“King Shark” is episode fifteen of season two of The Flash.
In the previous episode, “Escape from Earth-2”, Barry, Cisco, Wells and Jesse returned back to Earth-One and the last breach to Earth-Two was closed. Before it finished closing, Jay wandered over to it, then turned around and stood with his back to it. It came as no great surprise when Zoom’s arm came through the closing breach and through Jay’s chest, dragging him back through.
The episode starts just after, and Caitlin is crying that Jay can’t be dead, that it can’t be happening again. Barry tells Wells to open the breach up again, that they need to go back. Wells replies that he can’t do that. And he means can’t, not won’t; Wells explains that the breaches are closed, all of them are closed and the quark matter used to seal breaches prevents them from being opened ever again. There is no going back. So Jesse asks her father if they are trapped here for good. The answer is yes – for now, at least. Joe says that surely there must be something they can do. Wells tells him not this time.
Wells tells Cisco and Barry that they shouldn’t talk about the counterparts they met on Earth-Two, so that they don’t influence realities in ways that they shouldn’t be influenced. Cisco mentions like Barry travelling through time. Wells agrees, but says what’s the point. Those people are not their people; never were, never would be. They should bury things and move on.
At an aquarium – and an unusual one at that – armed guards are winching food over the tank. Which is protected by what looks like a laser grid. The tank’s occupant is told that food is ready, but there is no response. It’s presumed the occupant has gone belly up. So they decide to power down the grid and fish him out. There’s no way that’s going to end well.
Diggle and Lyla are in a corridor and he mentions to her that this is one of Amanda Waller’s secret projects. Lyla replies that it’s one of many, and she’s only just finding them out. Digg tells her that the new director of A.R.G.U.S. will clean up the mess – because he’s got great confidence in his wife. Then an alarm goes off and Lyla says there’s a breach in the aquarium. Diggle wants to know why they have an aquarium. The reason is King Shark – shot at by Patty then taken down by Wells in “The Fury of Firestorm” – and he’s eating the guards. See, it didn’t end well.
Barry is at home with Joe, Iris and Wally. Wally and Barry don’t have much of a connection as yet and Barry is clearly brooding. After Wally leaves, Joe says he should get to know Wally, to see if they can find something in common. Well, Wally likes going really fast and Barry goes really fast so there’s something. When Barry goes upstairs, Joe and Iris talk to each other about him. They know that something happened on Earth-Two, they just don’t know what, because Barry hasn’t talked about it.
At S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco talks to Barry about Caitlin. She’s clearly not okay and Cisco says she’s all business. And cold. Just like her evil twin, Killer Frost. Even though Caitlin isn’t a meta-human, Cisco is worried she’s becoming Killer Frost. Barry doesn’t think that’s going to happen, and suggests they just keep her busy. At which point Diggle and Lyla enter and Digg says that won’t be a problem.
Diggle tells them that King Shark escaped. They thought the creature was dead. Diggle says that’s what A.R.G.U.S. wanted them to think when they snatched him. Waller was experimenting with meta-humans, looking to see if they could be weaponised. Now King Shark is out and he has a biological imperative to kill Barry. To which Cisco says ‘We’re going to need a bigger Flash’ and gets a look from Barry for the mangled Jaws quote.
When asked how they know that King Shark is coming for Barry, it seems that, whilst in captivity, he kept saying ‘Zoom wants the Flash dead.’ (Not really true; Zoom wants the Flash’s speed.) Lyla suggests that they leave King Shark to A.R.G.U.S. but Barry says that he is the last meta sent through by Zoom and he isn’t going to wait for him to attack.
Wells looks into tracking King Shark and Jesse tries to help. Then essentially makes him let her help. Later, after Cisco manages to stop Wells checking he’s done everything correctly, Jesse does the same thing. Like father, like daughter.
Cisco is freaking out over Caitlin’s behaviour and eventually says that she has an icy look in her eye just like she did over there. Oops. So much for Cisco being able to keep a secret. Caitlin realises that Cisco met her doppelganger and he tells her he’s not supposed to say anything. Then does. Caitlin points out she’s not a meta but Cisco claims she’s acting just like Killer Frost did. Caitlin explains that she has to. She saw Jay killed right in front of her eyes, just as she was getting back to normal again. If she allows herself to feel, and let all the pain and anger out, she is never going to be able to stop.
Barry agrees to help Wally with something, an engine project for a turbine supercar that runs on biodiesel. Barry picks apart problems, such as fuel economy and sound, and things do not go that well. Even after a restart, things aren’t going that smoothly and Barry asks Wally if Wally has a problem with him. It seems Joe and Iris have kind of made Barry out to be perfect, and that he walks on water (well, he can run on water). Wally and Barry’s relationship is not going that well. Then King Shark shows up looking for the Flash.
Cisco and Barry are both dealing with issues from what happened on Earth-Two, and there’s more that they don’t know yet. When Barry and Jesse were Zoom’s captives, they started communicating with the man in the iron mask. He spelled out ‘Jay’ and Barry assumed he meant ‘Jay Garrick’ and told the man that Jay was safe on Earth-One. The man didn’t seem to entirely like that answer. There’s a reason for that.