How long can the timeline remain intact?.
What They Say:
Rogue Time – Leonard Snart returns – this time with his younger sister as well as Heat Wave – to wreak havoc on the city.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The Flash certainly toyed with our emotions the last time around as it gave fans a lot of what they wanted, excluding Cisco’s death, and that made for a very entertaining hour of television. That we were getting it all changed because of the time travel aspect certainly takes some of the wind out of the sails, but a good part of the fun of shows like this when it does it is getting a chance to get a glimpse at how they’d react to it all. The show certainly bumped its special effects budget and gave us a lot of good stuff with our new Weather Wizard and more, but it also gave us some game changing moments for Barry as he really started to understand the larger game that’s being played around him and with him being a pawn.
With Barry now reliving his day with newfound knowledge, at least a bit of it, he’s still grappling with the whole thing since he’s going through the motions but with a little more efficiency as he knows what’s coming, at least for the moment. A lot of it is just him trying to figure out what’s going on himself rather than taking advantage of it at the moment, but it’s a useful piece for him to grapple with it all. It is amusing watching them go through certain things again with Barry being ahead of the game, but Wells has figured out exactly what’s going on quickly, smart guy that he is, and that’s giving him what he needs to start thinking that he’s closer to his own goals. Wells has some fun little bits of dialogue about it as he tries to get Barry to replicate things so he can achieve it again, but he’s also finding that the future that he knows is still intact. There’s a few things in play with all of this and the problem comes down to the fact that Barry’s likely to follow through on his actions only so far considering what he knows is coming. And watching those changes is what’s fun as he goes after Mardon right from the get go and tosses him in the Pipeline before anything bad can happen.
With that out of the way, a new change has come into play to try and fix it in the timeline as Don Santini has brought in Captain Cold and Heat Wave to deal with the problems they’ve been causing in the city. Snart is amusing in how he bullies his way to getting what he wants in removing the don while also getting a clear look at just how much Heat Wave enjoys the violent side of things. Snart is definitely more calculated in what he does, but there’s plenty of use in what Heat Wave provides with the muscle. While Heat Wave doesn’t do all that much for me, the pairing of the two definitely works well and seeing them cement their position as upper tier criminals in Central City hits a sweet spot.
Since the previous episode had Cisco getting out of going to his brother’s party with his family, his reason for doing so is now gone since Mardon was picked up so quickly. So that has him showing off a bit of that side of him with Caitlin going with him and she realizes just how difficult the whole situation is there. With the way she cares about him after working with him for so long, there’s definitely some protective nature from her side going on towards him. While Dante flirts a bit with Caitlin, and she responds a bit at first, Dante is definitely pretty rough in how he treats Cisco that it’s almost comically bad. What helps is that he ends up hanging out with Barry later at the bar, after Barry breaks up with Linda since he knows what Iris’ real feelings are. It’s amusing seeing how confident Barry is about all of this and how you know it’s going to go so horribly wrong for him.
While that’s going on for Barry, Cisco gets flirted with himself by a woman who introduces herself as Lisa, which is not going to go well since she’s Snart’s sister and is using him. Cisco’s a little wary, and should be even more so after she kisses him, but after his day it certainly makes sense that he’d be open for more. So when the reveal hits, and Snart is oozes menace in a great way, the play makes a lot of sense as Snart wants Cisco to get his weapons for him. And Snart makes certain he has enough collateral to make it happen as he’s kidnapped Dante in order to force him into it. Amusingly, Dante’s a complete ass during all of this as he can’t imagine Cisco being useful in any way, even as Cisco puts together the weapons for him. Snart’s pretty fun here as he’s smart enough to understand the pieces of it all so he can’t pull a fast one, but he also gives in to Lisa in a fun way, getting him to build a weapon for her that involves gold. With her being known as the Golden Glider in the comics, it’s not exactly subtle but it’s fun to watch unfold.
When the brother/sister team make their next hit on a Santini casino, it definitely embraces its comic book feeling in a great way with her golden weapon and his cold weapon. There’s some fun little banter between the two before Barry arrives, but also some great stuff with Snart doing introductions. He’s not exactly chewing the scenery, but he’s having a very good nibble at the moment and reveling in it. Lisa’s no slouch herself, adding a little sensuality to it that the show in its villains hasn’t dealt with too much. Since Snart has Dante and Cisco, he can’t do much but let them go, and that certainly complicates things. Of course, it gets even worse since Barry tried to get things working with Iris and that failed, so when Eddie catches up with him at the casino, it turns pretty physical and just reinforces to Barry just how badly he screwed up.
Since Snart knows he has to eliminate the Flash in order to really get anywhere in the city, he has a pretty decent plan to use Dante to get the information out of Cisco. Naturally, it has to happen after we get Dante basically confessing just how much Cisco impresses him on so many levels and that he intends to make things right. The universe demands a death in the Ramon family? Snart’s threat is definitely well played here and puts Cisco in a truly bad spot, especially considering how strong his loyalty is as part of his personality. But family loyalty is even more, no matter how bad the family is towards him, and the fact that he gives it up is a welcome character piece because it put him in a really bad position and he had to go with the human thing. It’s a surprisingly good bonding sequence, but it puts Barry’s family at risk once again, much like it was with Weather Wizard
.
With a few amusing movements and twisted echoes of the previous episode to deal with, such as Iris being told to get things clear and Cisco wanting to leave but Wells making it clear he needs to stay, the show moves into the final act with our villains of the week making their big play to gain a whole lot of money based on their casino attack. Snart makes it clear he knows the truth and revels in what he did to get the information and how he’s protected himself in classic comic book form. The two actually come to a strange kind of arrangement over things in order to allow things to go forward, and while it does work, it also sets into motion Snart’s plan to bring together more people like him under the moniker of the Rogues.
In Summary:
Playing with time is always going to screw things up and watching as the timeline tries to fix itself in a couple of different ways here definitely works very well. We get a number of echoes from the past that play the same but also a lot with some good twists that keeps you guessing and wondering what will happen. Admittedly, I had hoped for more time with the Weather Wizard as I like the actor, but we get a lot of fun here with the expansion of the Rogues with the arrival of Snart’s sister. Things are changing here slowly but surely and the little nudges are definitely pointing towards some of the complexities to come, particularly with how Barry still wants to save his mother but is starting to realize it may not be possible. With some very fun material at the end with the Reverse-Flash that reminds us that the timeline must be served, it’s definitely adding some intriguing layers to it.
Grade: B+
