As we approach the fourth season of The Flash and learn who all the new characters are going to be… like Ralph Dibney / The Elongated Man played by Hartley Sawyer, it made me think of the character Hartley Rathaway / Pied Piper played by Andy Mientus. The buzz we're hearing about the new season is that the executive producers really want to get back to the fun of the first season and who was more fun than the Pied Piper? That's why I think The Flash should bring him back in the new season.

Rathaway was brought into the season, in an episode called The Sound and the Fury, as the former protege of Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) who worked with everyone at S.T.A.R. Labs. He was a formidable foe for the new speedster and had the added advantage of knowing everyone involved. Hartley also knew how to push the buttons of Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes). And he is smart enough and powerful enough to give Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) fits. But once the character was introduced, the show did something unexpected with him… the made him switch sides. Not through some decision of morality or change of heart… but by a change in time Rathaway was the first victim of Barry messing with the time stream and he was suddenly a friend to the team. But they haven't done anything with the character since.

Piper was an interesting character in the comics that started off as a villain and became a hero through his interactions with Wally West. They became friends. They don't have to follow that story idea in the show if they don't want to, but I think it's time for the writer's to at least show us what Rathaway's life is like now, since Barry tweaked time. Plus, what happened to him because of Flashpoint. So many thing got touched on by Flashpoint, but there are a lot of things that we don't know. If Flashpoint could change John Diggle's daughter into a son, what about the other characters we haven't seen in a while? They might've been affected and Barry wouldn't know it yet. It's definitely time to pay the Piper.

The Flash returns for season four on October 10th, at 8 PM on the CW.