“There’s no one who can stop us now,” says Sam Scudder aka Mirror Master (Grey Damon). “There is one person,” replies Rosa (Ashley Rickards). “Who?” asks Scudder. “The Flash,” answers the criminal’s girlfriend who’s teaming up with him once again to be the king and queen of crime in Central City in The CW’s comic-book inspired fantasy, action series, The Flash.
As the episode begins, Joe (Jesse L. Martin) is at S.T.A.R. Labs showing Team Flash the same footage he showed Barry (Grant Gustin) and Julian (Tom Felton) of the Rival being thrown around in his cell. Joe says he’ll call in a favor and see if he can find out anything on this new metahuman named Alchemy. Jesse (Violett Beane) asks Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Barry if she can train with them, anxious to learn more about what she can do with her powers. The training goes well but Jesse makes a few mistakes, which is exactly what Barry wanted knowing that she’ll only learn and become a tough and determined superhero from her mistakes – just like Barry did. Barry gives Jesse advice on how to survey her surroundings and to never just race in without that knowledge.
The episode flashes back to the night the particle accelerator exploded. It seems a well-dressed thief named Scudder has spent some of his ill-gotten gains on his girl, Rosa, which ticks off Snart (Wentworth Miller). Snart’s running the operation and he told them to lay low and not draw attention to themselves. Of course, a fight breaks out and just as Snart is about to finish Scudder the particle accelerator explodes. Snart and his loyal goons take off leaving Scudder and Rosa to be exposed to the dark matter wave. Scudder, unbeknownst to anyone, gets stuck in a mirror. Leap forward to present day and Scudder is accidentally set free by a construction crew. He has revenge on his mind and goes to pay a visit to one of Snart’s loyal goons only to discover he doesn’t know where Snart is. Scudder kills him by using his new powers of traveling through mirrors.
Meanwhile, Barry and Iris (Candace Patton) are trying to get closer and their quiet night at home actually starts to get romantic until Joe comes home early and ruins the mood. Iris gets annoyed with both men but especially with Barry who feels it’s awkward to be caught kissing her in front of her dad. She makes him promise to talk to Joe about it so it won’t be awkward for all of them.
Jesse goes speeding off with Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) to have some “hang time,” and feeling happy and affectionate she starts to kiss him. At first, Wally kisses back, but then he pulls away. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did I misread this?” asks the wide-eyed young speedster. Wally tells her no but she’s going to be going back to her Earth in a few days and he doesn’t think it’s a good idea. A disappointed Jesse says she understands and asks if they can still be friends, which Wally agrees to.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Harry (Tom Cavanagh) works with Cisco and Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) on a device that will allow Cisco to use his Vibe powers to send a coded message to other Earths in search of another Harrison Wells. They need a new Harry to fill the void when Earth-2’s Harry returns to his home planet with Jesse. (Does anybody else think this is a bad idea?!) It’s not long before they get a few Wells responding including a British one, a Cowboy, and a French mime. Harry says, “You can’t trust a mime,” and Cisco replies, “Agreed.” They pass on three Wells but Caitlin and Cisco are impressed by the last Wells, a hipster from Earth-19 who seems to be the best candidate. But something in Harry’s gut says no and he tells his two friends to keep searching.
Scudder breaks Rosa out of prison at the same time that Joe has just finished asking her questions about the death of Snart’s loyal goon. Mirror Master and Rosa begin their crime wave by robbing a bank, but Jesse and the Flash show up to stop them. After a few quick quips back and forth, Scudder uses the mirrors to race out but Barry follows telling Jesse to stay put. He’s serious, but does she listen? No, of course not. The two speedsters chase the new metahumans to the roof of a tall building. Jesse stops, seeing Rosa just standing there, while Barry keeps after Scudder. Jesse nicknames Rosa “Top” because of the dress she’s wearing and Top uses her new abilities to cause Jesse to suffer from vertigo. She loses her balance and falls off the roof. The Flash hears her screaming and races over, saving her from crashing to the ground. He tells her she’s going to be okay and that’s when he gets shoved into a mirror by the Mirror Master who turns to Jesse and says, “Have fun trying to get him out”.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Jesse feels terribly guilty knowing it’s partly her fault Barry is stuck in the mirror. Wally both consoles her and gives her a much-needed pep talk along with a kiss as he tells her he’s not afraid of having a relationship with her anymore. Cisco connects a little do-dad to the mirror and the group can hear Barry telling them to get him out. Harry and Cisco realize they need to freeze the mirror and must go way below zero to do it. They head off to create a device that will do just that. This is when Iris decides to talk to Barry about their relationship. (Seriously, why does she always want to talk about her feelings for Barry when he’s either in trouble or grieving?) Barry tells her that he did talk to Joe about being affectionate in front of him and that it might take a little longer to get used to.
Team Flash is back with their new device and they use it, but it doesn’t freeze the mirror cold enough for Barry to phase through. That’s when the metahuman alarm goes off and everyone tells Barry to hang tight as they all go check on the alarm. Caitlin, who hung back from the group, walks over to the side of the mirror where Barry can’t see her and she uses her Killer Frost powers on the mirror, making it cold enough for him to phase through. When Barry joins Team Flash in the other room, they ask how he got out and he says for them to figure that out later. He’s figured out a way to stop Mirror Master.
Using some very cool new devices, Barry creates a hologram of Snart and mimics his voice to set a trap for Scudder. When Mirror Master and Top show up at an old rundown carnival, Jesse uses her powers to take down Top while Barry traps Scudder by using a never-ending-reflection loop.
Harry and Jesse get ready to go back to Earth-2 and the gang has decided to bring Wells from Earth-19 to our Earth. They’ve also decided to call this Harry “H.R.” because that’s what he tells Team Flash to call him. Cisco and Harry hug and Cisco tells Earth-2 Harry not to worry because he’ll always be their “Harry.” Harry tells Cisco their cold device didn’t work because it wasn’t strong enough to break out Barry so that means someone else did. “Who?” asks Cisco. “You tell me,” answers Harry as he gives a quick look in Caitlin’s direction. As he’s about to leave with Jesse, Harry starts to tell the team not to…oops, he and Jesse are gone. H.R.’s laughing about it and more than ready to eat a big belly burger.
Back at Joe’s house, Barry has decided to move out and get an apartment all his own. Both Joe and Iris like the idea since that means Barry and Iris will have a place to be intimate without being right in front of Joe.
The last scene take place in Caitlin’s apartment. She comes home and while in the shower enjoying the hot water and trying to relax, the water freezes solid when she turns and lets it hit her face. She looks up shocked and scared. When she steps out in her robe and looks in the mirror she sees her lips are turning blue and there’s a white streak in her hair. Looking shocked and extremely upset, Caitlin grabs scissors and cuts of the white streak of hair.
The Flash Season 3 Episode 4 Review:
“The New Rogues” episode of the fantasy action series continues the show in the style and spirit of the first season with humor, relationship issues, entertaining villains, impressive action scenes, and a heartbreaking ending. Almost every main character had a major part to play in the episode, and the growth of Barry is continuing with him stepping up and mentoring Jesse so she won’t make the same mistakes as he did when he first became a speedster. Violett Beane is terrific in this episode, showing how she is very much like Barry wanting to learn and master her powers to help and save people on her Earth. Beane and Grant have solid chemistry together, capturing an older brother and kid sister vibe.
There are two stand-out performances in this episode, the first being Tom Cavanagh. Cavanagh gets to have some fun and inject more humor than ever before as he plays the different versions of Wells from various Earths and as a disapproving Harry wanting to reject them all. It’s truly the funniest scene this season.
The second stand-out performance is delivered by Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow. She secretly uses her icy powers to free Barry from the mirror when there’s no other option and yet she’s still desperate for her friends not to know about her powers. The two final scenes with Panabaker as Snow are powerful and intense without her even saying a word. The look of shock and fear in her eyes as she sees her shower ice up and the water freeze, continuing as she watches her lips turn blue and the white streak added to her hair as she desperately cuts it off, speaks volumes. Panabaker conveys so much of Caitlin’s emotions just with her eyes and facial expressions. The ominous music played in the scene makes it all the more disturbing.
With Harry and Jesse back on Earth-2, still no information or leads regarding Alchemy, and poor Caitlin still trying to hide her ever-growing powers from her friends, it looks as though dark times are ahead for Team Flash as they might lose their beloved Caitlin to her chilling powers. Here’s hoping Caitlin learns to control her powers and is able to remain part of the team. It just wouldn’t be the same without her.
GRADE: B
