The Flash (TV Series) Family of Rogues (2015) User Reviews

Solid

[rsathyanitt · 9/10 · 20 October 2015]

One of the better episodes in The Flash. Wonder if Captain Cold has to do something to do with the episode's effectiveness. Somehow, the episodes where he makes an appearance are always gripping. In my opinion, the show works better if it focuses on crime than science fiction. In other words, a typical DC product. And, in this episode, you can see why.

Story - Captain Cold plans a heist with his dad, and Barry tries to stop them. Meanwhile, Prof Stein is having some troubles. And, guess who's back?

Rating - 9/10

It's a Wonderful Life

[SpoodermanDerp · 8/10 · 21 October 2015]

"Family of Rogues" marks the return of the Rogues (as the name suggests) and their first appearance here in the second season. The episode as a whole held up very well for flash standards and references were, again, dropped here and there. Yes, it becomes predictable again at times, but it still entertains whether you have it either way.

The episode starts with Iris and a random shootout that kind of felt out of place much lime some of the aspects of the episode which I will be explaining further later. Nonetheless, i felt that the characters in this show have been really fleshed out. Barry's team and all the characters even the Rogues themselves are well fleshed and engaging on screen. Golden Glider and Captain Cold return now along with their father which creates a conflict towards Lisa Snart and Barry's team as well. Another story was thrown in the mix which also has a link with family which was the addition of Iris's mom. This sort of aspect kind of fell short when compared to the other aspects in this episode. Much like the shootout in the first scene of the episode, that's how this subplot felt. It felt out of place and not really well fleshed, yes it does provide some development for Iris and Joe West's character which kind of payed off at the end if they were going for that. However if you were to take this aspect of the episode away, it would still fair well as a whole. Other than that I felt that the main focus of this episode which was really the Rogues was well done. Tension or sometimes lack thereof between Barry and Snart or the Snarts rather felt natural and it really says a lot because it shows that they've done a great job from season one. The chemistry between Barry and Patty continues to develop and their awkwardness achieves something that Iris and Barry never did, they actually looked cute together. Moving on to the technical aspects, the shots and the action felt much like the same old Flash formula and me, including the rest of us are not complaining. However each episode now sometimes become easy to predict and at certain points you just know what's gonna happen the next 10 or 15 minutes and you either end up right or partially right. Not that it's currently a bad thing, but if it continues, fans or viewers might get sick of it or get bored and it might eventually turn into a problem.

+A great episode for Flash standards, -Out of place subplots, -Iris's mom storyline can easily be removed, +/- Iris's mom storyline somehow gives development for Iris and Joe, +Rogues and Barry's team. +Barry and Patty, +Cisco and Lisa, +Shots and the action/visuals, -Episode become easy to predict at certain times.

Verdict: 8.3/10

Family Frenzy

[ThomasDrufke · 7/10 · 21 October 2015]

Throughout the various appearances of "the rogues" in this show, I have constantly been either letdown or just annoyed. I'm not entirely sure what it was or why. I think the lack of subtly within most of the actors performances really made for a goofy team. With that said, Wentworth Miller and to some extent Peyton List, brought a perfect amount of subtly to Captain Cold and Golden Glider respectively. Still considering all of that, the episode in its entirety was just okay.

With network television and a 23 episode arc, you have to expect that we get a few filler episodes here and there. 'Family of Rogues' was just that. We began as Barry saved Iris from gunmen as she was trying to get a scoop for an upcoming story. I can't exactly recall at one point last season she got the job at the newspaper, but I will contend no matter the time that her transition into a front page writer seemed pretty quick. But that scene also just felt like a strange opening. We already know Barry can save people in record times and it had nothing really to do with the rest of the episode. Perhaps it was just to link back to what Garrick said about appreciating the speed when you have it and the 'rush' it gives you.

Golden Glider/Lisa Snart appears at the coffee shop to ask for the team's (specifically Cisco's) help, which is usually a red herring for a hero. The coffee shop is back up and running and even though Barry has super speed cleaning the place up, I found it to be a rather quick turnaround. Do all those people just get their jobs back the day after it's cleaned up? It's nitpicking, but that part just bothered me a little bit. Back to Snart, I love that her proposition brought a new way to tell a filler episode. Flash is as much of a victim at giving us villain of the week episodes as any other show, but this didn't feel that way. I love the superhero stories that make the villains more in the grey area in terms of being good or bad. As much as I haven't really enjoyed Cold and Glider so far, I liked that this episode switched it up a bit. Plus, bringing the whole Snart family in was a good parallel to what was happening with the West family.

Speaking of which, I was thrilled to see Iris was understanding as to how Joe approached the mother situation. So often in Arrow those story lines are not only drawn out into a whole season's arc of lying and keeping secrets, but I don't feel like they are handled realistically. It was Iris' best moment and performance from Patton all season long. Jesse L. Martin was also notably spectacular in that emotionally demanding moment as well. In a far less emotional scene, Miller proved to be quite good up against his father and the 'tech guy' Barry. The Snart family in this episode definitely brought a more relatable quality in that nothing was over the top, probably due to the exemption of Heatwave, who is always over the top.

The romance between Cisco and Glider is awkward, but good/funny awkward. Plus, we got more awesome Cisco inventions. The built in thermo-threading in Barry's suit and his gun to remove Glider's bomb were especially fun. On a side note, it seemed Snart's father took nods from the Suicide Squad way of keeping people honest, implanting a bomb inside their heads. I guess it would behoove me not to mention Patty Spivot and Barry exchanging numbers and Well's appearance at the end of the episode. As for the latter, I hope they find a way to properly use that character. And as for Spivot, I really enjoyed her limited role here. It's very reminiscent of Felicity at her best with Oliver in season 1. I expect this to be the relationship fans 'ship' over Iris. I'll take that any day. So I can't really see myself watching this episode again, but it was fun, and that's really all it needs to be to please me.

+Different feel to Snart this time around

+Miller and List brought subtly

+Iris wasn't ticked, thank god.

+Cisco on his game

-Coffe shop up and running...already

-Opening scene

7.9/10

A surpirsingly deep episode

[okraievskyi · 9/10 · 3 September 2022]

When I was going in, I didn't expect this episode to be so deep. I read the premise before watching this episode, so I made the mistake of thinking that Snart's gonna team up with Barry's father. That would've been cool character dynamics, so when I saw Snart's dad, I was dissapointed. However, god, Snart's dad just made this episode so much better. The actor's performance is great and he brings so much to the characters' dynamics. We apparently find out that Snart's sister was physically and mentally abused as a kid, and if Captain Cold doesn't help his father, she will blow up. The end to this dad plotline was also surpirsingly shocking. Iris's subplot was also nice, and her mother's acting got better. I also didn't expect the whole drug addict stuff. Overall, this episode really, really delivers at the emotional side of things.

What won't you do for family

[cobi-80620 · 20 October 2015]

Right at the beginning of the episode we're thrown into action. We don't know who and we don't know why but some thugs are shooting at Iris. How she somehow ends up inside this (abandonded?) skyscraper we also don't get to know and most likely it's only so The Flash can save her in a cool manner.

We skip to STAR Labs's basement where the portal (which looks like a mix of the event horizons from "Stargate" and the anomalies in "Primeval") mentioned in the previous episode is located. After simply staring at it and throwing things into it the crew makes the assumption that it's unstable. I'm fine that they didn't take forever to explain it but some imagery of this instability would've been nice to see.

Barry and Patty's awkward but still cute conversations, nicely setting them up. Barry could use some love in between all the crime fighting.

In between scenes we get to learn that Iris's not-so-dead mother has shown up. I get Joe's reasons for not telling Iris but wouldn't it have been worse to let Iris know about it on her mother's funeral?? The truth always finds its way to the surface, no matter how deep you bury it.

A sudden Lisa Snart also known as Golden Glider shows up asking for The Flash's help. I laughed when she said Heatwave had bailed on them when things went south, thinking they don't really have honour among thieves when there's cash involved. We get to learn more about her character and the relation she has to her father. I like that she opens up to Cisco, those two have such a bittersweet relation.

Moving on to the villain of the week, Lewis Snart. The reason we even have Captain Cold and Golden Glider. More evil and almost prefers to get blood on his hands. We don't get to know him more than he gets to actually do anything in this episode. He's (not that surprisingly) killed by his own son who we know hates him and can for that reason make an exception to his code. Cold could've actually frozen his father's hands instead but I guess Michael Ironside only signed up for one episode. I'm assuming we'll see more of Captain Cold's "good side" before "Legends of Tomorrow".

Lastly, the end scene with Earth-2 Harrison Wells arriving through the STAR Labs's portal. This raises a lot of questions. Is he a speedster? Does that mean he could be Zoom? If not, how did he travel through it? Does the portal work for normal people then? Then why would the Earth-2 meta-humans need Zoom to return? So many questions.

All in all I thought this episode was great for giving Captain Cold and Golden Glider more depth as characters. Something I hope more villains will get further into this season.

8.5/10

A VERY Overrated, Terrible Episode.

[thebluepandorica · 7/10 · 28 October 2015]

If I am being honest here, this is probably the worst episode of The Flash I have ever seen. It honestly just felt like a quickly written script with no review of the plot holes and just, in general, a REALLY terrible and unnecessary episode.

I am going to be writing spoilers as this episode as been out for a while, and I want to go step by step as to what I found to be, just really frustrating to watch.

The episode opens with a pretty epic scene between Iris and Barry where Iris is being shot at by real estate.. People.. Yeah. Anyways, admittedly this was a pretty cool scene. I am not going to nitpick stuff, this is a superhero show, so this scene was fine for me. Even though, it felt sudden, Iris just suddenly getting shot at by people and Barry being totally cool with it. I don't, it's been a long time since Season 1 and it felt weird that Barry was so cool with Iris putting her life out on the line, but I really don't care about that, that much.

Anyways, Golden Glider comes around, tells Cisco that her brother has been kidnapped.. Snart's not actually kidnapped, his father's pulling off a heist, he needed his son's help.. Unveiling of Snart's Father being abusive to his kids.

Anyways, father ends up killing someone from the crew. Here's when things get absolutely terrible. Father Snart ends up blowing tech guy's head up because he was talking rude to Son Snart. This honestly felt like an easy way for the writers to bring Barry in the crew, which he does in the future. Father Snart could have just ended up torturing him because before his head exploded, he felt immense pain in his head, no doubt NOT due to the explosion, because if it was the explosion, his head would have spontaneously combusted.

Later on we realise Sister Snart's head has a bomb. Barry joins the crew, Father Snart lets him in. This is what's weird: How were the Snarts were going to get in the Dracon Door if they didn't have a tech guy. Lewis didn't even tell Father Snart that he's hiring a tech guy to hack the dracon keypad. *Plot Hole*

Barry and The Snarts' go try to rob the diamonds, Cisco meanwhile finds an EX MACHINA WEAPON TO EXTRACT THE BOMB LIKE WHAT THE... HE pulled that gun out of nowhere. What's even more frustrating is that Barry didn't even need to DO all this, he could have just put his fancy suit on, trailed the Snarts' since Barry obviously know where they were located, stolen the trigger for the bomb, game over. BUT NOOO they just had to give you this new feeling that Barry was pulling off a heist when, in reality, the heist itself didn't make sense.

When the cards weren't working, there is not a single guard that would let three pretend to-be janitors go up when ALL OF THEIR CARDS ARE NOT WORKING by just saying 'What's the hold up guys, you wanna explain to management why the toilets are overflowing' LIKE WHAT. YOU Don't PULL OFF HEISTS THAT EASILY. They go up, see armed guards, and boom, Barry quickly takes the guards out so they don't get killed, like how did Father Snart not notice that the guards don't disappear out of nowhere, how was he not curious. Why didn't Barry just grab the trigger if he was using his powers anyway?

Aside from the heist and the story with Lewis, the rest of the episode was classic Flash episodes.

I am sorry this review is so vague, I just can't be bothered to write a more detailed review for this episode.

6.8/10

Ranking/Reviewing every Flash episode: Family of Rogues

[lbramson · 7/10 · 10 June 2023]

In Episode 3, Leonard Snart returns after being forced against his will to live the thug life. On paper, Family of Rogues should not work. This is yet another rogue episode where someone is kidnapped yet again. And this was when the Flash formula starting to run stale and become repetitive. I like 2x03, but it's a little too formulaic for OG Flash standards. Comparing this to the rest of Season 2 which had sky high ambitions, this episode feels too tame for me. Not to say it's bad, but kidnapping has happened way too much in this show that it's just tiring at a certain point. It's nice to see Snart in a villainous role again after his supposed redemption, but aside from that it's just mediocre 7/10 on the dot.