great sense of Barry’s Flash evolution. Even though outnumbered he’s noticeably stronger against some opponents than his first encounter (such as utilising the fire-fighting arm cyclone against Mist).Even Barry’s emotional and heroic motivation gets a good reflection in Barry’s end conversation with Joe. In harks right back to the pilot episode (and Arrow season 2 setup) with Barry becoming The Flash to be a hero like the Oliver Queen/The Arrow, he admired but here finally releasing that for better or worse that’s not who he is.
One little niggle in an otherwise flawless episode in its omission. A key part revolves around unknown and unstoppable future tech. The Gideon computer is mentioned yet neither Cisco nor anyone else thinks to use her (and is anyone esle starting to wonder if STAR Labs actually has any security?). There’s a few tantalising Easter Eggs for the future. Eddie feels a distantly changed character following his captivity and his moment of using Harrison wells level double meaning speech over Barry & Iris is a good hint of a darker character direction. It still looks like we’ll see him becoming a different Reverse Flash version for next season. Finally, I don’t want to keep going on about Green Lantern references every week and we still may never say the character on the small screen but this week’s direct Hal Jordon reference was just too big to ignore. “Ferris Air, I thought this place got shut down?... it did, one of their test pilots disappeared” directly implying that Hal is in the early stages of his character creation. This episode could easily have been a satisfying finale in its own right and if this is just the warm up next week will be launched into the stratosphere. Thank you for flying with Rogue Air.