THE FLASH "GONE ROGUE" REVIEW

Season 5 Episode 20:

Hey everyone, we are back with a new episode of the Flash, directed by Kristin Windell. In this episode, we see what Nora gets up to when she returns back to 2019 using the negative speed force, and how she is teaming up with the new Central City rogues to pull off a heist. But spoilers ahead for the episode lets recap.

In the episode, Nora returns to 2019 and steals some blueprints for a building. Nora brings together her own rogues gallery own Weather Witch, Ragdoll, and the Bug-Eyed Bandit to pull off a heist and steal some meta-weapons. Caitlin and Ralph go to one of Icicle’s old bases where a chemical has been stolen by Cicada. Nora and her team go to STAR Labs where Nora steals Spencer’s meta-phone and confronts Barry while Ragdoll kidnaps Cisco and Sherloque. 

Back at the rogues base, Nora forces Cisco to hack into the meta-phone so it can be used to hack into the facility that Nora wants to break into. Cisco hacks into the phone, and the rogues leave, with Bug-Eye leaving her robotic bees to surveil Cisco and Sherloque. Barry, Joe, Cecile, and Iris try to find out where Nora is as Barry cannot find her anywhere in the city. Iris discovers that there is a showcase of weapons at the facility which Nora stole schematics for. Cisco and Sherloque manage to escape and get back to STAR Labs.

Nora, Weather Witch, Bug Eyed-Bandit, and Ragdoll sneak into the facility with the Bandit hacking into the facility with the meta phone. At the facility, the rogues break into a room, which has a meta-human block. The rogues take hostage the security guard and start to take the weapons.

However, Weather Witch and the Bug-Eyed Bandit turn on Nora who doesn't have her powers. The two stream a video demanding for the Flash to come to the facility and reveal his identity in exchange for Nora's life. Barry comes, however, it turns out it is a hologram of him portrayed by Sherloque, as Barry, Iris, and Joe used the face disguising technology to disguise themselves as the security guards. Barry saves Nora while Joe and Iris fight Ragdoll. The metahuman power dampener in the room, so Barry and Nora gain their powers and take down Weather Witch and Bug-Eyed Bandit. Nora explains to Barry that she wanted to steal a weapon which can destroy meta-tech, such as Cicada’s dagger.

At Cicada's base, Orlin comes back from the dead. Back at STAR Labs, the team discovers that with the items that Cicada has, she is planning to kill every meta-human in Central City.

Overall, this episode was a really fun episode. I did feel like the Nora plot was a little underutilized, especially with the cliffhanger from last weeks episode, and the rage that Nora felt against Barry. It would have been nice if that did carry over in this episode a little more. However, because the season is wrapping up I guess they need Nora to side with the team again, so I guess this irked out in a way.

The tone of this episode was really on point. It played a little on the dark side with the rogues in the episode, however, there was still a sense of a light tone in the episode, which match the series as a whole, and made this episode stand out.

The rogues' team that Nora ‘teamed up’ with was really neat. We had the two new rogues from earlier this season, that being Weather Witch and Ragdoll. Those characters were interesting, and I was glad that they were bought back in more interesting ways in this episode. However, one of the biggest surprises was the inclusion of the Bug Eyed-Bandit. This character debuted and last appeared in the first season of the show in the “All-Star Team-Up” which was the Flash and Atom crossover. That was a comeback that I never saw coming and something which kind of blew my mind.

One of the coolest Easter eggs in the episode was one of the fake names that Nora presented, which was “Jenni Ognats”. I instantly recognized that name, because, in the comics, Jenni was the person who had the ‘XS’ superhero alias originally. Jenni was the granddaughter of Barry and Iris and is actually the daughter of who we now know as Nora (who isn’t named “Dawn” in the tv show as she is in the comics). I feel like it is a neat hint that if Nora has a daughter in the future, she would give her the XS suit, and complete this cycle of where the alias originated from.

The end fight in the episode was really neat, and something that was a pleasant surprise. I was excited that the show brought back the face disguising technology from season three, and had a slight twist where our heroes were a few steps ahead of Nora. The fight was really well set up, was just fun to watch. There was a great level of power leveling which helped out with the realism of the fight. Barry and Nora going into flashiness was a really neat touch added into the episode and was a meaningful scene which corrected the relationship between Barry and Nora which carried over from a couple episodes ago.

Starring in the episode was Jessica Kennedy Parker (Nora West-Allen/ XS), Grant Gustin (Barry Allen/ The Flash), Candice Patton (Iris West-Allen), Jesse L. Martin (Joe West), Danielle Nicolet (Cecile Horton), Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramone/ Vibe), Tom Cavanaugh (Sherloque Wells), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow/ Killer Frost), Hartley Sawyer (Ralph Dibny/ Elongated Man), Reina Hardesty (Weather Witch), Troy James (Ragdoll), Emily Kinney (Bug-Eyed Bandit), and Sarah Carter (Grace Gibbons / Cicada).

In conclusion, this episode was a fun episode and a highlight in this episode. What I liked about the episode was the tone. It felt light, but there were some dire elements used which flowed well with the tone of the show. Nora being a villain for a little while was fun, and a neat and scary side to the character.

Rating: 8.8/10

What did you think of the episode? Comment below your thoughts or opinions on the episode.

You can click on the left for more Flash, or on the right for Endgame, and also subscribe. As always, thanks for reading, take care.