S.T.A.R. Labs' prodigal son Hartley Rathaway returns to S.T.A.R. Labs, minus his hearing, but now wearing sonic gloves and taking the moniker of Pied Piper. Meanwhile, Iris receives an invitation to a big-name news station, only to find out she's being used thanks to her knowledge on the Flash.
Tropes:
- And I Must Scream:
- Hartley describes his deafness as a continual piercing wail being shot directly into his ear.
- Barry's subjected to this, with Hartley's gloves going off at the same frequency as his suit's Bluetooth, essentially busting his eardrums almost to death.
- Bait-and-Switch: Hartley repeatedly mentions Harrison's secret. We think it's going to be Harrison's identity as the Reverse-Flash, but it turns out he was talking about Harrison's knowledge that the particle accelerator might backfire. It even looks like he is just about to show them he can stand but then just readjusts himself in his chair.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Cisco calls Hartley a jerk, and it implies that he might have seen another side to Hartley...not.Cisco: He was mostly a jerk, but sometimes, he was a dick.
- Batman Gambit: Hartley's a master at this. He deliberately gets himself captured so he can get the information about Flash's Bluetooth frequency and program his gloves to that frequency.
- Big Damn Heroes: Wells does a bit of Hollywood Hacking to save Barry from the Piper's frequency by hacking in to all of the satellite radios to broadcast a counter frequency.
- Big Fancy House: Wells is, much to Barry and friends' surprise, loaded. And his house is a testament to it.
- Blackmail: When Hartley plans to expose the particle accelerator's potential danger, Wells threatens to destroy his career should he ever breathe a word.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: During the press conference, Wells admits that "I have failed this city".
- Call-Back: Remember in the previous episode how Captain Cold kidnapped Caitlyn by icing her car? Here it's now Cisco getting nearly blown up by Piper's sonic breakout.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Hartley was first mentioned in the previous episode, trying to contact his parents by phone only to be rebuffed. And it's here we learn why Rathaway Sr. doesn't want to speak with him: because Hartley came out of the closet.
- Chess Motifs: Hartley and Harrison continually talk as if they're playing a chess game.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Barry tells Wells he's good at heroism.
- Wells notes that they should take a picture in case people in the future *wink wink* want to know about the Flash's achievements.
- Ear Ache: Hartley pulls his (very long) hearing aids out in close detail.
- Easily Forgiven: Cisco, Caitlin, and Barry are pretty quick to forgive Wells for putting all of Central City by ignoring the risks posed by the Particle Accelerator when he works his hardest to bring Hartley into custody.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: The cars Hartley throws off the dam all explode.
- Foreshadowing: Hartley tells Barry that Wells would betray him.
- Hilarious in Flashback: Hartley tells Cisco on the latter’s first day of work that he won’t last longer than a week.
- Idiot Ball: Out of all the scientists working at S.T.A.R. Labs, Hartley was the only one who noticed there was a chance the Particle Accelator could explode. Really?
- He may have been the only one with the courage to stand up to Dr. Wells.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Hartley deliberately gets himself captured so as to adjust his gloves to fight the Flash.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Hartley is right that Cisco's outfit is out of place in a professional workplace, but he still could be more polite about it.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Cisco sees Hartley this way but it is somehwat subverted when they reveal the reason Hartley was fired was that he refused to endanger the lives of the people in Central City. At least before Wells betrayed him Hartley had a heart.
- Literary Allusion Title: The title references The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, which in turn references Macbeth with its title.
- Mundane Utility: Barry uses his speed to make sure he's in a picture he's taking.
- Mythology Gag:
- Iris takes a job at Picture News, the employers of her comics counterpart.
- Wells says he hired Cisco because he had "a good feeling about him". That's very close to saying he had a good "vibe" about him.
- Hartley calls Barry a "scarlet knight", a reference to one of The Flash's lesser-known nicknames.
- Pet the Dog: Wells takes a moment to tell Cisco how incredibly valuable he is, that although Hartley was brilliant, he never brought joy to the team like Cisco does. "There was never any Chosen One...there's just us."
- Shout-Out:
- In the flashback depicting Hartley and Cisco's first meeting, Cisco's Fun T-Shirt reads "Stay Calm and Han
Shot First". Then Dr. Wells states he has "a good feeling about him". - In the climax, a villain in a hooded black cloak slowly tortures the hero to death with energy attacks before being unexpectedly stopped by a morally ambiguous father figure to the hero.
- In the flashback depicting Hartley and Cisco's first meeting, Cisco's Fun T-Shirt reads "Stay Calm and Han
- Spotting the Thread: When Hartley uses his sonic gloves at Wells' house they break all he windows and Wells uses his speed to avoid it. Eddie is suspicious that there's not a scratch on him. Joe agrees and coupled with previous suspicions they decide to dig a little deeper into Wells, without telling Barry.
- The Stinger: Wells uses the tachyon device to attempt to keep his fluctuating super-speed going.
- Wham Line: Wells' A.I. Gideon mentions the Speed Force.
- Wham Shot:
- Wells using his super speed...and then we see those powers failing, to the point where he falls down to the ground and can't get up.
- Wells trying to use that tachyon device he stole earlier to help stabilize his speed.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Harrison plays two games of this: Quickly adjusting Barry's path in the beginning to catch robbers, and then playing the game the rest of the episode against Hartley.
