The Flash makes its midseason premiere with, “Revenge Of The Rogue.†The ability for the show to have a strong follow-up after ending last year with a spectacular episode with the Reverse-Flash was a tall order, but “Revenge OF The Rogues” was up to the challenge, even if The Reverse-Flash didn’t make an appearance.
The dynamic duo of Captain Cold and Heat Wave is front and center this week and, besides some campiness, is great. Wentworth Miller plays Cold nearly exactly as he played Michael Scofield on Prison Break; he’s a very deliberate, subdued genius and the first mainstay villain for the Scarlet Speedster. The fire to his ice (bad pun, I know) is none other than his brother from Prison Break, Dominic Purcell as Heat Wave. And, to no ones surprise, he plays the brooding, dumb meat-head type of character. But, it almost feels like a satire of the character. Having said that, the two do play off of each other well, and the final battle between The Flash and Cold and Heat Wave was great.
During that fight scene, The Flash tries to use his speed, but for once that is not enough. Whereas, in this instance, he actually has to slow down to allow the “stream†to cross paths, essentially taking each other out. It worked and was nice to see them utilize a different technique than just going faster each and every time.
While the main battle was the event to see of the episode, delving into Barry Allen’s emotional side was what made this episode. Barry Allen is strongly convinced by Wells that it’s more important to enhance his abilities to faceoff with The Reverse Flash than saving Central City. The constant pushing from Wells should queue off something in Barry Allen, but since he is always trying to please everyone, it doesn’t. His actions to achieve his own pursuits go directly against the “superhero code,†and a key character pays for his decision later on in the episode. It’s this battle that’s going on within Barry that makes the show so great. He wants to help everyone and catch The Reverse-Flash but knows that he can’t focus on getting as fast as he can while saving Central City. And most of all, Wells knows that he can push Barry in the direction he needs, as he has been doing most of the season.
Where Wells pushes Barry, Joe takes more of a hands-off approach because he knows that Barry can make the right decision. The tension between Joe and Wells is great as usual. I feel that Wells feels like he outsmarts Joe, but Joe can easily see through his thinly veiled lies. It seems that Wells and Joe will never be fond of one another as they both fight for what’s best for Barry.
The crew surrounding Barry wasn’t all that exciting in this episode, sans for Cisco. Cisco was tasked with developing a shield to combat the freezing temperatures. His demonstration at the police department was met with consternation, as they didn’t believe they could work because of what happened at STAR labs a year ago. But, after it did work, it was met with redemption as the PD congratulated him on his efforts. And, of course, he names more villains, and Wells even got in on the action which was quite humorous. I’d be amiss not to talk about Caitlin discovering more about Firestorm, or should we say PROJECT F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. The interjection of Firestorm was sort of nice, but I feel like they didn’t delve enough into it. It was more of a, “hey don’t forget about us,†type of deal.
