The Flash: Season 1, Episode 16

The Flash

Episode Title: “Rogue Time”

Channel: CW

Director: Grainne Godfree

Writers: Brooke Eikmeier and Kai Yu Wu

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Runtime: 43 min

Rated: TV-PG

Original Air Date: March 24, 2015

Following “Out of Time” was going to be a tall task for any episode. All of the revelations and the drama from last week's episode have been effectively wiped from the time line, with Barry being the only person that knows how events were supposed to play out. He immediately does what a person would do in that situation and goes into situations armed with all of the knowledge of the possible future he possesses. Dr. Wells warns him against doing anything differently during the upcoming day, but no matter how grave the consequences Barry can't stand aside and watch the people around him put into danger. So he meddles, and things do not go well.

To prevent the attack on the police station Barry apprehended Mardon in record time, keeping Captain Singh and Joe safe. Wells warns Barry that time will do whatever it can to get things back onto the right track, and we see that quickly as the Mick Rory and Leonard Snart (Heatwave and Captain Cold) pop back up. They waste no time in trying to assert their dominance over organized crime in Central City. Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell have not toned down the cheese-factor one bit. Purcell especially seems determined to play things as over the top as possible. I know the show is based on a comic book, but after seeing the way Paul Giamatti's Rhino was received in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 you would think it apparent that comically corny is an unpopular way to depict a villain.

There are more unintended consequences of Barry's interference in the day's events. He decides to once again confess his love to Iris, only to be rebuffed. Apparently Iris hasn't had to examine her feelings the same way under the new circumstances she has found herself in. A little later on Eddie attacked Barry, apparently she told Eddie about that conversation and he was unimpressed. Mason Bridge never gets the opportunity to bring Iris into his investigation, preventing Cisco from launching his own investigation. That wasn't the only thing impeding Cisco. Following his disastrous appearance at his brother's birthday party Cisco is seduced by a mystery woman. She turns out to be Leonard Snart's sister and the villainous trio has kidnapped Cisco's brother in an attempt to force him to make new weapons for the bad guys. He does so, but is forced to reveals the Flash's secret identity under extreme duress. The introduction of Lisa Snart is a welcome change of pace from the antics of Captain Cold and Heatwave. She's more understated, for the most part, although the gold gun that Cisco invents on the spot for her is more than a little ridiculous.

Cisco returned to the lab to confess what he had been forced to divulge. He is understandably disappointed in himself, but receives a boost from Dr. Wells when Wells delivers nearly the same speech to Cisco in a pep talk that he had delivered in “Out of Time” before killing him. It was good to see Cisco regain some of the confidence he had lost following his capture, but more importantly the audience got to see that Wells really means the things he said. It is hard to feel too good about it as the viewer when you know that despite his fondness for Cisco, Dr. Wells is perfectly willing to murder the young man.

The climax this week was two fold. Barry confronted Snart about his knowledge of the Flash's identity. Snart seems to have a foolproof way of keeping the knowledge hanging over Barry's head, but Barry threatened to go after Snart with no mercy if he used that knowledge to use the Flash's loved ones against him. So the two have an agreement do keep things strictly professional, which surely can't last. We also get to see Wells go after Bridge, using the same vibrating hand trick he killed Bridge and destroyed all of the evidence Mason had gathered regarding Wells' more nefarious activities. The episode closed with Barry preparing to ask Wells about Simon Stagg when he's interrupted by news coverage of Mason's death. There's no reaction from Wells, but it seemed as if Barry was mentally connecting some dots. Maybe Barry doesn't need the death of Cisco to begin doubting Harrison's good intentions

Conclusion: It was a bold idea to show the audience everything they did in “Out of Time” only to undo it by the end of the episode. It's tough to judge that decision on only one follow up episode, but so far I'm not disappointed. Seeing the interactions between characters that the audience knows could be vastly different may get frustrating, but the glimmer of suspicion in Barry's eye at the end of the episode leads me to believe that it won't be long before the truth reemerges.

Rating: 7.75/10