Flash Facts – “Rogue Time”
Time, like karma, tends to bite you in the ass. Unless you’re the audience, then you get a fantastic show!
Rogue Time is the companion to Out of Time and bucking the trend, doesn’t spend the entire time retreading the same ground. There is some repeat performances, which are re-acted superbly, but the crux of the story lies with The Rogues.
Making her first appearance is Lisa Snart aka Golden Glider. Cold’s sister is played by Peyton List, another lead cast member from The Tomorrow People who made the jump to the Flarrow-verse (the other being Robbie Amell). She’s flirtatious and just as deadly as her brother and she’s definitely a fun character I hope to see again but, ultimately, she’s outshined by Miller.
God damn, do I love Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell! They make a perfect double-act and just like their first outing together, you can tell they are having a blast in these roles. Purcell doesn’t get quite as much to do but what little he does is very entertaining. Miller is gloriously funny. His attitude, his speech pattern and his general presence makes me smile just by being on screen. There is a FANTASTIC one-on-one with Barry toward the end after Snart learns Barry’s identity that cuts to the core of the Cold/Rogues vs. Flash dynamic. It’s a cat and mouse game. Cold is having fun and is quite content to keep playing with The Flash but concedes that he can do so without killing. They part on reasonable terms, Snart promising to keep Barry’s secret. For now.
Time travel-wise, Wells’ every line of dialogue and every expression is a delight to watch because WE KNOW WHAT HE DID and it feels almost as if he does too! Still, he reiterates his fatherly affection toward a shaken Cisco (who gave up Barry’s identity to save his shit-bag brother) and offers some genuine advice to Barry about time travel, though he does so with barely contained contempt. One thing bugs me though and that’s the attack on Mason Bridge. Did Wells know about his beef BEFORE the time jump, like, before he had to deal with Cisco or is it some residual temporal awareness that comes with his trip through time? I think it’s the former, in all honesty but any chance to make Wells seem like some omnipotent time-killer is welcome.
Stinger is Barry admitting to Joe that he was right about Wells all along after he sees a news report about Mason Bridge disappearing. This surely marks the turning point and we’ll soon be facing off against Wells in a battle of wits and speed. Next week, we’ll see the return of an iconic character in Tricksters.