THE FLASH - Season 5.20

THE FLASH – SEASON 5, EP. 20:  “Gone Rogue”


The Scarlet Speedster’s up against the wall in this episode as he faces one of the most dangerous foes he’s ever come across in his career:  his own daughter!  What happens when you have an angry woman with Daddy issues suddenly decide to join the other side?  Let’s find out.

We see Nora racing through an architectural company called G. Simone and Associates, and disables some of their tech in order to obtain some blueprints.  She asks Gideon for help with the blueprints, and Gideon asks her if she wants Barry’s help, and Nora says no.

Barry has placed tachyon meters around the city in order to be able to track Nora should she start racing around, and be able to get a bead on her.  They hope to be able to find her before she goes off.  We see Caitlin still mourning the loss of her own father, and the team understands if she decides to sit this one out.  She says she’s good.  Sherloque also decides to stick around, feeling guilty for exposing Nora in the first place, and putting these wheels in motion.  As they go to work, Ralph shows up with Cisco, who gives him back the Book of Ralph.  Ralph offers it to Sherloque in his efforts with Irene Adler.

Barry, Joe, and Iris are at the G. Simone and Associates building, investigating a burglary there last night.  They notice all the computer mainframes have been fried, and try to figure out what it would take to fry them.  Iris brings up the idea of a bolt of lightning, and they realize it was Nora who stole the plans.  What they’re sure of, they don’t know.  But what they find out is that Nora is using negative tachyons in order to speed around town.  Iris figures out that Thawne had taught her how to do that.

We see a warehouse where Weather Witch, Bug-Eyed Bandit, and Ragdoll were given invites for a job…their invitee is Nora.  Nora plans on robbing the McCulloch Industries building, in order to obtain a weapon that can stop metatech.  But they need to get to The Flash to do it.

Caitlin and Ralph are following up on a lead about Cicada’s whereabouts, and what she wants to do with the Atomizer that was stolen from her mother’s lab the previous week.  Ralph asks about Killer Frost, but Caitlin said that even Killer Frost is in mourning right now, and isn’t interested in coming out to play.  

Iris and Cecile are at her office talking about what Nora’s plans are with McCulloch Industries.  They decide that they’re going to do some old fashioned legwork to find out.

Back at STAR Labs, the team gets a hit on Nora, and Barry goes to meet her in order to reason with her.  Meanwhile, Cisco and Sherloque go to meet him to be at the ready, and they’re captured in an elevator by Ragdoll.  As Barry tries to reason with Nora, she becomes enraged, her eyes glow red, and she attacks, knocking him out.  Nora steals a hypnotizer, and takes off.  Afterwards, Barry informs Iris and Cecile what happned.

Nora has Cisco and Sherloque captured and Cisco bound with meta cuffs.  She wants him to be able to fix the cellphone to tap into the hypnotizer.  At first he laughs, but when she threatens him the way Eobard did years ago, he complies.  

Back up north, Caitlin and Ralph look for clues at the Tannenhauser site, while talking about love and relationships.  It’s there that Caitlin asks why Ralph is willing to help Cisco and Sherloque, but not find love himself.  Ralph says it’s not in the cards for him.  Caitlin says he’s a great guy, and love is out there for him.  But he gets wires crossed, and thinks she’s coming on to him.  She rebuffs him quickly, and they then discover the fridge that Cisco altered to keep his samples.  They both realize that Cicada took off with the samples.  

While Cisco is working on the phone, he and Sherloque talk about their love lives.  Sherloque says his issues with Irene are that he’s never been able to make relationships work…and revels to Cisco she’s a meta human.  He figures out that Cisco doesn’t want to be Vibe anymore, and it’s not something he can talk about with Camille.

Barry, Iris, Joe, and Ceclie are at Iris’ office, discussing what’s going on, and figuring out what Nora’s plan is regarding McCulloch Industries.  They find out about a weapon McCulloch is developing (the gun that destroys meta tech), and Barry says that Nora must be brought down, daughter or not.  Iris and him continue to argue about her, and what Iris saw when she was in the future.  She tells Barry that maybe Thawne CAN be redeemed.  Because he told Iris that if they don’t solve this as a FAMILY, all is lost.

Weather Witch and Nora talk about the plant, and disappointment with their fathers.  They are a lot alike, in that they felt rejected by the fathers they had.  Cisco eventually programs the phone.  And to ensure they can’t be stopped, Nora says for Bug-Eyed Bandit to hypnotize them in order to keep them at bay while they invade McCulloch.

Barry is feeling dejected and frustrated when Joe sits down to have a chat with him.  Barry feels that all he’s done since the minute Nora showed up is reject her, and push her away.  Joe understands where Barry is coming from, and that Barry didn’t even refer to Joe as his Dad until about a few years ago.  He does what he can to comfort Barry, and let him know that he understands, but that he’s got to stop beating himself up, and learn to trust his daughter.  

At McCulloch Industries, the Rogues and Nora manage to sneak in, and get their tour of the facility.  Once in, they take out the security that’s with them, and they go to work.  What they’re looking for is in a room that has power dampeners in there, and the only way through is inside a pipe, which Ragdoll does easily.  Once in, they handle the power dampener, and Nora tells them to grab the guns.  But the Rogues decide to turn on her, and cut her out of the deal.  On a security camera they manage to hack, they address Central City, and say that things will get ugly unless The Flash himself shows up and reveals his identity.

With all this happening, the cellphone Cisco rigged only had a limited range, so once the Rogues and Nora got out of range, Cisco and Sherloque managed to get free.

The Flash shows up, and says that he will reveal his identity.  But somethings….off about him.  Turns out, it’s Sherloque as a hologram back at STAR Labs, and Cicso is telling him to stick to the plan.  Then, the armed guards around the Flash turn out to be the REAL Flash, Iris, and Joe.  A fight begins, and Joe and Iris tackle Ragdoll, as Flash and Nora have to deal with Weather Witch and the Bandit.  Ragdoll manages to get ahold of Joe, but Iris punches him out.  Joe asks who that is, and Iris tells him she’ll inform him later.  Cisco manages to disable Bug-Eyed Bandit’s electronic bugs, just long enough for Nora and Flash’s powers to come back, and they wrap everything up.

Barry, Iris, and Nora talk.  Barry apologizes to Nora for how he acted, and that she should’ve trusted her more, and not push her away.  She says her plan was to use the set up to get the gun, because she knows that it can be the only way to destroy Cicada’s dagger.  She doesn’t want to feel how she felt again, and she said that Eobard had that plan.  Barry says it’s not the best idea, but it’s the only one they got.  

Just then, Caitlin and Ralph rejoin the gang, saying that Cicada made off with Cisco’s cure samples.  Cisco corrects her and says those were failed ones…and if she uses them, she’s going to kill every metahuman in the city.

We finally see see Grace mixing up the serum in order to use it in the Atomizer, while watching over her younger self, singing a song, all the while hearing Orlen in her ear.

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This was yet another solid episode of The Fastest Man Alive….but I DID have ONE disappointment with it:  I wish there had could’ve been MORE with Nora’s anger, and Barry having to be the one to reason with her.  But for all intents and purposes, we now know the reason WHY Nora went rogue, and why she HAD to get back to the past to stop Cicada.  This apparently has to be done as a COMPLETE family unit…according to Eobard, there is NO other way.  

I will say this….Nora did a fairly good job of using her anger to set things in motion, and played her part fairly well…but she still showed cracks in the armor.  Especially when it came to her Dad.  Because no matter HOW mad Nora was at Barry---she still LOVES him immensely.  She wants to make him PROUD, and if that meant giving the impression of going Rogue in order to stop a bigger threat, she’d do it.  It took her nearly losing herself for Barry to understand…and for Barry to see just how much he’s really pushed her away to get it, but it worked out.  You gotta give the little Spitfire credit…and that’s pretty Shway.

Just to show you how awesome it is to have Joe back in the fold….his pep talks with Barry are fantastic.  THAT is a man very wise beyond his years.  He KNEW that there was more going on with Nora than just being mad at Barry.  He trusted his granddaughter, and it paid off.  And if there’s ONE guy who can honestly beat some sense into Barry when he needs it---it’s Joe.  Plus, it was funny when Joe had to tangle with Ragdoll, having not seen him before because he was gone at the time.

We got some bonding between Caitlin and Ralph….with some mixed signals.  But it was nice to see Caitlin reach out and let Ralph know he’s a catch…even if he’s NOT her type.  But this also gives us a prelude to one Sue Dearbon hopefully soon.  She’s LONG OVERDUE, people!  Also, Sherloque and Cisco waxing about their love lives, and how Cisco is ready to give up being Vibe, whereas, Sherloque confessing to Irene that he knows she’s a meta is some eggshell walking terrain they’re going to have to cover soon.

Nora’s bonding with Weather Witch.  These two women would be great friends in another life, I think.  Both have had absentee fathers in their lives (though in Nora’s case, it wasn’t completely by design, just unfortunate circumstance).  They understand each other, but in the end….Weather Witch DID inherit her father’s criminal mind…and heart.  And it’s the one thing that almost led Nora to her downfall.  Was nice to see Bug-Eyed Bandit again…was wondering how much time she served before being broken out of prison.

We now now Grace’s big plan---and maaaaaan, it ain’t good!

Easter Egg of the week:  McCulloch Industries and G. Simone & Associates.  For all of you fanatics:  McCulloch is the last name of the CURRENT man running around calling himself Mirror Master:  Ewan McCulloch is a former drug using criminal that somehow managed to nab Sam Scudder’s old gear.  As for G. Simone & Associates….G. Simone is Gail Simone, who has written many a DC hero, and was primarily responsible for BIRDS OF PREY.

Okay, gang, that’s it for this edition.  Subscribe, pass it around, and leave a comment!  Love to hear from ya!

Until next week….keep on running!