Fire & Ice | The Flash: Revenge of the Rogues Review

<p>&lpar;spoilers below&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The last episode of <em>The Flash <&sol;em>before the mid-season break was a doozy&comma; with Barry finally confronting his yellow-clad doppelganger that he believes was responsible for his mother’s death&comma; expressing his love to Iris&comma; and being introduced to a flame-powered Ronnie Raymond &lpar;Kaitlin Snow’s presumed-dead fiancé&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first episode back&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Revenge of the Rogues&comma;” comes out more like a bit of filler after the jam-packed episode prior&comma; with Barry training to increase his speed so that he can outrun the Cisco-dubbed Reverse Flash&period;  The exercise seems to be going pear-shaped&comma; which leads to Doctor Wells starting to get up out of his wheelchair to help&comma; but Barry gets the situation back under control&comma; and Wells’ paraplegic ruse continues&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Later&comma; Leonard Snart&sol;Captain Cold &lpar;<em>Prison Break<&sol;em>’s <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0589505&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Wentworth Miller<&sol;a>&rpar; and Mick Rory &lpar;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0700712&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Dominic Purcell<&sol;a>&comma; also from <em>Prison Break<&sol;em>&rpar; use Snart’s signature freeze-ray to break into a customs warehouse to try and lure the Flash into a trap&comma; but Barry doesn&&num;8217&semi;t take the bait&comma; instead showing up later with Joe West and the rest of the CCPD&comma; where he determines that Snart froze and shattered the door&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Wells warns Barry not to try and bring in Snart&comma; as he needs to train to be able to take on Reverse Flash when he resurfaces&period;  Barry begrudgingly agrees&comma; and Cisco and Wells help outfit the CCPD with special riot shields that can thaw the chilling effects of the freeze cannon&period;  The CCPD is reluctant&comma; given that Wells and S&period;T&period;A&period;R&period; Labs were responsible for their particle accelerator accident that cost so many lives&period;  Cisco gives a brief&comma; but stirring speech where they accept responsibility for the accident&comma; and promise that they will all move forward together to stop Snart&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Later&comma; Barry comes across Caitlin as she’s doing research on the term &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;firestorm&comma;” which was one of the few things the resurrected Ronnie said to her before flying off in the last episode&period;  They then share a tender moment where Caitlin consoles Barry over Iris &lpar;a relationship that has yet to be very compelling&comma; in my opinion&rpar;&comma; and she reminisces about how Ronnie and her tried new things together&comma; including Indian food and scuba diving&period;  This reminds Barry that SCUBA is actually an acronym&comma; and he searches the web for F&period;I&period;R&period;E&period;S&period;T&period;O&period;R&period;M&period;&comma; where he and Caitlin find out about research done into transmutation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Snart and Rory then make a bid to steal a modern-art painting called &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Fire &amp&semi; Ice” &lpar;natch&rpar;&comma; where Snart’s cold gun is no match for the heated riot shields of the CCPD&period;  Unfortunately&comma; Rory finally makes his full debut with a handheld flamethrower&comma; and catches the police off guard&comma; allowing the dastardly duo to make off with the painting&period;  Back at their warehouse hideout&comma; the two get into a Mexican standoff&comma; where Snart gives Rory an out&colon; take the painting and leave&comma; or stay with him and rule over Central City&period;  Rory accepts the latter&comma; and inexplicably torches the painting &lpar;couldn&&num;8217&semi;t they have split the &dollar;25 million <em>and <&sol;em>taken over Central City&quest;  Wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t their villainous start up need some seed money&quest;&rpar; before the duo discuss their plan to go after the Flash…and his &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;partners&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"alignnone" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;spinoff&period;comicbookresources&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;flash-revenge1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"534" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Caitlin meets up with Jason Rusch&comma; the writer on the F&period;I&period;R&period;E&period;S&period;T&period;O&period;R&period;M&period; paper&comma; and discovers more questions than answers&period;  Rusch nervously talks about how the program’s founder&comma; Dr&period; Martin Stein&comma; managed to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;melt a concrete wall” before he disappeared and the military came in and seized all of their research&period;  Devoted DC Comics fans will note that Dr&period; Martin Stein is the other half of the dual personality of Firestorm&comma; so the TV show is definitely on track for this character’s introduction&period;  Unfortunately&comma; Caitlin is kidnapped shortly thereafter by Snart and Rory&comma; giving Iris a break from being kidnapped so that she could move in with her boyfriend&period;  Thanks&comma; guys&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Cisco determines that the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;absolute zero” of Captain Cold’s ray and the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;absolute hot” of Rory’s flamethrower could cancel each other out if they &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;cross the streams” &lpar;which led to a weird mini-discussion of <em>Ghostbusters<&sol;em>&rpar;&comma; and Cisco finally dubs Rory as Heatwave&comma; which leads to Wells responding with an irritated &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;stop it&period;”  Of course&comma; the villains manage to hijack the airwaves &lpar;don’t they always&quest;&rpar; and tell the Flash to meet them in the heart of Central City&comma; or else Caitlin will be killed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Barry shows up&comma; and tries his hardest to get Heatwave and Captain Cold to cross their streams while Cisco and Detective West determine the abandoned warehouse where Caitlin is being held&period;  Unfortunately&comma; Cisco triggers a tripwire-armed bomb&comma; which West manages to pull Caitlin out of range of before its diminutive explosion can gently singe her eyebrows&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Back at the Flash fight&comma; Eddie saves Barry from Captain Cold’s ray using one of the riot shields&comma; giving Barry the opportunity to rethink his speedy strategy&period;  He slows down&comma; allowing both villains to lock onto him with their respective weapons&comma; before dashing out of the way and taking them both down simultaneously&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The episode ends in its usual emotional sense&comma; with Barry and Iris reconnecting after last episode’s &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I love you” debacle&comma; and Barry deciding to move back in with Joe in order to facilitate easier comings and goings as the Flash&period;  Finally&comma; in the stinger&comma; we see Cold and Heatwave being taken away to Iron Heights&comma; before their transport is rocked by an explosion&period;  The doors are torn open&comma; and Snart acknowledges the offscreen ally as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;sis&comma;” implying that Lisa Snart&comma; a&period;k&period;a&period; The Golden Glider will be causing trouble in future episodes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All in all&comma; the episode was solid&comma; even though it felt like little more than filler&period;  After the intensity of the mid-season finale&comma; this episode came off as fairly light and breezy&comma; even with the introduction of a new villain&period;  Domic Purcell’s Heatwave is given little time to shine&comma; and his portrayal is delightfully manic&comma; with a creepy admiration for fire &lpar;much like many of DC’s pyromaniac villains&rpar; and moments of blistering intensity punctuating a menacing&comma; if overly hammy&comma; performance&period;  The breadcrumb trail leading to the full reveal of Firestorm is genuinely exciting&comma; as <em>Flash<&sol;em>&comma; much like its contemporary <em>Arrow<&sol;em>&comma; does a fantastic job of introducing and integrating other DC characters into their shared TV-verse&period;   There’s plenty of unresolved tension at play here&comma; especially with recent revelation that Dr&period; Wells was in possession of the Reverse Flash suit&comma; but I suppose that these dangling threads will be tied up over the coming episodes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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