The Flash (2014 TV Series) Episode: Pay the Piper

"Pay the Piper"
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The Flash  Season 6: Episode 18
May 5, 2020
Directors	Amanda Tapping
Writers	Jess Carson
Previous Episode	"Liberation" (April 28, 2020)
Next Episode	"Success is Assured" (May 12, 2020)

You gave me my world back. You'll get your world back, too. But you have to do more than just forgive yourself. You have to believe that your world can change. That's the part I'd forgotten. Thanks for reminding me.

—Hartley Rathaway

Pay the Piper is an episode of season 6 of The Flash. It premiered on May 5, 2020.

Appearing in "Pay the Piper"

Featured Characters:

• The Flash (Barry Allen) (Flashback and main story)

Supporting Characters:

• Cpt. Joe West
• Kamilla Hwang
• Pied Piper (Hartley Rathaway) (Flashback and main story)
• Team Flash
  • Allegra Garcia (Joins team)
  • Cecile Horton
  • Cisco Ramon
  • Frost
    • Caitlin Snow (Behind the scenes)
  • Iris West-Allen
  • Nash Wells (Unknown Earth)
  • Ralph Dibny

Antagonists:

• "Eva McCulloch" (Flashback and main story) (Cameo) (Impersonates Eva McCulloch)
• Godspeed/August Heart (Nora's Future) (Behind the scenes)
  • Godspeed Impostors (Nora's Future)
    • First Godspeed Impostor (Single appearance) (Unnamed) (On a TV or computer screen) (Appears only as a corpse) (Cameo)
    • Fourth Godspeed Impostor (Unnamed) (Dies)
    • Fifth Godspeed Impostor (First appearance; unnamed)
    • Second Godspeed Impostor (Single appearance) (Unnamed) (On a TV or computer screen) (Appears only as a corpse) (Cameo)
    • Third Godspeed Impostor (Single appearance) (Unnamed) (On a TV or computer screen) (Appears only as a corpse) (Cameo)

Other Characters:

• Channel 52 (On a TV or computer screen)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (Behind the scenes)
• Pied Piper's Band of Merry Men (First appearance) (Flashback only)
  • Roderick Smith (First appearance) (Flashback and main story)
• A.R.G.U.S. (Mentioned only)
• Barney Sands (Mentioned only)
• Bloodwork (Mentioned only)
  • Blood Brothers (Mentioned only)
• Dr. Carla Tannhauser (Mentioned only)
• The Central City Citizen (Mentioned only)
• David Singh (Mentioned only)
• Debbie Dibny (Mentioned only)
• Eobard Thawne/"Harrison Wells" (Mentioned only)
• Eva McCulloch (Mentioned only)
• God (Mentioned only)
• Dr. Harrison Wells (Mentioned only)
• Joseph Carver (Mentioned only)
• Kamilla Hwang (Mentioned only)
• Maya (Pre-Crisis Earth-719) (Deceased) (Mentioned only)
• Ralph Dibny's father (Unnamed) (Mentioned only)
• Mr. Ramon (Unnamed) (Mentioned only)
• Mrs. Ramon (Unnamed) (Mentioned only)
• Reflections/Mirror duplicates (Mirrorverse) (Mentioned only)
  • David Singh (Mentioned only)
  • Iris West-Allen/"Mirror Iris" (Deceased) (Mentioned only)
  • Kamilla Hwang/"Mirror Kamilla" (Deceased) (Mentioned only)
• Rob Singh (Mentioned only)
• Sunshine (Mentioned only)
• Wally West (Mentioned only)
• Oprah Winfrey (Mentioned only)
• Chewbacca (Mentioned only)

Locations:

• Multiverse (Mentioned only)
  • Earth-Prime (Flashback and main story)
    • United States of America
      • Central City (Flashback and main story)
        • S.T.A.R. Labs
          • The Cortex
          • S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator/The Pipeline
        • Bentley Bulding (Real name revealed) (Mentioned only)
        • Mercury Labs (Mentioned only)
      • Keystone City
        • Iron Heights
    • Atlantis (Mentioned only)
  • Mirrorverse
    • United States of America
      • Central City
        • McCulloch Technologies
        • S.T.A.R. Labs
          • The Cortex
  • Speed Force (Erased)
  • Artificial Speed Force (Mentioned only)
  • Pre-Crisis Earth-1 (Erased) (Mentioned only)
  • Hell (Mentioned only)
  • Post-Crisis Nora's Future (Mentioned only)

Items:

• Artificial Speed Force Machine
• Cicada's Dagger
• Nash Wells' Gauntlet
• Nash Well's Pack
• Pied Piper's Sonic Gloves
• Pulse Rifle
• Rebecca Silver's novels
  • "Uncaged Desire" (Cameo)
• Speed Gauge

Concepts:

• The Crisis (Mentioned only)
• Metahumans
• Neural Dissonance
• Time Travel

Notes

• According to Barry, the events from "Love Is a Battlefield" to this episode occur over 5 weeks.
• Godspeed's storyline is continued in "Enemy At the Gates".
• This episode reveals that, on Earth-Prime, Pied Piper has a gang of his own so the events of "The Sound and the Fury" diverges in a major way from the Pre-Crisis continuity as Barry hurt Hartley's right-hand and lover, Roderick Smith, with his lightning bolts instead of him.
  • The events of this episode imply that Barry discovered his lightning generation ability earlier than on Earth-1.
    • It can be presumed that Reverse Flash teached Barry this technique when he was training him during the Post-Crisis version of the Season 1 events.

Trivia

• Team Flash curing Smith of his condition which leads to Pied Piper becoming once again into an ally mirrors the events of "Flash Back".
• The Godspeed impostor confirms that the real Godspeed is still out there in the future, searching a way to steal his speed. This is the same reason that led Zoom to face Barry on Earth-1.
• Cisco and Nash stating that Barry and Hartley "crossed streams" is a homage to the movie Ghostbusters.

See Also

• 5 Images from The Flash (2014 TV Series) Episode: Pay the Piper
• Episodes of The Flash (2014 TV Series)
• Images from The Flash (2014 TV Series)
• Gallery for the The Flash (2014 TV Series) series

Recommended Media

• None.

Links and References

• None.

Footnotes