The Flash Season 2 Episode 15 "King Shark" - Recap and Review

After returning from Earth-2, Dr Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) advises Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) not to discuss with Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) or Iris West (Candice Patton) or Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) about what happened to their doppelgangers.

Torn between his desire to be honest with the Wests and his guilt over the murder of Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears) at the hands of Zoom (voiced by Tony Todd), Barry yearns for a meta-human to vent out his anger upon.

Barry's wishes come true when King Shark (voiced by David Hayter) escapes from his holding cell at the A.R.G.U.S. Lyla Michaels (Audrey Marie Anderson) is  the new head of A.R.G.U.S. and witnesses this escape along with her husband, John Diggle (David Ramsey).

Diggle warns Barry about the impending danger. Barry learns from Dr Wells that on Earth-2, King Shark was actually Shay Lamden, a marine biologist before he mutated into the half human-half shark monster. Dr Wells advises Cisco and Caitlin to approach Dr. Tanya Lamden (Haley Beauchamp), wife of the deceased doppelganger on our Earth. Tanya also happens to be studying sharks.

A secondary plot involves Barry trying to make amends with Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale). Wally is insecure about his place in the family vis-a-vis the well-established Barry, whom both Joe and Iris dote on.

After the superior two parter episode set around Earth-2, it was a tough task for any episode to maintain the status quo. To the credit of all the talents involved, they succeed for the most part.

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King Shark has been executed very well. Though we know that the meta human is a walking talking group of computer generated pixels, still the villain was enjoyable. His encounters with the Flash were entertaining. It is interesting that a TV show made at a fraction of the budget that Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder, can give us such engrossing villains like Reverse Flash, Zoom and King Shark.

This only goes to shows what great difference people with passion for the source material can make. It is quite obvious that both Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder have absolutely no respect or passion for the comic books on which they are basing their DC Extended Universe upon. The special effects for Man of Steel and the upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice pale in comparison. I highly doubt that Doomsday and/or whatever other villains we will be seeing in the upcoming movie can have 1% of the impact that Zoom or King Shark have been able to produce.

Cisco acting afraid around Caitlin and her retaliatory prank was hilarious. Cisco again proved his geek credentials by wearing a Godzilla themed T-Shirt this time around.

In the previous episode, Cisco made a reference to the crime thriller movie: Heat. This one contains a ton of references to (drumroll please).... Jaws:

1. The aquarium employee referring to King Shark as “Bruce”.

2. Cisco's response to the fact that King Shark is coming to Central City to seek revenge against The Flash: “We are gonna need a bigger Flash”.

3. Cisco's comment: “Cue the Jaws Soundtrack”.

4. Cisco and Caitlin arguing who should be “Quint”

5. Cisco's comment: “Just when you thought it was go back in the suburb, King Shark shows up at your house”.

6. Wally West explicitly refers to “Jaws” after the King Shark attack.

Joe West also refers to “Sharknado” attack.

The final and crucial aspect was the revelation regarding Zoom. In the final scene, we see that Zoom is in fact Jay Garrick himself. Now it makes sense that the masked hostage was trying to communicate the name “JAY” to Barry on Earth-2.

This is an interesting plot development and promises more interesting episodes in the future.

Recommended watch to fans of The Flash/DC Comics.

Click here to read all my posts related to DC Comics.

Image Sources: Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, The CW Television Network

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The Flash Season 2 Episode 14 "Escape from Earth-2" - Recap and Review

In the previous episode, Zoom (voiced by Tony Todd) had taken Barry Allen/Flash (Grant Gustin) as his hostage. Zoom had also killed his minions, Deathstorm (Robbie Amell) and Reverb (Carlos Valdes).

Zoom now goes after his next target: Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh). Harrison, Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) and Bartholomew Allen (Grant Gustin) just about make their escape from the unstoppable villain.

Explaining how things stand to Bartholomew and subsequently to Detective Iris West-Allen (Candice Patton), they decide to track down Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker). The team hopes to use the death of her lover to turn her against Zoom.

Bartholomew zeroes in on Frost's location using his algorithm. Interesting thing was the passing mention of Patty Spivot, the CSI Tech who worked on Killer Frost's cases and is supposed to be “thorough”.

Frost is not co-operative initially, but the team overpower her and “convince” her to take them to Zoom's lair.

Back on our Earth, Adam Wells/Geomancer (Adam Stafford) is back after his first round of confrontation with Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears). He challenges the newer version of Flash by putting people in peril.

Jay manages to save the people, but trouble is not yet over. Geomancer turns up at STAR Labs. Jay is exhausted and is dozing, oblivious to the danger right next to him. It is up to Caitlin and Iris to confront the villain. Caitlin subdues him using a weapon. Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) has him arrested and taken to Iron Heights Penitentiary.

A secondary plot on Earth-2 involves Flash trying to decode what the as-yet unidentified masked hostage is trying to convey by tapping his fingers on the cage door. With the help of Jesse Wells (Violett Beane), Barry deduces that the man is trying to pronounce the word “JAY”.

Help arrives shortly as Frost leads Dr Wells, Cisco, Iris and Bartholomew to the place where he is being hostage. So does Zoom. It is revealed that Frost deliberately led them there as part of Zoom's plans.

Cisco again reminds Frost about the fact that Zoom killed Deathstorm and that Frost knows better than to just follow Zoom blindly. Frost finally sees the wisdom and turns against her boss.

This gives the team just enough time to make their way back to our Earth. But Zoom has the last laugh, as he whisks Jay back to Earth 2 with him before the portal can be closed.

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This was a good episode - not on the level of the first parter, but nonetheless better than most others. Once again, the humor is one of the main aspects.

Everyone from Grant Gustin to Candice Patton get to flex their acting chops. Grant is hilarious as the nerdy Bartholomew and works well in the scenes with Wells and Cisco, as he threatens to have a word with Barry's Flash. He also proved his geek credentials with his talk about the sci fi series: “Commander Carl, Space Marshal of the Galaxy”.

Cisco gets his share of the laughs with “Zoom's Lair”.

Danielle Panabaker gets the best bits in this episode. As Frost on Earth-2, she is the one who helps our team escape from a certain death at the hands of Zoom. As Caitlin Snow, she not only puts Geomancer out of commission (temporarily), but also devises a solution to cure Jay's illness via Velocity-9. In the end, she becomes the tragic figure (again) as she loses her loved ones on both Earths.

There are a number of references to DC Universe. Some of the easter eggs I caught are:

1. Cisco asking Frost to give up by warning her that she would not be able to make another icicle - Icicle is the name of a supervillain who also has the abilities of cold manipulation and generation.

2. Iris West-Allen mentions having friends in Atlantis with whom she can stay to maintain a low profile - In the DC Universe, Atlantis is the kingdom ruled by Aquaman.

3. The message written by Zoom out of fire on the side of a building: “Bring Me Wells” - This reminded me of the similar message sent out by Batman by burning the Bat signal in fire on a building in the movie: The Dark Knight Rises.

Finally, we come to Zoom, the clear cut winner and stand out in this episode. The look he gives the security guards when they order him not to move was just chilling and masterful. All the scenes featuring him were just electric like the villain himself.

Hats off to the producers for creating such an amazing and heart-stopping character and making all the right decisions, including the character design, the special effects and the casting of Tony Todd to voice him.

Recommended watch to fans of The Flash/DC Comics.

Click here to read all my posts related to DC Comics.

Image Sources: Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, The CW Television Network

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The Flash Season 2 Episode 6 "Enter Zoom" - Recap and Review

Barry Allen/Flash (Grant Gustin) decides to take on Zoom (voiced by Tony Todd) to prevent further civilian casualties. The other Flash, Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears) strongly advises against this. He believes that Barry (like Jay) is no match for Zoom. When Flash refuses to take his advice, Jay takes leave from S.T.A.R. Labs.

If there is one person who whole-heartedly supports Flash's plan, it is the alternate Earth's Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh). The other members, including Iris West (Candice Patton) hatch up a plan to have Linda Park (Malese Jow) pose as the villainous (and currently subdued) Dr Light. The endgame is to trick Zoom and have Flash capture him.


Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) has reservations and is of the opinion that Flash wants to kill this alternate version of Reverse Flash, since it was Ronnie Raymond (Robbie Amell) who took care of this Earth's version of Reverse Flash.

A subplot involves Cisco Ramon/Vibe(Carlos Valdes) using his newly found superpowers to find out if Harrison Wells is hiding any secrets from the team. After failing initially, Vibe's persistence finally pays off. He reads Wells' thoughts and sees his daughter, Jesse Wells (Violett Beane) being held as hostage by Zoom.

In the mean time, Flash and the the gang train Linda Park to act as Dr Light. She uses a gadget (developed by Cisco) to simulate the supervillain's superpowers. This training montage came off as a bit childish.

When they finally act out their encounter, Zoom does not turn up. Joe advises the disappointed Barry to focus on things that make him happy. Barry knows exactly what that means and heads right away to meet Patty Spivot (Shantel VanSanten).

Zoom is no slouch either. He kidnaps Linda and arrives at S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry suits up and saves Linda. But Zoom proves to be way too fast even for the Flash (just as Jay had predicted). Despite being outmatched, Barry tries to outwit Zoom, but fails.

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Zoom beats up Barry good and then parades the beaten hero before the local cops and the media. Finally, he takes Barry to S.T.A.R. Labs and is about to finish him off. Cisco manages to land a hit at the distracted Zoom, who still takes off and escapes.

As Barry regains his consciousness, he realizes that he cannot feel his legs any more.

This was an OK episode. As I had mentioned earlier, the scenes featuring Malese Jow's Linda Park were boring. On the other hand, Zoom completely stole each scene he was in. Voiced by Tony Todd, he is a very compelling villain. Kudos to the casting director for this inspired choice. Tony Todd brings his full weight and experience to the role and what a difference it makes. A very inspired casting choice...

The rest of the cast are adequate in their performances. Carlos Valdes gets a lot of screen time as he gets to practice his powers on Dr Wells. But they could have avoided having Cisco and Caitlin discussing about Wells well within his earshot. That was pretty amateurish.

In the review of the previous episode, I had remarked that Cisco Ramon had become the equivalent of Professor Charles Xavier's Cerebro due to his ability to locate meta-humans. This episode brings that comparison even more relevant by making Barry himself the equivalent of Charles Xavier due to his current physical predicament.

Recommended watch to fans of The Flash/DC Comics.

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Image Sources: Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, The CW Television Network

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The Flash Season 2 Episode 5 "The Darkness and the Light" - Recap and Review

In the previous episode, we saw that it was Dr Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) from Earth 2 who rescued Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) from a certain death at the hands of the gigantic King Shark.

The opening scene is set in Earth 2 about 8 months ago. Dr Wells is introducing his latest innovation in the series of Metahuman Awareness Apps. This one is in the form of a watch that alerts the nearby presence of a meta-human.

Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears) stops by and makes his displeasure known. He considers Dr Wells as being responsible for the presence of meta-humans on Earth-2 to begin with. Harrison Well's daughter, Jesse Wells (Violett Beane) is also present.

In our present world, everyone is taken aback by the sudden re-appearance of Dr Harrison Wells. Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) even fires at Dr Wells, leading the Flash to pull a Superman and stop the bullets.

Meanwhile, Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) tries to pick up Kendra Saunders (Ciara Renee) to teach Barry the necessary skills of the game. Kendra Saunders is Hawkgirl in Legends of Tomorrow, the upcoming series that brings together the characters from both Arrow and The Flash. Cisco fails miserably in his first attempt.

The villain-of-the-week sent by Zoom to kill Flash is Dr Light (Malese Jow). When the Flash encounters the supervillain, he is shocked to realize that she is the alternate version of Linda Park, whom Barry dated briefly in the previous season. Taking advantage of the Flash's indecisiveness, Dr Light blinds him.

Barry's temporary blindness does not stop him from going on a date with Patty Spivot (Shantel VanSanten). This was a genuinely hilarious sequence and due credit to Grant Gustin for pulling this off so nicely.

Just about the same time, Jay Garrick and Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) keep an eye on Linda Park. They take this measure since Zoom's previous assassins have murdered their doppelgangers on our Earth.

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Just as they are about to get intimate, Dr Light appears and is about to kill Linda. Iris West (Candice Patton) shoots off Dr Light's helmet. The supervillain does kill an innocent bystander before fleeing the scene.

Once Flash recovers from the loss of his sight, Dr Harrison Wells recommends that Flash capture Dr Light in order to bring Zoom to this Earth. Wells has already deduced (using his app) that Cisco himself has developed superpowers. He forces Cisco to use his powers on Dr Light's helmet and he is able to find out her location in the third attempt. Flash creates a “Speed Mirage” to trick Dr Light and subdues her. 

This is not the first time that the show writers have used Cisco's new found powers to locate a hostage/criminal. It stuck me that he is the equivalent of “Cerebro”, the device used by Professor Charles Xavier to track down mutants.

In the closing scenes, Cisco, Barry and Caitlin frequent the same store they had done earlier. This time, Kendra herself obligingly provides her phone number to Cisco. She explains that she is new to the city and is apprehensive of all the meta-humans running around.

Cisco celebrates his success with Barry and Caitlin. Since he too has meta-human powers now, Cisco looks for a name. Caitling suggests “Vibe” and Cisco is taken up with it. Unknown to them, Dr Harrison Wells is spying on them. 

The final scene is again set in Earth 2. Zoom (voiced by Tony Todd) is forcibly keeping Wells' daughter, Jesse as his hostage.

This was an OK episode. The absence of Victor Garber's Dr. Martin Stein was strongly felt. On top of that, this alternate version of Harrison Wells is a bit gruff and less humorous. Same goes for Dr Light. Perhaps, the show writers want to differentiate between the two alternate version of characters this way.

The casting of Tony Todd as the voice of Zoom is promising. Tony Todd is a terrific actor especially in the horror genre. He would definitely lend the necessary gravitas and an edge to Zoom's voice.

Yet another enjoyable aspect of the episode was the reference to Atlantis. Jay Garrick mentions that he has a friend (presumably Aquaman) from Atlantis and that on Earth 2 Atlantis is above water.

Speaking of Jay Garrick, he is apprehensive about Flash facing the Zoom and takes his leave. When Caitlin wonders aloud later if she will ever Jay again, Barry replies that as a true hero, Jay would appear at the right time.

The preview for the next episode indicates that Zoom will be paying a visit to our Earth. Hopefully, that episode will pick up the steam.

Recommended watch to fans of The Flash/DC Comics.

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Image Sources: Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, The CW Television Network

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The Flash Season 2 Episode 1 "The Man Who Saved Central City" - Recap and Review

The Season 2 opener starts with a quick recap of the first season: Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) develops powers of superspeed as a result of the explosion at S.T.A.R. Labs. His mentor, Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) turns out to be the villainous Reverse Flash/Zoom. Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett) sacrifices his life in order to stop Reverse Flash from killing Flash.

In Season one's cliffhanger ending, Flash is seen racing to save the city from destruction. Turns out that the real hero of the day was Ronnie Raymond (Robbie Amell). Come to think of it, the fiances of both Iris West (Candice Patton) and Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) lost their lives (willingly) to save Barry Allen.

In the present day, Barry faces a new challenge in the form of the imposing Al Rothstein (Adam Copeland). This menacing fellow has super strength, can increase his height greatly and absorbs energy.

Right when the Central City Mayor is about to felicitate Flash on Flash Day, Rothstein arrives and easily bests Barry in their first confrontation. Flash blames himself for Ronnie's death and withdraws onto himself.

Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) convinces Barry to stop feeling guilty and to take help from others. Flash's usual support team of Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) and Caitlin Snow has a new addition: Dr. Martin Stein (Victor Garber).

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Dr Martin proves his credentials by naming the new villain “Atom Smasher”. Cisco is instantly impressed. Not to be left behind, Cisco designs a Flash-Signal, after having read about such signals in some comic books.....

This time, Flash is able to beats Atom Smasher by overpowering him with too much energy in a power plant.

In a secondary plot, Harrison Wells releases a video in which he confesses to have murdered Barry's mother, Nora Allen (Michelle Harrison). Barry is able to secure the release of his jailed father, Henry Allen (John Wesley Shipp).

Throughout the episode, a man is seen shadowing Barry and taking his photographs. This stranger turns out to be Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears). As fans of DC Comics will know, Jay is the first Flash. He warns Barry about an impending danger.

This was a strong opening episode to Season 2. The best parts featured Victor Garber's character and his interactions with Cisco. They were funny and the cast enjoys a good chemistry with each other.

Atom Smasher reminded me of Bane in terms of his imposing physicality, mask and the long coat jacket costume. And to top it all was the not-so-subtle reference to the Bat-Signal. As a fan of Batman and the DC Universe, I enjoyed it very much.

Recommended watch to fans of The Flash/DC Comics.

Click here to read all my posts related to DC Comics.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to this blog by email or RSS by clicking here.

Image Source: Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, The CW Television Network

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