Off Topic Tuesday #5: Apple, security, and privacy

Unless you've been living under a rock lately, there's a big kerfuffle going on in America between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Apple over the iPhone belonging to the two gunmen behind last year's terror attack in San Bernardino. The issue is that the iPhone is encrypted and the FBI wants Apple to install a backdoor so that they can see if there's anything important in it. Apple is refusing to do it on grounds of security and the misuse by the FBI of some law from like 1789. This has led to a larger debate over privacy and security.

I understand both sides of the debate and they both have valid concerns. On one hand, that iPhone could very well contain valuable information about the attack, including who gave the terrorists the money to buy the guns used in the attack. On the other hand, this is pretty much the top of a slippery slope. If the FBI can force Apple to install a backdoor on its devices, then what's stopping them or any other law enforcement agency from doing the same with other companies? Indeed, there's talk of Congress passing legislation that would require all phones, tablets, and computers to have a backdoor in their software for law enforcement to use. Another problem with this is that if someone or a group were to find a way to exploit this backdoor, countless millions of people would be at risk for all sorts of threats and malicious actions.

It's certainly a dilly of a pickle. Do you surrender some privacy for the sake of security or do you preserve privacy but put national security at risk? Is there a way to balance the two to the best of satisfaction or will the scales always unbalanceable? I think it'll always be the last one. There's simply no way, in my opinion, to find a balance between privacy and security and it'll always tip back and forth between the two. The problem is that we want both, but at the same time are unwilling to surrender either. We hold privacy as one of the dearest things to our heart, but we want security too, to be protected from ill and harm. When the cost of that security starts to nibble away at privacy, however, we denounce the intrusion and push back as hard as we can.

Where do I stand on this? I'm leaning towards Apple's side. Like I said, I see both sides of the argument and their concerns are both valid. But this isn't a dire situation to warrant what the FBI wants Apple to do. If the attackers were part of a larger cell and there was a threat of another attack and that phone potentially contained information to prevent that attack, then yes the FBI's demands would be warranted. If the FBI had information that something like that was possible, then they would have pushed for Apple to install a backdoor sooner rather than later. This is just the FBI flipping over even the smallest pebble it can find in search for clues that might not even exist.

So what do you think? Should Apple give in to the FBI's request and install a backdoor? Should the government pass legislation requiring backdoors on all electronic devices? Does privacy trump security or vice versa? Let me know in the comments below.

Nominees for the 2015 Nebula Awards announced

I'm a bit late on this, but the Science Fiction Writers of America announced the nominees for the Nebula Awards last month and it's an interesting pack.

Novel

Raising Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu (Saga)
Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, Lawrence M. Schoen (Tor)
Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)

Novella

Wings of Sorrow and Bone, Beth Cato (Harper Voyager Impulse)
“The Bone Swans of Amandale,” C.S.E. Cooney (Bone Swans)
“The New Mother,” Eugene Fischer (Asimov’s 4-5/15)
“The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn,” Usman T. Malik (Tor.com 4/22/15)
Binti, Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
“Waters of Versailles,” Kelly Robson (Tor.com 6/10/15)

Novelette

“Rattlesnakes and Men,” Michael Bishop (Asimov’s 2/15)
“And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead,” Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed 2/15)
“Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds,” Rose Lemberg (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 6/11/15)
“The Ladies’ Aquatic Gardening Society,” Henry Lien (Asimov’s 6/15)
“The Deepwater Bride,” Tamsyn Muir (F&SF 7-8/15)
“Our Lady of the Open Road,” Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s 6/15)
Short Story
“Madeleine,” Amal El-Mohtar (Lightspeed 6/15)
“Cat Pictures Please,” Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld 1/15)
“Damage,” David D. Levine (Tor.com 1/21/15)
“When Your Child Strays From God,” Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld 7/15)
“Today I Am Paul,” Martin L. Shoemaker (Clarkesworld 8/15)
“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” Alyssa Wong (Nightmare 10/15)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

Ex Machina, Written by Alex Garland
Inside Out, Screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; Original Story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen
Jessica Jones: AKA Smile, Teleplay by Scott Reynolds & Melissa Rosenberg; Story by Jamie King & Scott Reynolds
Mad Max: Fury Road, Written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nick Lathouris
The Martian, Screenplay by Drew Goddard
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Written by Lawrence Kasdan & J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy

Seriously Wicked, Tina Connolly (Tor Teen)
Court of Fives, Kate Elliott (Little, Brown)
Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan UK 5/14; Amulet)
Archivist Wasp, Nicole Kornher-Stace (Big Mouth House)
Zeroboxer, Fonda Lee (Flux)
Shadowshaper, Daniel José Older (Levine)
Bone Gap, Laura Ruby (Balzer + Bray)
Nimona, Noelle Stevenson (HarperTeen)
Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)

Fortunately, the Nebulas can't be hijacked like the Hugo Awards were last year, so everybody will have a chance at actually winning an award rather than being denied because some people decide to be jerks.

March Icon of the Month: Geordi La Forge

As I said back when I first talk about doing this Icon of the Month feature, the people I'd choose weren't restricted to just women, but would include men, and fictional characters. So with that in mind, I decided to choose a fictional character and one of my favorites from Trek, Geordi La Forge, Chief Engineer of the Enterprise-D and E.

Whereas Scotty is the favorite of many Trekkies, Geordi is mine. Don't get me wrong, I love Scotty, but TNG was the first Star Trek series I watched and so I was exposed to Geordi before Scotty.

One of the things I like about Geordi is that he was both disabled and not treated differently at the same time. Typically, TV shows at the time would treat disabled characters as tools to send a "message" to the audience about how people with disabilities shouldn't be treated as defective or as different from able-bodied people. The fact that these shows would do this with "very special episodes" that treated disabled characters as being different was overlooked by the writers and producers. But on TNG, Geordi was given equal treatment. He was expected to do his job and was held to the same high standards as anybody onboard the Enterprise. But his disability wasn't ignored either and it was discussed in several episodes. It was just a part of his life.

His friendship with Data is one of my favorite things ever. I love how they rely on each other. If one had a problem, they would go to the other for advice. I think their relationship could be described as siblings. Geordi was an only child and Data's brothers were a psychopath and Windows 2000 with limbs, so they both found a companionship that they never had before.

There's an episode of TNG called The Most Toys where this asshole kidnaps and fakes Data's death so that he could add the android to his personal collection of stuff. Geordi is the only one who refuses to accept that Data died in a shuttle accident and eventually proves that he didn't. Meanwhile, in the movie Generations, Data is wrought with guilt and shame after Geordi is kidnapped by the baddies. He blames himself and while the emotion chip he had installed earlier in the movie was obviously hyping up his emotions, they were still there.

Like I wasn't going to add this picture.

All pictures from Memory Alpha.

Iron Monday tomorrow

Yeah, so I was busy cleaning out my closet today and completely forgot to write today's Iron Monday. So rather than writing it in a rush, I'm just going to do it tomorrow and backdate it.

Library checkouts 2/27/16

So I like to go to the local library a lot and seeing as how this is a book blog, I thought I'd post my checkouts from yesterday's trip.

(via Macmillan)

Kell is one of the last Travelers-magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes, connected by one magical city.

There's Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, and with one mad king-George III. Red London, where life and magic are revered-and where Kell was raised alongside Rhys Maresh, the rougish heir to a flourishing empire. White London-a place where people fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London. But no one speaks of that now.

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, ambassador of the Maresh empire, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.

I've seen this on the shelf before, but overlooked it since I wasn't sure if it was my type of fantasy. But after seeing it on a few book blogs over on Tumblr, I decided to read a little of it and quickly fell into my 'to be read' queue. I plan on starting it as soon as I finish The Eyre Affair, which will be soon.

(via Amazon)

Hotel Pastis is about Simon Shaw, an ad executive in his 40s who after a divorce and burned out by his clients, ends up in a village in an area of Provence, France called the Luberon. Here, he decides to convert an abandoned police station into the eponymous Hotel Pastis. I never heard of him under yesterday, but Peter Mayle has made a career out of writing fiction and non-fiction about his life in Provence. This is one of those "eh, I'll try it" novels. I don't know if I'll read it or even get around to reading it, but I might as well give it a whirl. I might be a Mayle fan and not even know it yet.

(via books, the universe, and everything)

 I was watching Young Frankenstein on Turner Classic Movies the other night and after it ended, they showed the trailer for the 1985 adaption of A Room With a View. The trailer peaked my interest and I decided a read a few pages of the novel yesterday and right in the TBR queue it went. I'm going to make an effort to read this book this year, if not this time around. I don't often renew books, but I will on this one.

(via The Lesser of Two Equals)

 I can't explain why I decided to check The Master and Margarita out. I've known of it for a while and maybe it was just the title, but I figure it's worth a try.

(via Goodreads)

 Same as the above, I chose this one out of impulse. F. Scott Fitzgerald is known today primarily for The Great Gatsby, but I think that I want to check out his other works instead.

Anything look good to you folks?

Book Nerd Problems: When your book buying options are limited

I live in one of those towns that's small because it's stuck between two larger towns/small cities, and none of the retail outlets see much point in putting a store there. After all, why would you when people can just as easily drive to either of the two cities instead? Combine this with my lack of a driver's license (I neglected to allocate any skill points to Driving for the last seventeen times I've leveled up), and my options for buying books is quite limited.

That's not to say that there aren't bookstores in town. There are four used one and formerly, an indie. Alas, the owner of the indie was forced to downsize, close his store and relocate it to one of those community marketplaces. In other words, he went from a store to a booth. Ouch. To be honest, though, his store barely qualified as a bookstore. It was incredibly small and I'm pretty confident that I have more books on my two metal bookcases than in the entire store. Still, the owner would order books if he didn't carry it, so it was still worth going to for that. I don't suspect he'll be in business for much longer, sadly.

As for the four used bookstores, it's a very mixed bag. There's one near where I live, but the guy who runs it keeps irregular store hours and he charges more than retail for his paperbacks. I understand that used bookstores need to charge more than thrift store prices to survive, but charging nine or more dollars for a used paperback is a bit much, especially if it's not in good condition. I think he makes most of his money from his booth at a local antique mall in any case. Meanwhile, the other three stores are located downtown. Two of them seem to specialize in hardcovers and older editions, and their prices reflect that. Here, I'm not complaining because their prices are justified by their stock. Unfortunately, my book budget is small, so I can only ever peruse and not buy.

Fourth and last of the used bookstores is a new discovery I made about a month ago. Located on the same street as one of the two aforementioned stores, but further down than I normally go, the thing that attracted me to this place was the price: $3.50 for paperbacks and I believe $5.50 for hardcovers. I actually had to do a double take when I saw the sign because those prices are incredible. It's a very small shop, but it's filled with all kinds of books and believe me, had I the money, I would have walked away with a ton of books. Instead, I managed to (barely) restrain myself and made off with two, but I plan on returning again soon.

Of course, I have other local options for buying books, namely thrift stores. The problem there lies in selection. Since they're depended on donations, their stock is too hodgepodge and often lackluster. I can also visit the chain bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million in the two nearby cities, but the opportunities are limited due to personal reasons that I won't get into.

On the other hand, not being able to go to the big chain stores might be a good thing. I used to live in one of the two cities and I went to the B&N and BAM stores probably way too often and bought books that I ended up never reading and giving away. Still, I miss the ability to just walk into a bookstore and buy the book(s) I wanted.

Review: Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin (Inspector Rebus series, book 1) (SPOILERS)

Knots and Crosses is the first book in crime novelist Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series. First published in 1987, the series chronicles Detective-Sergeant (later, Detective-Inspector) John Rebus as he tries to unravel a variety of crimes in Edinburgh, Scotland.

In Knots and Crosses, the city of Edinburgh is rocked by the abductions and murders of several young girls. The police struggle to find the culprit with next to no clues available and pacify a public that is increasingly screaming for a resolution. Enter John Rebus of the Lothian and Borders Police (which was eventually replaced by Police Scotland in 2013), a man with a haunted past, a broken marriage, and habits that are anything but healthy.

I haven't read much crime fiction, so I don't know how uncommon this is, but what I thought was interesting is that unlike Kurt Wallander, Rebus isn't a high ranking or even a standout police officer. In Knots and Crosses, he's assigned to assist in the investigation of the murders, but is largely relegated to doing door-to-door interviews of potential witnesses and later, to answering phones and going through police files. He's not at the end of the investigation and is just part of the investigative process and I like the realism of it. Typically, if you watch cop shows on TV like Law & Order: SVU or what have you, the detectives on those shows are always out front in the investigation and the actual grunt work by the crime scene investigators, the uniformed police, and other detectives (i.e. not the main characters) are only given token acknowledge and even then, only if it progresses the plot. In Knots and Crosses, however, Rebus's place is firmly set during a staff meeting early in the book. Rebus and the other Detective-Sergeants are seated at the back of the room while the inspectors are at the front. The former are assigned the grunt work and the latter handle the major parts of the investigation.


But let's talk about John Rebus for a moment, because I feel like he's going to become my favorite detective or at the very least, fight it out with Kurt Wallander for the top spot. One of the reasons why I like Rebus is that he isn't a stereotypical great detective. His boss even points out that Rebus is a good cop. Not very good, just good. This is illustrated by the fact that he had been receiving clues from the killer the entire book, but never realized it, instead writing them off as coming from a crank. Even Rebus admonishes himself for not making the connection. Why does this make me like him? Because it's realistic. In real life, detectives will overlook clues and not make connections between one thing and another until later on and it all clicks. Maybe it's just me, but having an amazing detective who can solve the crime on their own is 'meh' to me.

Rebus is also imperfect. He struggles with PTSD throughout the novel and at one point even ends up in the hospital after a psychological break. His condition can be traced back to his time in the army and the SAS, which ended with a breakdown, his discharge and his current job with the Scottish police after his recovery. While it's referenced throughout the novel, we don't find out what caused the breakdown until the last part of the book and it's startling relation to the main plot. Basically, Rebus joined British Army to escape his life and family, before applying for the Special Air Service. Completing that, he and his friend Gordon Reeve were selected for training for an elite unit within the SAS aimed at fighting the IRA in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Unfortunately, the training involved the two being taken "prisoner" and tortured until they break. Rebus survives the ordeal, but suffers a breakdown almost immediately afterwards. Reeve's breakdown is triggered when Rebus abandons him at the end.

And this shared ordeal is directly connected to the main plot because the serial killer turns out to be...Reeve. The whole thing turns out to be Reeve's revenge against Rebus for abandoning him all those years ago. This is where things get a bit over the top. Thanks to an English professor, Rebus and the police discover that the first letter of each victim's first and last name spells out a single name - Samantha, John Rebus's daughter and Reeve's next target. Yup, this whack-a-doodle went around, kidnapping and murdering girls just so he could spell out Samantha. It's a bit out there, but it doesn't wreck the story.

Going back to characters, the biggest and most dominating is Edinburgh itself. Here, you have two cities occupying the same space (but not like China Mieville's The City & The City). On one side, you have the city that tourists journey to: the castles, monuments, and everything else that attracts tourists. On the other side, you have the Edinburgh that tourists don't see or go to. This is the city of crime, death, of bars off the beaten path, drugs, brothels, and all that stuff that makes crime fiction so great. This is the world that John Rebus lives in and Knots and Crosses makes you question whether the two Edinburghs are the two sides of the same coin or worlds apart.

The one character I didn't care for is Jim Stevens, a reporter who dogs Rebus in the novel. Stevens discovers that Michael, John's brother is connected to the Edinburgh drug trade and automatically assumes that Rebus is involved, so spends the novel almost like a conspiracy theorist trying to make a connection that doesn't exist. This doggedness got on my nerves to the point that I was hoping that Stevens was the killer.

In the end, Knots and Crosses is a good start to what is (from what I hear) a great crime series and I can't wait to read the rest of the books.

Overall, I would give Knots and Crosses a solid 9/10. I highly recommend this book whether you're a fan of crime fiction or just getting into it.

Programming notes

It's been a month or thereabouts since I "relaunched" Nerd Trash, so I thought I'd give a sort of status update on things. Firstly, the posting itself is going great. This will be the 60th post of the year and 33rd just for February. I've had a few "dead" days where I haven't posted anything, but those are typically days when I'm busy with real world stuff, so those get a pass. Second, I'm ditching Wikipedia Wednesday and Shout-Out Friday. The former just didn't pan out like I hoped it would. I've mentioned in the past about how the "random article" link wasn't exactly bringing me gold nuggets, so I'm just not going to bother with it anymore. I'm leaning towards replacing it with a trivia feature since I like trivia and so do most people. As for Shout-Out Friday, that died in the womb, so to speak. Every time I tried writing a shout-out post, my brainbox would just go blank. I was never hip to it to begin with, so I don't feel bad for dropping it. I'm thinking about replacing it with a girls-oriented feature. I was thinking of calling it Gal Friday or Girl Friday. I keep thinking that another blog I read is already using Gal Friday, but my memory sucks and I'm drawing a blank.

Aside from Wednesday and Friday, I'm pleased as punch with Iron Monday, Off Topic Tuesday, and She-Hulk Thursday and will be keeping those going for as long as possible. I know that I'll run out of material for Monday and Thursday, but we'll cross and siege that bridge when we get there.

Well that was a bit anticlimatic (Flash spoilers)

So yeah, Zoom was finally unmasked in last night's episode of The Flash, "King Shark" and if you haven't seen the episode or the reaction to it yet, then, well, I'll let this Instagram pic give a hint. Beware, spoilers below.

Well, this is a complication...

A photo posted by Teddy Sears (@teddysears) on Feb 24, 2016 at 6:06am PST

Yup, Zoom is Jay Garrick or somebody who looks like him. At the end of the episode, it cuts to the helmeted man that Zoom is still holding prisoner. Zoom walks in carrying Jay Garrick's corpse, dumps it unceremoniously on the ground and pulls his mask off while the camera does a slow turn from his back to front, revealing the face of Jay Garrick. He then looks down at the corpse (while the helmet guy is visibly losing his crap) and says "Well, this is a complication".

Here's what disappoints me about the reveal: It was tacked on to the end of what was essentially a filler episode. Yes, the reveal was shocking and dramatic, but it would have had more impact if it had been done while confronting Barry and the rest of Team Flash. Imagine the shock and horror as Zoom pulls his mask off and they all see Jay's face smiling back at them.

Ah, but it does leave us with a big question. Who is this Jay Garrick? Is it even a Jay Garrick at all? Eobard Thawne was able to use a device to disguise himself as Harrison Wells, so who's to say that this Zoom fellow didn't do something similar? The person I'm leaning towards is Edward Clarisse, who was an enemy to Jay Garrick and used the name The Rival. What lends weight to this is Teddy Sears' avatar on Instagram.

Which looks like this:

DC Comics Database.

Very, very interesting. On the other hand, it could be Hunter Zolomon or a combination of him and Edward Clarisse.

Who is Zoom 2: Electric Boogaloo (SPOILERS)

Last week, I did a post about five people who I thought could be Zoom on The Flash and the episode that aired that night, "Escape from Earth-2" narrowed down the list of Zoom's possible alter-egos, but left us with a lot more questions. First, let's start with the eliminations:

Earth-2 Barry can be scratched off as he was always with Wells, Cisco, E2 Iris, and Killer Frost.

I'm also going to go ahead and eliminate E2 Henry. He was a moonshot and was chosen for the potential drama of The Flash having to fight his dad's doppelganger.

I'm not sure about Earth-2 Wally because we never saw him and neither Iris or Joe mentioned him, so it's questionable if Wally even exists on that Earth. He's provisionally eliminated unless new evidence surfaces of his existence.

This brings us to Jay Garrick and his Earth-1 counterpart, Hunter Zolomon. As I mentioned in the first Zoom post, Hunter Zolomon is Zoom in the comics and on one hand that can't be overlooked, but on the other hand, it feels so much like a red herring. That might be the writers' intention, to make Zolomon look like a red herring in order to throw off the comic fans and people who look characters up on Google.


Then there's Jay. Jay, Jay, Jay. He was a bit shady in "Escape from Earth-2" and there were a lot of hints that he could somehow be Zoom. In the previous episode, "Welcome to Earth-2", Jay confessed to Caitlin that Zoom didn't steal his speed like he originally told Team Flash, but rather he'd lost it from taking Velocity 6 to boost his speed. That raised some red flags with me because if he lied about that, then what else is he hiding? Then, in "Escape from Earth-2", he uses the newly created Velocity 9 to restore his speed long enough to save civilians from a building Geomancer collapsed. Claiming exhaustion, he goes to take a rest somewhere in S.T.A.R. Labs, but when Geomancer shows up and attacks Caitlin and Iris, he's nowhere to be found. This is despite Geomancer wrecking the place with his powers. Plus, just before the attack, Caitlin called for him over the Lab's intercom, but he still didn't show up until after Caitlin dealt with Geomancer herself.

Zoom?

Strange, but easily explain if Jay didn't respond because he was on Earth-2 as Zoom! This episode was hinting very heavily about it too. When Barry is captured by Zoom at the end of "Welcome to Earth-2" and taken to his lair, we see both Wells daughter, Jesse, but also a man in a metal helmet. Now, this guy was initially identified by fans as being some guy named Persuader, who in the comics is from Legion of Super-Heroes. But the following episode strongly implied that it isn't Persuader and that it might be something more familiar. Who?

Jay Garrick.

Let me elaborate. Throughout the episode, the guy taps on the transparent wall of his cell over and over again. Jesse thinks that it's meaningless, but Barry realizes that it's the same form of code used by prisoners of war and together, they decipher what the helmeted man is telling them and it's one name: Jay. Barry thinks he's asking about Jay and tells him that Jay's alive, but that only elicits a negative reaction from the helmeted man, almost as if he's trying to tell them something about Jay Garrick, but they're not understanding. And it might be nothing at all, but they also give us a closeup of the side of this guy's head and you can see some of his hair and well, it's the same color as Jay's.

Hmm. So who is this guy? We never see him without the helmet because Flash, Jesse, and their rescuers (sans Killer Frost, who stays behind to hold off Zoom) are forced to flee for their lives before Flash can free him too.

In The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexander Dumas, the eponymous man is the identical brother of King Louis XIV, so what if there's something similar at work here too? Not an identical twin, but a counterpart, a doppelganger. What if Zoom isn't from Earth-2, but merely traveled there from yet another Earth. After all, Zoom knew about Earth-1 and Barry Allen before the breaches, so it stands to reason that he knew about the larger multiverse too. With that in mind, who's to say that the Jay Garrick who joined Team Flash is from Earth-2? The helmeted man could be Earth-2 Jay and Zoom could be from I don't know, Earth-3 or something. Maybe it is Hunter Zolomon from Earth-1 or a Zolomon from another Earth.

There are problems with this theory, however. First, Geomancer's attack on S.T.A.R. Labs damaged the speed cannon and destabilizing the sole remaining breach to Earth-2. Jay was there during this mini-crisis and helped fix the problem while in the presence of Caitlin, Iris, and Joe. Second, at the very end of the episode while Team Flash is celebrating the rescue of Jesse, their return to Earth-1, and the closing of the final breach, Zoom shoves his hand through Jay's chest (who, god knows why, was standing right in front of the breach) and yanks him through before it closes.

So yeah, problems. My only solution that is that Team Flash's Jay is from Earth-2 and the helmeted man is a Jay from another Earth. Zoom could still be Zolomon because we haven't seen him since "The Reverse-Flash Returns". He could also still be a Jay from an alternate Earth.

Definitely more questions than answers, but the mystery of Zoom's identity is certainly keeping us coming back every week for more clues and answers.

Who do you think Zoom is? Tell me down in the comments.