The Flash - “Pay the Piper” - Pictured: Candice Patton as Iris West – Allen - Photo: Shane Harvey/The CW - © 2020 The CW Network, LLC. But, at least Iris manages to somehow (?) find Kamilla in a mirror version of STAR Labs after like two minutes of effort (how?), even as she starts experiencing hints of the same madness that plagued Eva. The larger Mirror Universe story basically goes nowhere this episode, which feels kind of bizarre after last week’s episode that was packed with revelations and forward progress. Surely, with the additions of Sue, Chester, Allegra, and now (maybe?) Hartley, something has to give at some point. I’m definitely okay with watching them be some sort of frenemies next season, though at this point The Flash’s cast of characters is starting to feel a bit unwieldily.

Related The Flash Review: Resurrection (Season 8 Episode 11) Granted, I have no idea how Hartley’s sonic powers now work, but they make for a cool combination when paired with Barry’s speed and lightning, and Mientus and Grant Gustin have a charmingly antagonistic chemistry with one another. Roderick, as everyone can immediately guess, is actually Hartley’s boyfriend, and he and Barry slowly manage to make peace through their shared experience of fighting to restore the people they love after horrific experiences. Why? In this reality, Barry apparently accidentally helped incapacitate Hartley’s #1 henchman, Roderick, during their battle and he’s really not over it. In the post- Crisis on Infinite Earths version of this reality, Hartley and Barry never made the sort of tenuous peace achieved during the Pied Piper’s first appearance. The Flash - “Pay the Piper” - Image Number: FLA618b_0003b.jpg - Pictured (L-R): Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, Tom Cavanagh as Nash Wells and Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon - Photo: Katie Yu/The CW - © 2020 The CW Network, LLC. Plus, it’s hard to hate an episode that brings both back Andy Mientus, who really is wonderful as the Pied Piper, and opens the door to us seeing him in the future as at least an ancillary part of Team Flash. That said, there’s a lot happening in this installment that feels like it will probably pay off down the road. Which makes “Pay the Piper” feel more than a bit superfluous to the larger story we’ve been watching for the past few episodes, if only because its so disconnected from the season arc. Thanks to coronavirus, however, The Flash Season 6 will end early.

Or, at least, it probably would be in a normal season.

Hartley Rathaway’s Pied Piper returns in The Flash Season 6 Episode 18, “Pay the Piper,” an hour that has almost nothing to do with the season’s larger Mirror Universe plot, but is generally an entertaining diversion on its own.

Godspeed the flash season 6