It would be nice to think the character might one day be used in a more significant capacity, now that the technology for bringing him to life has been perfected over the course of five years. Even here, Grodd’s evil plan doesn’t exactly break the mold established by previous appearances. One of my biggest problems with The Flash is the way so many major villains from the comics (Grodd, Captain Cold and his fellow Rogues, etc.) are relegated to supporting roles. The strong VFX quality is also heartening because it leaves room to hope (however faint) that we might actually see Grodd take his place as an overarching villain on the show at some point. That showdown alone made the whole storyline worth it.
The CG-rendered action scenes can sometimes suffer from an rubbery, fake quality, but in a lot of ways it’s easier to run wild with two humanoid monsters and not have to worry about recreating human likenesses. The final Grodd/King Shark brawl didn’t disappoint one bit. This can’t have been a cheap episode, what with two fully CGI monsters bashing each other’s skulls in and multiple speedsters diving into the fray. The series’ special effects team deserve a huge amount of credit for pulling off this confrontation. I do wish the media res opening didn’t essentially telegraph Shay’s decision to revert back to shark form, but his sacrifice resonated nonetheless.
It’s too rare that this level of attention is paid to one-off villain characters, so it’s always nice to see when it does happen.
#THE FLASH SEASON 5 EPISODE 15 RELEASE DATE SERIES#
It certainly didn’t hurt that the writers placed such a heavy emphasis on fleshing out his human side and bringing an extra layer of sympathy to one of the series more outlandish villains. Thankfully, the deeper this episode got into the actual King Shark v. But again, on closer examination the logic doesn’t really hold up here. It’s a welcome change from the days when they used to throw criminals in the particle accelerator and lose the key. On what world is a guy who’s made it his life’s mission to murder every metahuman in the city going to willingly give up the only thing that makes his crusade possible? I appreciate the desire not to paint Team Flash as authoritarian bullies choosing who gets powers and who doesn’t. Worse is the revelation that Barry is going to offer Cicada the cure. The whole situation called for more nuance than this episode was able to deliver. Barry’s decision to use the cure on King Shark is treated like a serious moral failing, despite the fact that Cisco was literally seconds away from being squeezed to death by a giant shark monster. The problem is that it’s hard to buy into some of the character logic. That’s probably a necessary focal point given the nature of this storyline and the ethics behind stripping metahumans of their powers. This episode dealt a lot with the issue of consent.