Let's start with a rant. Tuesday night I settled in front of my TV with a refreshing beverage, all ready to watch The Flash after it came back from its two week hiatus. As 7:00 arrived, a cheerful announcer informed me that tonight's episode was being pre-empted for a goddamned basketball game, and they'd air it at 3 am Saturday or some bullsh*t.
Jesus Motherfraking Jetskiing Christ! There're well over THIRTY goddamned sports channels out there. Hell, there're EIGHT different ESPN channels alone! With all that available bandwidth out there, there's absolutely no reason for them to bump regularly scheduled shows on broadcast networks! Wanna watch some minor game leading up to the Final Four? Fine, go nuts! But do it on a sports channel, and let those of us with less than zero interest in ball games watch our programs.
So I had to turn to other means to find this week's episode, which delayed the review a bit. Are you trying to encourage piracy, WEHT in Evansville? Because THIS is how you encourage piracy.
As you can probably tell, I'm not a fan or organized sports and have absolutely no use for them. If you like 'em, great. More power to you. Just keep 'em away from me. I dearly wish for a world in which organized sports don't exist, but I know that'll never happen. At least not in my lifetime.
OK, rant over.
Also this week there's some GREAT news, and some potentially awful news. The great news is that at long, long last, Jesse L. Martin's back as Joe West. Martin was forced to take an extended medical leave after seriously injuring his back last year, and it was unclear as to whether he'd return this season at all. Fortunately he's back, and seemingly in great health again. Huzzah!
The bad news? OK, last month I noted that Carlos Valdes, aka Cisco, was reportedly leaving the series at the end of this season. As if that wasn't bad enough, now there are ominous rumblings that Tom Cavanagh, who plays all the various Wellseses on the show (and Eobard Thawne to boot) may be leaving too. AND it's been rumored that Danielle Panabaker, aka Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost could be on her way out too!
Jesus Christ! It's a potential exodus!
OK, Cisco's loss will deal a serious blow to the series, as he's the chief science nerd as well as the comic relief. As sad as it'll be to see him go, I think the show can survive without him.
It will NOT survive without Cavanagh though. He's the best actor on the show, hands down, and has been since the series began. There's been a version of Harrison Wells in each season of the show, and it just won't feel like The Flash without him.
And if Caitlin goes too... then they might as well tear down the STAR Labs sets, because there'll be no use for them ever again. The series definitely won't be the same without these three, as it'll have to be completely retooled.
Many fans believe that when next season's big Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover event premieres, the various versions of Harrison Wells will team up to defeat The Monitor. At some point they'll all be killed or sacrifice themselves to save the day, paving the way for Cavanagh to leave the show.
So far the Cavanagh/Panabaker departures are just rumors, so take 'em with a grain of salt. Hopefully they'll turn out to be wrong.
Speaking of absences, Ralph's AWOL yet again this week! I'm definitely starting to believe that The Flash has some kind of budgetary cap on the number of actors it can pay every week. Now before someone "actuallys" me, I know TV cast members are under contract, and get paid whether they're in an episode or not.
I wonder though if it's possible that Hartley Sawyer's a "day player"— meaning he only gets paid when they call him in to star in an episode? It would explain quite a bit if that was the case.
Whatever the reason, it's obvious that something's going on with this cast, as there seems to be a limit as to how many can appear in any given episode.
SPOILERS!
The Plot:
There's panic on the streets ofLondon, er, Central City, as both the Flash and XS lie on the ground, completely paralyzed. Gorilla Grodd stands over them, roaring as he prepares to strike. Suddenly King Shark appears, and the two behemoths begin battling one another.
12 Hours Earlier... (ugh)
At STAR Labs, Cisco announces his ill-advised meta cure is finally finished. The only problem is they need a test subject to see if it works, and it'll be tough to find someone willing to give up their powers forever. Sherloque suggests testing it on a meta from another Earth, which doesn't make any sense, but whatever. Barry pipes up and says he knows someone here on Earth-1 who fits that description.
Team Flash travels to Star City, where they meet with Lyla Michaels of ARGUS. Barry tells her they want to talk to King Shark, who lived on Earth-2 until Zoom sent him here to kill the Flash. When Lyla asks what they want with him, Barry says they have a way to cure him. They ask if the massive beast can even communicate, and Lyla says he's been very talkative lately.
Meanwhile at the West house, Joe's finally back from his extended vacation to Tibet. He tells Iris that Cecile brought him up to speed on the Cicada situation— specifically the fact that he killed Team Flash over and over while they were caught in a time loop. Joe thinks Cicada's getting help from someone. Iris seems uncomfortable with the whole Cicada topic and rushes to the kitchen to make coffee.
At ARGUS, Team Flash meets with Dr. Tanya Lamden, who was married to the late Shay Lamden of Earth-1. She's been working with her dead husband's Earth-2 doppelganger, who's now a gigantic shark man. Confused yet?
Tanya says the longer Shay stays in shark man form, the more his mind will regress. In order to counter this, she's invented a "telepathic crown" to slow his degeneration and allow her to communicate with him.
Barry tells Tanya they may be able to make Shay human again, but they need his permission first. She uses the crown to explain the situation to King Shark, and he agrees to give it a try. He bursts up out of his holding tank and lands on the dock before them. Team Flash is taken aback by the sight of the massive shark man, but stand their ground. He asks if they can really help him.
Before Barry can answer, everyone's hit by a psychic blast from somewhere. King Shark goes berserk, rips off the crown and dives into the open water, getting away. Tanya worries that without the crown, Shay will be lost forever. Cisco invites her to STAR Labs, confident they'll be able to track him with their satellite.
Back at the West house, Iris asks if she can work on her newspaper there. Joe says sure, but wonders why she's not in her fancy new office. She mumbles something about the plumbing being on the fritz, and Joe offers to call his plumber. She says no thanks, and hurriedly leaves. Joe suspects something's wrong.
At STAR, Cisco uses his MAD 2.0 (whatever that is?) to amplify the telepathic crown's power signal. Eventually it synchs up with the crown and they're able to locate King Shark at a nearby wharf.
For some reason, Sherloque spends most of the episode creepily hanging around Tanya and suggesting she's in love with Shay, who's the Earth-2 version of her late husband. She says they're both marine biologists and he's her patient, but that's as far as it goes.
Barry & Cisco breach to the wharf to locate King Shark. He leaps out of the water again and roars at them. Nora zooms onto the scene, and puts a spare crown on King Shark's head before he realizes what's happening. Tanya speaks to him through the crown, trying to calm him down. It doesn't work, as he grabs Cisco and starts to bite off his head.
Barry immediately leaps into action, injecting King Shark with the meta cure. He staggers around the wharf for a bit and falls into the water. A fully human Shay Lamden emerges a few seconds later.
Back at STAR, Team Flash stands around Shay's bed as he lays unconscious. He wakes confused, wondering where he is. Tanya tells him everything's OK, as he's human again. Caitlin examines him and says he still has some dark matter in his pituitary gland, which could cause him to revert at some point in the future. So the meta cure isn't really a cure after all then, is it? She suggests injecting him a second time to make his humanity's permanent.
Barry sheepishly explains to Shay that he injected him with the cure against his will. Amazingly Shay's fine with this, as he was feeling his humanity slip away as King Shark. He says he remembers fragments of what he did as a shark man, and should be held accountable for his actions (which we all know will never happen on this show).
Shay says he also remembers Tanya's kindness toward him. She takes his hand, which suddenly transforms back into King Shark's slimy appendage. Caitlin says the dark matter's multiplying exponentially. Barry tells Shay they can't let him leave, and asks Caitlin to get another batch of meta cure ready.
Cisco and Caitlin then meet privately with Barry, and the two tear him a new asshole for giving Shay the cure without his permission. Quite rightly, Barry points out that if he hadn't done so, King Shark would be digesting Cisco's head in his stomach. He says he acted without thinking to save Cisco's life. Cisco asks Barry if he that's really true, or if "accidentally" using it was his plan all along.
Cut to Jitters, where Iris is typing away on her laptop (putting out a newspaper single-handedly). Joe enters and says he stopped by her office but she wasn't there. He asks her point blank why she's avoiding the place. She finally admits she's afraid to go there, since now that Cicada knows who she is, he could show up at any moment. Joe tells her to come with him.
Back at STAR, Cisco and Caitlin discuss the psychic blast that affected everyone at ARGUS (including King Shark). Barry enters and apologizes to them both. Cisco suddenly punches Barry in the jaw, and fires a vibe blast that knocks him across the room. Realizing Cisco's under some kind of mind control (gosh, I wonder who could be doing that?), he speeds him into the STAR Labs Secret Super Jail.
Barry returns to the lab, where he sees Caitlin handing the spare telepathic crown to Gorilla Grodd. Grodd leaps out the window with the crown, as Caitlin shoots an ice blast at Barry (without transforming into Killer Frost, I might add).
Cut to sometime later, as Cisco and Caitlin have recovered from Grodd's psychic attack. Barry asks Lyla (who's still hanging around) how Grodd escaped from ARGUS. She says that on the night of DeVoe's Enlightenment, ARGUS' power dampeners went down for a brief second. That was long enough for Grodd to psychically control a guard and force him to disable his dampener permanently.
Grodd then tried to control King Shark but couldn't, due to his animal nature. Apparently he then escaped in order to steal the telepathic crown Tanya invented. With it, he'll be able to amplify his psychic powers a thousandfold and control the entire city.
Meanwhile, Tanya watches as Shay stands on the balcony and stares out at the city. Once again, Sherloque creepily intrudes, saying he thinks she's developing feelings for this man who looks like her late husband. She insists they're just friends, and that'd it be crazy to fall in love with a doppelganger from another Earth. Sherloque points out that he married the same woman from five different Earths, and that love is love or some such hooey. Tanya goes to Shay, who tells her his world was dull and gray until he met her. He asks if she's disappointed that he's human again, and she kisses him.
Joe brings Iris to the CCPD gym (I guess?) and gets her to take out her frustrations on a punching bag. He tells her he went to Tibet to get over his encounter with Cicada, and she needs to do something similar. She punches the bag repeatedly, imagining it's Cicada's face, I guess. And just like that, she's over her fear!
Grodd climbs to the top of Broome Tower, which is in the center of, er, Central City. He then uses his crown-amplified powers to take control of every citizen, freezing them all in their tracks (oddly enough, Team Flash is unaffected). Caitlin reminds everyone that she once played Fay Wray to Grodd's Kong, and volunteers to try to talk to him. Killer Frost tells her no way in hell.
Barry suggests they pull some anti-mind control headsets out of their storage closet, but Cisco points out they didn't work so well against Grodd last time. Barry says they'll have to do, and he & Nora put them on.
They speed to Grodd's location and confront him. Nora runs around him at superspeed, while Barry simply punches him in the nose. Barry then knocks Grodd down into a parking garage. He climbs back out of it and hits the two with a psychic blast, immobilizing them.
Back at STAR, Shay asks Caitlin to transform him back into King Shark in order to defeat Grodd and save the city. She warns him that if she does so, the change will be permanent this time. Tanya doesn't want him to do it, but he says he wants to make up for all the terrible things he's done. He tells Caitlin to transform him.
Caitlin says a large vibrational jolt would probably amplify the dark matter in his body and force the transformation. Cisco gets the message, and hits Shay with a vibe blast. He begins changing.
We then catch back up to the beginning of the episode. There's panic on the streets ofLondon, er, Central City, as both the Flash and XS lie on the ground, completely paralyzed. Gorilla Grodd stands over them, roaring as he prepares to strike. Suddenly King Shark appears, and the two behemoths begin battling one another.
Their fight takes them into an abandoned building, and they eventually emerge onto the roof. Grodd punches King Shark into unconsciousness, then strings him up and hangs him upside down from a construction crane.
Barry & Nora recover and see King Shark hanging from the crane. Tanya tells them that sharks enter "tonic immobility" when they're turned upside down. King Shark needs a jolt of electricity in order to revive him. Barry & Nora zoom to the roof and run around Grodd, generating a massive charge of speed lightning. They unleash twin bolts of lightning— one striking King Shark, while the other hits Grodd.
King Shark's revived, as Grodd falls to the street. King Shark jumps down to the street and rips the crown off of Grodd. He then pounds the ever-loving tar out of him. King Shark puts the crown on his head and roars in victory.
In the tag scene, Lyla tells Team Flash that ARGUS has put Grodd in a medically induced coma to prevent any further attacks. She says his powers are growing exponentially, but he can't use 'em if he's out like a light. For some reason, they're all OK with forcing this on another living being.
Tanya sits in front of an enormous aquarium, watching King Shark swim back and forth. One last time, Sherloque enters and creepily comments on her "friendship" with Shay. She wonders what this new development will mean for their relationship. Sherloque tells her the heart wants what it wants, and she should accept that.
After Sherloque thankfully leaves, Tanya laments to Shay that they finally found each other, only to be separated again. He tells her their connection is still there, and he'd sacrifice himself to save her all over again. He reaches out and touches the aquarium glass with his massive webbed hand, and she does the same.
Barry promises Cisco and Caitlin that he won't use the meta cure without asking again. In fact he says that instead of injecting Cicada with the cure to stop his murderous rampage, they should approach him and ask if he wants to take it (!!!!!!!).
Thoughts:
Jesus Christ! It's a potential exodus!
OK, Cisco's loss will deal a serious blow to the series, as he's the chief science nerd as well as the comic relief. As sad as it'll be to see him go, I think the show can survive without him.
It will NOT survive without Cavanagh though. He's the best actor on the show, hands down, and has been since the series began. There's been a version of Harrison Wells in each season of the show, and it just won't feel like The Flash without him.
And if Caitlin goes too... then they might as well tear down the STAR Labs sets, because there'll be no use for them ever again. The series definitely won't be the same without these three, as it'll have to be completely retooled.
Many fans believe that when next season's big Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover event premieres, the various versions of Harrison Wells will team up to defeat The Monitor. At some point they'll all be killed or sacrifice themselves to save the day, paving the way for Cavanagh to leave the show.
So far the Cavanagh/Panabaker departures are just rumors, so take 'em with a grain of salt. Hopefully they'll turn out to be wrong.
Speaking of absences, Ralph's AWOL yet again this week! I'm definitely starting to believe that The Flash has some kind of budgetary cap on the number of actors it can pay every week. Now before someone "actuallys" me, I know TV cast members are under contract, and get paid whether they're in an episode or not.
I wonder though if it's possible that Hartley Sawyer's a "day player"— meaning he only gets paid when they call him in to star in an episode? It would explain quite a bit if that was the case.
Whatever the reason, it's obvious that something's going on with this cast, as there seems to be a limit as to how many can appear in any given episode.
SPOILERS!
The Plot:
There's panic on the streets of
12 Hours Earlier... (ugh)
At STAR Labs, Cisco announces his ill-advised meta cure is finally finished. The only problem is they need a test subject to see if it works, and it'll be tough to find someone willing to give up their powers forever. Sherloque suggests testing it on a meta from another Earth, which doesn't make any sense, but whatever. Barry pipes up and says he knows someone here on Earth-1 who fits that description.
Team Flash travels to Star City, where they meet with Lyla Michaels of ARGUS. Barry tells her they want to talk to King Shark, who lived on Earth-2 until Zoom sent him here to kill the Flash. When Lyla asks what they want with him, Barry says they have a way to cure him. They ask if the massive beast can even communicate, and Lyla says he's been very talkative lately.
Meanwhile at the West house, Joe's finally back from his extended vacation to Tibet. He tells Iris that Cecile brought him up to speed on the Cicada situation— specifically the fact that he killed Team Flash over and over while they were caught in a time loop. Joe thinks Cicada's getting help from someone. Iris seems uncomfortable with the whole Cicada topic and rushes to the kitchen to make coffee.
At ARGUS, Team Flash meets with Dr. Tanya Lamden, who was married to the late Shay Lamden of Earth-1. She's been working with her dead husband's Earth-2 doppelganger, who's now a gigantic shark man. Confused yet?
Tanya says the longer Shay stays in shark man form, the more his mind will regress. In order to counter this, she's invented a "telepathic crown" to slow his degeneration and allow her to communicate with him.
Barry tells Tanya they may be able to make Shay human again, but they need his permission first. She uses the crown to explain the situation to King Shark, and he agrees to give it a try. He bursts up out of his holding tank and lands on the dock before them. Team Flash is taken aback by the sight of the massive shark man, but stand their ground. He asks if they can really help him.
Before Barry can answer, everyone's hit by a psychic blast from somewhere. King Shark goes berserk, rips off the crown and dives into the open water, getting away. Tanya worries that without the crown, Shay will be lost forever. Cisco invites her to STAR Labs, confident they'll be able to track him with their satellite.
Back at the West house, Iris asks if she can work on her newspaper there. Joe says sure, but wonders why she's not in her fancy new office. She mumbles something about the plumbing being on the fritz, and Joe offers to call his plumber. She says no thanks, and hurriedly leaves. Joe suspects something's wrong.
At STAR, Cisco uses his MAD 2.0 (whatever that is?) to amplify the telepathic crown's power signal. Eventually it synchs up with the crown and they're able to locate King Shark at a nearby wharf.
For some reason, Sherloque spends most of the episode creepily hanging around Tanya and suggesting she's in love with Shay, who's the Earth-2 version of her late husband. She says they're both marine biologists and he's her patient, but that's as far as it goes.
Barry & Cisco breach to the wharf to locate King Shark. He leaps out of the water again and roars at them. Nora zooms onto the scene, and puts a spare crown on King Shark's head before he realizes what's happening. Tanya speaks to him through the crown, trying to calm him down. It doesn't work, as he grabs Cisco and starts to bite off his head.
Barry immediately leaps into action, injecting King Shark with the meta cure. He staggers around the wharf for a bit and falls into the water. A fully human Shay Lamden emerges a few seconds later.
Back at STAR, Team Flash stands around Shay's bed as he lays unconscious. He wakes confused, wondering where he is. Tanya tells him everything's OK, as he's human again. Caitlin examines him and says he still has some dark matter in his pituitary gland, which could cause him to revert at some point in the future. So the meta cure isn't really a cure after all then, is it? She suggests injecting him a second time to make his humanity's permanent.
Barry sheepishly explains to Shay that he injected him with the cure against his will. Amazingly Shay's fine with this, as he was feeling his humanity slip away as King Shark. He says he remembers fragments of what he did as a shark man, and should be held accountable for his actions (which we all know will never happen on this show).
Shay says he also remembers Tanya's kindness toward him. She takes his hand, which suddenly transforms back into King Shark's slimy appendage. Caitlin says the dark matter's multiplying exponentially. Barry tells Shay they can't let him leave, and asks Caitlin to get another batch of meta cure ready.
Cisco and Caitlin then meet privately with Barry, and the two tear him a new asshole for giving Shay the cure without his permission. Quite rightly, Barry points out that if he hadn't done so, King Shark would be digesting Cisco's head in his stomach. He says he acted without thinking to save Cisco's life. Cisco asks Barry if he that's really true, or if "accidentally" using it was his plan all along.
Cut to Jitters, where Iris is typing away on her laptop (putting out a newspaper single-handedly). Joe enters and says he stopped by her office but she wasn't there. He asks her point blank why she's avoiding the place. She finally admits she's afraid to go there, since now that Cicada knows who she is, he could show up at any moment. Joe tells her to come with him.
Back at STAR, Cisco and Caitlin discuss the psychic blast that affected everyone at ARGUS (including King Shark). Barry enters and apologizes to them both. Cisco suddenly punches Barry in the jaw, and fires a vibe blast that knocks him across the room. Realizing Cisco's under some kind of mind control (gosh, I wonder who could be doing that?), he speeds him into the STAR Labs Secret Super Jail.
Barry returns to the lab, where he sees Caitlin handing the spare telepathic crown to Gorilla Grodd. Grodd leaps out the window with the crown, as Caitlin shoots an ice blast at Barry (without transforming into Killer Frost, I might add).
Cut to sometime later, as Cisco and Caitlin have recovered from Grodd's psychic attack. Barry asks Lyla (who's still hanging around) how Grodd escaped from ARGUS. She says that on the night of DeVoe's Enlightenment, ARGUS' power dampeners went down for a brief second. That was long enough for Grodd to psychically control a guard and force him to disable his dampener permanently.
Grodd then tried to control King Shark but couldn't, due to his animal nature. Apparently he then escaped in order to steal the telepathic crown Tanya invented. With it, he'll be able to amplify his psychic powers a thousandfold and control the entire city.
Meanwhile, Tanya watches as Shay stands on the balcony and stares out at the city. Once again, Sherloque creepily intrudes, saying he thinks she's developing feelings for this man who looks like her late husband. She insists they're just friends, and that'd it be crazy to fall in love with a doppelganger from another Earth. Sherloque points out that he married the same woman from five different Earths, and that love is love or some such hooey. Tanya goes to Shay, who tells her his world was dull and gray until he met her. He asks if she's disappointed that he's human again, and she kisses him.
Joe brings Iris to the CCPD gym (I guess?) and gets her to take out her frustrations on a punching bag. He tells her he went to Tibet to get over his encounter with Cicada, and she needs to do something similar. She punches the bag repeatedly, imagining it's Cicada's face, I guess. And just like that, she's over her fear!
Grodd climbs to the top of Broome Tower, which is in the center of, er, Central City. He then uses his crown-amplified powers to take control of every citizen, freezing them all in their tracks (oddly enough, Team Flash is unaffected). Caitlin reminds everyone that she once played Fay Wray to Grodd's Kong, and volunteers to try to talk to him. Killer Frost tells her no way in hell.
Barry suggests they pull some anti-mind control headsets out of their storage closet, but Cisco points out they didn't work so well against Grodd last time. Barry says they'll have to do, and he & Nora put them on.
They speed to Grodd's location and confront him. Nora runs around him at superspeed, while Barry simply punches him in the nose. Barry then knocks Grodd down into a parking garage. He climbs back out of it and hits the two with a psychic blast, immobilizing them.
Back at STAR, Shay asks Caitlin to transform him back into King Shark in order to defeat Grodd and save the city. She warns him that if she does so, the change will be permanent this time. Tanya doesn't want him to do it, but he says he wants to make up for all the terrible things he's done. He tells Caitlin to transform him.
Caitlin says a large vibrational jolt would probably amplify the dark matter in his body and force the transformation. Cisco gets the message, and hits Shay with a vibe blast. He begins changing.
We then catch back up to the beginning of the episode. There's panic on the streets of
Their fight takes them into an abandoned building, and they eventually emerge onto the roof. Grodd punches King Shark into unconsciousness, then strings him up and hangs him upside down from a construction crane.
Barry & Nora recover and see King Shark hanging from the crane. Tanya tells them that sharks enter "tonic immobility" when they're turned upside down. King Shark needs a jolt of electricity in order to revive him. Barry & Nora zoom to the roof and run around Grodd, generating a massive charge of speed lightning. They unleash twin bolts of lightning— one striking King Shark, while the other hits Grodd.
King Shark's revived, as Grodd falls to the street. King Shark jumps down to the street and rips the crown off of Grodd. He then pounds the ever-loving tar out of him. King Shark puts the crown on his head and roars in victory.
In the tag scene, Lyla tells Team Flash that ARGUS has put Grodd in a medically induced coma to prevent any further attacks. She says his powers are growing exponentially, but he can't use 'em if he's out like a light. For some reason, they're all OK with forcing this on another living being.
Tanya sits in front of an enormous aquarium, watching King Shark swim back and forth. One last time, Sherloque enters and creepily comments on her "friendship" with Shay. She wonders what this new development will mean for their relationship. Sherloque tells her the heart wants what it wants, and she should accept that.
After Sherloque thankfully leaves, Tanya laments to Shay that they finally found each other, only to be separated again. He tells her their connection is still there, and he'd sacrifice himself to save her all over again. He reaches out and touches the aquarium glass with his massive webbed hand, and she does the same.
Barry promises Cisco and Caitlin that he won't use the meta cure without asking again. In fact he says that instead of injecting Cicada with the cure to stop his murderous rampage, they should approach him and ask if he wants to take it (!!!!!!!).
Thoughts:
• Ugh, this week's episode features my least favorite narrative structure: The Flashback Story!
I hate when TV shows and movies do this, as it spoils the entire episode. Some may argue that while we may know where the story ends up, it's interesting to see how it gets there. I disagree strongly, as I feel this trope completely kills any tension the episode might have had. It's a storytelling technique I'd dearly love to see die.
• Barry & Nora pay a visit to Lyla at ARGUS. When Lyla gives Nora a long, hard stare, Barry sheepishly explains that she's his daughter... from the future. Nora says, "Weird, right?" Lyla responds with, "No weirder than waking up one day to find out that your son used to be your daughter."
Ooooooh, SNAP! Way to remind Barry that when he created Flashpoint, he didn't just affect Team Flash, he screwed up everyone's lives in the Arrowverse.
I'm confused though as to how Lyla knows her son temporally changed genders. When Barry changed the timeline, wouldn't Lyla's memories have been altered as well? Wouldn't she think she ALWAYS had a daughter?
For the record, she first appeared way back in the Season 2 episode King Shark (what else?). In that episode, Zoom took the Earth-2 Shay Lamden, who'd been transformed into King Shark, and brought him to Earth-1 in order to kill the Flash. Cisco and Caitlin questioned Tanya, the widow of the Earth-1 Shay Lamden, hoping she'd be able to shed some light on her husband's Earth-2 doppelganger.
Another reason you might not remember her: In her first appearance, Tanya Lamden was played by a completely different actress! Apparently they couldn't get Haley Beauchamp back for this episode, so they recast the part with Zibby Allen.
Also, the human form of Shay Lamden never actually appeared in King Shark, except as an image on a STAR Labs computer screen. He was played by a completely different actor in that episode as well!
• This episode is absolutely filled to the brim with superhero landings!
In the third act Gorilla Grodd sticks a superhero landing as well
• What the hell was wrong with Sherloque this week? He spends the entire episode sneaking up behind poor Tanya on numerous occasions, perversely speculating on her personal relationship with Shay. His behavior toward her was downright creepy and disturbing. Obviously STAR Labs doesn't have an HR department, else he'd have been sent there at the beginning of the episode and forced to watch a sexual harassment tape.
So what are his trousers made of? Spandex? Rubber? Silly Putty? Who knows. Apparently Shay buys his self-sizing pants at the same place Bruce Banner gets his.
• King Shark momentarily goes berserk, grabs Cisco with one giant hand and prepares to eat him. For some reason, Barry and Nora both forget they have superspeed again, and stare helplessly at the grisly tableau. This despite the fact that either of them could have run up King Shark's leg and phased Cisco from his hand in between heartbeats.
• Since Barry apparently forgot how to use his powers, he does the only thing he can think of, and injects the meta cure into King Shark's neck, causing him to revert to human form.
The minute Cisco first proposed creating a cure several episodes back, we ALL knew this was eventually going to happen. It was inevitable.
My main question is why do Caitlin and Cisco get on Barry's case about forcing the cure on King Shark? Isn't that what they're planning to do to Cicada? They both seem fine with that idea. So why're they so angry about King Shark? Because Cicada's bad and King Shark's "nice?"
I'm assuming their motivations switch because the episode needed some drama, so they decided to burn some screen time by having Team Flash argue with one another.
Oddly enough, at the end of the episode Lyla says ARGUS is putting Grodd into a medically induced coma, apparently for the rest of his life. Cisco and Caitlin don't say a word about this, and in fact seem completely on board with it! Struggling to understand their rationale here...
The minute Cisco first proposed creating a cure several episodes back, we ALL knew this was eventually going to happen. It was inevitable.
My main question is why do Caitlin and Cisco get on Barry's case about forcing the cure on King Shark? Isn't that what they're planning to do to Cicada? They both seem fine with that idea. So why're they so angry about King Shark? Because Cicada's bad and King Shark's "nice?"
I'm assuming their motivations switch because the episode needed some drama, so they decided to burn some screen time by having Team Flash argue with one another.
Oddly enough, at the end of the episode Lyla says ARGUS is putting Grodd into a medically induced coma, apparently for the rest of his life. Cisco and Caitlin don't say a word about this, and in fact seem completely on board with it! Struggling to understand their rationale here...
Eventually Cisco and Caitlin's hypocrisy affects Barry, as he decides they should ask Cicada if he wants the cure.
• After King Shark's transformed back into Shay Lamden, Grodd sneaks into STAR Labs and steals the telepathic crown.
So... why does Lyla wait until he shows up to finally tell Team Flash that he recently escaped from ARGUS? Doesn't that seem like important info she should have divulged as soon as they contacted her?
• Looks like Grodd's still got a thing for Caitlin...
• For some reason, Caitlin fires a couple of ice blasts at Barry without turning into Killer Frost. Whoops! I'm pretty sure she doesn't have any ice powers when she's in her default Caitlin form.
I'm betting that after the big King Shark/Gorilla Grodd fight, there just wasn't any money left in the budget to turn Caitlin's hair white when she started blasting away.
• In the third act, Shay starts sweet-talking Tanya, telling her that when he was King Shark his world was dark and grey until she came along.
At one point Shay actually asks her, "Did you know sharks are colorblind?" Seriously? He says this to a woman who's a marine biologist (!). I guess we should cut him some slack, since he's been a shark man for the past four or five years.
And yes, in case you're wondering, sharks are indeed completely colorblind.
I'm betting that after the big King Shark/Gorilla Grodd fight, there just wasn't any money left in the budget to turn Caitlin's hair white when she started blasting away.
• In the third act, Shay starts sweet-talking Tanya, telling her that when he was King Shark his world was dark and grey until she came along.
At one point Shay actually asks her, "Did you know sharks are colorblind?" Seriously? He says this to a woman who's a marine biologist (!). I guess we should cut him some slack, since he's been a shark man for the past four or five years.
And yes, in case you're wondering, sharks are indeed completely colorblind.
• Tanya finally professes her love for Shay (even though he's an Earth-2 copy of her dead husband) and plants a big sloppy kiss on his lips.
All I could think when I saw this scene is that Shay's breath probably smelled a lot like raw fish!
All I could think when I saw this scene is that Shay's breath probably smelled a lot like raw fish!
• Gorilla Grodd climbs to the top of Broome Belfry in order to broadcast his mind-control rays to all of Central City.
Broome Belfry is named for John Broome, who wrote both the Golden Age and Silver Age Flash comics. He also created and wrote Detective Chimp, an ape who solved crimes. That's likely the reference they were going for here.
• By the way, when Grodd telepathically freezes everyone in Central City, it's really lucky that his mind rays didn't affect Team Flash. Maybe STAR Labs was jusssst out of his range?
Broome Belfry is named for John Broome, who wrote both the Golden Age and Silver Age Flash comics. He also created and wrote Detective Chimp, an ape who solved crimes. That's likely the reference they were going for here.
• By the way, when Grodd telepathically freezes everyone in Central City, it's really lucky that his mind rays didn't affect Team Flash. Maybe STAR Labs was jusssst out of his range?
• Sigh... Once again The Flash made me scream in frustration at my poor TV. In order to prevent Grodd from mind controlling the entire city, Team Flash needs to yank the telepathic crown off his head.
To that end, Barry and Nora cook up a needlessly convoluted plan. Nora runs around and around Grodd at superspeed to disorient and distract him.
Barry then employs an "old trick" he used during a previous encounter with Grodd. This amazing feat consists of him simply punching Grodd in the face. Wow, that's some trick!
Note that there was no need for any of this. All either of them had to do was run up to Grodd at superspeed and just grab the crown. They could have done so in a millionth of a second, while Grodd was blinking. In fact Nora does something very similar earlier in this episode, when she runs up King Shark's back at superspeed and sticks the crown on his head to control him!
Such is the problem in a show filled with speedsters. They're so fast there's literally nothing they can't do, so the show has to make them constantly forget how to use their powers in order for the plot to work.
To make things even worse, once Grodd's knocked out, Barry slowwwwwwly tiptoes over to him and tentatively reaches out to grab the crown. ARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!
Jesus Jetskiing Christ, Barry! You're a goddamned speedster! Zip over there and take the crown off his head in one tenth of a second! Of course by lollygagging around like this, he gives Grodd time to recover and gain the upper hand again!
• Due to Barry's idiocy, Grodd's able to use the crown to mind-zap everyone in Central City and stop them dead in their tracks. Note the window in the background labeled "Nosherie."
It's a real eatery, located on West Georgia Street in Vancouver!
To that end, Barry and Nora cook up a needlessly convoluted plan. Nora runs around and around Grodd at superspeed to disorient and distract him.
Note that there was no need for any of this. All either of them had to do was run up to Grodd at superspeed and just grab the crown. They could have done so in a millionth of a second, while Grodd was blinking. In fact Nora does something very similar earlier in this episode, when she runs up King Shark's back at superspeed and sticks the crown on his head to control him!
Such is the problem in a show filled with speedsters. They're so fast there's literally nothing they can't do, so the show has to make them constantly forget how to use their powers in order for the plot to work.
Jesus Jetskiing Christ, Barry! You're a goddamned speedster! Zip over there and take the crown off his head in one tenth of a second! Of course by lollygagging around like this, he gives Grodd time to recover and gain the upper hand again!
• Wow, either Shay's seven and a half feet tall, or Tanya's four foot five. Not sure which.
• Again, hats off to the FX team for the awesome scene in which Shay transforms back into King Shark!
• Cisco breaches King Shark to Grodd's location, so the two of them can finally get to fightin.' Um... is there any reason why Cisco formed his breach THREE HUNDRED FRAKING FEET ABOVE THE GROUND??? Good thing King Shark's pretty resilient, otherwise there'd have been a fishy mess when he hit the ground!
• This Week's Best Lines:
Cisco: "Ladies and gentlemen, we finally have our hands on the meta-human cure!"
(There's a deafening silence.)
Cisco: "Cool, cool.
It's not like I spent weeks in the frozen tundra or anything."
Sherloque: "No, no, no.
I think that just people are waiting for the inevitable 'but' that follows such a big statement."
Cisco: "Mmm, no, it's done, and thanks to Caitlin, we even have a way to deliver our silver bullet, so no, no buts."
Sherloque: "I believe there is a big but coming."
Caitlin: "But we need to test the cure on a meta-human."
Sherloque: "Eh voila,there it is."
Cisco: "I know Grodd almost turned all of our brains into scrambled eggs, but that Kaiju battle was the stuff of dreams."
Nora: "Seriously, way better than anything I read in The Flash Museum."
Iris: "King Shark versus Gorilla Grodd? Are you kidding me? I missed that?"
Nora: "Is the cure dangerous?"
Caitlin: "Well, it's an untested serum that alters biology on a cellular level, so until we try it out on someone, we have no way of knowing."
(I'd call that a big YES.)
Cisco: (after hearing Tanya conversing with King Shark) "So, are we supposed to call him King Shark or Shay?"
Barry: "Great work, Cisco."
Cisco: (after hearing Tanya conversing with King Shark) "So, are we supposed to call him King Shark or Shay?"
Barry: "Great work, Cisco."
Cisco: "Oh, well, takes a village.
But every village needs a genius and that's me, so thank you."
Sherloque: "Monsieur Lamden, I should introduce myself. Sherloque Wells. You've probably heard of me. I have a question. I've been debating in my brain. What drives the King Shark? Is it the shark, or is it the man?"
Sherloque: "Monsieur Lamden, I should introduce myself. Sherloque Wells. You've probably heard of me. I have a question. I've been debating in my brain. What drives the King Shark? Is it the shark, or is it the man?"
Shay: "If you're asking should I be held accountable for my actions, my answer is simple.
Yes, I should.
I don't remember how many people I hurt, or who, but that's no excuse."
Caitlin: (after she and Cisco were mind-controlled by Grood) "Cisco's cerebral scan is clear. Mine is as well. We are both back to normal."
Cisco: "No more strings on us."
Caitlin: (after she and Cisco were mind-controlled by Grood) "Cisco's cerebral scan is clear. Mine is as well. We are both back to normal."
Cisco: "No more strings on us."
(Yikes. An Avengers 2 reference.)
Cisco: "So King Shark was trying to resist Grodd's iron will? Respect."
Tanya: "I can't love Shay. He's my dead husband's doppelganger from Earth-2. How crazy would I have to be to fall in love with him?"
Cisco: "So King Shark was trying to resist Grodd's iron will? Respect."
Tanya: "I can't love Shay. He's my dead husband's doppelganger from Earth-2. How crazy would I have to be to fall in love with him?"
Sherloque: "No crazier than marrying the same woman from five different Earths."
(Only on The Flash would you hear two actors say those ridiculous lines with straight faces.)
Nora: (discussing Grodd) "We're immune to his mind control, right, because we're speedsters?"
(Only on The Flash would you hear two actors say those ridiculous lines with straight faces.)
Nora: (discussing Grodd) "We're immune to his mind control, right, because we're speedsters?"
Barry: "No."
Nora: "Okay, The Flash Museum just straight up got a lot of stuff wrong!"
Barry: "Wait, but do you have any extra anti-mind control headsets lying around?"
Nora: "Okay, The Flash Museum just straight up got a lot of stuff wrong!"
Barry: "Wait, but do you have any extra anti-mind control headsets lying around?"
Cisco: "There's a few in the workshop, but it didn't work so well last time."
(Sure, Barry. EVERYONE has a couple of spare anti-mind control headsets in their closet!)
(Shay wants to turn back into King Shark to battle Grodd. Caitlin says a blast of vibratory energy should cause him to transform.)
Shay: "Tanya, I can save Flash, the people of this city, you, and make up for some of the horrible things I've done. I have to do this."
Tanya: "I'm afraid of losing you."
Shay: "You won't."
Sherloque: "Well, is there anyone in this room that can provide a vibrational jolt?"
(Sure, Barry. EVERYONE has a couple of spare anti-mind control headsets in their closet!)
(Shay wants to turn back into King Shark to battle Grodd. Caitlin says a blast of vibratory energy should cause him to transform.)
Shay: "Tanya, I can save Flash, the people of this city, you, and make up for some of the horrible things I've done. I have to do this."
Tanya: "I'm afraid of losing you."
Shay: "You won't."
Sherloque: "Well, is there anyone in this room that can provide a vibrational jolt?"
Cisco: "I'm doing it."
Barry: "Guys, King Shark's not moving."
Tanya: "When a shark is turned upside down, it enters tonic immobility."
Sherloque: "He's in a state of paralysis."
Nora: "How do we wake him up?"
Barry: "Guys, King Shark's not moving."
Tanya: "When a shark is turned upside down, it enters tonic immobility."
Sherloque: "He's in a state of paralysis."
Nora: "How do we wake him up?"
Caitlin: "Don't sharks have electroreceptor organs called ampullae of Lorenzini? It's how they detect electromagnetic fields, right?"
Tanya: "Yes, it's how they navigate."
(Caitlin's supposed to be a medical doctor, right? So how in the name of Stan Lee's toupee would she know something like THAT?)
(Caitlin's supposed to be a medical doctor, right? So how in the name of Stan Lee's toupee would she know something like THAT?)
Cisco: "I know Grodd almost turned all of our brains into scrambled eggs, but that Kaiju battle was the stuff of dreams."
Nora: "Seriously, way better than anything I read in The Flash Museum."
Iris: "King Shark versus Gorilla Grodd? Are you kidding me? I missed that?"
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.