Title: The Flash: “Gone Rogue” Review
Release Date: April 30th, 2019
Network: The CW
Genre: Superhero, Drama, Action
Well, that whole negative speed-force business just sort of got resolved rather quickly. All it took was Barry saving Nora and now we’re back to where we were before Nora’s secret came out.
I do wish that we would have had more consequences or something with this storyline. It just built up for weeks upon weeks and Nora’s turn to the dark side seemed to be a radical shift in the show’s dynamic, at least for a few episodes. Nope. Instead, it lasted for about 45 minutes.
This is a problem I have with The Flash as a whole. We have these interesting story threads that have the ability to be stretched out across multiple episodes but they tend to be fixed in the span of a standard episode. We all remember that Godspeed, a villain who was highly requested by fans for years, finally made his debut and was defeated in just one episode. By no means are they terrible arcs either. Godspeed had a good introduction and “Gone Rogue” was fine too. I just think it would be better to divide the series’ direction up into a few sections so we don’t have as much unnecessary filler.
So, my feelings on how fast (no pun intended) this arc ended aside, “Gone Rogue” was pretty good. Nora’s interactions with her team of rogues felt similar to Barry’s team up with Captain Cold in the season 1 episode, “Rogue Air”. Nora reluctantly teamed up with the likes of Weather Witch, Rag Doll, and Brie Larvan to steal a device that could destroy Cicada’s dagger. Weather Witch has greatly improved since her horrible introduction in “O Come, All Ye Thankful” and is starting to come into her own as a recurring villain. Her scenes with Nora stood out and I can’t wait until we see that inevitable father/daughter team-up with her and Weather Wizard.
Rag Doll is going to be awesome no matter what story he’s involved in. He doesn’t speak much but his unnatural movements and creepy mannerisms have you glued to the screen whenever he’s on. This, of course, is because of the fantastic work by contortionist Troy James, who plays Peter Merkel/Rag Doll. It’s great to know that The Flash realizes this and Rag Doll is seemingly going to be one of Barry’s main recurring rogues going forward along with Weather Witch.
I could have done without seeing Brie Larvan this week if we’re being honest with one another. I’ve never liked her character and every Arrowverse episode she’s been in haven’t been all too great, quality-wise. Don’t get me wrong, Emily Kinney does her best here but I just think her character is lame. I mean, her name is the Bug-Eyed Bandit. The character is already playing from behind with that name alone. Luckily, the curse of bad Bug-Eyed Bandit episodes ended this week and I think that’s because she wasn’t a major focus.
In the end, Nora’s new team of Rogues turned on her at the last minute. I’m shocked to my core. It’s not like we’ve watched this happen to Barry many times over the past 5 years or anything. This was way more stunning than anything that happened in the Battle of Winterfell, that’s for sure.
Sarcasm aside, I enjoyed how Nora’s part in this played out. Yeah, I wish it lasted more than an episode but I really liked seeing Nora as an antagonist to Team Flash. The parallels between her and Thawne made all of these scenes so much better. Especially when she threatened to kill Cisco and went into full Reverse Flash mode.
The Flash thrives when it puts the focus on anything involving Barry, Nora, and Eobard. Outside of that and the Cicada arc, I think I’m losing interest. The new Cicada story is greatly improved from what it was just a few weeks ago and it may tie into the Reverse Flash stuff sometime soon. It’s a little weird that she’s seeing Orlin as this evil over-the-shoulder advisor but this is a girl who went crazy and traveled back in time to kill every meta-human on the planet. It shouldn’t be a surprise to see that she has a few psychological issues. Now that she has that virus, I guess the annual big bad evil plan is set to commence so Grace should be Team Flash’s main focus for these last 2 episodes.
I’ve been on Nora’s side of things since Barry sent her back to the future so I was invested into all of that drama once again this week. Joe and Barry’s talk was one of my favorite moments, acting as a catalyst for what got Barry out of this rage induced fog that he’s had for Thawne all of this time. Surely you would think Eobard is going to double-cross Team Flash in the end. The show has hinted that Eobard’s redemption is genuine a few times now. It would be too obvious for him to seriously be redeemed now.
Like I said, outside of the Cicada and the Eobard stories, I didn’t really care about anything else. I already knew Cisco didn’t want to be Vibe anymore. I already knew that Sherloque has had a change of heart and wants to be apart of the Flash family (almost went a whole review without saying that word). Ralph’s continued character growth is cool I guess but that didn’t get enough screentime to be noteworthy.
Verdict: “Gone Rogue” struggled at times due to a rushed storyline and uninteresting side-arcs. However, Nora’s brief turn to villainy and the family drama between her and Barry were entertaining enough to garner a 3 out of 5 rating for the episode. With Cicada’s final plan set into motion, these last 2 weeks could be pretty jam-packed and it’ll be interesting to see how exactly the team uses that satellite gun to take Cicada down for good.
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