Changes: Pay the Piper

Latest revision as of 14:13, 31 July 2021

"Someone just reminded me that... we're no good to the people that we love if we can't find the strength to move forward and forgive ourselves."

"Thanks, Oprah."

—Barry trying to help Hartley through his grief.

"Pay the Piper" is the eighteenth episode of the sixth season of The Flash, and the one-hundred-thirty-second episode overall. It aired on May 5, 2020.

Synopsis

When Godspeed returns, Barry turns to Hartley Rathaway for help. However, things get tense quickly after Barry realizes one of the changes from Crisis is that the Flash and Pied Piper are now enemies. Meanwhile, Iris tries to escape the Mirrorverse.^[src]

Plot

Joe is in witness protection when Barry appears and astonishes him. He's come to enlighten him concerning Iris and is stressed that he can't spare her this time. Joe puts stock in him. Barry then breaks the news to Team Flash and Cisco adopts a grim strategy, recommending that the genuine Iris, Kamilla, and Singh are dead. Cecile quiets everybody down and the group embarks to attempt to locate their missing companions.

In the Mirrorverse, Iris is beginning to battle with the neuro-dissonance as she makes a video for Barry should he discover the video but not her. In reality, Barry is attempting to make sense of the artificial speed power when Godspeed appears. Nash can spare Barry; however, Godspeed escapes.

Team Flash attempts to find out what's new with Godspeed and find that he is utilizing sonics to take the speed from different speedsters. They'll require Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper, yet he detests The Flash since things went amiss during their last standoff in this post-Crisis course of events, bringing about his right-hand man, Roderick, being gravely harmed. Ralph goes to see Frost and finds that Frost is uncertain to go see Caitlin's mother for help that she truly requires for her injury.

Flash faces Pied Piper and reveals to him that he imagines that he can help Roderick; however, Hartley says that nobody can. He has tried. The Flash has Nash come in and clarify how he imagines that Roderick can be spared. Hartley consents to assist them with Godspeed on the off-chance that they fix Rodrick.

In the Mirrorverse, Iris discovers Kamilla at the Mirror STAR Labs. She's attempting to make sense of a way to escape utilizing the things the Mirror Gun recently sent there.

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Nash completes the arrangement to spare Roderick utilizing Allegra's assistance, and keeping in mind that it at first seems to work, it falls flat. Hartley leaves and won't help them. Godspeed at that point appears and undermines Barry, allowing him an hour to conform to his requests or the city will be destroyed.

After a motivational speech from Nash, Barry makes sense of why Hartley is so crushed about Roderick. It turns out Roderick is Hartley's lover and Hartley additionally reprimands himself for what occurred. Barry offers him a chance to help if Hartley needs to. An alert sounds. Godspeed is at Iron Heights and has taken the speed of the "Godspeed drones".

Barry races off to manage Godspeed and a speedster pursuit starts; Barry's speed runs out while he's dashing up a building. Luckily, Pied Piper comes to support him. Pied Piper additionally has a plan to stop Godspeed: they simply need to imitate the lightning in addition to soundwave occurrence that hurt Roderick and use it on Godspeed. The "crossing streams" works. Godspeed is down; however subsequent to smashing onto a vehicle, he begins bleeding some unusual blue substance. Turns out, it's charged sound - and it might be the answer for fixing Roderick. It works. Roderick is saved.

Not such an upbeat closure with Godspeed, however. Despite the fact that they've gotten him, this Godspeed likewise became something of a "Godspeed drone". The genuine one is still out there and still needs Barry's speed.

Barry gives the group a motivational speech about how they're going to confront Eva and get back those they love. Cisco has a plan to spare Iris and the others: an perpetual motion machine and the one piece they need is in Atlantis. Somewhere else, Eva awakens in a type of stasis chamber prepared to take on her significant other.

Cast

Uncredited

Unknown as a Godspeed clone
Unknown as a Godspeed clone
Unknown as a Godspeed clone
Unknown as a Godspeed clone
Unknown as a Godspeed clone

Trivia

The title references the phrase from the tale Pied Piper of Hamelin.
Cicada's dagger makes an appearance in this episode.
Iris mentions to Kamilla that only she is allowed to wear Cisco's Chewbacca t-shirt, referencing the character from the Star Wars franchise.
Barry states that the events of "Love Is A Battlefield" through this episode have occurred over a period of 5 weeks.
The way Godspeed runs around the side of a building to incapacitate The Flash is in exactly the same way as in the season premiere ("Into the Void") albeit the roles are reversed.
Ralph slightly breaks the fourth wall by saying, "Finally, Crisis pays off in a good way for once." This could be a reference to Atlantis being on Earth-Prime due to the Anti-Monitor Crisis.
- The city of Atlantis is home to the DC superhero Aquaman.
- It's also reference to the fans, who have seen negative consequences of Crisis for the heroes of Earth-Prime such as the Speed Force dying, Kate losing the chance to replace Alice with her sane doppelgänger, the Superfriends losing the D.E.O.'s resources and the Loom of Fate's pieces being put within the Fates' reach.
Barry is shown throwing lightning during his flashback battle with Hartley. This means Barry learned the power earlier in the new, post-Crisis timeline, presumably from Eobard Thawne since Hunter Zolomon's storyline without being from Earth-2 would've been entirely different.
Hartley initially thinks Nash is his Wells. Nash tries to explain the multiverse, but Barry passes him off as a twin brother.
Godspeed's thirst for Barry's speed and homicidal tendencies easily resemble Zoom's behavior back in season 2.
The one sending the Godspeeds seemed aware that Barry only had a limited amount of Speed Force left in him; hence why the fifth Godspeed was more violent and proactive in stealing it.
Frost is shown reading the novel Uncaged Desire, which was written by Mick Rory. She previously mentioned to Mick that she read it.
When Flash and Pied Piper combined their powers to defeat Godspeed, Cisco commented that they "crossed streams"; this is a reference to the 1984 film Ghostbusters where the heroes were warned to "never cross the streams" of their proton pack guns because the results were unpredictable.
Frost texts Ralph with an "emergency," but when he shows up, there is none, and she calls it "payback," a reference to when Ralph did the same thing to Frost in "Into the Void".

Goofs

It was previously established that post-Crisis, Hartley has meta-human powers that just so happen to have more-or-less the same effect as the tech he utilizes anyway. However, this plot point is never brought up once in this episode, and in battle he still only uses his gauntlets, even though he has a sonic scream that can serve the same purpose.
- It's possible they serve as amplifiers in Earth-Prime's version of reality, or that he simply prefers using his gauntlets over utilizing his sonic scream.
It was previously established that "reflections" possess all their mirror templates' memories. So Kamilla asking Iris to recall a personal detail would by no means prove that she is the real Iris.
- However, it's likely that Kamilla is unaware of this, given she's never properly met a reflection.
A flashback is shown that would be a scene from the first season of The Flash, in which Barry throws lightning at Roderick. However, in season 1, Barry didn't launch lightning, because Zoom did not teach Barry how to throw lightning until season 2.
- This could be another change caused by Crisis.
The Mirrorverse version of the Flash suit appears as it would in the normal world. It should be reversed, appearing as a reflection of the Earth-Prime version.

Gallery

Videos

The Flash Season 6 Episode 18 Pay The Piper Promo The CW

The Flash 6x18 Sneak Peek "Pay the Piper" (HD) Season 6 Episode 18 Sneak Peek

References

The Flash season 6
Blood and Truth
"Into the Void" • "A Flash of the Lightning" • "Dead Man Running" • "There Will Be Blood" • "Kiss Kiss Breach Breach" • "License to Elongate" • "The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Pt. 1" • "The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Pt. 2" • "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three"
Reflections and Lies
"Marathon" • "Love Is A Battlefield" • "A Girl Named Sue" • "Grodd Friended Me" • "Death of the Speed Force" • "The Exorcism of Nash Wells" • "So Long and Goodnight" • "Liberation" • "Pay the Piper" • "Success Is Assured"

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{Dialogue|Someone just reminded me that... we're no good to the people that we love if we can't find the strength to move forward and forgive ourselves.|Thanks, Oprah.|[[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Barry]] trying to help [[Hartley Rathaway|Hartley]] through his grief.}}{{Episode
+{{Dialogue|Someone just reminded me that... we're no good to the people that we love if we can't find the strength to move forward and forgive ourselves.|Thanks, Oprah.|[[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Barry]] trying to help [[Hartley Rathaway|Hartley]] through his grief.}}
+{{Episode
 |name= Pay the Piper
 |image= The Flash and Pied Piper create a thermogenic blast.png
@@ Line 15: / Line 16: @@
 ==Synopsis==
-{{Synopsis|When [[Fifth unnamed Godspeed|Godspeed]] returns, [[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Barry]] turns to [[Hartley Rathaway]] for help. However, things get tense quickly after Barry realizes one of the changes from [[Anti-Monitor Crisis|Crisis]] is that the Flash and Pied Piper are now enemies. Meanwhile, [[Iris West-Allen|Iris]] tries to escape the [[Mirrorverse]].|http://thefutoncritic.com/listings/20200423cw06/}}
+{{Synopsis|When [[August Heart|Godspeed]] returns, [[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Barry]] turns to [[Hartley Rathaway]] for help. However, things get tense quickly after Barry realizes one of the changes from [[Anti-Monitor Crisis|Crisis]] is that the Flash and Pied Piper are now enemies. Meanwhile, [[Iris West-Allen|Iris]] tries to escape the [[Mirrorverse]].|http://thefutoncritic.com/listings/20200423cw06/|show=F}}
+==Plot==
+[[File:Fifth unnamed Godspeed.png|left|250px|thumb|Another [[August Heart|Godspeed]].]]
+Joe is in witness protection when Barry appears and astonishes him. He's come to enlighten him concerning Iris and is stressed that he can't spare her this time. Joe puts stock in him. Barry then breaks the news to Team Flash and Cisco adopts a grim strategy, recommending that the genuine Iris, Kamilla, and Singh are dead. Cecile quiets everybody down and the group embarks to attempt to locate their missing companions.
+In the Mirrorverse, Iris is beginning to battle with the neuro-dissonance as she makes a video for Barry should he discover the video but not her. In reality, Barry is attempting to make sense of the artificial speed power when Godspeed appears. Nash can spare Barry; however, Godspeed escapes.
+[[File:Roderick Smith.png|250px|thumb|[[Roderick Smith]]]]
+Team Flash attempts to find out what's new with Godspeed and find that he is utilizing sonics to take the speed from different speedsters. They'll require Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper, yet he detests The Flash since things went amiss during their last standoff in this post-Crisis course of events, bringing about his right-hand man, Roderick, being gravely harmed. Ralph goes to see Frost and finds that Frost is uncertain to go see Caitlin's mother for help that she truly requires for her injury.
+Flash faces Pied Piper and reveals to him that he imagines that he can help Roderick; however, Hartley says that nobody can. He has tried. The Flash has Nash come in and clarify how he imagines that Roderick can be spared. Hartley consents to assist them with Godspeed on the off-chance that they fix Rodrick.
+In the Mirrorverse, Iris discovers Kamilla at the Mirror STAR Labs. She's attempting to make sense of a way to escape utilizing the things the Mirror Gun recently sent there.
+At S.T.A.R. Labs, Nash completes the arrangement to spare Roderick utilizing Allegra's assistance, and keeping in mind that it at first seems to work, it falls flat. Hartley leaves and won't help them. Godspeed at that point appears and undermines Barry, allowing him an hour to conform to his requests or the city will be destroyed.
+After a motivational speech from Nash, Barry makes sense of why Hartley is so crushed about Roderick. It turns out Roderick is Hartley's lover and Hartley additionally reprimands himself for what occurred. Barry offers him a chance to help if Hartley needs to. An alert sounds. Godspeed is at Iron Heights and has taken the speed of the "Godspeed drones".
+[[File:Charged sound.png|left|250px|thumb|Charged sound]]
+Barry races off to manage Godspeed and a speedster pursuit starts; Barry's speed runs out while he's dashing up a building. Luckily, Pied Piper comes to support him. Pied Piper additionally has a plan to stop Godspeed: they simply need to imitate the lightning in addition to soundwave occurrence that hurt Roderick and use it on Godspeed. The "crossing streams" works. Godspeed is down; however subsequent to smashing onto a vehicle, he begins bleeding some unusual blue substance. Turns out, it's charged sound - and it might be the answer for fixing Roderick. It works. Roderick is saved.
+Not such an upbeat closure with Godspeed, however. Despite the fact that they've gotten him, this Godspeed likewise became something of a "Godspeed drone". The genuine one is still out there and still needs Barry's speed.
+Barry gives the group a motivational speech about how they're going to confront Eva and get back those they love. Cisco has a plan to spare Iris and the others: an perpetual motion machine and the one piece they need is in Atlantis. Somewhere else, Eva awakens in a type of stasis chamber prepared to take on her significant other.
 ==Cast==
@@ Line 25: / Line 48: @@
 *[[Hartley Sawyer]] as [[Ralph Dibny]]
 *[[Danielle Nicolet]] as Defense Attorney [[Cecile Horton]]
-*[[Efrat Dor]] as Dr. [[Eva McCulloch]]
+*[[Efrat Dor]] as [[Eva McCulloch]]
 *[[Tom Cavanagh]] as Dr. [[Harrison Nash Wells]]
 *[[Jesse L. Martin]] as Captain [[Joe West]]
@@ Line 33: / Line 56: @@
 *[[Victoria Park]] as [[Kamilla Hwang]]
 *[[Kayla Compton]] as [[Allegra Garcia]]
-*[[B.D. Wong|BD Wong]] as {{F|page=Fifth unnamed Godspeed|Godspeed|(voice)}}
+*[[BD Wong]] as {{F|page=August Heart|Godspeed|(voice)}}
 ===Co-starring===
@@ Line 39: / Line 62: @@
 ===Uncredited===
-*Unknown as the [[first unnamed Godspeed]]
+*Unknown as a [[August Heart|Godspeed]] clone
-*Unknown as the [[second unnamed Godspeed]]
+*Unknown as a Godspeed clone
-*Unknown as the [[third unnamed Godspeed]]
+*Unknown as a Godspeed clone
-*Unknown as the [[fourth unnamed Godspeed]]
+*Unknown as a Godspeed clone
+*Unknown as a Godspeed clone
 ==Trivia==
@@ Line 49: / Line 73: @@
 *[[Iris West-Allen|Iris]] mentions to [[Kamilla Hwang|Kamilla]] that only she is allowed to wear [[Cisco Ramon|Cisco]]'s [[w:c:starwars:Chewbacca|Chewbacca]] t-shirt, referencing the character from the [[starwars:Star Wars|''Star Wars'']] franchise.
 *[[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Barry]] states that the events of {{Ep|Love Is A Battlefield}} through this episode have occurred over a period of 5 weeks.
-*The way [[Fifth unnamed Godspeed|Godspeed]] runs around the side of a building to incapacitate [[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|The Flash]] is in the exactly the same way as in the [[Into the Void|season premiere]] albeit the roles are reversed.
+*The way [[August Heart|Godspeed]] runs around the side of a building to incapacitate [[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|The Flash]] is in exactly the same way as in the season premiere ({{Ep|Into the Void}}) albeit the roles are reversed.
+*[[Ralph Dibny|Ralph]] slightly breaks the fourth wall by saying, "Finally, Crisis pays off in a good way for once." This could be a reference to [[Atlantis (Earth-Prime)|Atlantis]] being on [[Earth-Prime]] due to the [[Anti-Monitor Crisis]].
-*The city of Atlantis was mentioned by the end of the episode. It is home of the DC superhero Aquaman.
+**The city of Atlantis is home to the DC superhero [[w:c:dc:Aquaman|Aquaman]].
+**It's also reference to the fans, who have seen negative consequences of Crisis for the heroes of Earth-Prime such as the Speed Force dying, Kate losing the chance to replace Alice with her sane doppelgänger, the Superfriends losing the D.E.O.'s resources and the Loom of Fate's pieces being put within the [[Fates]]' reach.
 *[[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Barry]] is shown throwing lightning during his flashback battle with [[Hartley Rathaway|Hartley]]. This means [[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Barry]] learned the power earlier in the new, post-Crisis timeline, presumably from [[Eobard Thawne]] since [[Hunter Zolomon]]'s storyline without being from Earth-2 would've been entirely different.
 *[[Hartley Rathaway|Hartley]] initially thinks [[Harrison Nash Wells|Nash]] is [[Eobard Thawne|his Wells]]. [[Harrison Nash Wells|Nash]] tries to explain the [[multiverse]], but [[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Barry]] passes him off as a twin brother.
-*[[Fifth unnamed Godspeed|Godspeed]]'s thirst for [[Barry Allen|Barry]]'s speed and homicidal tendencies easily resemble [[Hunter Zolomon|Zoom]]'s behavior back in [[Season 2 (The Flash)|season 2]].
+*[[August Heart|Godspeed]]'s thirst for [[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Barry]]'s speed and homicidal tendencies easily resemble [[Hunter Zolomon|Zoom]]'s behavior back in [[Season 2 (The Flash)|season 2]].
+*The one sending the Godspeeds seemed aware that Barry only had a limited amount of Speed Force left in him; hence why the fifth Godspeed was more violent and proactive in stealing it.
-*[[Frost]] is shown reading the novel ''[[Uncaged Desire (Earth-Prime)|Uncaged Desire]]'', which was written by [[Mick Rory]].
+*[[Frost]] is shown reading the novel ''[[Uncaged Desire (Earth-Prime)|Uncaged Desire]]'', which was written by [[Mick Rory]]. She previously mentioned to Mick that she read it.
 *When [[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Flash]] and Pied Piper combined their powers to defeat Godspeed, [[Cisco Ramon|Cisco]] commented that they "crossed streams"; this is a reference to the 1984 film ''Ghostbusters'' where the heroes were warned to "never cross the streams" of their proton pack guns because the results were unpredictable.
+*Frost texts Ralph with an "emergency," but when he shows up, there is none, and she calls it "payback," a reference to when Ralph did the same thing to Frost in {{Ep|Into the Void}}.
 ==Goofs==
 *It was previously established that post-Crisis, [[Hartley Rathaway|Hartley]] has meta-human powers that just so happen to have more-or-less the same effect as the tech he utilizes anyway. However, this plot point is never brought up once in this episode, and in battle he still only uses his gauntlets, even though he has a sonic scream that can serve the same purpose.
 **It's possible they serve as amplifiers in [[Earth-Prime]]'s version of reality, or that he simply prefers using his gauntlets over utilizing his sonic scream.
-*It was previously established that "[[Mirror clones|reflections]]" possess all their mirror templates' memories. So [[Kamilla Hwang|Kamilla]] asking [[Iris West-Allen|Iris]] to recall a personal detail would by no means prove that she is the real Iris.
+*It was previously established that "[[Mirror duplicates|reflections]]" possess all their mirror templates' memories. So [[Kamilla Hwang|Kamilla]] asking [[Iris West-Allen|Iris]] to recall a personal detail would by no means prove that she is the real Iris.
 **However, it's likely that Kamilla is unaware of this, given she's never properly met a reflection.
 *A flashback is shown that would be a scene from the [[Season 1 (The Flash)|first season]] of The Flash, in which [[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Barry]] throws lightning at  [[Roderick Smith|Roderick]]. However, in [[Season 1 (The Flash)|season 1]], [[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Barry]]  didn't launch lightning, because [[Hunter Zolomon|Zoom]] did not teach [[Barry Allen (Earth-1)|Barry]] how to throw lightning until [[Season 2 (The Flash)|season 2]].
 **This could be another change caused by [[Anti-Monitor Crisis|Crisis]].
+*The [[The Flash suit (Mirrorverse)|Mirrorverse version of the Flash suit]] appears as it would in the normal world. It should be reversed, appearing as a reflection of [[The Flash suits (Earth-Prime)|the Earth-Prime version]].
 ==Gallery==