THE FLASH Season 5 Episode 20 Review: Gone Rogue

Well, that didn't last long. After Nora’s scary red eyes moment at the end of last week’s episode, it seemed like she was being set up as an antagonist for the rest of the season. But despite having to rely on anger and pain to access her new powers, Nora didn't need much prodding to come back around to her family. Her time as a criminal ended up being more like a spot of a youthful rebellion than true super-villainy. 

Her team of crooks — Ragdoll, Bug Eyed Bandit, and Weather Witch — wasn't exactly an all-star lineup, but they were serviceable enough. The only one with an actual personality is Weather Witch, so it's disappointing the episode downplayed her connection with Nora and didn't build upon their frenemy dynamic. Their colorful attitudes is what made the original Rogues fun in the first place. 

With that crucial element missing, I'm not really sold on the idea of the Young Rogues yet, especially given the revolving door eternally plaguing the supporting cast of the series seems to have already gotten to Silver Ghost, who named the Young Rogues in the first place. That said, I'd much rather see all of the blander villains team up rather than continue trying to take down Barry solo again and again-- if nothing else, it provides some variety in the action and gives them more believability as a threat. For that reason alone, I'm open to the writers continuing to tinker with the group while they figure out what works. 

Limiting Nora's time as a baddie to one episode meant that Barry had to go through quite the quick transformation after cutting her off without warning, but it worked pretty well given the constraints. Grant Gustin did played Barry with a constant nervous energy, and it was easy to believe his half angry/half guilty parental concern would eat away at him until he reconciled with Nora. I'm always going to wish they spent more time fleshing out the fallout from Nora’s secret instead of dragging out the reveal, but the producers clearly wanted to go in another direction, and there's no sense harping on it. 

Barry's come around so much that he now agrees that the team should follow the plan Thawne gave Nora. I'm guessing that said plan probably will genuinely defeat Cicada, but it’ll also result in the Reverse Flash breaking out of prison in time for the finale. I'm hoping that however he does this, it's somehow connected to Nora’s new powers. It was pretty dissatisfying to see the Negative Speed Force shrugged off as just making Nora grumpy after seeing how much trauma it made her relive last week, and it would be even worse to have it turn out to be just some get out of jail free card for Cicada’s dagger when Killer Frost was supposed to already serve that purpose. 

It’s also pretty obvious by now that Cisco will take the cure and try to live a normal life with Kamilla. If Cisco is truly going to depart the series, as some fans have theorized, I'd like to have it be on good terms, but the minimal screen time Kamilla and her relationship with Cisco have had makes it hard to picture that as Cisco's happily ever after. Similarly, Sherloque suddenly remembering Adler exists after weeks of radio silence felt very out of the blue. The last couple seasons haven’t had much for the supporting members of the STAR Labs crew to do, on or off the field. Hopefully, the fact their personal lives were brought up so suddenly is a sign they’ll at least be given some moments to shine in the finale.

Written by Kaitlin Roberts, THE FLASH Beat Writer

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