'The Flash' Recap: 'The New Rogues'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

There's really nothing wrong with a television show taking the time here and there to remind us exactly why we fell in love with a particular series in the first place. After all, if it wasn't for those special moments, we wouldn't be watching years later and when those little reminders do pop up, all you can do is smile as they instantly evoke the sense of wonder you experienced when you realized how awesome said show was going to be.

It's something that ​The Flash decided to do last night, because 'The New Rogues' was an episode that instantly reminded the audience of the groundbreaking first season of this show, where we, alongside Barry and his friends, came to understand the wonder of being a speedster and well, it's safe to declare this retro episode of the show an outright success because holy cow, it was a lot of fun, and it was done in brilliant fashion, because in order for us to enjoy those first steps into becoming a hero once again, someone had to cross that threshold and face off against a tough as nails villain and that's exactly what came our way last night, courtesy of Jesse Quick.

Sure she helped out last week in getting Magenta to step away from a life of crime, but this week, she adopted the speedster uniform and a new identity and she and Barry took on quite a powerful villain, that just so happened to have that classic feel in the Mirror Master. This poor soul, known to his friends as Sam Scudder, had ties to the legendary Leonard Snart three years ago, that is until he decided to enjoy some of the profits from a job with Snart, and the night these two were about to throw down over what should happen with the money, just so happened to the be same night that the S.T.A.R. Labs reactor exploded, changing Sam into a being that can use mirrors, or any reflective surface to travel and while that alone was as cool as it could be, the show was just getting started. 

Because the real fun came by way of the hunt for the Mirror Master, since that was flat out vintage ​Flash if you will. There is just something magical about seeing the team come together to figure out the villain's powers and their particular weakness and it's something that quite frankly, I think the show stepped away from in season two, and with good reason. Zoom was a huge threat, but it was outright wonderful to see that part of the show make a triumphant return and take us back to the good old days, including how the gang used mirrors to finally bring down the Master and capture him at last. But in addition to the throwback this week, an interesting new plot line was thrown into the mix by way of Harrison Wells. With Harry and Jesse getting ready to return to Earth-2, Caitlin and Cisco came to realize, they needed a Harry on the team and sent out a special signal to other earths to see if by chance a particular Wells could crack their code and potentially come to Earth-1 to help in the fight against meta humans.

The results of this search were outright hilarious, with a western themed Harrison Wells popping up in the responses but they instead settled on recruiting the Harrison Wells from Earth-19, one that Harry didn't get a good vibe from and whether or not he can be trusted, well only time will tell, but in the meantime all is once again right in Central City, save for the fact that slowly but surely, Caitlin's powers are coming to light and one has to wonder if the Killer Frost that is coming to fruition will be friend or foe. Either way, this episode was an outright blast. It brought back the fun after a season of darkness and it was a welcome change of pace to break away from Alchemy and the evil that he is quietly brewing behind the scenes, since I'm sure we'll be back to that mess in no time. Until then.

---