After all the doppelgängers from the last two weeks, it’ll be nice to get back to one version of each character! Plus the mega-ridic King Shark is back!

The Flash S2:E15 King Shark recap starts now! HUGE spoilers ahoy!

We pick up where we left off last week, Jay has just been taken back through the breach by Zoom, Barry is insisting on going back through to save him, but Wells tell them that the breaches have been permanently closed, so no going back for anyone. Including he and his daughter Jesse.

Caitlin is devastated to have lost another person she loves, and is not dealing. Cisco and Barry watch over her while she sleeps, worried that she’ll never get over this. Wells tells them that she’s strong, and she’ll get past it. “In the meantime, I would not say anything to her about her counterpart from my Earth, that goes for Joe and Iris too”, says Wells. He tells them that they could influence their realities in ways that could be harmful, like when Barry time travels. He also adds that those people are not the same as the ones here, they have different lives. “Bury it. Move on”, Wells says, and Cisco agrees, “That I can do”. Barry is not as easily convinced, he has everything that happened on Earth-2 weighing heavily on his mind, and is struggling to keep things separate.

So that’s what they do, keep it all between the three of them and try to get on with things, knowing there is nothing they can do to stop Zoom. Barry just runs, waiting for something, a meta-human even to distract him from the frustration he is feeling. And as it happens, there’s a meta-human coming right up!

At ARGUS, Lyla Diggle is the new Director and is working to try and clean up the mess Amanda Waller left behind after being killed in Star City. She and her husband John are inspecting an ARGUS facility, trying to ascertain what these messes are, and what to do about them. In a building marked Aquarium, armed guards are attempting to feed whatever lies in a laser grid protected pool. There is no movement from the pool and the guards assume the occupant has kicked the bucket. “Power down the grid”, says the most gullible guard alive (for now). They do so, and he heads off to get something to fish it out, as bubbles start to slowly rise to the surface.

Lyla and Diggle hear an announcement come over about a Code 7 in the Aquarium, there’s been a breach! “You have an aquarium, why?”, asks Diggle. The reason becomes apparent when they get there and find all the guards dead, the last one having just had his head crunched off. By a giant shark. In pants. “What the hell?”, says Diggle, “Are you kidding me?”. The shark escapes the Aquarium and runs, yes runs, off into the night.

At the West’s house, Joe, Iris and Wally are playing a cup stacking game while Barry stares moodily off into the distance. Wally tries to get him to join but he passes, “You afraid of a little competition?’, asks Wally. “No, just not in a gaming mood right now”, replies Barry. Wally makes an excuse to leave and says his goodbyes, Joe and Iris are worried about Barry, “What’s up, Bar?”. He tells them it’s nothing, he thinks Wally doesn’t like him too much. “We need to fix that”, Joe says, “You’ve been so busy running between alternate realities, you two haven’t had a chance to spend any time together”. Joe adds that he’s part of the family now, and Barry needs to give it a chance. Sad Barry agrees, and heads up to bed, with more on his mind than just Wally. Joe and Iris know its because of something that happened on Earth-2, but Barry has never spoken of it to either of them.

At STAR Labs, Cisco tries to get Caitlin to take a break, but she cuts him off and leaves. Cisco tells Barry how worried he is, and that she is acting more like Killer Frost every day. Cold, detached, angry. “You haven’t mentioned anything to her about Earth-2 have you?”, asks Barry. “No, because I know how to keep a secret”, replies Cisco. Barry tells him it’s just going to take time for her to heal, and they just have to be there for her, and keep her busy.

“That shouldn’t be a problem”, says Diggle, walking in to STAR Labs with Lyla. Barry says hey and asks what they’re doing here. Diggle explains that the meta-human known as King Shark has escaped ARGUS custody. Barry knows said shark, as Zoom sent him to kill Barry, but Wells shot him before he could finish the job. They had assumed he was dead, but Amanda Waller had taken him into ARGUS custody instead. Apparently her idea was to study the meta-humans and come up with ways to weaponize their powers. King Shark is alive and hell bent on finding the Flash and finishing the job. “We’re gonna need a bigger Flash”, says Cisco.

The tracking information they were able to get before he removed the tracker indicates that he is headed to Central City. Diggle tells Barry that ARGUS are on it and they they just wanted to give him a heads up. Barry is not having it, “No, I can’t do that, Dig. I’m sorry but all year we’ve been sitting ducks for Zoom, and all his Earth-2 henchmen”, he says, “This is the last one. I’m not gonna just wait for him to attack. I’m going after him first. I owe that to Jay”.

Wells tells them his real name is Shay Lamden, and he was a marine biologist before the particle accelerator explosion on Earth-2. Wells says he’ll try and track him down. All the locations that King Shark has been tracked to have been next to a body of water so he must need to re-oxygenate his blood periodically. Barry, Lyla and Diggle decide to take the ARGUS team and go and check out the waterfront. Shay Lamden’s doppelgänger died on Earth-1 in the explosion but his wife Tanya is still alive and is a research scientist at Nautilus Labs. Her speciality? Sharks.

Joe calls Barry and asks if he can come over and help Wally with an engineering project he is working on. Barry is reluctant given that King Shark is on the loose, “I get it, I’ll tell Wally some other time”, says Joe. Barry feels bad that he’s not making more of an effort and says, “It’s all good, I’ll make it work. Tonight should be fine”.

At Nautilus Labs, Tanya is suspicious of Cisco and Caitlin who have come to look at her research. Her Shay died after cancer cells multiplied at an alarming rate after the explosion, and she has no reason to trust them. Cisco tells her about King Shark, and that she might be able to help save some lives if they can look over her work. She grudgingly agrees to email them her research.

Flash and ARGUS have had no luck finding him on the waterfront, until a call comes in from the agents searching grid six. They found him, just in time for him to bite their heads off. The team rushes to the site, but by the time they get there King Shark is gone. “He knows we’re here now, we lost the element of surprise”, says Lyla. “Not if Wells can figure out a way to track him”, replies Barry.

At Joe’s, Wally arrives with his engineering project, that he hopes will get him into CCU’s Engineering program. It’s a turbine prototype for a car that would run on bio-diesel. Barry takes a quick look and starts to point out all the things that would need to be changed, “Anything else?”, says Wally, slightly miffed. Barry tells him he’s just trying to help, and he didn’t mean to offend him. Joe and Iris look on, worried that Barry is not acting like his normal self.

Caitlin is going through Tanya’s research and can’t find anything helpful. Cisco offers to help but she insists she doesn’t need it. “Oh yeah, because you’re the doctor with the speciality in bio chem”, she snarks at him. Cisco tells her that she’s not been acting like herself lately, “And it’s freaking me out because you have this icy look in your eyes. Just like you did over there”. “Over there. You mean Earth-2?”, asks Caitlin, “You met my doppelgänger, didn’t you?”. Cisco laughs, “What? No! Look I’m not supposed to say anything!”. “Francisco Ramon, start talking!”, demands Caitlin. He tells her that he met her and that she was a cold hearted ice queen called Killer Frost, a meta-human who enjoyed killing. A lot. Caitlin assures him that she’s not a meta-human, but she has to act that way at the moment to get through. “If I let myself feel all of that pain, and let that anger out? It’s never gonna stop and that’s not gonna help me either”.

Wells is in his lab trying work out where King Shark could be, apparently with a very complicated formula. Jesse tries to help, and after initially shutting her down, decides to let her in and she starts going over the formula.

Wally and Barry are still going over the turbine and Barry starts to take over and redesign the whole thing. “I didn’t come here for you to just do it for me”, says Wally. “I’m just trying to speed up the process”, replies Barry. “Why? You got somewhere better to be?”, says Wally and starts to pack up. Barry asks if he has a problem with him, and Wally tells him he could NEVER have a problem with him. Barry is the perfect son, the one who does everything right. The one in all the pictures.

Wally goes to leave, and the roof caves in! It’s King Shark, looking for the Flash! He doesn’t know it’s Barry, but can most definitely smell the Flash here somewhere! Joe tells them all to get upstairs and starts firing his gun at King Shark. Barry waits until Wally has gone up then flashes off to get his suit and confronts King Shark out in the street. Barry tells him he has closed all the breaches and there’s no going back. There’s no more Zoom, and no way of getting back to Earth-2. Barry starts to run in circles around him, but King Shark takes a swing at him and sends him flying across the street. ARGUS arrives, and he runs, after telling Barry that they’ll never catch him in the water. Diggle and Lyla check Barry is okay, “I think he broke a few things, but I’m good”.

Back in the house, Wally, Joe and Iris are cleaning up the debris. “Jaws busts through your house like the Kool-Aid man, the Flash shows up, and y’all act like it’s no big deal”, says Wally. “Yeah, well we have had a lot of weird things happen in Central City over the past two years”, replies Iris. Barry comes down the stairs back in his street clothes, “Where’d you go? Hide under your bed?”, says Wally. “You know, Joe and Iris told me a lot about you, made it out like you could walk on water. But never mentioned anything about you being a coward”. Joe shuts him down, and Barry says nothing. Wally leaves, and Barry says “I know you guys love me, but please stop telling Wally all this great stuff about me. I’m not perfect, I make mistakes that even the Flash can’t fix”.

Joe asks him straight up what happened on Earth-2 and Barry decides to come clean. He tells Iris she was the cop in the family, and Joe, that he was a lounge singer. He describes their relationships, that Joe hated him because he thinks that Barry made Iris become a police officer to support him, her husband. “We were married?”, asks Iris. Barry tells them that Earth-2 Joe died because of him going there. “I knew that it wasn’t you”, says Barry, tears starting to roll, “But watching it happen in front of me, living that? It didn’t feel any different! Because it was all still real. Jay warned me to not get emotionally involved, and then that’s exactly what happened. Now Earth-2 Joe West is dead, because I showed up.” Joe tells him that it’s not his fault. “It is my fault, it’s all my fault. Zoom, King Shark, Jay’s death. It’s all because of me. And I just left another world at Zoom’s mercy”. Man, it must be dusty in here or something *sniff*.

At STAR Labs, the team are trying to work out how King Shark found him. The answer lies in Tanya’s research after all, sharks use a thing called passive electro location to hunt their prey. So the theory is that King Shark is sensing the electricity in Barry’s system and tracking him down. Caitlin has the idea of flipping this back on King Shark, track him using active electro location, reprogramming their satellite to generate a specific electric field, then measure any electrical distortions that match up with a one tonne walking shark. Or something.

Barry and the ARGUS team make their way to the waterfront, where a dummy in a Flash suit has been tied to a buoy, rigged to generate the same electric field as Barry. The dummy has also been laced with enough tranqs to knock King Shark out for a month. Then they’ll reel him in, and put him in a container ready for transport back to ARGUS.

They settle in to wait, and nothing appears on the satellite for a long time. They start to doubt whether their plan will work, and Wells and Jesse give Cisco a hard time about not having set up the satellite properly. “Oh, for real? We’re gonna play a game here called if you’re from Earth-2, you’re gonna be quiet”.

Caitlin goes to talk to Barry and check he’s doing okay. He tells her about his guilt over bringing Zoom here, and Jay’s subsequent death. He’s tired of running away from things, when he should be running towards them. She tells him to think of this as his first step, he’ll get back where he needs to be.

King Shark shows up on the satellite, heading straight for the bait. He jumps out of the water and takes it, but when they go to reel him in, nothing.  He’s gone. Or has he? “He’s headed for the docks!”, yells Cisco, which is where everyone is standing. King Shark launches himself out of the water, while ARGUS shoots at him with no result. He lands directly in front of Barry, but Barry takes off, flashing across the water. King Shark gives chase and Barry manages to stay out of his jaws. Barry starts circling him faster and faster, generating electricity and charging the water, and King Shark in unable to escape. He gets zapped, and it knocks him unconscious. ARGUS reels him in, and Lyla tells them they’ll take him back and try and cure him this time, not weaponize him.

Diggle has a quick word to Barry before he goes, he’s noticed that he’s doing an “Oliver Queen” and taking the weight of the world on his shoulders. “That guilt, it can tear you apart. Trust me man, you gotta get control of it or it’ll rip you up inside. Use this, let it guide you. So it never happens again”. Barry says his goodbyes and then flashes off. Lyla watches him go and says to John, “Okay, that’s kind of freaky”.

Joe and Wally are at CC Jitters looking over Wally’s designs, “Wow, Wally. I’m so impressed”, says Joe. Wally tells him that Barry actually helped him a lot, and Joe agrees but tells him that for the most part it’s all his own work. Joe tells Wally about Barry’s back story, how he took him in after his mother was murdered. How he raised him as his own, and that he thinks of Barry his as his son. “Just like you are”.

Caitlin come into the lab to see what Cisco is up to, she puts her hands on him and he jumps. “Dear God! Caitlin your hands are freezing!”, Cisco says, “Caitlin. I’ve always hated that name”, she replies. Cisco freaks, and Caitlin cracks up, Barry having filled her in on some of Killer Frost’s mannerisms. “That ain’t right! That’s just rude!”, says Cisco. She tells him he deserves it for thinking she could ever become like her, and he needs to stop worrying about her.

They head upstairs where Barry has asked everyone to meet. “What’s good?”, says Cisco. Barry tells them he needs to apologise to them all, for going back in time last year and avenging his mother’s death. That choice has had a lot of consequences, and it will haunt him for the rest of his life. “Zoom, Jay’s death, it’s all because of me. But, I own those choices. We’re the ones who opened the door to Earth-2. We’re the ones who brought Zoom here. But we are also the ones who are gonna stop him”. Barry doesn’t know how yet, but he thinks the breaches aren’t closed forever, and they’re not done with Earth-2. He unveils a glass case with Jay’s Flash helmet inside.”Jay’s death was not in vain”, he says, “we will meet Zoom again. And the next time? We’ll beat him. Whoever that monster is”.

On Earth-2, Zoom carries Jay’s body back through the breach and dumps him on the floor. Mask seems horrified as he see who it is. Zoom reaches his arm up, and slides his mask off. It’s Jay?! “Well, this is a complication”, he says to dead Jay on the floor. WHAT.THE.

No more Flash until the 22nd of March and they leave us like this. Whyyyyyyy?????

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyM_D2Oy2_U