King Shark
As everyone deals with the traumatic consequences of the escape from Earth-2 – including Jay’s death and abandoning Earth-2 to Zoom – Cisco, Barry, and Harry make a pact never to tell everyone else about their doppelgangers. The breaches are closed forever and there’s no way back to Earth-2. This, of course, eats both Barry and Cisco up inside while Caitlin especially struggles with the loss of another romantic partner. Meanwhile, King Shark escapes from Argus following Amanda Waller’s death and Lyla’s new administration over the organization. Lyla and Diggle travel to Central City to warn Barry that King Shark is after him and the teams decide to work together to find and catch King Shark. With little luck in locating King Shark, he unexpectedly attacks Barry and his family at home as Barry and Wally awkwardly attempt to bond. Barry sneaks away from the fray to confront King Shark as the Flash, but narrowly escapes the death blow when King Shark is chased away by Argus. Wally, in the meantime, accuses Barry of cowardice when he seemed to disappear during the attack. Back at STAR Labs, Caitlin and Cisco discover the electrical field that led King Shark to Barry and how to reverse it in order to track King Shark. They set up a trap with a lure and Barry leads a chase over water which he uses to electrify and incapacitate King Shark. Back at STAR Labs Barry promises everyone that they are going to find a way to open the breaches and stop Zoom for good. Back on Earth-2, Zoom dumps the dead Jay on the floor as the Stranger seems panicky and upset. Zoom unmasks himself, revealing another Jay underneath – which beg the questions of how many Earths are available to Zoom, which Earth Zoom is from, and how many Jays he’s tracked down.
Doppelgangers
Cisco and Barry break their pact pretty quickly, with Cisco telling Caitlin of his fears that her recent coldness means a turn to evil and with Barry confiding to Joe and Iris that he was indirectly responsible for Joe-2’s death. Caitlin, of course, having just lost a second love has closed herself off from emotion in order to function and promises Cisco that she will never turn evil. Joe and Iris try to tell Barry that the consequences on Earth-2 weren’t his fault but he knows they are, and he’s haunted by having abandoned Earth-2 to Zoom. He decides in the end to make amends, one way or the other, and make it back to Earth-2 to defeat Zoom.
Wally
While Wally seems to have a pretty good relationship going with Joe and Iris, he is antagonistic towards the genuinely open and accommodating Barry. Barry tries his best to bond with Wally, but his combative attitude makes it difficult for any opening Barry makes to gain ground. The obvious secret is, of course, that Wally is intimidated by Barry and feels that he can never live up to him as a member of the family. Iris and Joe are enthusiastically warm, proud, and supportive of Barry and Wally feels left in his shadow. Joe explains to Wally what Barry went through as a child – the murder of his mother, the wrongful imprisonment of his father – and says that the pride with which Iris and Joe speak of Barry originates from the terrible odds which Barry was able to rise against to become the man he is. Joe tells Wally that Barry is his son, just like Wally is his son, and that nothing will change that.
Zoom
So it seems that Jay is really dead, but there might be many more Jays in reserve. Zoom is revealed to be another Jay – implying that if original Jay is from Earth-2 that Zoom is from another Earth entirely – and increasing the likelihood that the Stranger in Zoom’s cell is yet another Jay from yet another Earth. They could, of course, be clones, but that would be a complete waste of the multiverse storyline that The Flash has begun to establish. This situation also has the capability to be really hard on Caitlin, especially if her Jay is really dead and she’s faced with a bunch of other Jays who don’t know her, including the one who killed her sweetheart.
