Season 1 Episode 4 – “Going Rogue”

Lots going on in the world of The Flash this week with the arrival of signature Flash villain, Captain Cold and fan favourite IT genius Felicity Smoak popping over to Central City for a visit.

Felicity’s appearance on The Flash feels long awaited for fans of Arrow given how great their scenes together were in the Arrow two parter where Barry was introduced. It seems only natural to give these two characters time to develop their friendship and see what kind of magic can happen when they’re in a room together.

This episode is no slouch in this department giving Barry and Felicity plenty of time to spend together and catch up. Naturally Felicity is fascinated by Barry’s newfound powers and with her scientific curiosity will want to see these first hand. In true Felicity tradition she articulates her desire with an unintended innuendo.

Felicity’s presence is well timed as it coincides with some friction within Team Flash (patent pending) involving Barry having his faith in Cisco shaken. She serves as an example of how important the support team is to the hero and how that trust has to be implicit. I do like how it’s not entirely wrapped up in a neat little bow by the end of the episode and has Barry take on the final challenge on his own without anyone talking in his ear.

With bringing a character from the parent show for a visit there’s the risk that it might seem gimmicky but this episode manages to avoid this feeling like some kind of stunt. Felicity’s presence feeds nicely into the story as she represents the ultimate goal for Barry and his team. Oliver and Team Arrow are a well oiled machine with complete trust in one another which allows them to function very effectively whereas Team Flash aren’t quite there yet despite gelling pretty well in the episodes so far. What was waiting to happen was an event to test their resolve and when such a thing happened they began to fracture. It shows that there’s a lot of work to do before that trust has been earned and they can truly rise to any challenge.

This allows a good opportunity for Cisco to be allowed some character development after Caitlin was allowed to flourish last week. I really liked the angle of Cisco designing a weapon that could take down Barry if he ever went the way of the villains that he’s been facing and that Barry was understandably upset that anyone could think that of him. Through all Cisco’s joking and quippage he is a complex character who is trying to prepare for the worst. This could feed into his guilt over the part he played in the loss of Caitlin’s fiancé Ronnie as revealed in the flashbacks last week. A really effective moment involved the realisation that by building this weapon he becomes partly responsible for any death caused by it.

Lots of lip service was given to the attraction that Barry and Felicity clearly have for each other including a supremely awkward -to begin with- double date with Iris and Eddie at a trivia night in a coffee shop because that’s apparently what people in their 20s do in Central City. It’s a fun scene that really shows how awkward Barry’s position is as he fakes being comfortable with Iris’ and Eddie’s relationship as he suppresses his attraction to Felicity. Part of me expected it to continue to be awkward but the scene lightened up nicely as Felicity and Barry settled into each others company and really had fun together. All without the aid of alcohol as well.

It also becomes something of a shame that there’s not enough Felicity to go around in this universe. She fits in so naturally with this cast and this world that I almost didn’t want her to go back to the show she belongs on. There’s an indication that she could handle Barry’s predilection to put himself in constant danger as well as be able to cover for him when he runs off unexpectedly. Her preexisting friendship with Cisco and Caitlin lends itself to some good dialogue as well. I do hope she pops in for a visit more often.

One minor criticism from me on the show up to this point was the lack of engaging villains. That problem is completely solved in this episode with Wentworth Miller’s Leonard Snart aka Captain Cold. From the minute he’s introduced the character is menacing and intelligent and immediately seems like a credible threat to Barry and his team. Very little time is wasted in getting him his signature weapon and putting it to use. He quickly susses out Barry’s major weakness being that he cares for innocent people and, like Zod in Superman II, puts people in danger to keep Barry distracted. Despite the fact that he has no powers to speak of his strategic intelligence more than makes up for this. I’m glad that he will definitely return as he’s a great foil for Barry as well as being a superbly acted villain.

As always The Flash’ powers are excellently realised on the small screen. This episode boasts three impressive encounters between The Flash and Snart, all of which look great and uniquely display his powers. Some of the CGI is slightly ropey like with the derailing train but considering the scale of that sequence it can largely be forgiven. This is clearly a show that has some money behind it and doesn’t mind using it to showcase the impressive imagery that Barry’s powers can create.

It’s also interesting how the show is deconstructing his powers in the two key scenes here. The first being when his ability to multitask at superspeed is being tested as well as Felicity’s questioning over whether he will age quicker due to everything else running faster. These are important questions and I’m glad the show is taking a very scientific approach to exploring them since it fits with the tone of the series and is very in character for everyone to look at it this way.