From the very beginning of The CW’s The Flash, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) has had his share of foes, but not all of them are equal. While some of the villains The Flash has faced are true villains, there are others who are a bit more complex and with whom the Scarlet Speedster and Team Flash has a complex relationship. Perhaps the most notable of those is Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper. Played by Andy Mientus, Hartley has gone from being a foe to something of an ally over the seasons but even as he chooses a better path, he’s still challenging Barry. Now, Mientus explains to ComicBook.com the “brotherly rivalry” between Hartley and Barry in the series’ final season.
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Warning: spoilers for this week’s episode of The Flash, “Rogues of War”, beyond this point.
This week’s episode sees Hartley team up with Team Flash — as well as some other Rogues — to try to steal a piece of important technology before Red Death’s rogues can. It’s a big moment and while Hartley certainly still has his own motives, after his experiences last week with Khione (Danielle Panabaker), we’re seeing the character on a better path, though Mientus says it’s still very much Hartley’s own path.
“I think one of the things I love about his complexity is that he does good things, but not always for purely good reasons. He is, in past seasons, when he’s ended up helping Team Flash, it’s always been to further his own agenda, to save his boyfriend or to get his revenge on Wells or save his own hide,” Mientus said. “And so, then he has this conversation with Khione, really unlocks something in him. And then, what we see him do toward the end of the episode, when he intervenes in what they’re going to do to bring Frost back is the first thing I can think of that he’s done that is purely for someone else, that is purely just the right thing to do, that doesn’t really involve him. So, it’s a big shift that we’ve seen growing in him across the nine seasons, of going from pure villain to complicated vigilante, who will help the others out if it benefits him, now to someone fully doing something selfless.”
He also explained how even with the shift in Hartley, there’s still a bit of rivalry between himself and Barry.
“I think they’ve always challenged each other, because Barry’s as fast as, I guess, light or maybe even faster,” he said. “But sound is probably the next fastest thing. So, they’re rivals in their speed, but also, they’re both scientists. They both have this history at S.T.A.R. Labs, and I think Hartley has always felt a bit of ownership there. We see a little bit of that, where they’re arguing about where the thing is in the drawer, what drawers in. And so, it’s just really fun to play. It’s like a brotherly kind of rivalry thing. It’s really fun to play around with.”
And that rivalry definitely comes into play in the episode, which sees Hartley briefly in charge of the Rogues Squad and the mission to steal the vibration engine after ousting Barry from the team.
“I think part of Hartley’s frustration all along, there’s a lot that he’s angry about, but one of the big things is that people underestimate him, whether it’s because of his sexuality or just because he’s small and kind of nerdy and kind of weird. He’s this little geek that is kind of unpleasant. But he is the smartest person in most rooms, and he does, even if his tactics are not quite the tactics that Barry would take, they are sound and they do work and he’s effective,” Mientus said. “And I think, finally getting Barry, who, again, he’s always had this brotherly rivalry, especially when Wells was his father figure, he’s always seen Barry as kind of the golden boy, that is this rival, that he has to outdo and outclass. To see Barry turn to him and say like, ‘okay, we’re going to do it your way,’ to give him that kind of respect, I think, is what he’s been looking for all nine years.”
The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
