The Flash - 'Revenge of the Rogues' and 'The Sound and the Fury'

"It's okay; we brought our own filters."

'Revenge of the Rogues' sees the return of Leonard Snart, aka Captain Cold, and his new partner Mick 'Heat Wave' Rory, an unstable arsonist played by none other than Dominic Purcell. The two are in town to kill the Flash, cause some havoc and get mad loot. At first, Barry is persuaded to allow the police - protected by a shield devised by Cisco at Star Labs - to handle Snart and his new partner, while he focuses on training to face the Reverse-Flash, but when Caitlin is put in danger he steps up for his first public showdown.

This is a solid episode, dealing with the fallout from Barry's duel with Reverse-Flash as well as bringing in a pair (or three, as revealed at the end of the episode) of recurring villains for a spectacular showdown. Narratively it brings the Flash out of the shadows and into the public eye, as well as establishing the Flash in the classic superhero dilemma, forced to chose between reacting to every threat or trying to pursue a specific goal. Ultimately of course it is Barry's fate to choose the former, while the chessmasters like Snart - or Harrison Wells - are villains precisely because they can choose to walk away when someone is in trouble.

And they laughed when Cold and Heat Wave didn't want to go the full
costume route.

Speaking of chessmasters, things get personal for Wells in 'The Sound and the Fury' when a former protege returns seeking vengeance. Cisco and Caitlin remmeber Hartley Rathaway as an arrogant jackass, but he also warned Wells against activating the particle accelerator.

Like Cold and Heat Wave, 'the Pied Piper' (he further annoys long-time nemesis Cisco by choosing his own villain name) is an ordinary human, but uses sonic technology as a devastating weapon. He also makes a nod to superhero costuming, but ends up looking more like a nerd in a hoodie. I'm not saying it's a bad look, but the kind of melodrama he's rocking really needs a mask, rather than spectacles.

Also like Cold, he is always a step ahead of Team Flash, and that's getting a little old. Much has been made of Barry's brilliance, but he's not getting a chance to show it, being largely limited to running really fast while the team comes up with a solution. After 'Flash vs. Arrow' I hoped to see a development in his methods, but it hasn't happened yet. I know a smart speedster is basically god, but currently he just seems like an overconfident fool and that really ought to be more of a supervillain look. Ultimately this episode falls a little flat in part because it is another episode where the Flash is barely an effective agent, having to be rescued in the denouement instead of overcoming an obstacle himself.

'The Sound and the Fury' also develops Wells' arc, revealing that his access to the Speed Force is, although powerful, erratic, and also the thing that lets him walk despite real injuries that should confine him to the chair. In the episode stinger, it is hinted that he intends to use Barry to permanently restore his own damaged abilities.

Finally, the Firestorm arc is developed across these two episodes, with Cisco learning that F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. is an incredibly elaborate acronym, and Rathaway claiming to know how to find and save Ronnie.