‘The Flash’ episode 11 review: The Pied Piper, and a tale of two stories

“The Flash” has shown that it can do many things incredibly well, from excellent action sequences to great spins on comic-book lore. Tonight, we definitely had that when it comes to Pied Piper. Anchored by a great performance from Andy Mientus, Hartley Rathaway proved to be an interesting addition to the show. He is not a meta-human so much as a genius with enough brainpower to know how to bring people to his knees.

Who knows? He may also be capable of redemption over time, given that his purpose all along was only to ensure that Harrison Wells did not initiate the particle accelerator. It was being shunned after he wanted to protect the greater good that ironically drove him evil, and out for revenge. Certainly, an interesting strategy, and it felt like he never intentionally was out to kill anyone. Even with the cars, we feel like he assumed The Flash would save them. A really cool character, and due to him telling Cisco at the end of the episode that he knows where Ronnie Raymond is and what happened to him, we may see him back out of that prison cell soon.

As for Harrison himself, he explained away some of his problems, and a “secret” he was supposedly hiding, by coming clean about how he knew the risks of the particle accelerator. This was the problematic part of how this episode unfolded. How in the world can you have us by that Caitlin Snow would be so forgiving to a man who took her entire life with Ronnie away when he didn’t have to? He played roulette with Ronnie’s own life, and yet after a few confessions, she was back at STAR Labs as though nothing ever happened. We don’t buy the level of forgiveness so quickly from her. At least everyone else did not lose anyone in such a way.

Harrison’s true secret regarding the Reverse-Flash is still hidden, but it feels almost like some of his motives are starting to become a little bit clearer. He is starting to fall apart somewhat, and we wonder if there is a way for him to harness’ Barry’s own energy for his own personal gain.

Elsewhere, we would say that there are two very important things to note.

1. Iris’ new job at the newspaper is not going well, given mostly that she was hired to cover the Flash, even though she has no real connection to him anymore (at least so she thinks). Maybe she earned a little respect during the Harrison press conference, but we don’t quite think so, given the favoritism that he obviously showed her.

2. Eddie being sent out to investigate Harrison Wells by Joe. He’s not entirely filling in Barry on this fact, but it seems to be in his best interest.

If we completely turn off our brain and don’t question character decisions, then this episode was awesome. Unfortunately, we cannot do that, and Hartley’s debut was therefore spoiled somewhat by the show trying to hard to neatly tie loose ends together. Grade: B-.

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