The Flash: “King Shark” Review

The shark has left the aquarium.

“King Shark” could almost qualify as the unofficial third chapter of The Flash’s recent Earth-2 storyline. The setting may have shifted almost entirely back to Earth-1, but the ordeal of that trip weighed heavily on Barry and Cisco this week. That was fodder for some great character drama. Throw in a bad guy whose distinguishing characteristic is that he’s a talking, pants-wearing shark and a major Zoom-related reveal, and there was more than enough to keep the show’s momentum up leading into a month-long hiatus.

If nothing else, it was great to see King Shark get his due after a disappointingly brief appearance earlier in the season. Short of Gorilla Grodd, no villain has served as such a great showcase for what the VFX wizards on this show are capable of. I would go so far as to argue that King Shark looked more detailed and lifelike than the infamous shot of Doomsday from the Batman v Superman trailer (though it helps that he has a distinctive look and isn’t just another generic CGI troll monster).

King Shark looked just as good in motion, too. This episode was pretty judicious in how it used the character. His actual screen time didn’t number more than a few minutes, but he left a strong impression all the same. It didn’t hurt that he was voiced by Solid Snake himself, David Hayter. That final battle between Flash and King Shark was jaw-dropping, to be sure. Definitely one of the coolest displays of Barry’s growing abilities in recent memory. One can only imagine how much of the show’s budget was eaten up by this episode.

King Shark’s return also allowed the writers to work in guest appearance’s for Arrow mainstays Diggle (John Ramsey) and Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson). Neither character necessarily added that much to the story, but it’s always fun to see the shared universe element crop up in a more significant way. Diggle’s struggle to comprehend the idea of metahuman shark monsters and people who can run faster than the speed of sound always manages to amuse, and now his wife is in that camp. A.R.G.U.S.’s inability to rein in King Shark did raise the question of why Dr. Wells wasn’t of more help this week. After all, Wells made his big debut by felling King Shark with his homemade blaster. Did he just lose it between then and now?

King Shark was a fairly lighthearted villain as far as these things go. He even allowed the characters to make a respectable amount of Jaws references (my favorite being the fact that the A.R.G.U.S. troops nicknamed him Bruce). That levity helped balance out what was otherwise a fairly dark and brooding episode. Barry had a lot of profound emotional issues to deal with in the aftermath of his Earth-2 trip. Even those issues were an extension of the guilt and heartache he’s been wrestling with since the end of Season 1. He regrets his part in opening the breaches between Earth-1 and Earth-2, thereby bringing the evil of Zoom into his world. He’s haunted by the sight of seeing Earth-2’s Joe die before his eyes and the thought that he was partly responsible for that as well.

That’s some bad hat, Diggle.

Needless to say, this was a dramatically challenging episode for Grant Gustin, and as usual he more than delivered. He played Barry like a walking (or running) zombie for the first half of this episode before finally letting his emotions pour out to Joe and Iris. Apart from the gut-wrenching phone conversation with his mother in “Welcome to Earth-2,” that easily ranks as one of Gustin’s finest moments this season. Barry still has a lot to learn when it comes to not carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, and also accepting that failing to save someone’s life doesn’t make him responsible for their death. But there is a sense that he turned an important corner with his impassioned speech to the rest of the team at the end of the episode.

This episode also focused on building a bond between Barry and Wally. Obviously the show’s take on Wally is quite a bit different from the traditional comic book version (or the current New 52 version, for that matter). The important element to retain is that sense of family connection between the two characters. Wally doesn’t seem ready to look up to Barry as any sort of mentor figure yet, but the two characters took an important step this week. I only wish Barry had been present for that scene in the coffee shop. It would have lent more significance to Wally’s acceptance of Barry as a good man with some flaws.

Cisco had his own emotional issues to deal with this week, as he was plagued by the idea that the loss of another boyfriend would drive Caitlin into supervillainy. It was a stupid idea, of course, and I’m glad that Caitlin said as much when she finally strong-armed the truth out of him. At the same time, it spoke to the strong bond between the two that Cisco would be so worried about her psychological well-being. And despite Caitlin’s assurances that she won’t turn into an ice-wielding villainess, there was a touch of foreboding to this subplot. Can we truly be sure she won’t fall from grace given the right motivation?

This episode could have ended with Barry’s rousing speech and it would have been a perfectly solid way to cap off the evening. But luckily, the final sequence finally gave viewers what they’ve been craving for months – the reveal of the man behind that black, ghoulish mask. It seems that Zoom is none other than Hunter Zolomon. The reveal is a little underwhelming in some ways. I was pulling for either Earth-2 Joe or some version of Henry, just because of the emotional gut-punch that reveal would have for Barry. Having Zoom be “the guy who looks just like that other guy” doesn’t really have the same impact. At the same time, it’s obvious there’s a lot more to be revealed. There’s the matter of the mysterious man in the iron mask, for one thing. And with Jay’s history of withholding information, can we be absolutely sure he doesn’t know more about his doppelganger than he’s been letting on? Is it even possible that he and Zolomon have both been wearing the Zoom costume at different points? There’s a lot to chew on over these next four, Flash-less weeks.