TV Review: "Liberation," "Pay the Piper," and "Success is Assured"

While Ralph has been appearing in these episodes of The Flash, his roles were smaller in comparison to the main plots.

In "Liberation," Barry (Grant Gustin) realizes that Iris (Candice Patton) isn't really herself as Eva (Efrat Dor) sets her plans in motion using the mirror images of Iris, Kamilla (Victoria Park) and Captain Singh (Patrick Sabongui) to reach a certain metahuman for help.

Meanwhile, Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Ralph visit Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) only to find her suffering from a strange case of hypothermia. They do what they can to help, but it's clear that they need to reach out to Caitlin's mother.

Ralph and Cisco were also seen trying to help Barry with the artificial Speed Force generator.

The Caitlin plotline stretched into "Pay the Piper," in which Killer Frost is awarded a "Dib-ploma" in a very sweet scene with Ralph as she feels nervous about meeting Caitlin's mother.

It felt like this should've been in the previous episode, and maybe it was originally planned, but with some reshuffling of the season's filmed episodes due to COVID-19, perhaps they had to split that plot over two episodes to fit it in at all. (It was, of course, a way to write out Caitlin/Killer Frost as Danielle Panabaker was taking maternity leave.)

The main plot of "Pay the Piper" saw Godspeed (voiced by BD Wong) return to Central City to take Barry's speed. To help take him out, Barry enlists the help of Hartley Rathaway (Andy Mientus), the Piper, who hates The Flash due to how a past run-in left one of his accomplices. With little of his own speed remaining, Barry has to take down Godspeed and help Hartley.

This brings us to the defacto season finale, "Success is Assured."

As Eva prepares to kill her husband, Joseph Carver (Eric Nenninger), Barry and his team prepare to defend him, convincing him to go into ARGUS custody. However, Eva manages to get Joseph's metahuman assassins on her side, so it's going to be quite the task.

Meanwhile, Ralph meets with Sue's parents (Mark Brandon and Nancy Hillis as Richard and Penelope, respectively), confronting them that he knows Joseph Carver was blackmailing them. Sue arrives and tells them that Carver had a change of heart, but Ralph is suspicious and later discovers that Sue is actually working for him, the true cause of his "change of heart," with her own intent to kill Carver. And yet the finale holds one more twist for Sue...

It is certainly unfortunate that The Flash wasn't able to wrap up the season, yet keeping the cast and crew safe and healthy was more important, and should everything work out, we will eventually get the end of the story.

As it is, the wrap up of the season suffered from having to rework everything into the episodes they were allowed. They told a coherent story, but some plots were cut too short while others felt bloated. It'll be interesting to see if several deleted scenes pop up on the eventual Blu-Ray release.

As it is, follow your local COVID-19 guidelines and hopefully, we can get The Flash Season 7 sooner rather than later.

Viewers in the US may view "Liberation," "Pay the Piper," and "Success is Assured" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire sixth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix by June 2020. Digital versions of the episodes may be purchased on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Google Play and other retailers of digital video content. Blu-Ray and DVD copies of the season are expected to be available for sale in or by September, 2020.

Non-US viewers should check their local listings, the websites of the channels that air The Flash, and digital video retailers