Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for The Flash season 9, episode 3, “Rogues of War.”Many classic villains are making a grand return for the final season of The Flash, but a recent reference connects to another character from season 1. As Barry Allen and the rest of Team Flash continue to work through one last run before the show comes to an end, the season has done a great job of balancing fan service, callbacks, and new stories. Time will tell if The Flash season 9 can stick the landing, but the first few episodes have been widely well-received.
The action of The Flash season 9 has centered upon a series of tech heists by a new team of Rogues, led by a new villain dubbed The Red Death. With the old adage about setting a thief to catch a thief in mind, Barry Allen assembles his own team of Rogues after determining the new Rogues are trying to assemble a Cosmic Treadmill based on what equipment they had already stolen. Naturally, things aren’t that easy, and a consultation with Pied Piper brings a season 1 villain back to complicate The Flash’s life further, albeit indirectly.
How The Flash Season 9 Brought Back General Eiling
Barry Allen contacts the Pied Piper in The Flash season 9, episode 3, “Rogues of War,” seeking information on who might have the quantum engine he thinks will be the target of the new Rogues’ next heist. The recently reformed Pied Piper confirms the only engine of that kind is currently under lock and key in a nearby military base, showing Barry the information he gathered on their security. Piper suggests that STAR Labs might be able to offer the Department of Defense a more secure environment for the engine, but Barry rejects this solution after seeing a photo of the base commander, his old enemy General Wade Eiling.
Why The Flash Couldn’t Just Pull Rank on General Eiling
The fact that General Eiling is in charge of guarding the quantum engine pushes Barry and Piper to start planning a heist to steal it before the new Rogues and Red Death can. This raises the question of why the ordinarily law-abiding Barry Allen couldn’t find some other way to pull rank on General Eiling that wouldn’t involve his position as the owner of STAR Labs. One solution might be reaching out to Cisco Ramon at ARGUS, who would have the authority (as the Director of Technology and Science at ARGUS) to relocate technology between government facilities and be more than amicable in helping out Barry Allen.
While this solution might have worked, it would have taken time Barry didn’t have to contact Cisco and wait for him to go through proper channels. There was also a possibility that acting to move the engine openly might have alerted the new Rogues to the fact that The Flash was on to them. This gave The Flash ample reason to go with Piper’s heist plan and avoid confronting General Eiling, beyond the fact that a superhero heist is more exciting than a story about military bureaucracy.
The Flash season 9 continues on Wednesdays on The CW.