The Flash Episode 204: "The Fury of Firestorm"

Note: There are spoilers to this week's episode contained below. Travel at your own risk!

On this week's episode of The Flash, Jax Jackson is a high school football star, but during the accelerator explosion, he gets blasted with energy after saving a bunch of people. Cisco tries to find a way to save Professor Stein. Caitlin finds a couple of candidates that may be compatible and one is Jax. Barry grabs blood samples from the two men, without them knowing brings it back to Caitlin.

Patty Spivot brings Barry some shark teeth and Patty says people are seeing a walking shark in the area. Harrison Wells seems to be watching Barry from the shadows as he talks about Caitlin about how Jax is the perfect match for Stein. Barry and Stein go to visit Jax and he’s stand-offish about the particle accelerator exploding and doesn’t want to talk about it, since it ruined his future in football.

Iris talks to her mother for the first time in years and wants to know why she left. Iris tells her mother it’s not the right time in her life for her mother to pop back in.

One of the other candidates comes in to talk to Caitlin, Henry Hewitt. Stein and Hewitt are set up so they could bond with each other. They try it out, but it does not work. Hewitt is super-upset about it and he heads to the elevator. His has flashes. He has some sort of meta-human powers. Meanwhile, Harrison Wells breaks into Mercury Labs. Joe and Patty investigate and Joe makes Patty promise not to tell Barry. Francine tells Joe that she’s dying and she wants to get to know her daughter before she passes.

Jax ends up at STAR Labs. They lied to him and said he could be fixed. Stein explains that the explosion changed him. Jax still isn’t down with what’s happening and he walks away. Caitlin pushed him away. Barry explains that it took him a long time to learn to deal with being a hero.

Henry’s boss at work is pretty mean to him and Henry snaps and starts yelling. He catches on fire but doesn’t burn. Back at the West house, Joe explains to Iris that her mother is dying. Caitlin goes to talk to Jax and Henry is there and blasts Jax. He wants revenge, but Jax knocks him out with a wrench. The two leave in a rush. They get to STAR Labs and Stein is dying. Jax decides that it’s time to merge. The two merge and Jax is the new Firestorm. Hewitt is at Central City High School’s stadium and Flash and Firestorm head there. Hewitt is not happy when he sees Jax as Firestorm. The two eventually beat him.

Iris finally heads off and meets her mother. Iris tells her mother that she’s been lying and that she knows about Francine’s son, born 8 months after Francine left. WALLY! Iris tells her mother to leave them alone.

Flash is doing his thing and King Shark appears! Zoom wants him dead. AWESOME! Patty Spivot shoots at him but it has no effect. Harrison Wells shoots King Shark down and reveals himself to Barry.

Let's just start right at the end. King Shark? HELL YES! King Shark looked really cool and when Patty was teasing the character earlier, I thought there was no way we'd see him on the show. It was just a nice easter egg for fans of the comic book. However, we got him, at least for a few moments at the end of the episode. On top of that being a cool little twist for the episode, it was nice to see the show go back to the story that's supposed to be happening throughout the season: Zoom sending metahumans to Earth-One to kill the Flash. We didn't see that at all in the last episode and for the majority of this episode.

Harrison Wells is helping Barry? It's so hard to trust the man who spent a whole season manipulating everything behind the scenes. On top of that, he killed Barry's parents. This Harrison Wells did come through the wormhole though, so maybe he is actually the Harrison Wells from Earth-Two or maybe that's what he wants everyone to think. He did reveal himself to Barry, but why keep yourself hidden if Barry doesn't know you? So many questions!

Ok, fanboy mode off. Back to the episode, which was really about bringing the new Firestorm into the fold. First, Stein's voice over, when Jax and Stein are merged, was pretty cheesy. His coaching reminded me of bad captioning from 90s comic books. However, the team is pretty interesting and I really liked Jax as a character. He has a bit of a hot head on him, pun intended, and he's really motivated to become a hero. On the downside, he and Stein leave at the end of the episode, so that means Barry is on his own. This is a character that you can easily get attached to because the episode centered around him, but seeing that he's leaving means the viewers won't be able to see him until who knows when. That's probably the biggest disappointment with the character.

Another big part of this episode was Iris coming to terms with her estranged mother, Francine. Fanboy mode back on because Iris reveals she dug up some info about Francine and found out she has a brother who is around 19 years old now, which means Wally West is officially in the picture. Francine herself is nothing more than a plot device to deliver the information Wally exists. Sure, in the grand scheme of things, it does develop Joe and Iris' characters more, but Francine is unsympathetic and written relatively poorly. She's flat.

It's great to see a new Firestorm and this episode played incredibly well to the more hardcore fans of the comic book, giving them easter eggs left and right, but at the same time, it really delivered for fans of the show by bringing back Harrison Wells and delivering another decent villain of the week episode. The episode was good but not great but it really helps build towards the larger story for the season. This show is still awesome. Super-awesome.

Questions of the Week:

• Is this Harrison Wells from Earth-Two or Earth-One?
• How (if at all) does Wally West get his powers?
• Is this the last we've seen of King Shark and Tokamak?
• Is Jax a suitable replacement for Ronnie?

@orpheus_knightfall: of course

I gotta catch up on Flash, I need my Firestorm fix

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! King Shark showing up was so cool,he looked awesome. Wow!That was like the coolest thing they could have done by giving us a little tease, then BOOM! He just shows up and attacks Flash outta nowhere. Nobody saw that coming!I enjoyed this episode so much! The new Firestorm is really likeable and he actually made me laugh a few times. I can't wait until Ronnie comes back to make a new convergence.

I really enjoyed this episode. I really liked Jax, he was a very humorous and fun character. The lead-in for next weeks episode looks very interesting with Dr. Wells of Earth 2. I didn't like how caitlin revealed the team's secret to the villain and the villain fell flat for me. I didn't like francine's character but it did make for some interesting drama. I liked that they tackled the sad result of her past addiction, and I liked that it is setting up for potentially Wally West. I hope that the character is written with more of the character traits and complexity of John's version or the Young Justice version instead of the recent new 52 version.

8.7 /10 for me.

King Shark made my life. That is all.

So Wally is Iris' brother now rather than her nephew?

I thought some of the writing was kind of bad -- I didn't like how everyone was trying to convince Jax to merge with Stein so he could become a super-hero and get to do cool stuff like "fly" when the most important reason to me would be to save Professor Stein's life.

I enjoyed this episode from the very beginning. I like Jax, it was nice having another character added in who isn't super smart so I'm hoping he pops up again soon since I found him relatable to myself on that and the athletic stuff. But most importantly I was completely caught off guard when King Shark showed up at the end! I thought Grodd was as far as they'd go but I thought it was awesome and hilarious at the same time when he showed up.

Goddamn!!!! King Shark!!!! He was awesome!

@dondave: yep.

the Flash season 2 just keep getting better and better.

Like you all, I was wondering what that big hand was creeping up behind Barry. I almost choked on my beer when it was King Shark..

Will King Shark come back??

Overall pretty good. At least this villain survived... But I'm bothered by how callous Barry is about locking him up in their cubicles until he learns to keep his mouth shut. Sounded kinda mobstery.

I like the new firestorm, I think the interaction between Stein and Jax will be really fun.

The whole ending scene with Iris and her mother was really well done. Poor Joe.

It's been interesting watching this and Arrow since we know Ledgends is coming, it skews our view of things. So when we have an episode like this which is largely table setting for Legends and the episode 7-8 crossover it might actuall flow a bit better?

So glad they gave Candice Patton a thread that wasn't under the thumb of Barry Allen, she can act and it's just nice seeing them let the cast do things that aren't always due to orbiting the central star.

ok The King Shark incusion was a very awesome (likely expensive) gag but kinda worth it. Overall eh definatly a table setting episode and on the nose but that's kinda this shows bag. Like the guy playing Jax, he's a lot like comics Ronnie.

Cheap Plug to User Review

"Hey remember ronnie? Caitlins fiance? The original firestorm and how we apent multiple episodes trying to find him then establish him then them get married and caitlin finally be happy? Then we killed him to make room for a black guy whos not even jason rusch, hes an original character? And not caitlin os flirting with jay a mere 6 months after her fiance died AGAIN? Arent you glad we spent all that time eatablishing him and finally getting him with caitlin only to kill him off for the sake of diversity?"-producers of The Flash.

King Shark. Seriously made my day. I thought flash was just teasing me and there was no way they'd deliver Nanaue to me... I'm at a loss for words... awesome pretty much sums it up

@mrmazz: i notice that about firestorm they switch roles in the comics the black firestorm was a science her and ronnie was a jock. on the show they switch it.

I wonder if this King Shark is the same one from Flash: Season Zero?

@cloakx14: There was an Andrew Kreisberg interview about this episode (think it was Variety) where they talked about introducing Jax. And how when they came up with Ronnie for the show it made more sense to make him the smarter qusai-equal to Doc Stein just from a table setting point. But with Jax they get to have more of the original comics Ronnie, can' wait to see how that plays ou tin Legends.

No this one mentioned Zoom so he must be from Earth 2.

I shitted my pants when I saw King Shark, IT WAS SO UNEXPECTED, BARRY BEGAN DOING THE MONOLOGUES HE DOES IN EVERY EPISODE AND THEN BAM AND GIGANTIC MAN SHARK. I expected a future episode with him but not in this episode.

He's too expensive to create. It's why they saved him for the end of the episode rather than have him be the villain of the week.

Eh, 3/5. This was a boring episode with the exception of King Shark at the end and the dialog was even more painful to listen than usual especially for Caitlyn and Joe. Speacking of Joe why would he keep Harrison potentially being alive from Barry, didn't he learn anything from withholding vital information from his children in the last episode.

On the positive side, Jax already seems more interesting than Ronnie and Patty is growing on me.

I couldnt see the first 5 minutes, did they explain where Jay was during this episode?

@zackisme: i was so hyped for king shark i was 50/50 on them using him cause of the cgi but man was that shot beatiful.

@black_arrow said:

Yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's from Earth 2. Zoom could be threatening Shark's family to make him kill the Flash.

King Shark was voiced by David Hayter.^ ^

@the_kidd: I think Joe's waiting until he has more information before he tells Barry, so Barry doesn't get all obsessive. But yeah, shoulda told him, especially since they know people from other universes are popping in.

As for Jay, yeah that was weird, he was probably sitting in the basement with the Fry Hole.

Is it just me or is Zoom a bit too sentai villainish? He should make them grow after Barry defeats them. Then we have an excuse to introduce mechs. (I bet Cisco probably has a couple stored in a bunker just in case.)

To be honest it was kind of a weak episode with a disappointing fight scene with Tokamak..

The final 2 minutes with King Shark and Earth-2 Harrison Wells redeemed it, though.

she flirted with Jay which proves it's not a diversity issue....and simply idiotic writing and poor character development pacing

I am confused with what Tokamak wanted, it seems he got all of the power without having to fuse with someone else so why bit a bitch about it?

my biggest pet peeve is telling someone how they "have" to be a super hero. worked out will for your husband, lets throw another untrained kid into the mix with a guilt trip

Those special effects were amazing! Also - WALLY!!

Pretty sure the actor playing ronnie is busy filming a movie and that's why he's missing.

Overall this was a good episode. I'm curious where Jay went though. It's like they used the end of the last episode to establish he was staying, just so they can have him disappear. Apart from that: KING. SHARK. I mean, I caught the tease, but when he said the teeth were human I thought it was just a clever nod. Then out of nowhere...greatness happened. I just hope he comes back later. Seriously, he deserves better treatment than a 1 minute appearance.

There goes another extremely cheesy,childish,boring and dumb episode(except for the last two minutes).Seriously, what's wrong with the writers,are they a bunch of retarders or something? Ok,the show is based on a comic book but there are similar shows that have way better dialogues and way less plot holes(did they exposed the fact that Star Labs is working with the Flash to Hewitt just like that?Seriously??). It's really sad that they're ruining the show the same way they ruined Arrow.

So cool. We have both Wally and King Shark on DCCWU.

It seems to be the case.

Like: King Shark, Shark's surprise attack (its kinda funny, with his size surprising someone), Tokamak,

I thought Daniel West was Iris' brother and Wally was her nephew.

Now I want an episode where Grodd and King Shark either team up or get in a fight, like a mini Kaiju battle.

@mutant_god: I think they're changing it for the sake of exspediance. If they introed Daniel then Wally would have to be a small child, if Wally is made her brother he can come in and become Kid Flash in a short time.

@joshmightbe: i'm ok with wally being Iris's brother. what do you think about it ?

Why would a 19 year old call himself Kid Flash?

That would expensively awesome!

@cloakx14: I'm fine with it, as long as we get an at least semi recognizable Wally I don't care how it happens. But I'm hoping to god they don't go with new 52 troubled youth Wally.

@mutant_god: Maybe it could be a running gag, have Cisco dub him Kid Flash and have Wally just be annoyed with it until it grows on him.

"Hyutte is super upset"

That's an understatement !!

king shark was definitely the best fanboy moment of the episode, and dare I say he looks better than Grodd!

This has an "When Animals Attack" episode written all over it.