Jim’s Thoughts

Flash spent the first half of “The New Rogues” tap-dancing all over everything Kyle and I have been trashing it for. There was training the new speedster, awkward suckface featuring Barry and Iris, and a visit to the multi-dimensional parts store.

The gang went shopping for a new Harrison Wells because the old one was just a lease, and the new one comes with free oil changes and a hundred-thousand-mile warranty.

Doubling down on their plan to reduce the DC Comics Multiverse to a revival of The Dating Game, we also got some awkward romance moments with Wally and Jessie. The problems here are twofold. First, Wally not wanting to pursue Jessie because they’re literally from separate worlds only sounds like it makes sense. Seriously, hopping over between earths is shown to be simpler than switching planes at Laguardia. Secondarily, neither Wally nor Jessie are well developed characters, so I’m not invested in their romance. I’m not rooting for them.

The plot with Mirror Master was just another weekly villain plot. It wasn’t awful, just forgettable. Hey, remember Alchemy? That seemed promising. What’s going on with him? We don’t really know? Well, at least we know Iris thinks talking to someone in a mirror is weird. It’s not like she could think of it as a screen or anything. Skype must creep her out. See what you’ve done, Flash? You’ve reduced me to sarcasm, the lowest form of wit.

It’s more of the same this week. It isn’t bad. It’s just dull.

Kyle’s Take

This season of Flash has taken five or six iceberg sized steps back and the story’s troding along at a glacial pace. That’s why the opening to this season is lifeless.

Sure. We didn’t get time travel in “The New Rogues,” but we did get reintroduced to The Rogues, which were dropped after Captain Cold made the switch to Legends of Tomorrow, Killer Frost reared her platinum blonde extensions and she only had powers on Earth-Two, so we stay tethered to Harry’s Earth, even though Harry and Jessie exit, stage right, and the Barry-Iris love saga returned from season one, when it was dropped the last season—for the most part. Is it too soon to hit the reset button–again?

Not to beleaguer the point I’ve made in the past, but there might be a reason why Barry and Iris ended up together in almost every other timeline or alternate earth; the main storyline is the only reality and Earth in which Barry and Iris are siblings. I’m not sure why this season insists on retreading this and other story arcs that haven’t worked in the past.

“Love” permeated every fiber of “The New Rogues.” Barry and Iris, Wally and Jessie, Top and Mirror Master, and Detective West and Cecile Horton (potentially) were all twitterpated with one another. Too bad Bambi had more interesting romances.

I agree with Jim that Wally and Jessie haven’t been developed—that could be due to Flash’s tendency to reboot their story arc every other episode or “develop” its characters with expositional dialogue—and Top and Mirror Master were nothing but villains of the week with rushed back stories—I’m sure we’ll see them again sometime this season. The West-Horton love connection could have the best chance of working, but it’s the newest coupling (by half a second over Wally-Jessie), Flash has only hinted at a romance between these two, and the show has a horrendous, romantic track record. Let’s not forget Jatlin and Cisco Glider from last year. I’m sure most of these relationships will crash and burn, and we’ll get back to Doctor Alchemy, but at this point, I wouldn’t mind fast-forwarding to the inevitable.

Barry will go back in time, resetting each character once more, and he’ll suffer larger consequences—hopefully—for doing so. I can’t wait for season 3 of the Flash to start in earnest.