Episode Title: King Shark
Original Airdate: 2-23-16
After last week’s doozy of an Earth 2 escape, this week the Flash and co. have to deal with all the repercussions of what they’ve gone through, what’s been lost, and what’s been left behind. And it just so happens that the thing that has been left behind is a giant killer man-shark, and they toss in Diggle for good measure just because. And of course, there’s the big reveal at the end where we finally find out who Zoom is, or at least what he looks like which raises a few more questions than answers at the moment.
More than most of the episodes, this one actually does spend quite a bit of time dealing with the metahuman of the week and it was a fun one. It was nice to catch all the Jaws references, including the bit that apparently Jaws was a movie on Earth 2 as well, unless Harry has been catching up on his Earth 1 pop culture references. Similar to the first appearance of King Shark several episodes ago, the design and look was amazing to say the least. Though seeing him quite a bit in the episode, there were a few moments that were much rougher than others, especially when he tore the house apart. With the addition to yet another person who doesn’t know Barry’s secret, there’s more of Barry running to hide so he can save the day as the Flash and Wally gets to call him out for being a coward.
One notable character arc for this episode was Caitlin dealing with the loss of yet another person that she cared for, Jay Garrick. And this time around, there’s the added humor element since Cisco keeps seeing shades of Killer Frost in how distant and cold she is behaving. And yet, it’s interesting to note that her wardrobe for the episode went in the opposite direction. For much of the series, she has favored many cool colors, especially blues, but for most of this episode, she was wearing dark red, nearly the opposite. A nice warm color instead of a cool one. Not only that, but at the end of the episode she’s wearing green. Something not quite blue, but getting closer to her old self. It’s a minor thing that many people won’t even notice, but it’s one of the little details that the showrunners pay attention to that makes me really love this show so much.
There’s also the great bit where Barry breaks down and reveals what he saw over in Earth 2 as far as Joe West 2’s death. It’s another one of those dramatic moments that flows from the action or the humor so well. And to wrap things up with the reveal of Zoom. From what I can gather, he is Hunter Zolomon just like the doppelganger on Earth 1. But that still leaves the big questions as to who Jay Garrick was, who the man in the mask is, and how do they connect with each other. If you’ve been reading, I started having my doubts about Jay Garrick when it was revealed that he didn’t lose his speed to Zoom, but due to Velocity 6. And that doubt increased when the man in the mask had such an intense reaction to Barry’s reaction to the name Jay. I still think that the man in the mask is Jay Garrick, especially considering that most representations of Garrick in the same timeline as Barry Allen have him as an older man. But I have no idea what the connection is between the Jay Garrick that has been pulling a season 1 Harrison Wells and the Zoom who looks just like him. They have to have been working together, but Garrick also had to have been disposable. And now the Flash is off for a month before we even start to get any questions answered, but at least I’ll have Gotham to watch and review. I just hope it comes back on the high note it left on rather than bringing Mr. Freeze to give me a cold shoulder.
Channel: Superhero 