The Flash — “Gone Rogue” — Image Number: FLA520b_0019b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Candice Patton as Iris West – Allen and Grant Gustin as Barry Allen — Photo: Jeff Weddell/The CW — © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

Please Keep In Mind That This Article Contains Potential Spoilers For “Gone Rogue” and Events That Occurred Prior

Oh boy. Another week, and another problem filled installment of The Flash. Sometimes I honestly think that the writer’s get lost and lose all sense of direction on a daily basis when writing this show. With all of the back-steps and questionable decisions, you can essentially watch as they walk around aimlessly in their attempts to piece together a coherent seasonal plot. I wanted to believe that Season 5 is doing better than Season 4, yet the show keeps leaning me the other way. Even with the good things I have had to say, consistent problems continue to weigh heavily on the foundations they built earlier in the season. In fact I’m surprised that we’ve gotten anything good out of this season at all. That alone should be considered a miracle. Now where can I possibly begin?

Let’s start with these “Young Rogues”. First off, this is yet another hurtful reminder that the show (and the Arrowverse in general) went out of its way to never actually give us—or Team Flash—a proper version of The Rogues. It’s also valid to point out that there’s no reason for Team Flash to be so ready to use this terminology, or act like any form of said group had a big impact on them at any point. When it comes to their members…well they were there? This assortment of villains were put together solely because none of them are classical metas—so at least there was a valid plot reason.

The Flash — “Gone Rogue” — Image Number: FLA520b_0143b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Danielle Nicolet as Cecile Horton and Candice Patton as Iris West – Allen and Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West — Photo: Jeff Weddell/The CW — © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

Were these new “Rogues” at all interesting? No, not really. I was less than thrilled to see Emily Kinney as Killer Bee. Her original debut, along with her god awful puns, is still a painful memory I try to forget. Oddly enough though, out of all of my criticisms in this episode, she didn’t really make it on the list. No, instead Weather Witch took that spotlight. Why on earth is she on the team in the first place? Last we saw of her—even if the character progression did feel sudden at the time—she wanted nothing to do with this life. She was a reformed villain, one who even personally got help and aide from Nora to journey down that new path. Now all of that character growth is out of the window. For no good reason—no reason at all really. She continued to be out of character as she betrayed Nora, and was seemingly okay with mass murdering a group of innocents. As for Rag Doll, well he was fine. Still a cool and creepy villain, but one I would have liked to see again under different circumstances.

Now this group of baddies was led by none other than Nora West Allen. I would have complained that assembling a group of villains was a drastic next step for her (along with her over the top villain attitude). However the episode revealed that it was all a ruse! And I guess that’s okay and all, but that didn’t stop Nora from having character issues of her own—something that there was plenty to go around. Nora’s decent into villain territory was a good path. It made sense, and it was an intriguing direction to take things. But I guess all of that, and her learning to take on the Negative Speed force, is moot now. As if nothing ever happened, there seems to be no lasting importance after only one episode. Apparently all she needed was to simply and quickly get into a bad headspace—easily getting out when she needed. Also, why on God’s green earth did she open up so personally to Weather Witch? It made zero sense. Even with their past, and even with Nora’s ruse, it was frustratingly stupid and out of place. But you know, all is good now. Just like that everything between her and Team Flash are A-Okay.

The Flash — “Gone Rogue” — Image Number: FLA520b_0246b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow and Hartley Sawyer as Dibney — Photo: Jeff Weddell/The CW — © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

How about everyone else? Well I’m glad Barry finally came around to giving Nora another chance, but it was undermined by a corny and weak reunion scene. It also, as a lot of this season, felt like something was missing. Killer Frost, for some reason, was having a really hard time with the death Caitlin’s father. Which…doesn’t make much sense. We were never really given the impression that they were that close. Cisco and Ralph at the very least got just the smallest of moments—with Cisco finally realizing his reluctance in being Vibe and Ralph believing he isn’t made for love.

Across the board The Flash seems to be falling apart. This sloppily put together tapestry of a plot is coming on done. We even got another random, and extremely ridiculous Cicada moment to close out the episode. I mean essentially Grace and her father sat and declared to the camera how evil they were. Also, I guess there goes any and all character development/changes that Orlin went through. But hey, who needs consistent storytelling right?

Bonus Notes:
– Iris. How useless is a gun that barely scratches a trash can? Should probably get an upgrade.
– Rag Doll coming out of the briefcase made it seem like Nora was carrying around a meta powered Briefcase more than it did her carrying around a Meta powered contortionist.
– Speaking of Rag Doll, he is still great and all. However, having now Channel Zero’s fourth season, and Pretzel Jack along with it, I can’t help but feel spoiled. There is so much potential in Rag Doll, and I doubt the show will ever be able to see that.
– Why was there a moment with Killer Bee trying to show how close they were as a team, and declaring they need to stick together? What? That’s not how that works, and that’s not the dynamic at all. Sure, one could argue she was just pushing them along so her own plan could progress—but I don’t think that would be enough.


You can catch new episodes of The Flash when they air on The CW network every Tuesday at 8pm EST