“Trajectory” is episode sixteen of season two of The Flash.
At the end of the previous episode, “King Shark”, Zoom was seen carrying Jay’s apparently dead body into his lair where the man in the iron mask was. Then Zoom removed his mask – revealing that he was Jay Garrick. Now, Jay did always seem to be a possibility for Zoom’s real identity, but that seemed to mean he would need to be in two places at the same time. Although speedsters have done things like that before.
This episode opens with Barry and Cisco standing at the top of a canyon with a river running through it far below. Cisco tells Barry that the canyon didn’t look this deep on the map. Barry helpfully points out that maps are flat. He also says that the river looks to be 1,000′ deep. Cisco replies that Barry wants to get faster, and plummeting to his death may be a motivation.
Wells, for he and Caitlin are along as well, shows Barry something and says that, to reach escape velocity, Barry will need to go that fast. Barry can guarantee that’s not possible. Wells responds with a quote – not Edgar Allen Poe as Barry suggests, but Kanye West.
To be helpful, Cisco tells Barry that Evel Kneivel jumped a distance twice as far without superpowers. Just a motorbike. He says that Barry has an 80% chance of success. Then 76%. And Cisco keeps going lower, so he asks Caitlin to help as he can’t stop. Caitlin is perhaps not helpful.
Barry says that they are going to find a way back to Earth-Two, and when he does, he needs to be fast enough to beat Zoom. So he jumps across the canyon – but doesn’t quite make it. Cisco fishes him out of the river with a net and some drones he brought along.
Jesse is in S.T.A.R. Labs watching the news about Beyoncé leaving Destiny’s Child. Only Jesse wonders if they mean Senator Knowles. Barry arrives, followed by the others, and Jesse asks how it went. Her father replies that Barry isn’t a red splat on the side of the mountain. Cisco asks him if that’s his new definition of success; Wells responds that it’s one of them.
Barry thinks they are going about it all wrong and wants to continue. Wells tells him to let it go for now. Cisco points out that they are all tired and need some downtime and to have some fun. Even Caitlin agrees – and she points out that she’s agreeing. So they are going to go to a club.
Jesse also wants to go with them but her father is not keen on the idea. So, she uses his own words against him and Wells finally agrees. He insists she takes protection though – which gets some stuttered responses from Jesse until Wells fastens his smartwatch onto her wrist. Not the sort of protection Jesse thought he meant. Wells also suggests building an inescapable daughter cube but Jesse tells him she’d just get out.
Cisco, Caitlin, Barry and Jesse make it to a club, and Jesse’s meta-human detecting watch keeps going off when she is near Barry. Barry won’t let the underage Jesse have a shot. He says they they don’t want to be murdered by her father. Then Iris and Wally show up – Barry tries to explain what his relationship to Wally is, before finally settling for ‘friend.’ As they are speaking to Wally and Iris, Jesse’s watch keeps going off until finally she has had enough. Only it looked as if it was going off when she was close to Wally. Jesse goes and ‘powders her watch’ and, in the process, hears what her father said about what he would do to save her. Which he recorded on this watch.
When Jesse rejoins the others, orange lightning appears and a speedster goes around the room stealing all the money. Barry – for it wasn’t Barry – chases after the second speedster, but they are faster than he is. Yet another speedster who can run faster than the Flash.
At the scene the next day, Joe tells Barry that the speedster took the money from everyone within a ten block radius in under six minutes. Iris has a copy of a photo one of the people took of the speedster during the robbery. The problem is, the photo looks identical to the one Iris took of Barry in the beginning.
At the paper, Scott Evans, the new editor, tells the staff that finally they have the evidence that the Flash has gone rogue, and they can expose him as a fraud. Evans wants Iris to be the one to write it up. She isn’t happy about the idea. Especially as she knows it isn’t true. Back at the lab, Jesse confronts her father over what she heard on his watch. He confirms that he killed the Turtle. Jesse is upset.
With there being another speedster, the question is where they came from. The breaches are closed, so not from Earth-Two. The particle accelerator explosion is another, but why wait this long to show themselves? There is no other way – until Caitlin reveals there is. Velocity-9, the speed drug she was working on. Caitlin promised Jay not to tell Barry. Barry wants to know why, as with V9 he could have saved people, could have beaten Zoom. Caitlin replies, and Wells agrees with it, that V9 is deadly.
The other speedster is detected and Barry goes and confronts them, only to be knocked down. The other speedster is a woman, and Cisco is excited by this idea. He wants to know how attractive she is. His question on what her suit looked like is more valid, as Barry replies that her suit was good, it was made by someone who understands the needs of a speedster. And it would need access to a lab.
Caitlin had got stuck during the creation of V9, and reached out to Eliza Harmon, a former colleague of hers from Mercury Labs, for some help. She didn’t give her the whole formula though. Joe and Caitlin go and speak to Eliza, who suggests that security is not good. However, even though the female speedster was wearing a mask, Eliza does look similar in facial structure.
Barry also wants to take V9 and Wells tells him not to, as you lose a chunk of your humanity every time you compromise your integrity. Barry thinks that’s rich, coming from Wells. Wells’ response is to tell Barry to not be like him, but to be better.
Evans, it seems, believes that every hero is flawed, which is why he thinks the Flash has turned. He thinks that the Flash has finally revealed himself. Wells and Caitlin are very right to warn Barry not to take V9. It has some very bad side effects. And Cisco is vibing Zoom.