We find Barry at the beginning of this episode working with the team at S.T.A.R. Labs working on improving his speed and reflexes at super speed. It’s slightly later into the episode we learn that Leonard Snart aka Captain Cold is back in Central City. But this time he’s got backup, Mick Rory aka Heatwave! This pyromaniac is equipped with his own Heatgun has his own plans to make a quick buck and hopes to start a few fires on the way. While Heatwave is only looking to make some money, Captain Cold is hoping for a rematch with the Scarlet Speedster.During the episode Caitlin Snow is looking into Firestorm, one of the few words her recently not-dead fiancee Robbie Raymond said to her before he flew away. She learns that Firestorm really is an acronym relating to a scientific breakthrough regarding transmutation in Central City. Before she can head back to the lab to figure out how to find him again, she’s kidnapped by Cold and Heatwave as bait to lure out Barry.
The episode ultimately ends with Flash defeating Cold and Heatwave and now all of Central City knows that the Flash isn’t just a myth anymore. At the post-episode scene we find Cold and Heatwave being transported to Belle Reve Penitentiary, where Cold simply claims that now that everyone knows that the Flash exists things have changed. They both hear a scuffle outside, the car stops and the door opens, and Cold simply smiles and says “Hey Sis.” So my thoughts on the episode: I absolutely loved it! I’m so happy that the show isn’t just turning out to be a “Meta Human of the Week” sort of show and that non-meta human’s seem to be causing a bit more trouble for Barry than your typical super-powered people, coming close behind the Reverse Flash. Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heatwave was amazing and, well I felt, really captured Heatwaves’ obsession with fire. The performances between him and Wentworth Miller was perfect. Heatwave acting a lot like a rabid attack dog and Cold having to rein him in sometimes felt like the perfect contrast between their characters and I’m hoping to see more of them. Also at the end of the episode we were finally introduced to Cold’s sister, Lisa Snart aka Golden Glider. More and more Rogues! Apparently she’s going to be played by Peyton List of previous Tomorrow People fame! Looking forward to seeing her in action with the rest of the Rogues.
Episode 11 of The Flash called "The Fast And The Fury" now my thoughts on this episode
- Hartley a.k.a. the Pied Piper and his intelligence is so dope
- Wells shows new aspect of his “powers”
- Jeff shares a theory about Wells and his endgame
- The theme of chess
- Special effects and their apparent limitlessness of awesome
Did you get all of that?? No? Okay, let's continue shall we:
This knowledge comes in the form of Hartley Rathaway, a former employee who played chess with Wells long before Barry ever attempted it. He’s now The Pied Piper, able to manipulate sound frequencies thanks to his superior mind and his retrofitted Nintendo Power Gloves. He’s got a score to settle with Wells, but ‘The Flash’ can’t decide if Rathaway is a socially awkward but well-meaning guy, a jerk who happens to have a legitimate grudge, or somebody who just likes to laugh like Dr. Evil. Rathaway is a means to a end rather than a character unto himself, a way for the show to go back in time before the explosion as well as start teasing out the true nature of Firestorm. He doesn’t speak dialogue. He shouts plot points at the correct moment. Hence look at my notes on this episode up-top.
Were there positives? A few. Barry saving people from cars being flung over the bridget was pretty nifty, as was his dismay at realizing he should have learned a foreign language in high school. Harrison Wells’ pad made me long for “DC Comics House Hunters” to start airing on HGTV. And even if I can’t trust a darn thing Wells does in the present, I can’t deny that I’m anxious to find out what in the heck he’s up to right now. Could he actually run faster than Barry before obtaining the tachyon suit? Was that someone else in the suit, or him in the future, or what? I know I ask this question every week, but the fact that I still want to know has to say something good about the show’s technique of doling out big-picture info at the speed of continental drift.
As far as The Flash’s Rogues go, Pied Piper is not at the top of my list (he’s not even my favorite Piper), but I loved what this villain brought to the show. He was a very multi-layered and well-rounded character. In the comics, Pied Piper is noted as one of the most well-known openly gay characters and thankfully that is unchanged in this version. It added a bit of sympathy for him, knowing his backstory about his wealthy father disowning him when he came out, but that’s about all the sympathy he gets, because this guys a real jerk. He’s a genius, and boy does he want you to know it. A lot of villains start off with sympathetic stories and then they go too far, but this guy was a real heel from the jump. The flashbacks prove this, as we see him meeting Cisco for the first time and he’s super hostile towards him. I mean, how can you not like Cisco?! Rathaway has a bone to pick with Harrison Wells. A former S.T.A.R. Labs employee and friend to Wells, he was the only person to warn Wells about the dangers of turning on the particle accelerator, and in return, Wells fired him. When the particle accelerator exploded, he lost his hearing (in the comics, he was born deaf, but everything in this show ties back to that damn particle accelerator). Now, he’s out to make Wells pay for his crimes, which puts The Flash, who he views as Wells’ replacement for him, in his crime. The Flash and Pied Piper’s first meeting is pretty straightforward, or so it would seem. The Piper attacks his father’s building, prompting The Flash to coming running. Our hero takes him out pretty easily and takes him back to the Pipeline, the supervillain prison set-up underneath S.T.A.R. Labs. Superhero-Villain Rule #1: If it’s easy, something’s not right.
Afterwards, Rathaway is ready for his endgame, one final game of chess (a constant motif throughout his and Wells’ relationship). He goes to a bridge overlooking the Keystone Cleveland Dam and begins smashing up cars while he waits for The Flash to arrive. Using their seismic activity detecting technology (what can’t they do at S.T.A.R. Labs) to spot tremors caused by Pied Piper’s sonic blasts, the team locates the Rogue and The Flash races over. The Flash relieves him of his sonic gauntlet weapons (which was a cool substitute for the flute he used in the comics), but the Piper has rigged them to tune into the frequency of Flash’s speakers that allow him to communicate with his support team upon removal, which start to scramble Barry’s vital insides. Luckily for Barry, Harrison Wells is a genius in his own right. He accesses the satellite radios of the cars on the bridge and sends a sound wave that meets the frequency of Pied Piper’s weapons and destroy them. They blow up in Rathaway’s hands. Checkmate!
With Rathaway taken care of, Wells and Barry have a heart to heart, where Barry tells him that his faith in him has been restored. Barry then visits Joe, who was unfortunately underutilized this week, but they do have a really nice moment where Barry recognizes how hard it must have been to raise him as his own. Eddie arrives as Barry is leaving and tells Joe that he searched Wells’ entire house but came up empty. Joe and Eddie are investigating Wells. I have a bad feeling about this…Rathaway wakes up in the Pipeline once again. Cisco’s there to stand, head held high, in the face of his defeated rival, but Rathaway tells him that he will soon be letting him out of his cell. Cisco isn’t buying it, until Rathaway tells him that he knows where Ronnie Raymond is, he knows what happened to him that night and he knows how to save him. That should make for a very interesting episode next week.
Finally, we come to the episode’s tag. As soon as I saw the bumpy braille walls of Wells’ secret chamber I clapped my hands together and said, “here we go!” Inside, Wells has the Tachyonic device strapped to his chest, and he says that his speed is slipping out of his control. Wells is okay with this, however, as he states the Tachyonic device was only a temporary solution. He then reveals that his own endgame is just around the corner. Man, I cannot wait to see what’s in store for the Season Finale.