The Flash S1x04 “Going Rogue”

WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS!

There were a lot of things to like about this episode of The Flash, which was incredibly good and continued the excellent form that this series has been in so far. Each episode has been, aside from one or two minor problems that normally came with a lack of well developed villains, pretty excellent, and Going Rogue, was no exception, as Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) got his hands on a weapon capable of taking out Barry Allen. And with Geoff Johns co-writing this episode, a man who has played a key role in defining the modern era of The Flash comics, it was great to see that this didn’t disappoint. For the first time we got a villain that stands a chance of being remembered by the season’s end and it was great to see Captain Cold in action against The Flash here.

The armoured car scene of Going Rogue set the tone nicely for an action packed episode that took a brief break to focus on the friendship between Barry and Felicity Smoak, who stopped by from parent show Arrow to say hi this week (as a result, she missed out on the chaos that went down in Arrow’s fourth episode). Naturally, when Iris sees Barry with Felicity and how well the two get on, she invites her and Barry on a double date with her own boyfriend unaware that Barry is more interested in Iris. So naturally, it goes just as well as can be expected.

We also got some further development on Cisco’s part this week when it was revealed that Cisco created the gun that Captain Cold currently uses. Whilst this team didn’t exactly come together in the way that the Arrow team did, it was good to see that they aren’t exactly the perfect team just yet. We got to see both Cisco and Barry’s guilt – the former at creating the gun that was used to kill people, and the latter of which came from Barry failing to save someone for the first time since gaining his powers. Caitlin wasn’t given much to do here and it remains to be seen what Dr. Wells’ overall gameplan is, with several layers of manipulation that could be in place. Maybe it’s just because I recently finished watching an episode of Hannibal before typing this review, but Wells’ manipulation tactics feels somewhat similar to Dr. Lecter’s constant manipulation of Will Graham, even if his methods aren’t as bloody. It’ll be interesting to see how long the creative team can go before Barry inevitably finds out that not everything should be taken at face value with Wells, and the consequences behind fallout should be very interesting to say the least.

There were some moments pulled off in Going Rogue that would happen in few other TV shows, mainly due to the limitations of special effects. The slow motion train crash sequence is perhaps the highlight and it was a very ambitious move to say the least, and although not all of it looked perfect, it certainly created a great set-piece scenario, with the show attempting to go for a cinematic approach.

Naturally, with a comics writer on board there were always going to be plenty of cameos/references and with Johns there was certainly no exception. Black Hawk Security is a clear nod to the Blackhawks, who even had their own ongoing series at the start of the New 52 reboot, and I believe they also popped up in the first season of Arrow a couple of times, although I could be wrong. Perhaps the other big reference was the appearance of Kahndaq Dynasty Diamond, and its name will probably be very familiar with fans of Black Adam, for Kahndaq (a fictional country in the Middle-East) is the character’s home and whilst it’s unlikely we’ll see him crop up on the show it’s great to see the CW’s TV Universe expanding with every new episode.

So aside from the CGI, which doesn’t always hit the mark (but is still pretty good for a network show attempting something on this scale) this episode was another strong one, with Captain Cold and Felicity Smoak being welcome additions to The Flash, and the promise of more of the Flash’s Rogues further down the line (Heat Wave!) being very exciting indeed.