The Flash, Season 2, Episode 3: Family of Rogues
Ah, after an all-too-long break, I'm back to reviewing The Flash episodes. This particular episode is pretty solid, but it just doesn't feel... impressive. By rights it really should. It stars Captain Cold, my favourite character among Flash's villains, and more than that, it delves into Captain Cold's backstory, something that I was waiting to be handled on-screen. And it's not bad in any way. But there's just something lacking. It lacks that additional oomph, it feels like it's just going through the motions. There's no real surprise, no big revelation or whatever.
And, of course, a big part of it is probably this episode (and the next) being written relatively hastily to prepare for Legends of Tomorrow. And as much as buildup is good for a different show, sometimes it's distracting. Like all these references -- not in this episode, of course, but in other episodes -- of things that is going on in its sister show, Arrow, which I haven't watched... on one hand, it's great to establish that everything is happening in a shared universe. On the other hand... it's also distracting and takes out from the main story of The Flash. And too much of this episode focuses on Captain Cold not really wanting to do evil things and how he has good in it. And Barry's almost-preachy "there's good in you I can feel it" spiel kind of falls short considering the fact it's not an episode ago that he lightning-bolted Sand Demon to death, and two episodes back Team Flash overloaded Atom Smasher to death. Yes, possibly accidentally, but still.
And giving Captain Cold daddy issues, even if it's been foreshadowed before and definitely in line with his comic book counterpart, is a bit of a cliched way to make Cold feel more sympathetic. And whereas Cold's father in the comics is just your average deadbeat abusive drunkard who Cold eventually meets up and can't bear to kill himself (he has Heat Wave do it instead), here Snart Senior is a career criminal that goes around planting Suicide Squad bombs in his own daughter's head... in order to force his other kid to help him pull off a heist. And while it makes him a monster... sometimes there's such a thing as trying too hard.
But other than that slight grievance, I do like the return of Captain Cold and Golden Glider. We get a couple of shippy scenes between Glider and Cisco, and it's nice to see Cisco take a bit of a center stage in trying to save Golden Glider from the weird explosive substance. Lisa herself also gets a bit of a character development. It's already clear that Lenny and Lisa are tight with each other, but the way Lisa talks about how her father wanted another son and hated her for being born a woman, and the talk with Cisco about trust and everything is definitely well done.
Cold himself fell a bit flat, a bit lacking in the taunting, quipping and worthy opponent department, though that's probably because he's partly in duress thanks to his father going around blowing his own men's heads up and planting a bomb in his sister's head. Cold ends up shooting an ice spike through his father's chest at the end of the episode and getting arrested for that crime, which is cool, I guess. Pun not intended. We get some cool Flash-Cold moments here and there, but nothing really too memorable.
Also, um, I don't think you can freeze lasers and then walk through them like that. I'm not like a super expert on Physics or anything, but I'm pretty sure even with Cold's absolute zero ice gun thing light doesn't work like that.
While Cold and Glider are dealing with their own fucked-up family, we have this long drama on the West family, where Iris' mother, Francine, shows up and tries to pressure Joe to let her meet Iris. I honestly thought we're going to have yet another Iris-Joe fight because Joe keeps a secret from Iris, but thankfully since this isn't as big of a betrayal as it was Barry being the Flash, and the scene with Joe breaking down and apologizing for never finding the time or heart to tell Iris that her mother was a drug-addict child-abandoning jackass who now feels entitled to meet her daughter and probably turn her life upside-down just because she likes it. And the way Iris really comforts Joe for lying to her and breaking down... yeah, Joe was a father to Iris for twenty years, the way that Mystery Mom never was. I'm sure we'll get a reason and drama and whatnot for that, but I'm definitely happy with the way Iris and Joe's relationship is handled here. Thankfully. We've had enough of bad drama last season. This is the good kind.
The big cliffhanger last episode, Martin Stein collapsing, gets shoved aside with him just going to lie down and sleep for a bit, only for him to burst into blue flames at the end of this episode. Um why? Hopefully Ronnie survives, maybe in personality-form within Stein, or in Earth-2, but since I have access to internet trailers (and, um, have already watched episode 4 at the time of writing this) this sadly doesn't occur.
Patty Spivot is... still being forced down our throats, isn't she? I mean, she's definitely being built up as the love interest for Barry, and while she seems to (supposedly) be this fun, bubbly character, she's being introduced a bit too strong and the show-writers seem really want to give her more screentime than she probably deserves at this point. She borders on annoying at times, honestly, and she's definitely a writer's pet considering how much screentime she got and how little some of the established secondary characters. Caitlin and Jay, in particular this episode doesn't get to do much.
What little they did was building a speed cannon thing that allows them to access the multiverse portal. And flirt a little, Caitlin apparently only needing two and a half episodes to move on from Ronnie's death, and Iris needing none. I mean, having them move on is definitely preferable than having them mope around, but I would think it would take some time. And of course at the end of the episode Earth-2 Harrison Wells shows up... and obviously he's not going to be evil, because we already had that last season. But eh, next episode will tell. Either way Harrison Wells' presence -- or his actor, at the very least -- is definitely a treat. I'm 100% sure that Earth-2 Harrison Wells isn't Zoom. Maybe he is a time-travelling Eobard Thawne after he got sucked into time, but I'm pretty sure he isn't Zoom. That would be too predictable.
We get a couple of Easter Eggs here and there. The Drakon security keypads is a reference to Green Arrow villain Constantine Drakon, who appeared early on in Arrow's first season only to die. Cold quips that Barry needs to hope that Cold doesn't talk in his sleep lest he accidentally reveals the Flash's identity, which is a bit of a gag to how comic-book Iris discovers Barry's identity.
Overall a pretty solid episode, though, despite all my gripes. Still loving this show.
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