PIED PIPER'S POWER GAUNTLETS
The Pied Piper's gloves have metal implements mounted on them resembling those on woodwind musical instruments. In the comics, Pied Piper usually uses a woodwind instrument or horn of some kind to exercise his powers. Having such metal implements on the gloves ties the appearance of the villain on show to the appearance of the villain in the comics. The employment of gloves suggests that this is a technology based power and not something he picked up from the particle accelerator's explosion at the beginning of season one.
ROYAL FLUSH GANG
FLASH (Grant Gustin) and Central City Police pursued motorcycle-riding members of THE ROYAL FLUSH GANG through downtown. Episode 1x11 of THE FLASH was the first time I've seen them riding motorcycles with they playing card emblems on the motorcycle helmets. The brief chase scene in the streets using motorcycles made them stand out from other traffic. This appearance did follow the tradition established in the JUSTICE LEAGUE animated series and continued in the direct-to-video JUSTICE LEAGUE feature “Doom” where the ROYAL FLUSH gang is the opening act, before the headliner villain or villains emerge.
In prior appearances in the comics and animated shows and DVD movies, members of the ROYAL FLUSH GANG usually ride giant flying poker cards and wear uniforms/costumes resembling the cards that make up a royal flush in poker-- 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace. The have previously appeared in ARROW as hockey-mask wearing bank robbers. They have also appeared in BATMAN BEYOND, BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD and early 1980s version of the Superfriends called “The Super-Powers Team: Galactic Guardians. In the comics they are usually JUSTICE LEAGUE villains.
WELLS' SPEED POWERS
While the main villain, Pied Piper (Andy Mientus) is vandalizing Dr. Harrison Wells' (Tom Cavanagh) house, we see Wells use the Reverse Flash speed powers to avoid getting cut by shattering glass – with out wearing the suit. This is significant to me for two main reasons.
A, it's the first time we've actually scene Dr. Wells unambiguously use speed powers. Previously we've seen the Reverse Flash or Man in Yellow, whom the actors and producers told us was Wells, use speed powers particularly as the main villain in the mid-season finale. And we've seen Wells standing in his secret room with the Reverse Flash suit. But this was the first time that Wells used the speed powers as Wells, wearing street clothes. He also uses them later in the episode, when Pied Piper escapes from confinement in the pipeline of the defunct particle accelerator.
B, it's also significant because the suit has tachyon technologies mounted on it while it sits in Wells' secret room. Before seeing Wells use speed powers without the suit, my personal theory was that Wells was employing technology on the suit to copy Barry Allen's powers, rather than actually having such powers himself. I thought the Reverse Flash suit's color changing abilities were hiding the tachyon tech from viewers during scenes where the Man in Yellow was threatening and fighting our heroes. I now think this may not be the case, that Wells actually has the powers. Either way, more will be revealed in future episodes, since Dr Wells says that a endgame is approaching.
NORRIS? Who is Norris??
During Dr. Well's press conference, he mentions the “Norris Commission Report.” This could be an easter egg, but it isn't. No one named Norris connects to the Flash or the Pied Piper, at least according to searches in Google, Ask.com and Wikipedia,. If I'm wrong about this please let me know in the comments.
SPEED FORCE!!!
In the closing minutes of the episode, we see Dr Wells in his secret room with one of the tachyon devices mounted on his chest. His secret, talking computer, Gideon, mentions SPEED FORCE absorption. This is the first time the show has actually called out the SPEED FORCE by name. In the mid-season finale, Cisco discussed how both Flash and Reverse Flash had colored lightening associated with them, but no one actually said, “speed force” until 1x11. In the comics and animation, the “Speed Force” is an extra-dimensional power source. The Flashes and others tap the “Speed Force” for superpowers either as a metahuman power/ability or using technological implements including gauntlets or arm/leg bands.
AND FINALLY....
We have a retro-active easter egg from last week's episode. The wealthy couple, Osgood and Rachel Rathaway from whom Cold and Heat Wave stole the modern art painting in the scenes at an aircraft hanger...they were the parents of Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper.
So, did I catch all the Easter Eggs? If you caught one that I missed, feel free to mention it in the comments below, or write your own post and discuss it separately.
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