THE FLASH - Season 5.15

THE FLASH – SEASON 5, EP. 15: “King Shark v. Gorilla Grodd”

The Scarlet Speedster is back!  And tonight, we’ve got a Main Event, knock down, drag out battle as King Shark and Gorilla Grodd lock up when Grodd hits town, and Team Flash finds themselves actually working with the beast to TAME another beast!

We open this edition with Flash and XS taken out by Grodd, and King Shark and him going at it.  We go back to earlier and Cisco has finally gotten the cure ready.  They keep waiting for a “but”, however Cisco assures them it’s ready.  The problem is, they need to find a volunteer for the cure.  Barry says he knows of someone who might be ready.  They head to ARGUS, and meet up with Lyla, who finally meets Nora.  They discuss why King Shark would be a good volunteer, and Lyla says he’s been quite talkative lately.

At the West house, Joe has returned (YES!!!), and he shares the pictures from his stay with Wally with Cecile and Iris.  He says that Wally is happy where he’s at, and away from the craziness.  Cecile goes to look after Jenna, and Iris and Joe talk about Cicada.  He feels that Cicada has eluded capture for awhile, and feels that someone is working with him.  Iris is hesitant to catch her Dad up on the latest activities, and goes to get more coffee.

Back at ARGUS, Team Flash arrives to talk to King Shark.  They meet up with Dr. Tanya Landon, who’d been working on getting King Shark back to some semblance of normal.  She says she invented a crown that allows her to communicate with him, and him being fairly “normal”.  But she also knows that he’s gotten more shark-like as well.  Caitlin asks if they could talk to him, and see if he’d volunteer for the cure.  Landon has a chat with him, and he agrees to talk.  The shield is dropped and Shark appears, asking if the cure will work.  Caitlin would like to start, but instead of wanting the cure, he bolts.  Lyla goes to subdue him, and Barry gets knocked down, as Shark escapes. 

The crown apparently failed, but Caitlin suggests that they head to STAR Labs to see if they can use the Mad 2.0 to boost her crown’s abilities.  They leave to start work on it.

The West House is where we go again, as Iris and Joe hang out.  She suggests working with him today, and he’s all for it.  He discusses her new office, and she begins to pull back.  She talks about a leak, and he gives her a number for a plumber, and she takes it, and decides to quickly leave in order to take care of it.  Joe is a bit confused.

Back at STAR Labs, Cisco and Landon are successful in making the Mad 2.0 and the crown communicate.  They get to work setting it up to get it to King Shark.  As Landon works, Sherloque notices the connection between Shark and Landon to be very close.  She admits she’s gotten closer to him, but he is still her patient.  Once everything is set up, they get a hit on where Shark’s location is—the wharf.  They speed over and try to get him to mellow out, and see if he wants the cure.  But he grabs Cisco, and begins to squeeze him.  They’re trying to find out what’s going on at STAR, and  Flash then decides that it’s time to settle him down before Cisco is crushed to death.  So Flash speeds over, and injects the cure into Shark.  Shark falls into the water, and Caitlin and Landon ask what’s happening.  Shay comes out of the water, human.  And Flash informs Landon and Caitlin that he’s human again.

At STAR Labs, Shay wakes up, and freaks out as to where he’s at.  Everyone on the team settles him down, and he can’t believe he’s human again.  Landon and the team explain to him about the cure.  Caitlin says he still has some traces of Dark Matter in him.  Hopefully another dose will cure get rid of it.  Sherloque asks him about his duality, and Shay says he admits that he should be held accountable for his actions.  He talks about remembering his actions in bits and pieces…but then his Shark side strikes out at Landon.  She takes off, and they say that he’s got to stay at STAR until they perfect the cure.  Barry is pulled aside by Caitlin and Cisco.  They chastise him for giving the cure to Shay without his permission.  Barry defends his decision that he did it to save Cisco’s life, but they’re not having any of it.  They all agreed that they would only give the cure IF the volunteer consented…unless this was Barry’s plan all along.  They’re not happy with him.

Iris and Joe are at Jitters, and they discuss her fight with Cicada.  She’s afraid that now that he knows who she is, she can’t protect her family.  Joe tells her that she feels helpless.  She agrees, and says that they need to go to a place where she isn’t.

Back at the Lab, Barry arrives again to apologizes, but he’s attacked by Cisco…he puts Cisco in the Pipeline, then goes back for Caitlin, and finds Grodd controlling her.  She blasts Barry.   Grodd escapes. 

After the brief battle, Cisco and Caitlin are normal, and not under Grodd’s control anymore.  They then try to figure out WHY Grodd escaped ARGUS.  Lyla gives them footage of the night of the enlightenment, where they see that the tech in the building went down…just long enough for Grodd to convince a guard to help him.  They now have to figure out how to recapture Grodd.

Sherloque talks to Landon, and says that she’s hiding her feelings from Shay.  She doesn’t want to admit it, but she does.  She then talks to Shay, and they admit they have a bond.

At the gym, Joe talks to Iris about why he went East with Wally.  He went there with Cecile’s blessing and Jenna to heal himself in mind and body.  He convinces Iris to hit the back, telling her to fight back against Cicada…she vents her frustrations, and feels better afterwards.

Back at STAR Labs, the team gets a hit on Grodd’s location:  the top of the highest building in the city, where he can use the crown he stole from them to broadcast to the city in order to control them. 

Team Flash tries to figure out how to get the crown off Grodd before he takes over the whole city.  Barry suggests the mind dampeners.  If XS and run at him and distract him, Barry and her can take him down.  They managed to knock him off the building, but he attacks them, and they’re knocked down.  Back at the lab, Shay says he’ll be willing to go back to being King Shark in order to stop Grodd.  They tell him that if he does that, he’ll never be human again.  But he says he can save Flash, and right some of the wrongs he’s done. 

Grodd is almost in control of the city, when King Shark arrives.  He says he wants Grodd gone, and they start to fight.  Battling over the city, Shark and Grodd stay evenly matched.  Grodd runs, and Shark gives chase.  Grodd eventually gets the better of him, and drags him to the top of a crane, upside down.  Shark is immobilized.  The team at the lab figure out that he needs a jolt of electricity to get out of his catatonic state.  Flash and XS do just that.  Grodd is down on the street, and Shark gets the best of him.  Shark removes the crown, and puts it back on.  Grodd has been defeated.

Iris heads back to her office…a tad apprehensive, but enters it and is ready to go.  She gets a text from Barry, telling her what she missed.  She can’t believe she missed King Shark vs. Gorilla Grodd.

At STAR Labs, Lyla and Team Flash discuss Grodd, and Lyla says they put him into a medically induced coma, so that his mind can’t access anymore dark matter.  Lyla also finds out that Shay cannot turn back into human again.  At ARGUS, Landon is looking into the aquarium where Shark is.  Sherloque shows up and tells her that their connection, their love, is there.  It doesn’t matter if it’s man or Shark.  She thanks him for his help, and he dismisses it as nothing.  They hug, and she hopes he will find love again one day.  He leaves, and Shark and Landon talk.  He notices she’s sad, and she tells him that he helped saved the city.  He says he’d do it again…because he loves her.   She smiles, and they touch the glass, ensuring their bond.

Once again at the Lab, Barry talks to Caitlin and Cisco, and agrees he was out of line.  He promises never to do it again.  But he says maybe they should offer Cicada the cure.  Barry reminds them that people deserve second chances…even their enemies.  Caitlin and Cisco are taken aback.

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A power packed episode!  Some interesting things going on here that we shall address them.

First and foremost...let's get the elephant out of the room.  Barry taking it upon himself to inject the cure into King Shark, and then JUSTIFIED it to Caitlin and Cisco, and having THEM question HIS motives as far as the USE of the cure---fascinating.  It's one of the few jerk moves Barry's made in awhile.  It shows how paranoid he is about this issue with Cicada, and the fact that he reacted IN fear at seeing Cisco in danger, he made a snap decision, without thinking of an alternative.  There WERE other ways, but Barry operating out of panic, and later being called out on the carpet for actually thinking that plan all along...not a good look, Barry.  Admittedly, he sucked up and apologized later, knowing he deserved any tongue lashing Cisco and Caitlin give, he knows he can't force anyone's hand again.  It's a bit risky to want to try and convince Cicada to take the cure...but I see that it is part of the plot.  Cicada eventually needs to be stopped.  But they've made it so he seems like he's the big bad of the season, so I don't see them dropping him now, with about 10 episodes left to go of this season.  But, we'll see....

Iris dealing with her fear.  For someone who's been so strong and badass over the last year or so...Iris having fear about Cicada showing up at anytime, now that he knows who she is, has sent her into a panic.  So much so, she wasn't willing to go to the office---out of fear.  Thankfully, good old Joe returned to set her straight (Welcome Back, Jessie!).  Boy, has Joe been sorely missed...good to have him back.  This was the only thing I was a little iffy on---considering how well Iris stood up to Cicada, and had all the confidence in the world on beating him.  But...when one thinks about the consequences of their actions...I can understand why she also cringed back a bit.  The reality of the situation has finally settled in on her.  Did find it funny, though, that the big battle between Grodd and Shark was something she missed...and she couldn't believe it.  You'd have thought that stuff would've been all over the news.  Well...I'm sure the team will fill her in on what happened.

King Shark and Tonya Landon.  In an odd way, this was also a love story tonight.  It's interesting what you can take out of a show once you watch it...and there are many things I did tonight---a love story was one of them.  Landon developed a way to talk to Shark, try and reach his inner self---the Shay part---and she reached him.  As much as she tried to deny how she felt about Shay.....man or Shark.  She couldn't hide it from Sherloque.  In a way, it was very tragic...but very sweet.  I don't believe we'll have a 100% turnaround of King Shark...but this is a good start.  If there's one thing I can take out of The Flash...it's redemption.  Look at Captain Cold...need I say more?  It also gives us another character to come in and assist the team on occasion in Landon.  

I always love an appearance from Grodd.  He's always been one of my favorite Flash villains.  He's intelligent, brutal, and dangerous.  They show runners got it right with him.  And the fight with King Shark---albeit brief and without destruction of half the city, was still a nice little bit of flavoring to this episode.  This is what I love about these shows---the villains can COME BACK to plague the hero again.  It's how the comics work, and I feel the CW and Warner Bros. have done a good job in that department.  Along with those coming out of the studios at DC.

Hooray for the Lyla appearance!  Anytime you can get some crossover stuff with the other shows...it's a bonus!

This is the one episode where Flash didn't have MUCH action...and Nora's story took a breather for a week...which is good.  It sets us up for next week and beyond, as we get to the finish line of Season 5.  

All in all, I know some will be disappointed, because not a lot of plot really got moved forward, Nora got put on the back burner, and it seemed flat to most.  Plus, I'm sure everyone thought the fight with Grodd and Shark would be more....epic.  But I enjoyed the story that it told, and sometimes, someone else's story is just as intriguing as the main characters.  And not every episode has to push A LOT of plot forward.  Cicada's story was still at the epicenter, because of the cure, but even HE got a breather this week.  It's good to have an episode where we can catch out breath, have A LITTLE fun, and indulge in another story that's pretty much OUTSIDE the world of Team Flash, yet still connected ENOUGH that we get a solid story out of it.  Admittedly, it wasn't epic, but I still enjoyed it.  What say you?  Leave a comment below...and HEY!  Subscribe willya?  I'd appreciate it!

That's it for this week.  Next week, we'll see if Team Flash can reach Cicada, and appeal to whatever humanity he has left to see if the cure can help him.  Plus, perhaps will get some more pieces to Nora's puzzle as well.

Until next week....keep on running!