Violet recaps Season 2 Episode 15 of The Flash, titled King Shark, where King Shark escapes from ARGUS’s custody and goes after Barry! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
Don’t need the Flash episode recap for King Shark? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on the Flash episode titled King Shark, click here to get directly there!
Episode Recap of The Flash, Season 2 Episode 15: King Shark
Picking up where things left off at the end of last episode, Caitlin freaks out about Jay being brought back through the breach by Zoom. Dr. Wells says that he can’t re-open the breach, and that there’s no going back.
Later, Barry and Cisco talk about being worried about Caitlin, now that she’s lost Jay on top of Ronnie. Dr. Wells advises them not to tell Caitlin, Iris, or Joe about their Earth-2 counterparts.
Time passes. They don’t talk about Earth-2. Barry runs in order to blow off steam.
At the aquarium, ARGUS prepares to feed King Shark. But he fools them into thinking he’s dead, and they turn off the protective laser grid above his tank to fish him out.
Diggle and Lyla arrive at the secret ARGUS site where the aquarium is located, and we learn that Lyla is now the new director of ARGUS. An alarm goes off and they check out the aquarium — where they find King Shark has escaped from his tank and devoured the ARGUS agents. Then King Shark runs off.
Meanwhile, at Joe’s house, they are having a family night with Wally. Barry isn’t really in the mood for games though. After Wally leaves, Barry says he doesn’t think Wally likes him very much. Joe and Iris want to change that. After Barry goes to bed, Joe comments to Iris that Barry’s been acting weird ever since he came back from Earth-2.
At STAR Labs, Cisco tries to tell Caitlin to take a break, as she has thrown herself into work. She snaps at him. Barry comes in, and Cisco says he’s worried about Caitlin becoming evil. However, Barry doesn’t think that will happen. Just then, Diggle and Lyla stop by to warn Barry about King Shark — and that his biological imperative is to kill Barry.
Lyla’s job as the director of ARGUS is to clean up Amanda Waller’s messes, and King Shark was one of them. Barry says he’s not going to wait for King Shark to attack, he’s going after him. Since King Shark is from Earth-2, Dr. Wells tells them about King Shark’s human self, Dr. Shay Lamden, who was a marine biologist. Dr. Wells attempts to track King Shark. Lamden’s Earth-1 counterpart is dead, so Cisco and Caitlin go to talk to his wife, Dr. Tanya Lamden, also a marine biologist.
Joe calls Barry and tells him Wally wants to meet up with him tonight so that Barry can help him with an engineering project. Barry tells Joe what’s going on, but eventually decides to meet up with Wally anyway.
When Caitlin and Cisco talk to Dr. Lamden about her research on sharks, Caitlin isn’t very friendly. Dr. Lamden is a bit reluctant, but agrees to email them her research.
Meanwhile, Barry runs along the coast hoping to attract King Shark. Barry takes a break and briefly discusses Felicity with Diggle. Diggle comments that Barry is starting to do what Oliver does: carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, and that he should stop that. Some ARGUS agents find King Shark and promptly get eaten. He gets away before Barry and the others can find him.
Barry heads over to Joe’s house and takes a look at Wally’s project that he’s working on in order to get into CCU’s engineering program. Barry offers some advice, but Wally doesn’t take it very well. But Wally and Barry start at the beginning and go through it all together, while Iris and Joe exchange worried looks and leave them alone to work.
At STAR Labs, Cisco calls Caitlin out for how she’s been acting, and lets it slip about Killer Frost. Caitlin explains that she has to act cold right now so that she doesn’t let herself feel the pain. They get back to work trying to find King Shark. Elsewhere at STAR Labs, Jesse helps her father out with figuring out equations.
Wally doesn’t seem to be getting along with Barry, and he packs his things up to leave. Just then, King Shark tears off the roof, demanding to know where The Flash is, saying that he can smell him. Barry pretends to go upstairs to hide, then puts on his suit and faces King Shark as the Flash. He breaks the news that he closed all the breaches, then runs in circles around King Shark, who is able to punch him away. Then he says The Flash won’t be able to catch him in water, and runs off, just as ARGUS drives up.
Back at Joe’s house, Joe and Iris begin cleaning up the mess. A few moments later, Barry comes down the stairs. Wally calls him a coward. Joe gets angry, and Wally leaves. Barry tells them to tell Wally that he’s not perfect. Joe asks what happened on Earth-2, and Barry spills the beans about their doppelgangers and reveals what happened. Joe tries to assure him that it’s not his fault, but Barry disagrees, crying, feeling guilty that he left an entire world at Zoom’s mercy.
Barry meets back up with the team at STAR Labs. Dr. Wells hasn’t figured out how to track King Shark yet. However, Caitlin explains how King Shark is able to track Barry, and says they’re going to flip it to make King Shark the prey and track him using active electro-location.
The team, except for Cisco, Dr. Wells, and Jesse, goes down to the docks. Out on the water is a buoy with a fake Flash that they’re using as bait for King Shark, as it mimics and enhances the electric field Barry’s body generates, and it includes tranquilizers to knock him out. Nearby is a containment truck to hold him that’s made of an impenetrable metal.
Cisco warns the others that King Shark is heading towards the bait. King Shark jumps up and grabs the Flash lure. They try to reel him in, but he’s not on the line. Cisco says he’s headed for the docks. Suddenly, King Shark jumps out of the water. Diggle and Lyla fire on him, but the guns don’t affect him. The Flash runs across the water, while King Shark chases after him. Barry runs in a circle. Dr. Wells explains that he’s electrifying the water. Barry is able to shoot electricity toward King Shark, knocking him out. They reel him in and put him in the containment unit.
Lyla assures the others that ARGUS’s plans to turn King Shark into a weapon died with Amanda Waller, and that their time would be better served trying to figure out how he came to be and how to cure him. Caitlin says she should talk to Dr. Lamden. Diggle and Barry say their goodbyes, and Diggle advises him to get control of his guilt, or it’ll tear him up inside.
Joe and Wally meet up at Jitters. Joe looks at Wally’s engineering project, and is impressed. Joe then tells Wally about how Barry came to be part of the family, and assures him that Barry’s not favored over anyone, that he’s his son, just like Wally is.
Caitlin approaches Cisco and acts like Killer Frost. Cisco gets freaked out, and Caitlin reveals that she’s just pulling his leg. She assures him that Killer Frost will never exist on this Earth, and tells him to stop worrying about her.
Barry apologizes to the team for his choice to go back in time to try to save his mother. He accepts responsibility for the consequences of his choice, including Zoom, and Jay’s death. Barry says that although they’re the ones that brought Zoom there, they’re also the ones who are going to stop him, although he doesn’t know how yet. However, Barry says that those breaches aren’t closed forever, and they’re not done with Earth-2. Barry unveils Jay’s helmet, which is encased atop a pedestal. He says they will meet Zoom again, and next time, he will beat him.
In the final scene, we’re back in Zoom’s lair on Earth-2, as Zoom throws Jay’s body on the floor. Then Zoom removes his mask — and we see that it’s Jay! He comments that this is a complication.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 15 of The Flash: King Shark
[Warning: If you’re not caught up with Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, you may want to skip this first paragraph.] If I hadn’t seen the Star City 2046 episode of Legends of Tomorrow, this episode would have given more weight to my theory that Diggle is the one in the grave on Arrow. The person in the grave has to be someone that Felicity would have a very strong reaction to, and someone whose funeral Barry would take the time to attend. With Barry and Diggle spending even more time together in this King Shark episode, that would support the theory that it’s Diggle. However, in Star City 2046, Diggle’s son reveals that Diggle had died because he failed to save him. That means that Diggle would not have been the person in the grave because he was meant to be alive for longer. (Yes, there’s also the possibility that the reality in that universe is different than ours, but I’m going to assume that the two universes were the same for awhile, but diverged later on in the timeline.) Now, since I no longer believe that it’s Diggle in the grave, I’m thinking that it’s Felicity’s mother. Barry did ask about Felicity this episode, and they’re close enough friends that Barry would attend her mother’s funeral, plus based on Felicity’s strong emotional reaction, and Oliver’s lack of reaction, since he’s not really close to Donna, it fits.
Okay, back to the episode at hand. The last time we saw King Shark, it was for an abbreviated amount of time, so we didn’t get to see much of him. This time around, we got to see a lot more of him, and actually saw him in action, walking around, fighting, and swimming, rather than just standing on land. I thought the CGI was actually pretty good for TV. However, some part seemed a bit silly, or inconsistent with what his abilities were supposed to be. First of all, it was so dumb of the ARGUS people to fall for King Shark’s trick in the beginning. Then King Shark tears through the roof of Joe’s house and demands to know where The Flash is — but based on later events, shouldn’t he have been able to tell that Barry was the Flash? That buoy was just hanging out, and King Shark went right for it. You’d think he would have gone right for Barry when he ripped open the roof. I’ll admit that the water scene with both King Shark and Barry swimming around was pretty cool.
I’m glad that Barry and Cisco came clean with the others about their Earth-2 doppelgangers. The secrecy is kind of annoying. Now we have another secrecy to deal with — Wally not knowing that Barry is The Flash. Part of me wants them to just go ahead and tell him. He is a part of the family, after all. But if Wally already feeling threatened by Barry as it is, he’d feel even more inferior learning that Barry is The Flash. I am a little surprised that Joe hadn’t told Wally until now how Barry became a part of the family. You’d think that would have been one of the first things they talked about.
But then we get a big reveal at the end of the episode — Zoom is Jay Garrick. But how can this be? Has he gone to several parallel worlds and collected as many speedsters as possible in order to increase his own speed and strength? Is the man in the iron mask yet another Jay Garrick from yet another Earth? If so, why is he being kept alive? I’m looking forward to the explanation on this!
Josh’s Thoughts: The Flash, Season 2 Episode 15: King Shark
So I am curious to figure out who Jay Garrick really is now. We know that he is Zoom now, or at least he has the face of him. What I wonder though, is Earth 2’s Hunter Zolomon the same as Jay Garrick? Based on the reveal last episode I think I might have put some things together—in Earth 1, we learn Jay Garrick was adopted, and is named Hunter Zolomon. In Earth 2, if we believe the Jay Garrick that came through the portal as the Flash, then he is the Jay Garrick from Earth 2. Perhaps Zoom’s Jay Garrick is from Earth 3, and is adopted thereby getting the name Hunter Zolomon? Then the masked person is from another Earth as well—Earth 4, and is also Jay Garrick?
So far this is what I have put together. The other potential answer is that there are clones of Jay Garrick, but that seems like a weird way for the story to play out.
It is really difficult to figure out what is really going on here. We know that there are many universes in the DC Universe, and we can assume that Zoom could be travel to other universes besides just Earth 1’s. Either way, I look forward to seeing what happen with Zoom.
The rest of the episode seemed like a filler episode. King Shark was cool to see again, and the special effects were pretty good with him still. Interestingly, I actually had some sympathy for King Shark. He is now stranded in Earth 1, and has no way to go home. Even for a bad guy, that is a pretty sad situation.
As for Cisco tip-toeing around Caitlyn, worried about her turning into Killer Frost, it seemed a bit silly. Cisco doesn’t really know what led Caitlyn from Earth 2 down the dark path, but it was certainly a much different one than this Caitlyn, so he shouldn’t really be too worried about her going bad so easily.
The return of the show is tonight though, let’s hope we get some answers!
Scenes from The Flash, Season 2 Episode 16: Trajectory
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Flash, titled Trajectory:
Simply incredible what they continue to do with that show