TV - The Flash Season 1, Episode 11
The Flash seemed to fair better than its big brother Arrow when they both reappeared from their mid-season breaks. Arrow, in its third season, seeks to up its game as it should, but The Flash has enjoyed being new and different and could have fun with its storylines a bit more. After last week’s wonderful episode full of Prison Break stars we find Barry and Detective West having to investigate something they didn’t think they’d have to after a supposed act of vandalism is carried out on Harrison Wells’ house. Barry realises that every window being broken was no accident or kids with stones but the work of some kind of sonic device. A flashback (pun intended) shows that before Harrison Wells was the uber-famous physicist and face of S.T.A.R. Labs, he had a partner, Hartley Rathaway.
Rathaway is now back with gloves that manipulate sound and calling himself the Pied Piper, and starts an attack on his father’s building in Central City. After causing minimal damage he gets himself caught by The Flash a bit easy but nevertheless he is locked away in the prison that stands on the scene of the particle accelerator he helped design now stands. An explanation of how nasty and horrible he was to work for follows, with Cisco in particularly offended by Rathaway. Rathaway uses the home made hearing aids he now uses to escape his prison cell and download all S.T.A.R. Labs information before fleeing, leaving Harrison Wells no choice but to face the worlds media and admit that he knew that the accelerator was likely to fail but switched it on anyway as he sought wealth and fame.
Due to the strange vandalism at Wells house and the fact that tons of glass caved in and yet the doctor has no scratch on him, Eddie and West decide that they are going to investigate Harrison Wells and there is certainly a lot of distrust there, much to the disgust of Barry who still idealises his fallen hero. Rathaway sets up a confrontation on top of the dam for himself and The Flash which he is winning and killing Barry when the scientist in Wells kicks in and he uses satellite radio to ping a frequency that destroys Pied Pipers equipment. He soon finds himself back in prison this time with no hope of escape but tells Cisco he knows how to find Caitlin’s fiancé and save his life.
This was a great episode to change things up a little. If you end up in the accelerator prison chances are you aren’t getting out, so to have a supervillain have himself put there on purpose and escape to wreak more havoc was a nice touch. Add in the past relationship between Hathaway and the scientists, Wells in particular, and the fact that Barry is pretty much redundant this week, and you have a different episode that opens up more future stories and brings the other cast into play a lot more. This allows the writers to not rely on Barry and his speed every week and leaves them to enjoy storytelling which is coming across on screen.
Image CW.
This was a great episode to change things up a little. If you end up in the accelerator prison chances are you aren’t getting out, so to have a supervillain have himself put there on purpose and escape to wreak more havoc was a nice touch. Add in the past relationship between Hathaway and the scientists, Wells in particular, and the fact that Barry is pretty much redundant this week, and you have a different episode that opens up more future stories and brings the other cast into play a lot more. This allows the writers to not rely on Barry and his speed every week and leaves them to enjoy storytelling which is coming across on screen.
Image CW.
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