Flash "King Shark" (REVIEW)
Written By Jacob Chimilar (@sweetlows)
Welcome to this year's "Gorilla Grodd" episode. A genetically modified animal is on the loose from ARGUS and its up to the team to stop him before he uses his powers to kill The Flash. I am not a big fan of Grodd, nor am I of King Shark, it's just a step too far into weird comic book stuff for my liking. The upside however is how many "Jaws" references Cisco works his way into the episode. I've noticed that lately, aside from Zoom, The Rogues on Flash have declined in quality and importance. I know there were plenty of comic fans looking forward to both Grodd and King Shark because "thats not what network tv shows do! Way to go Flash!" but I just couldn't buy into it. Thankfully it wasn't a big part of the episode. Although the upside of the episode was the mini arrow crossover with Diggle and Lyla as the new head of ARGUS. Diggle gets to play Diggle but for Barry instead of Oliver and has a few moments where Barry speeds away and him and Lyla have some banter over not getting used to it. Which is cute considering all the crazy lazarus pit and king sharks they have to deal with on a daily basis.
What ends up happening is we get a dummy flash set up as a lure attached to a large metal cable as bait for King Shark, He takes the bait and swims off. from there they try and lure him but he either lets go of it or broke it off. Barry races after him, running on water. he then creates a whirlpool to trap King Shark in and electrifies the water. He then Zeus' him with his speedforce bolt, stunning him into unconsciousness for Lyla to retrieve.
The real story is thankfully revolving around the aftermath of the Earth-2 trip and Barry's relationship with Wally. After Cisco meets the Killer Frost of Earth-2 and Jay dying at the hands of Zoom, he sees Caitlin go into a kind of angry mode reminiscent of Killer Frost and it has him worried. She resents the fact and says she is not turning into killer frost but is just trying to cope with her feelings without being a completely useless ball of emotions. I think that is something we can all attest to wanting to do. Put on a thick skin and soften with time. Cisco again with his experience with Earth-2, something they swore not to tell anyone about for the repercussions it could cause, spills the beans and tells Caitlin about Earth-2 Killer Frost and how he is afraid she may become her. She tells him about how she has been handling her feelings and even plays a joke on him, icing her hands and making Cisco think she is killer frost.
Meanwhile Barry is being forced by Joe and Iris to try and be more a part of Wally's life by having him help with his turbo car building project. Wally proud of his work as is Joe but Barry, giving constructive, scientific criticism picks apart his design on first sight. He has to quickly course correct and try and work together with Wally who is smart but not quite Barry smart. Barry and Wally try to work together but Barry more or less takes over trying to really come up with a way in which the car could work on bio diesel and Wally is getting frustrated because he is just so perfect and smart and it makes him feel inferior and he is living up to the lofty standard Joe and Iris set for him. Then King Shark rips the roof off the house smelling Barry/The Flash and Barry rushes away to attack him as The Flash. When he returns he was "hiding upstairs" and Wally call him out for being a coward and Joe yells at Wally telling him to leave. Later he and Joe make up and Joe explains why Barry is so special to them and why they put so much praise on him as well. Then Joe goes and talks to Barry who is equally upset because he knows he isn't perfect and wishes they didnt hold him to that standard. It's here he tells Joe and Iris about the Earth-2 dopplegangers. He explains the good and the bad and how he felt responsible for their deaths even though it really wasn't his fault. It's something Barry has had to deal with in the past with the time travel but it appears that weight is really starting to press down hard on him like it does with Oliver in Arrow.
The final scene before the cliffhanger has Barry confronting Team Flash, giving a "it's all my fault" speech, with going back in time and saving his mom and opening up Earth-2 that brought Zoom here. But he is also confident that they can work together to stop Zoom, and when Wells asks how, he simply says he doesn't know but they will meet again and when they do they will do so avenging Jay's death.
Now for the ever important Cliffhanger, this is the one we've been waiting for, the reveal of Zoom. Bringing in the lifeless body of Jay Garrick he pulls off his mask to reveal his identity. The answer? Jay Garrick... Now which one is it exactly? I'm not entirely sure but The Man in The Iron Mask is extremely frightened by the sight of the dead Jay, so my guess is something has gone very very wrong. So now that we sort of kinda know who Zoom is, the next question is who's behind the iron mask? Is it also Jay!?! is Zoom collecting every Jay Garrick in the multiverse? Or am I just crazy. I guess we will find out eventually.
It was a decent episode for sure, not quite the blockbuster that was the Earth-2 excursion but more of a epilogue to it. We got to see King Shark again (yay?) and watch the Barry/Wally dynamic get tested as well as Barry confessing what he saw on Earth-2 with his Earth Prime family. Overall not too shabby of an episode but one I wasn't 100% enthralled with. Can't win them all I guess.
