Dr. Wells’ former protégée, Hartley Rathaway, returns to seek revenge on his mentor after being affected by the particle accelerator explosion.

The Flash does battle with a new foe that has a grudge against Dr. Wells. And the world’s most bizarre game of chess yet!

They said the Speed Force, you guys! Yes something that nerdy in passing means very little but great to see it will be something introduced/featured sooner rather than later. Not only that, but we learn that there is a limit to Wells’ powers. Also, he likes to randomly hang around his costume when he’s feeling bored. Hey, other people worked at STAR Labs. We see so much of Dr. Wells, Caitlin and Cisco that we sometimes forget that other people worked at STAR Labs before the incident as well. We were given visions of Ronnie working there before hand, but we know that since he was Caitlin’s fiancee and “dead” in the accident. But it was nice to see Hartley in the setting, and be kind of a jerk. I wasn’t quite sure if there was some underlying affection/feelings between he and Wells though it seemed hinted at often. It was nice to see Team Flash go against a villain who used their brains as much as their power. Though, I felt lessened Barry’s character that Wells had to save the day instead of Barry being able to think on his feet and come up with a solution. On the same hand, while it was nice that Pied Piper was an intelligent villain, some of the decisions in this episode confused me. How did he know about their secret prison? How did he know they would take him there? Why did they take him there? I was under the assumption that the prison was only for those with powers that couldn’t be held in Blackgate or a normal prison. We saw just last week that Captain Cold and Heatwave were sent to a normal prison and they had tech-based powers as well. Iris started a new job this episode, and not really sure where this is going yet. I mean it is nice to get her out of the whole Barry-secret-crush and some feelings for The Flash arc, but if this is gonna be your typical arc for respect and getting in trouble to cover the Flash seems kind of yawn worthy. It doesn’t help that her mentor is the gruff loner. Barry really got sidelined this episode, didn’t he? I get that he isn’t going to be the focus of every episode, but he didn’t have much to do, but be concerned and I guess two appearances as The Flash. You want to make someone evil? Have them insult one of Cisco’s cool shirts. That really turns me on them quickly, it seems!

Not the strongest episode of the Flash, though it did introduce a fun villain, I hope we see more of in the future. Also, it seems to be setting the table for someone finally discovering Wells’ secret.