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FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 2×03 – “Family of Rogues”

 
The Flash (2×03) – “Family
of Rogues”
Written by: Julian Meiojas and Katherine
Walczak
Directed by: John F Showalter
After a fantastic cold open featuring
Barry and Iris, the show starts at STAR Labs where Team Flash has discovered
the large breach beneath the lab.  Jay,
Cisco, Barry and Caitlin discuss the breach along with Dr. Stein and after
Barry determines that the breach is too unstable for him to simply speed into
Jay hypothesizes that they will have to find a way to stabilize it before he
can use it to go home.
Presumably at the same time, Joe meets
his estranged wife at a Central City bar where she pleads to let her see
Iris.  Joe is hostile and makes it pretty
clear that she left Joe and Iris and hasn’t been back since.  He offers her money and a forty-eight hour
deadline to leave town but Mrs. West refuses.
The next morning at Jitters, Barry
nearly runs into Patty and the two flirt before Patty leaves and Barry goes to
his table with Caitlin, Cisco and Iris. 
Cisco shows off his Stein impersonation for a moment before Lisa Snart
aka Golden Glider returns and asks for their help.  Leonard’s been abducted.
Back at STAR Labs that while they were
robbing the racetrack she was knocked out and when she came to Leonard was
missing and she thinks he’s in trouble. 
After Caitlin tries to convince the others to let the Snarts suffer,
Cisco offers help tracking him using Leonard’s gun.  After a bit of abracadabra science, Cisco
shows them Leonard’s last known location and Barry heads off to find Captain
Cold.
He finds Cold robbing blueprints, Barry
asks what’s wrong but they hear a noise and Cold uses his gun to freeze Barry.  The noise turns out to be Leonard’s partner,
his and Lisa’s father Lewis (Michael Ironside.) 
He and his father make their escape and Cisco has to use some thermal
tech to thaw Barry before he dies.
Back at STAR Labs, Barry and the others talk to Lisa and she
insists Leonard wouldn’t work with their father but Barry identifies the
man.  Lisa reveals that they hate their
father because he was abusive.  Lisa
appeals to Cisco and he promises Team Flash’s help.
Joe visits Iris at the Newspaper to talk about her mother
but is interrupted by Linda Park.  She
tells the pair that Iris’ latest story is going to be on the front page so he
begs off on the conversation.
Barry finds Leonard at his hangout and asks him what’s going
on.  Snart is hostile and just wants
Barry gone.  They remind each other (and
the audience) of their agreement from last season before Leonard tells him to back
off or he’ll out Barry as the Flash. 
Barry tells him if Leonard’s father kills someone it won’t matter.  Leonard is unimpressed and leaves Barry to
pick up his tab.
Barry receives a call from Joe and when he returns home to
talk the older man explains what happened. 
Iris’ mother had a pill problem and one night overdosed and passed out
while Iris was in the house with her. 
After that she left town instead of getting clean.  Joe didn’t have the heart to tell his
daughter that her mother chose her addictions over her daughter so he told her
she was dead.  Now he’s worried Iris
won’t forgive him but Barry is sure she will.
Somewhere in Central City, Lewis Snart has gathered Leonard
and a third man to explain the plan for his heist.  They’re going after something in a safe and
while Leonard is trying to avoid casualties the other man is having some
problems; first with the safe tech and later when his mouth gives Lewis an
opportunity to relive one of Michael Ironside’s more memorable movies.  Scanners.
The next morning, Joe, Patty and Barry find the body of the
man Lewis killed.  Barry finds traces of
explosives on the body, and Barry puts things together quickly.  Lewis put a bomb in Lisa’s neck to get
Leonard’s co-operation.
Back at STAR Labs, Jay is working on a way to stabilize the
breach.  He talks with Caitlin about the
rush he used to feel when he was the Flash of his world.  Before they can do more work on the breach
Cisco calls them.  Caitlin and Cisco
confirm Barry’s suspicions about Lisa.
At the West house, Joe tells Iris about her mother’s
overdose and how she ran out on rehab. 
He tells her what he had done and begged her forgiveness.  Iris understands why Joe didn’t tell her and
forgives him.
At STAR Labs, Barry Iris and Caitlin try to figure out how
to get the bomb out of Lisa’s neck. 
Barry decides to try and help them buy time for Lisa by getting into
Lewis’ crew as the new tech guy.  He
convinces Lewis but the problem is they’re hitting the safe that night.  Posing as cleaning staff they infiltrate the
building, Barry helps them to the safe then uses his speed to crack the
safe.  Then Lewis shoots him for the
trouble, unknown to Lewis Barry catches the bullet.
Meanwhile, Cisco’s come up with a plan to save Lisa using a
compressed air device.  Inside the safe,
Leonard uses his cold gun to make it past the laser net and Lewis cracks the
inner to safe to reveal a lot of diamonds. 
As they’re about to leave, the Flash shows up to stall Lewis.  Cisco gets the bomb out and Leonard turns on
his father and kills him.
Barry visits Snart in Iron Heights.  The two talk about Leonard’s relationship
with Lisa and Barry reveals that he thinks there’s still a chance for
redemption for Captain Cold.  As Barry
and Joe leave Iron Heights Joe tells him that Iris has decided to meet with her
mother.
Later at Jitters, Barry meets up with Patty and after
flirting again she gives him his number while Lisa and Cisco say goodbye with
some flirting of their own.
Back at STAR Labs, Jay and Caitlin unveil their speed cannon
to the others.  Jay reveals that he used
some scientific knowledge unique to Earth Two and that he plans to stick around
Earth One until Barry stops Zoom.  He
then leaves for a shower and shave. 
Shortly after he leaves, Stein has another seizure, at one point igniting
like Firestorm, before he collapses.
Sometime later a figure emerges from the breach.  Revealing Harrison Wells, though what Earth
he is from is in question.
Another strong, strong episode.  Michael Ironside was fun as the villain and
there were more than a couple winks at the man’s career.  Both Barry and Leonard and the Snart family
dynamics were helped along by his presence. 
I’d say Jesse L Martin knocked it out of the park with his
scenes but that’s reaching a point where it’s a given. 
I liked Cisco’s flirtation with Lisa and Barry’s flirtation
with Patty, and it was nice to see them keep the season long Crisis story-arc
boiling in the background.  The
cliffhanger at the end raises some fun questions that I’m looking forward to
learning the answers to.
However, there’s a problem. 
Part of the enjoyment of the series thus far has been the lighter tone
compared to its parent series.  Arrow can
quickly weigh you down with heaviness and darker themes but here we are three
episodes into season two and it certainly looks like the villain’s been killed
every week.  I assume the producers know
what they’re doing but it needs to be addressed all the same.
As I said, this was a strong episode which leaves me ready
for more. (I’m also looking forward to next season when The Flash complete
their Highlander villain’s hat-trick with Mario Van Peebles.)
Three Things We
Learned This Week:
1)     
Earth-2 is more scientifically advanced that
Earth-1.
2)     
Iris’ morning had a drug problem.
3)     
Lasers can be frozen. (Except no they can’t.)
Three Questions:
1)     
What’s wrong with Dr. Stein?
2)     
Are Joe and Iris’ mom divorced and is Iris’ mom
clean?
3)     
Which Harrison Wells is this? (I’m rooting for
Earth-3!)

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