FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 2×16 – “Trajectory”

Directed by: Glen Winter

Okay!  So between working
thirteen days in a row, a little indie film I went and saw about the Dawn (Go ahead, ask me if I loved Batman v Superman!) and winter’s parting gift of a
chest cold I’m not exactly timely with my Flash review but enough with the
procrastination and on with the review.

When we last left Barry and Team Flash he’d vowed to get fast
enough to return to Earth-2, defeat Zoom and avenge Jay’s death.  What better way to do that than recreate Evel Knievel
at the Snake River Canyon on foot?  Can he jump
the canyon? It’s the open of the episode so… nope. Thankfully rigged his drones
with a net or this would’ve been the series finale and a short one to boot.

Back at STAR Labs, Jesse is studying up on the break up of
Destiny’s Child and refers to Earth-2 Beyoncé being a Senator (Don’t give her
or Jay-Z ideas please) before the team returns to brainstorm Barry’s next suicide
attempt training exercise. Cisco
cries burnout, to which Caitlin agrees and the best way to solve burnout is by
partying at the club.  (Is that what you
kids do? In my day we went out to a field and counted rocks, then went to
school in the hip-deep snow, uphill both ways.)

Jesse begs her father to go but not before giving her his
meta-detecting watch.

At the club, we see the folly of that since she’s there with two
metas and she goes to the bathroom and modifies the watch then finds her father’s
secret murder diary.  Uh-oh.  Back out front, Iris and Wally have shown up
and after Barry introduces Wally to Jesse (cluing us all in to exactly how
complicated the West Family has become) Cisco does some sort of Muppet/Peanuts dance
to cheer up Caitlin when the whole club is mugged at once by a speedster.

Barry gives chase but this person blows him out of the
water.  Gee Barry, maybe it’s another
Flash. (Fingers are crossed for Ezra Miller Flash!)

The next morning, Barry Joe and Iris meet up at the club in
their official capacities and it gets better. 
Some woman snapped a picture of the crime and it sure looks like the
Flash robbed a bunch of people.

So Barry and Joe get to work trying to figure this  out while Iris returns to the paper.  So we get more from Scott Evans aka GQ Jonah
Jameson and he’s as happy as good ol’ JJJ with a fresh “Spider-Menace” story
and sets the team to the task of dismantling the Flash including Iris since she
was an eye witness to the Scarlet Deviant’s fall from grace.

Back at STAR
Labs, Jesse confronts her father about his murder diary and she’s mad as
hell.  Wells tells her it’s true and he’s
not sorry.  (We’ll touch on this later.)  Later, while Barry and Cisco try to figure
out what’s going on with the MotW.  After
all, to Barry’s knowledge there’s only two things this could be; Zoom minion or
Particle Accelerator explosion (you forgot time traveling speedster from the
future but that’s okay) but why wouldn’t they have shown themselves before now?
 

Caitlin
admits there’s a third way then she and Wells explain Velocity 9 and now Barry’s
pissed because hey, why should he work hard when he could just get hopped up on
PEDs?  Caitlin explains that she promised
Jay not to tell Barry because Velocity was what was killing him and Cisco tries
to talk to Caitlin about it he has a Vibe-vision of Zoom.

Before Wells
can interrogate him about the vision, Cisco’s app alerts them to the other
Flash and Barry gives chase.  Of course,
by “give chase” I mean “get beat down” by our new friend.  Turns out it isn’t Ezra, but a lady Flash.

Cisco is
strangely excited by the prospect while the rest of Team Flash try to figure
out who she could be and this brings Caitlin to a bad line of thought.  While she was working on V-9 she got some
help from friends at Mercury labs and she worries her friend, Dr. Eliza Harmon,
was a big help.  Despite taking
precautions it’s possible she might have recreated the formula.  Joe and Caitlin head off to question while
Barry palms the V-9 sample.

At Mercury
labs and Eliza doesn’t act remotely suspicious and even offers to be of more
help (which on TV practically screams guilty) so Joe and Caitlin leave for the
time being.  At the paper, Iris is being
pressed for her story from Scott so she deflects with an offer of coffee.  We return to Mercury Labs, and it turns out
Eliza is coo-coo for Coco Puffs… and Velocity-9.  She takes the drug at urging of the voice in
her head and heads to STAR Labs to score some more drugs.

Speaking of
drugs, Barry’s contemplating using it himself. 
Wells tries to talk him out of it, after all he seems to be the only one
not cheating.  Wells asks himself if he
wants to be about moral compromise or something better and pulls the trump card
of “Be better than me, be like Jay.” 
Barry destroys the V-9 only for Trajectory to show up and throw him in
the Pipeline before she threatens the rest of the team with death so she can
get more V-9.

Tension
breaker!  Scott and Iris are Jitters and
Iris gets him to explain why he distrusts the Flash.  At his previous paper, he broke a story of a
War hero running for office with secret mob backing despite knowing the public
wouldn’t want to hear it.  He then jokes
that he probably blew his date with her by not being a fan of the Flash.  Iris is confused and caught off guard and he
takes it for rejection before he leaves.

Back at STAR
Labs, Wells and Caitlin agree and make some more but to make sure they’re on
the level she tests the drug on Jesse. 
The team has to save Jesse with a blood transfusion from Wells.  Jesse wakes up later and is even more pissed
with her dad for giving Trajectory what he wants.

Meanwhile
the rest of the team is cleaning up the lab and Caitlin explains that while
they didn’t put a sedative in the V-9, they did put micro-trackers in it
meaning they know exactly when she is. 
The “where” in question is a nearby bridge, and they quickly realize
that she’s using her speed to destroy the bridge.

Barry heads
off to stop her and while he’s able to get people to safety she still brings
the bridge down and Barry’s forced to try the canyon jump again to chase after
her.  Lo and behold, he does it and takes
Trajectory down but she still has more V-9. 
Barry tries to talk her out of using it but it turns out she really likes
the fix and uses more to escape with her lightning blue shifting as she runs
away.  Barry watches as her body is
basically eaten up by her speed and she’s gone.

At the paper
the next morning, Iris presents Scott with her article about Flash vs
Trajectory and apologizes to him for acting a bit rude when he told her he
thought it was a date.  She then implies
that if he were to ask again she would say yes.

At STAR
Labs, Wells is looking for Jesse and finds his watch instead.  Jesse’s decided to leave and see Earth
One.  Or at least see Opal City for a
while.

Barry’s
gathered up the team in the lab hub later because there’s a problem.  The problem being Eliza’s lightning turning
blue.  That’s a bit odd and worrisome
because Zoom’s lightning happens to be blue. 
Wells theorizes that Zoom’s speed force is tainted by Velocity and he is
dying.  That’s why he wants Barry’s speed,
he’s hoping it’s purity will fix his problem.

However,
that’s not really the biggest problem because hey you know who else is dying
from using Velocity?  Jay Garrick, now
isn’t that strange!  Which makes it a bad time for Cisco to
mention he keeps having Vibe visions when he touch the case they’re keeping Jay’s
helmet in.  With a bit of dramatic flair,
Barry smashes open the case then hands Cisco the helmet.

Unfortunately
for everyone, Cisco confirms Barry’s fear. 
Jay is Zoom.  Sorry gang, this
just keep getting worse for you guys.

But do you
know who it’s not getting worse for? Us. 
That was a pretty solid episode, though it had a bit of a “Very Special
Episode” anti-drug vibe to it at times. 
I liked it for a return from a mini hiatus because it didn’t drop us
right back in the deep end right from the start.  In fact, at first it felt like a bit of a
time filler episode but as the story progressed you start to realize this was
very quietly a big revelation episode. 
So when Trajectory’s lightning turned blue you’re caught a little off
guard.

I still like
the Scott character and I’d like to take the time right now to say officially
that “I told you so.”  Still it was a bit
of a no-brainer.  Tone Bell has that “CW-love
interest” look about him.  Allison Paige
was good as our villain of the week but that’s about all you can say because
she was really just a “Meta of the Week” in the end.

Now, I said
we’d come back to the Jesse-Wells stuff and so we have.  Jesse, I know you’re a teenager on a CW
series but in all seriousness what did you expect your dad to do?  I’m not a father, but I can safely tell you
if I had a child there would be nothing off the table for me if it meant my son
or daughter’s safety.  If it meant saving
my kid, nothing would be too low or evil for me.  So, I hope during your soul searching you
come around on that thought.  He’s your
dad, you drawing breath is all that matters to him.

So, I guess
we should talk about the big end-episode revelation and how it fits with the four theories I offered up.  I’m really hoping
they’re doing some sort of Jekyll and Hyde thing.  After all, if Jay is merely Zoom and
pretending to be Jay that’s really just last year’s Reverse Flash arc revisited.  But if Zoom came about because Jay was using
Velocity that’s something different.  I
won’t rule out alternate Earth doubles or evil twins but I think those would be
a bit of a cop out.  I hope the creative
team is a little more courageous than that.

Strong start
going in to the final push and we’ll see you back here for our next
episode.  Which looks to be a time travel
episode which will probably melt my brain going by previous time traveling
Flash episodes.

Three Things We
Learned This Week:

Three Questions: