The Flash: Easter Eggs and References in “Gone Rogue”

With just a matter of episodes left in The Flash‘s fifth season, the show isn’t pulling any punches — even in terms of Easter eggs. Tonight’s episode, “Gone Rogue”, saw Nora West-Allen (Jessica Parker Kennedy) taking on a much darker role, after she was exposed to the Negative Speed Force in the previous episode. Nora decided to join forces with Bug-Eyed Bandit (Emily Kinney), Weather Witch (Reina Hardesty), and Rag Doll (Troy James) and carry out a hit, which partially included Team Flash as targets.

With so many characters in one episode, the episode brought a surprising amount of Easter eggs and references, from the DC Comics universe and beyond. So, what did we see? Read on to find out.

As you would expect, spoilers for this week’s episode of The Flash, “Gone Rogue”, below!

G. Simone and Associates

Almost from the jump, the episode had a rather noteworthy DC Comics nod, in the form of an architecture firm named “G. Simone & Associates”. This probably caught the attention of some eagle-eyed comic fans, as it pays homage to iconic writer Gail Simone.

Simone has become a bonafide fan-favorite over the years with her work including Birds of Prey, Batgirl, Sinister Six, and a whole lot more. Among the list of characters she’s created is the Peter Merkel incarnation of Rag Doll, who debuted on The Flash earlier this season and returned in this episode.

This isn’t the first time that Simone has gotten a nod or two within the Arrowverse, but it might have been the biggest one yet, as “G. Simone & Associates” was mentioned quite a bit throughout the episode.

Williamson Street

Another comic nod that factored into the episode was more of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it variety, with one of the cross-streets mentioned by Team Flash being “34th and Williamson”.

This served as a nod to Joshua Williamson, who has been writing The Flash comics since the Rebirth relaunch in 2016. As with Simone, Williamson has been referenced on the show before, and his work has factored into this season’s events in an interesting way, particularly with Godspeed’s live-action debut a few weeks back.

McCulloch Technologies

Arguably the biggest nod of the episode comes a bit later, when Nora reveals that she wants herself and the Rogues to break into McCulloch Technologies, a major weapons dealer who is more harshly-guarded than ARGUS. They succeed (to an extent) in breaking in to the building, and find technology that appears to include some sort of mirror gun.

In the comics, Evan McCulloch is a professional assassin, who ultimately takes on the mantle of Mirror Master after Sam Scudder. He goes toe-to-toe with the Flash several times over, particularly as a member of multiple iterations of the Rogues gallery.

While the Sam Scudder version of Mirror Master briefly appeared in Season 3, the character has been largely unexplored within the world of the show, which makes this name-drop particularly interesting. Fans will have to wait and see if McCulloch ends up playing a larger role on the show (a la how The Thinker and Cicada were teased in previous seasons), or if it’s just a clever nod to the “New Rogues” of it all.

Rogues Cover Band

Later on in the episode, the Rogues kidnap Cisco and Sherloque, in an attempt to get them to hack Spin’s dark matter cell phone so that they could use it. Cisco has a rather amusing outlook on the whole ordeal, joking that he’s gone through a similar sort of kidnapping before, and that it makes the new group of villains feel like a “rogues cover band”.

For those who don’t remember, this is a reference to Season 1’s “Rogue Time” where Cisco was kidnapped by Leonard Snart, Mick Rory, and Lisa Snart, in an attempt to get him to engineer a “gold gun” for them.

Jenni Ognats

Later on in the episode, Nora created a fake ID to get into the McCulloch building, and she used a name that DC Comics fans will surely recognize — “Jenni Ognats”.

In the comics, Jenni is the young woman who holds the mantle of XS, as a speedster who also serves as part of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Back when Nora was nothing more than the show’s “mystery girl”, some had speculated that she could be Jenni, and she ultimately ended up being an amalgam of both her and Dawn Allen.

Thaddeus Brown

And perhaps the most unexpected nod in the episode comes from Sherloque, shortly after he breaks out of the reinforcements that the New Rogues have him in. When asked by Cisco how he was able to do that so easily, Sherloque reveals that he was trained by the Thaddeus Brown of Earth-51.

In the comics, Thaddeus is a famous escape artist, who operated under the stage name of “Mister Miracle”. Shortly before dying at the hands of Intergang, Thaddeus served as a mentor to Scott Free, who became the superhero Mister Miracle in his memory.

While the Arrowverse has danced around New Gods stuff in the past, this marks the first major character nod to that realm of the DC Comics world — albeit, on an Earth that The Flash probably won’t be traveling to anytime soon.

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The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.