The Flash season 2, episode 16, “Trajectory,” explored the side effects of Velocity-9 while Barry struggled with not being able to run fast enough.
In “Trajectory,” we meet Eliza Harmon, a friend of Caitlin’s at Mercury Labs, after she has stolen Caitlin’s Velocity-9 research. Eliza is using the drug to wreak havoc in Central City while letting The Flash take the blame. She becomes addicted to the drug and develops an alter ego, Trajectory, who can run faster than The Flash due to the temporary effects of V-9. When she runs out of her stash, she visits S.T.A.R. Labs and forces them to make more V-9 while holding Jessie at gunpoint.
After getting her fix, Trajectory causes a bridge to collapse, though The Flash rescues everyone on it before it falls — being the hero that he is. After gaining enough speed to jump the fallen bridge, Flash tries to discourage Trajectory from using V-9 — something he’d been considering himself probably until this very moment. He’s seen what happens with shortcuts, and he’s not willing to do that anymore. However, she takes another dose despite Flash’s pleas.
Something curious happens as she runs: Her lightning turns blue like Zoom’s and she disintegrates due to rapid cellular degeneration — the same thing Jay was suffering from. The team connects the dots, and after a vibe from Cisco, they’ve figured out that Jay is Zoom.
Eliza serves as a foil for Barry in this episode. Both are struggling to keep up with the demands on them and discover there is a potential shortcut to get what they want. Both are tempted to take it — but while Eliza takes it and creates Trajectory as a result, Barry is talked down from using it. Barry will need to get fast enough on his own to defeat Zoom.
The team also uncovers Zoom’s identity, but it’s clear there is more to the story than just Jay being Zoom. While Barry says they’ve seen speedsters in two places at once, we literally saw Jay and Zoom on two different worlds at the same time (a pretty big difference from being 10 feet apart), plus Zoom was carrying Jay’s body while the man in the mask watched on in horror at the end of the previous episode. There will have to be more to this reveal than is currently meeting the eye for things to line up.
Barry takes the reveal of Jay being Zoom extremely hard, having had a mentor betray him in the previous season. He can’t believe he let it happen again — especially after the initial distrust he showed Jay at the beginning of season 2. It sounds like his trip to National City on Supergirl couldn’t come at a better time, as meeting Kara is likely to buoy his spirits. I was expecting the final moments of this episode to set up his trip across dimensions, though.
Meanwhile, Jessie chafes at her father’s efforts to overprotect her. She discovers the lengths he would go to in order to do so, and it disturbs her. She eventually decides to leave S.T.A.R. Labs and explore Earth-1 on her own. Harry kept encouraging her to find her place in this new world but wouldn’t let her stretch her wings out of fear of losing her, so she took the decision out of his hands.
Jessie has done little except be a damsel in distress this season, which has been disheartening to see. She doesn’t need to be superpowered to have a sense of agency, so it’s good to finally see her make a decision for herself — to leave an environment that wasn’t healthy for her. In the comics, Jessie Quick is a speedster, so we’ll have to see if she ever fulfills her comic book destiny.
Finally, Iris and her boss, Scott, are at odds about writing about The Flash going rogue. Scott has a hard time believing in the best in people — especially heroes — while Iris is keen to believe in them. She asks Scott to coffee to discuss the article and he assumes it’s a date, which startles Iris. However, she realizes she could be into that and lets him know as much. This would be Iris’ first romance since Eddie’s death, so it’s nice to see her starting to move on.
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