“Cold” is a running theme throughout this show, for reasons that go beyond the appearance of Leonard Snart. More than one relationship needs a serious thaw as The Flash gets ready to fight his first non-meta supervillain (and, in this spirit of full disclosure, my favorite Rogue), Captain Cold!
LIGHT SPOILERS ONLY
What does the fastest man alive do on his day off? Barry is hanging out at S.T.A.R. Labs, having fun while training under the watchful eye of Harrison Wells. He’s playing Ping Pong with Cisco, the old board game Operation with Caitlin, and chess against Harrison. He’s winning 2 out of 3 (guess which one wins over Barry). We cut to an audacious robbery of an armored car, expertly planned by…well, you know. The robbery is foiled by a speeding Barry, but one of the bad guys shoots a guard, and Snart & Company get away while Barry rushes the guard to the hospital.
Joe West and Eddie Thawne are investigating the robbery, with a noticeable chill in the air due to the revelation of Thawne’s relationship with Iris. We find that the target of the robbery was the Kahndaq Dynasty Diamond (a nice nod to Black Adam’s continuity). And, with Barry’s help we find that the leader of the group is Leonard Snart. Snart’s father was abusive and is now in prison, and Snart has become a master thief.
At Snart’s lair, we see him trying to analyze just what happened, and he realizes, “We’re gonna have to up our game.” He gets a weapon that was stolen from S.T.A.R. Labs, one designed by Cisco to stop the streak (before they knew Barry could be trusted). This weapon is described as producing “some sort of substance like a white flame but it’s not hot, it’s cold”. Of course, it comes with glasses for the glare, helping us go for the classic Captain Cold look. There is an early confrontation between Snart and Barry that turns out very badly, leading to an innocent death.
Meanwhile, Felicity Smoak has come to town from Starling City to check up on Barry. We are teased with their relationship throughout the episode…as Iris is determined to play matchmaker for the two of them. This leads to a somewhat awkward double date at Jitters during a trivia contest (their team? E=MC Hammer). Actually, there are a LOT of delightfully awkward moments for Felicity and Barry throughout this episode. This is played so adorably that I really hope they bring Felicity back soon (Actually, there is a promised crossover for FLASH and ARROW around Episode 8, so hold on to your hats).
Felicity plays a pivotal role in this episode, helping Barry and the S.T.A.R. Labs team as they deal with their own chilly relationship – after all, how would YOU feel if you just found out that the stolen super-weapon was designed by your friends to use against you?
While Flash is on the treadmill at S.T.A.R. there is a great line from Felicity, with a nod to Crisis On Infinite Earths. “…if he ran too fast would he go poof? Like turn into dust in a red suit?”
No time to figure that out, though. Snart is back in action, going after the diamond which is now at the Central City Museum. This leads to the big battle between Flash and Cold…and we’ve said more than enough here, so you’ll have to check out a replay of the episode if you want to know more.
What we can say is that we finally see a dark side of Harrison Wells played out in front of the S.T.A.R. Labs team. He is royally ticked off that Cisco designed a weapon that can hurt Barry, and that the weapon was allowed to be stolen. And, we can also tell you that the epilogue (for once) does NOT surround Harrison Wells, but rather the recruiting of another future Rogue…and I can’t wait to see the debut of this Rogue as well!
SUMMARY: This episode delivers on all levels. We get a classic Rogue with a believable tale (or as believable as a comics-based show can get), and we have plenty of high-octane action. Yet, this show still gives us credible characters and relationships and a great plot. It’s very well-written, exceptionally acted, and a real treat to watch. We have a bit of a break, as the next new episode hits the airwaves November 11th. I can’t wait to see what happens then!
I am very upset Snart didn’t make his own cold gun. It really weakens and dumbs down Captain Cold. Why does EVERYTHING have to come from S.T.A.R. Labs?
This is the first time this show has really made me angry, so I guess I can let it slide … for now.
The New 52 Cold stole his first gun and took it apart and reassembled it so many times he figured out how to build it from scratch. Probably in vein of where they are going with Mr. Snart.
I see what you are saying, but I actually don’t mind that. I know with comics, you need a suspension of disbelief, but it never made much sense to me how the Rogues (and others) would create these advanced technologies only to use them to rob banks and such instead of getting rich by patenting the tech.
In some cases it works.
Pied Piper was a bored rich kid who committed crimes for the thrill (before he grew a social conscience).
Heat Wave’s pyromania would have him out setting fires one way or another, no matter what he did on the clock. (And this was a problem for him in the pre-Flashpoint DCU.)
Both Tricksters: James would be trying to pull one over on someone no matter how successful his business might be, and Axel has such contempt for the system that he wouldn’t even consider participating. (Pre-Flashpoint Axel didn’t invent his gadgets, but I can’t remember about the New 52 version.)
True.
Sure he was given the gun…but he could tinker with it and create a different version of it. One that can actually freeze people instead of just killing them. Remember, Snart isn’t a killer. At least he tries not to have any casualties..
You guys need to do more spoiler filled reviews instead of recapping and hinting at stuff probably most people have seen and are here to read your fanboy drooling and thoughts
Agree with this. I mainly come to read the comments on this site because each review is very general and always positive – whether it’s comics or TV. Hard to take them seriously.
I was very happy with this episode. They’ve already hit the ground running with this new series. As someone that has loved the Flash since childhood, this show is the stuff of my dreams. I hope we eventually get more speedsters.
Seriously doubt they’ll feature any more speedsters other than villains like Reverse Flash. DC has been keen to keep Barry alone. Even early on Bart was quickly removed as a possible ally.
Yes, yes—separate media. Only those separate media seem to do an awful lot of jiving when it comes to disappointing me. Just saying.
The episode was well done. My only qualm is that Cold’s murderous tendencies were getting on my nerves. (I’d forgotten how free Johns was with having Cold kill people, been re-reading more of Messner-Loebs works.)
Also dismayed that Joe West has become a hypocrite (on the ‘no secrets’ thing.) He was the one character I was honestly getting to like what with my having no preconceived notions on his personality or how he should look/act beforehand. I could accept him. With Thawne–guy seems nice now, but with a name like that in Flash history? He’s going to turn bad. Probably like how Hunter Zolomon went wacko.
Or would that be the guy in the not-so-needed wheelchair.
Wasn’t it a Johns story that had Thawne and Zolomon team up against Flash/Wally?
Barry’s also kind of a hypocrite in that when it comes to Joe, his surrogate family’s his real family. When it comes to Iris, though, she’s an attractive lady first and his sister in name only.
Watching Joe in that scene, he clearly wasn’t happy about having to make that promise knowing he couldn’t keep it. Also, you can argue that Barry’s secret isn’t his to reveal, and as a cop, he’s probably got all kinds of work-related confidential information he can’t tell Iris about anyway, so he could probably justify it to himself by thinking of it that way.
Agreed. Maybe it is cliched, but stuff like that is where drama comes from. Also, Jesse L. Martin is a strong enough actor to run with and make it work.
I was surprised how easily he was to kill as the episode went on especially since Cold was reprimanding his men to try to avoid killing at all costs as to avoid any extra legal issues. I guess one can argue once he got the cold gun, he was a little trigger happy with it, but the episode didn’t really dwell on it.
Well, he did say no killing cops or guards, specifically. Police tend to get very enthusiastic about catching and punishing cop killers.
Then he killed one of the museum guards, though perhaps he didn’t see him as being in the same class of guard as someone who works an armored car.
I also really loved the episode and that train sequence was amazingly shot and put together! Loved the lightening effects in Barry’s eyes as it began. One problem after watching a 2nd time – it seems kind of beyond belief that Barry could not race up to Snart really fast and snatch the Cold Gun away from his hand. That is a problem in the comics as well. But when you see it filmed in live action it becomes more apparent.
Hasn’t that been the problem with all the mega-powered speedsters, though? Get too fast and it becomes downright unbelievable that they can be defeated (hello, Deathstroke managing to stab a healthy Wally? Right.) Or think how many times Mr. Spock was sidelined during the 3rd season of Star Trek: Classic. The writer needs to bring in a super-powered villain like Reverse Flash or Darksyde or some mystery illness or super-gravity device. It gets ridiculous.
They’d be better off putting a reasonable cap on Barry’s powers.
(Well, when I say ‘reasonable’ I mean in reference to The Flash.)
I just hope he won’t always be running 2-300mph. That’s SLOW for The Flash. I hope he gets light speed…and for that to happen they have to somehow explain The Speed Force. I’ve read that they (The creators) want to do some time traveling things for the show. I hope they do. Cause you’d need either really really fast Barry, or Cisco would have to upgrade the treadmill to the cosmic treadmill.
I felt cold was a little more homicidal (train scene), but in general I LOVED IT!!!!! Don’t lose your COOL!!!