The Flash Season 3, Episode 14: Attack On Central City

This week on The Flash we get the conclusion to the epic two part Gorilla Grodd saga, in Attack On Central City.

Well, on second thought, maybe "attack" is too strong a word. It's more like a light skirmish against the city, as Barry and the Gang sit around wringing their hands and sitting around waiting for Grodd to finally appear in the last ten minutes of the episode.

It would have been awesome if the episode had been forty two minutes of nothing but human vs. ape warfare, but that was never going to happen on a network TV series. The CW just doesn't have the cash to pull off something like that. So we got a very scaled-down, economy-minded battle instead.

And you know what? I'm OK with that! The various Arrowverse shows are often much more ambitious than their budgets will allow, and that's fine. I appreciate their passion and enthusiasm, which makes me more forgiving when their reach exceeds their grasp.

This week we also get the classic "Should A Superhero Ever Kill?" trope, as Barry contemplates offing Grodd to prevent any more of his murderous rampages. Would killing him make Barry a hero, or drag him down to Grodd's leve? It's a question comic fans have been debating for decades, and there's never been a definitive answer.

The moral waters are muddied even more in this episode, when you consider the fact that Grodd's not human. Would killing an animal be wrong? Even one that's intelligent? Barry also has an extra incentive to kill Grodd in this case, as doing so would alter the future and possibly save Iris' life.

In the end, Barry of course chooses the heroic route, and finds another way to beat Grodd, courtesy of a well-written pep talk given to him by Harry.

For some reason this is a Valentine's themed episode, which is timely as it aired on February 28. I'm betting the writer's planned for it to actually air on the 14th, but it was delayed due to The CW's dodgy stop/start scheduling.

SPOILERS!

The Plot: 
Barry cooks breakfast for Iris at superspeed, which doesn't make any sense. At STAR Labs, HR decorates the Cortex for Friend's Day, the Earth-19 equivalent of Valentine's Day. He passes out handmade "friendship cards" to the entire Gang, including his Earth-2 doppelganger Harry, who can't stand him.

Jesse tells Wally they really need to inform Harry that she's moving to Earth-1. They nervously approach him and break the news, expecting a blowup. Oddly enough, Harry remains calm— almost too calm—  and takes the news surprisingly well, saying all he wants is for Jesse to be happy.

Back in the Cortex, Cisco and Caitlin discuss their love lives. Caitlin insists that she and Julian (who's curiously absent this week) are just friends. Cisco mopes, saying he's doomed to be forever alone, prompting Caitlin to give him a Patented The CW Pep Talk.™ Suddenly a breach opens, and Gypsy jumps out. She begins firing blasts at everyone, even managing to pin Barry against a wall (I guess he forgot he has superspeed). Luckily Harry's on the case, and shoots her in the back with a blaster, knocking her out.

Gypsy wakes up in the STAR Labs Secret Super Jail, with no memory of how she got there. The Gang determines she's been mind-controlled by Grodd, who most likely used her to open a breach to let him, and his entire gorilla army, into Earth-1. Cut to Grodd and his entire gorilla army on Earth-1, as they stand on a mountain overlooking Central City.

Grodd somehow scrambles the STAR Labs satellites so the Gang can't locate his army. They decide that Cisco could vibe a bit into the future to find out where Grodd will attack. Cisco points out that when he "future vibes," he can only see things Barry saw there. Harry says he can help with that by souping up Cisco's Vibe glasses to "widen his scope." Meanwhile, Cisco tries to get Gypsy to help. She says when she was possessed by Grodd, she saw horrible, disturbing images of the destruction of Central City, and wants to hightail it back to Earth-19 immediately. Cisco's disappointed that she won't help, but lets her go.

Meanwhile, Wally helps Harry modify Cisco's glasses. He says he's surprised that Harry's OK with Jesse moving. Harry says he wants what's best for her, and implies he's dying. Naturally since this is The Flash, he tells Wally to keep his illness a secret from Jesse. Harry gives Cisco his modified glasses. He vibes into the future and determines Grodd will attack at the intersection of State and Oakhill.

Cut to the Gang and the CCPD at the intersection, tensely awaiting the arrival of Grodd's army. Suddenly Grodd begins speaking through Joe, threatening to destroy Central City and eventually the world. He then forces Joe to raise his gun to his head and fire. Barry finally remembers he has superspeed and shoves him back just in time, as the bullet grazes Joe's forehead. Barry realizes this was all a distraction, and Grodd plans to attack elsewhere. Grodd then possesses Air Force General Matthew McNally, who drives to a nearby nuclear testing base and enters

Back at STAR Labs, Caitlin patches up Joe. Harry asks if he remembers anything while being possessed by Grodd, but Joe says no. Harry says there's an Earth-2 procedure he could use to look into Joe's memories and possibly determine Grodd's plan. Joe reluctantly agrees to the experiment. Wally can't keep his trap shut, and tells Jesse that Harry's dying. She angrily confronts her dad, who sheepishly admits he said it just to keep Jesse on Earth-2 with him. Barry tells Iris he's tired of his friends getting hurt because of him, and plans to kill Grodd to end his threat for good.

Harry places a cobbled-together helmet onto Joe's head. He begins sketching a man's face, which the Gang determine is General McNally. Just then alarms go off inside STAR Labs, indicating a nuclear missile launch is imminent. They realize Grodd's going to nuke Central City!

Barry speeds away to the base and sees a missile launcher's been activated. Cisco tells him it can only be shut down by punching in a five digit code on its keypad. Unfortunately no one knows the code. Barry uses his superspeed to manually enter every possible five digit combination (!), shutting down the launch with one second to spare, of course. Back at STAR Labs, Harry gives Barry a Patented The CW Pep Talk™ (wow, two in one episode!), telling him he hopes he doesn't kill Grodd, as "there's always another way." Yeah, well, you just lied to your daughter about dying, so maybe Barry shouldn't listen to you right now.

Cisco then vibes to Earth-19 (which is punishable by death!) to try and try to talk Gypsy into helping again.

On Earth-1, Grodd and his army march on Central City. The three speedsters (is that like The Three Amigos?), Barry, Wally and Jesse, attack. Somehow the gorillas put up a good fight, knocking the speedsters off their feet, which makes absolutely no sense, but whatever.

Suddenly a breach opens. Cisco and Gypsy leap out of it, along with special guest star Solovar, who's apparently recovered from his gladiatorial combat last week. Solovar attacks Grodd in an epic and expensive CGI fight sequence. They scramble up the side of a building and fight some more. Solovar gets the upper hand, and throws Grodd off the building. He lands on the pavement far below, but oddly enough doesn't splatter like he ought to. Solovar then jumps the same distance down, and is somehow perfectly fine. Solovar starts to kill Grodd, but Barry says no, he'll handle him. Solovar says whatever, and turns to the gorilla army. They kneel before Zod, er, I mean Solovar, acknowledging him as their leader again.

Gypsy then opens a breach to return Solovar and all the gorillas to Earth-2. Back at STAR Labs, Barry says Grodd is now in custody at A.R.G.U.S., where I'm sure he'll never, ever escape and pop up again in a season or two. Cisco flirts with Gypsy, who plants an epic kiss on him and says he couldn't handle her. She then goes back to Earth-19.

Later at their apartment, Barry proposes to Iris. She's gobsmacked, but of course we'll have to wait until next week to hear her answer.

In the final scene, Wally and Jesse watch TV together. She says she could go for some Big Belly Burgers, so Wally speeds off to grab some. On the way he sees a blinding flash of light, and Savitar appears. He runs toward Wally as we smash cut to black.

Thoughts: 
• As the episode opens, Barry uses his superspeed to cook a huge breakfast in seconds for Iris. Um... the writers know that just because Barry moves around the kitchen at lightning speed, the food's not going to cook any faster, right? He can flip pancakes at a thousand miles an hour if he wants, but they're still gonna take several minutes to cook.

• What happened to Julian this week? When Cisco asks Caitlin where he is, she replies, "He's taking care of some family matters in London." That was awfully sudden! Didn't he just return from Earth-2 with the Gang a day or two ago? Did he leave for London the second they got back?

I'm wondering if Tom Felton wasn't available for filming this week, or if it was yet another case of The CW's budget rearing its ugly head? Maybe after rendering all those CGI gorilla shots, there wasn't enough money left over to pay an extra guest star?

• Grodd's helmet is very similar the one General Ursus wore in Battle For The Planet Of The Apes. Coincidence, or homage?

• Caitlin suggests using the captured Gypsy to help fight Grodd. Jesse says, "Yeah, but how do we know whe's not a Grodd sleeper agent?" Cisco then pipes up and confidently says, "She's not. I checked her out."

Um... how did he do that, pray tell? Did he walk up to her and say, "Hey, are you a Grodd sleeper agent?"

He does mention something later in the episode about being able to vibe feelings, but still...

• Why isn't Caitlin's power-dampening pendant lit in this episode? Were the gorilla effects so expensive they couldn't afford a battery for her?

• When Harry tells Wally he's dying, he says not to say anything to Jesse about it. Sigh... even though Harry's actually lying about his health, he's still suggesting Wally keep yet another HUGE SECRET from the rest of the cast. Doesn't anyone on this show ever learn that that only leads to disaster?

Later we learn that Harry's not actually dying, but only said he was to try and trick Jesse into going back to Earth-2 with him. Man, that's a pretty dick move, even for Harry!

Jesse's pissed at Harry for lying to her for a few seconds, but apparently forgives him and the matter's dropped and never brought up again (even after the gorilla invasion is over). I think I'd be a bit more outraged if either of my parents ever pulled a stunt like that!

• When Cisco vibes into the future, he looks around trying to figure out where he is. As he does so, his breath is visible in the cold night air. Does that seem right? He's not physically travelling into the future. His body's still sitting in a chair at STAR Labs. He's just sending his mind into Barry's memories. Once he's there he should be like a ghost, or immaterial spirit.

• We all know by now that The Flash writers love to incorporate names of comic creators into any street address or building. In this episode the Gang thinks Grodd's going to attack at the intersection of State and Oakhill. There's also a General Matthew McNally, who travels to Fort Reynolds nuclear missile base.

I googled the hell out of these names and addresses, but as far as I can tell they're not Easter eggs, and have no connection to any DC Comics. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!

• Earth-19 Watch: This week we learned that Earth-19 has "Friendship Day," which is much like our Valentine's Day. They also have the movie Rocky, which is apparently very similar to our version. They also have Star Wars, but their movie features Luke Starkiller, not Skywalker. Oddly enough that was Luke's name in George Lucas' first draft of the script, but he changed it because it sounded a bit too ominous for a hero. Earth-19 also has Weird Al Yankovic, but there he's a renowned poet, not a writer of parody songs.

• When Grodd possessed Joe, his voice drops several octaves, becoming a deep, rumbling growl. I wonder if that was actor Jesse L. Martin's real voice there, or if they electronically lowered it in post?

• Grodd tries to make Joe shoot himself in the head, but Barry uses his speed to save him. Barry then asks Joe if he's OK, and he replies yes. NOPE! Joe just fired a handgun an inch from the side of his head. In all likelihood he's going to be partially deaf for the next several hours.

• Ready for some EXTREME nitpicking, above and beyond the call of duty? OK, here goes. When Barry realizes Grodd set up a diversion, he says "Every time I think we've beat him, he comes back stronger, smarter, and more dangerous. He's evolving."

Sorry Barry, but individuals don't evolve. Populations evolve. Individuals can only mutate, and then pass those changes onto their offspring. As a scientist, he should know this.

See, I told you it was extreme!

• Barry shuts down the nuclear missile launcher by manually punching in every possible five digit combination on the keypad. Lucky for Barry and Central City that the launcher's computer didn't lock him out after three incorrect tries.

By the way, Harry says there 90,000 possible combinations of five digits (provided the numbers can repeat, i.e. "55555"). I checked and that's absolutely right! Well done, writers! The correct code turns out to be 45127, which I assume means Barry only entered a little more than half the possible combinations.

• When Cisco vibes to Earth-19, we see Gypsy interacting with a speedster. It's never mentioned in the episode, but according to the producers that was the Accelerated Man. Apparently he's the Flash of Earth-19.

I'm assuming he'll pop up again later, most likely in the season finale. There's no way they'd have gone to all the trouble to casting someone and creating a costume for a five second appearance. I don't want to get too spoilery here, but there are rumors floating around that the Accelerated Man may be played by someone we've seen on the show before...

The Accelerated man is actually from the comics, where he really does live on Earth-19. The comic book version of that world is very "steampunk." Little else is known about the comic version at this point. The TV costume looks to be a spot-on recreation of the comic version, so well done!

• Sometimes I wonder if the writers remember what "superspeed" actually means. In this episode Gypsy somehow manages to hit Barry with an energy blast and pin him against the wall. One would think a man called "the Flash" could easily dodge her blasts, or race across the room and knock her out while she's blinking.

Later during the all-out gorilla attack, Barry's knocked into the side of a cab by Grodd's shield. Wally and Jesse are also flung aside like rag dolls by several gorilla (not guerilla) soldiers. 

How the hell is any of this possible for people who can literally move faster than the human eye can see?

I get that the writers need to level the playing field a bit, else it would be impossible for any villain to ever beat Barry and every battle would last just under a second. Still, there's got to be a better way to go about this.

• Sadly, there's a big chunk of this episode that we don't get to see. Cisco vibes to Earth-19 and finally talks Gypsy into helping. The two of them then apparently vibe to Earth-2, enter Gorilla City again, ask for an audience with Solovar and somehow talk him into coming with them to Earth-1 to kill Grodd.

Now that's an episode I want to see!

• So Grodd's thrown from the top of a thirty story building, lands on the pavement below and is gravely injured. Solovar then jumps from the exact same height, performs a Superhero Landing™ and is just fine. Got it.

• Want some more REALLY EXTREME nitpicking? At the end of the episode, Wally and Jesse are in the West home, watching Casablanca on a widescreen TV. Oddly enough, the picture fills up the entire screen. Hmm...

Casablanca was released back in 1942, back when most movies were filmed in what's known as "Academy Ratio." This means the picture has an aspect ratio of 1:33 to 1, which is just slightly wider than it is tall. 

If Wally's watching this movie on a widescreen TV, then there should be black bars on either side of the picture. Since there are no bars, Wally must be one of those philistines who stretches the picture to fit their screen, resulting in characters who look like they're three feet wide. I now hate Wally, and he deserves nothing but my scorn.

See? I told you it was REALLY EXTREME!

• I feel like I've mentioned this before, but I honestly can remember. This episode reminded me of something— when I was a kid, like seven or eight years old, I would hear the term "guerrilla soldiers" on the news now and then. Every time I'd hear it, I would of course imagine a squad of actual gorillas wearing army uniforms, brandishing guns and fighting overseas. 

I remember asking my dad how the army trained these "gorilla soldiers." He laughed and tried to explain the difference between "gorilla" and "guerrilla," but I was too young to understand. I was bitterly disappointed when I finally learned that a guerrilla soldier was just a guy.

• This week's best lines:
HR: (to Harry) "Toothbrushing.You go front to back? Cause I'm a small circles kind of guy.
I wonder how the other Wells brushes his teeth?"

Harry: "The murderer?"

HR: "I'm fascinated by the subtle differences between us, you know? And the not-so-subtle ones."
Harry: "Like what? Like the fact that I'm a genius and you're a moron?"

HR: "You know what I got to do? I got to take some lessons from that guy in the green elf suit over there in Star City, what's his name? Green Arrow!"

Barry: "Any sign of him yet?"

Cisco: "Not since you asked 30 seconds ago."
Barry: "Okay, he's a giant gorilla, who's probably leading an army of giant gorillas. How can you not find him?"

Cisco: "Don't tell me you're gonna run away from this."
Gypsy: "I never run."
Cisco: "Then stand and fight with us. We need you."
Gypsy: "You need me? Are you trying to Luke Starkiller me?"

(I'm not entirely sure here, but I think she's referencing the part in Star Wars where Luke tries to talk Han into helping the Rebellion attack the Death Star)

Joe: "Hold on. Y'all want to put a bunch of magnets against my skull to look into the mind of a psychotic, murderous ape?"

Harry: "Yeah."

Joe: (resignedly) "Fine."

Barry: "No matter what I do to stop Grodd, he just keeps finding new ways to attack, new ways to destroy, and Iris doesn't think I should, but the only way this ends is if I kill him."
Harry: "Kill him. That might be the most idiotic thing I've ever heard you say."
Barry: "Wait, what?"

Harry: "Iris is right. If you don't want to listen, go ahead, keep being an idiot."
Barry: "I don't understand."
Harry: "Don't. Kill. Grodd."
Barry: "Harry, you of all people should understand. I mean, you would have killed to save Jesse. You were gonna kill Zoom."
Harry: "Barry, there's a thousand things I've done that I'm not proud of. Some of them recently. Every time I do one of those things, it makes it easier to do it the next time. I look at you, out there battling the darkness, with honor and hope, and I'm reminded there's always another way, always. Killing Grodd is not your answer. Saving one life doesn't justify taking another. Find the other way."

Joe: "I don't know about y'all, but I don't ever need to see a super-smart, telepathic gorilla again."

Caitlin: "Whatever good was in Grodd is gone. As far as I'm concerned, they can throw him in the same cage as King Shark."
Cisco: "Mm, I'd pay money to see that fight."

The Flash Season 2, Episode 7: Gorilla Warfare

Once again The Flash barrels forward as quickly as possible. Maybe a bit too quickly. Last week we got a shocking cliffhanger as Barry couldn't feel his legs, and then one episode later he's up and walking around. 

Barry's paralysis felt like way too big an event to brush aside so quickly. We definitely needed him to be benched for at least one entire episode, to help sell the magnitude of what Zoom did to him.

There were also a lot of returns this week, including the return of the Reverse Flash (sort of), the return of Kendra Saunders, and best of all, the return of Grodd. The biggest surprise though was the return of Barry's dad, Henry Allen, from wherever the hell he went a few months ago.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:

Barry's injuries have healed, but his psychological wounds (after Zoom handed his ass to him) remain. Harry wants to return to Earth-2 to save his daughter Jesse, as well as to defeat Zoom. Caitlin doesn't want him to leave and manages to talk him out of it. The two come up with a plan to defeat Zoom on Earth-1.

Their plans are interrupted though when Caitlin is kidnapped by Grodd. Why Caitlin? Because she was nice to him back when he was a lab animal, and because he wants her to create more intelligent gorillas like him. 

Cisco and Harry come up with a brilliant plan to rescue Caitlin. Harry will dress up in a spare Reverse Flash costume (!) and pretend to be Dr. Harrison Wells, who Grodd considers his "father." This will distract Grodd long enough for Cisco to save Caitlin. The plan works, but there's still the matter of a five hundred pound telepathic gorilla on the loose.

Barry's still moping, convinced he's a failure after the beat down Zoom administered to him. Iris contacts Henry Allen, and he shows up at STAR Labs to tell his son he BELIEVES IN HIM (oy gevalt!), which, amazingly enough, works.

Harry comes up with a plan to deal with Grodd— they'll lure him into one of the many breaches dotting Central City, which will transport him to a safe spot on Earth-2. There he'll be with others of his kind. Barry goads Grodd into chasing him to the breach. Cisco activates his "speed cannon," whatever that is, which forces Grodd into the vortex. He's a little too strong for it though, and begins clawing his way out. Barry gives him a super speed punch, and knocks him through the breach.

Henry congratulates Barry and then high-tails if off the show again. Joe wonders aloud to Iris what it would have been like to have a son. Iris, who knows he indeed does have a secret son, says nothing. Cisco goes on a date with Kendra Saunders and "vibes" that she either already is or will become Hawkgirl.

In the tag scene, Grodd exits the breach in the middle of an Earth-2 jungle. In the distance he sees Gorilla City and roars.

Thoughts:

• Last week when Barry said he couldn't feel his legs, I said I was going to have to call bullsh*t if his "heightened metabolism" healed his broken spine. Welp, guess what? This week Barry's up and walking and his spine is as good as new! Son of a...

I can buy the fact that Barry's speed can make cuts and bruises heal faster, but it can't repair a broken spine. It's healing things that can normally be healed, just faster. It shouldn't be able to magically fix a spine.

So how far does this ability go? If his speed healing can repair a spine, could it regrow an eye or a limb?

There's a slim possibility that Barry's back might not actually been broken. In this episode Caitlin rattles off a mouthful of technobabble, saying, "The initial MRI I took a week ago showed a complete dislocation of the T12 to L1 innerspace of the thoracolumbar junction. But this is the MRI I took this morning. It's remarkable, but you're almost completely healed." 

I don't know what any of that means, but it's possible she was saying his back was just severely traumatized and not actually broken.

• Gorilla Warfare was the name of a storyline in The Flash comics in the 1990s.

Funny story: when I was a kid I'd hear occasional news reports about guerrilla fighters in far off war-torn countriesy. Naturally since I was young and dumb, I thought the newscaster was talking about actual gorillas. I was very disappointed when my dad explained they were just men.

• At the beginning of the episode, Grodd uses his mind control on a Dr. Shore of Vaughn Pharmaceuticals. As near as I can tell neither of those names is from the comic.

Grodd forces Dr. Shore to provide him with Cortexin, a drug used to enhance intelligence. Cortexin is actually from DC Comics— it was used by Kamandi to give animals human intelligence in the Kamandi: Last Boy On Earth comic.

• I just realized something: Grodd was affected by the particle accelerator explosion, which would make him not a meta-human, but a meta-ape!

• We'll have to take the show's word for it that Caitlin treated Grodd kindly when he was a lab rat, as that's something we never saw. Grodd had already escaped from STAR Labs by the time the first episode aired.

• Grodd is apparently a fan of classic horror movies. First he kidnaps Caitlin (who wears a very Fay Wray-like white dress) and holds her in a bell tower, ala King Kong. Then he asks her to create more super intelligent telepathic apes like himself, which echoes The Bride Of Frankenstein.

• Poor Patty Spivot's still the only person in the cast who doesn't know Barry's secret. At this point there's no reason for her not to know, other than to complicate the plot.

I have a feeling that at some point this season Barry's going to tell her he's the Flash, and she'll say, "Derr! Who doesn't know that?" She is a detective after all.

• This was another "Stage Flash" episode, in which the entire cast stands motionless on a single set, as if they're acting in a play.

• Iris decides Barry needs a pep talk to regain his speed, so she contacts his father and invites him to STAR Labs. How the hell did Iris know where to find Henry? I guess she must be a good reporter after all!

A few episodes back I was very puzzled when Henry Allen hightailed it off the show as fast as humanly possible after being sprung from prison. Now I'm thinking maybe his absence isn't such a bad thing after all. If all he's going to do is utter trite homilies like "Believe in yourself!" to Barry, then good riddance to him.

Case in point: in this episode Henry actually says, "Sometimes you just have to slow down to get back to where you want to be.” Jesus, that line would make a greeting card writer roll their eyes!

I still think Henry, or his Earth-2 doppelganger, will turn out to be Zoom. I was watching Henry very closely all through this episode, looking for any clues that might be a tip off, but I didn't see anything.

One last thing about Henry. Just when Barry's feeling his lowest, Henry surprises him by barging into the STAR Labs control center. Um... didn't Cisco say he upped the security a few episodes back, so people couldn't just waltz in off the street like that anymore?

• Cisco has the brilliant idea to get Harry to impersonate Wells in order to distract Grodd. For some reason, he thinks this plan has a better chance of success if Harry dresses as the Reverse Flash.

Cisco says he found the spare Reverse Flash suit in the "Time Vault." Um... that's the secret room where Dr. Wells used to regularly converse with Gideon, his sentient, ultra smart super computer.

So does that mean Gideon still exists? She shouldn't have been wiped out of existence when Wells was erased, because he didn't build her— Barry did! Gideon told Barry so last season in The Trap.

If Gideon really is still sitting in the Time Vault, why aren't the STAR Labs Gang using her? Seems like an intelligent computer from the future might come in handy now and then.

The most ridiculous part about the whole Gideon thing, if she still exists, is that Barry supposedly invented her in 2024. That's only nine years from now. Does Barry know anything about computer programming or software engineering right now? Not that I can see. Yet somehow in less than a decade he'll create an advanced, self-aware artificial intelligence. C'mon! I find the fact that he can run a thousand miles an hour more plausible than that!

• Naturally Grodd hid out in a bell tower, because as everyone knows, giant apes love tall buildings.

• I hate to say it, but I thought Grodd looked noticeably more fake in this episode than in his first appearance last season. His face in particular looked very cartoonish. King Shark looked ten times better in his debut.

Grodd spent the majority of his first season appearance in a sewer. I'm guessing the darkened environment hid a lot of CGI sins. He spent most of this episode in bright light, so the seams were more evident.

• In this episode Cisco whips up several pairs of anti-mind control ear buds to protect the cast from Grodd's psychic attacks. Seriously? And just a couple weeks ago he couldn't seem to come up with a pair of special sunglasses to protect Barry from Doctor Light's power.

• It was a nice touch when Grodd saw through Harry's ruse because he asked him to let Caitlin go, instead of demanding it, as the real Wells would have done.

This brings up a point though. Grodd's telepathic, so instead of speaking he broadcasts his thoughts into the minds of those around him. Can he read minds as well? If so, why didn't he give Harry a quick brain scan and see he wasn't the real Dr. Wells? Or find out what he's planning to do to him?

• Harry dresses up in a spare Reverse Flash costume so that Grodd will think he's the Earth-1 Harrison Wells. Um... did Grodd ever see Wells as the Reverse Flash? Would he even recognize the costume? 

Grodd was kept in a cage in the STAR Labs basement before the particle accelerator explosion. Barry hadn't yet become the Flash back then, so Wells wouldn't have had any reason to wear the costume before any of that happened.

Did Wells periodically put on his Reverse Flash costume and parade back and forth in front of Grodd for an impromptu little fashion show?

Wouldn't it have made much more sense if Harry just approached Grodd in his street clothes and acted like Wells? Of course if they did that, then we wouldn't have had the scene of Barry and the others freaking out when they saw what appeared to be the Reverse Flash alive and well again.

• Harry acting like Harrison Wells was a pretty awesome moment. Kudos to Tom Cavanagh for being able to pull off acting like a character mimicking another character.

The ease in which he slipped into the Harrison Wells persona was a little disturbing though. He tells Grodd, "I made you a promise. I have bigger plans for you. Remember? One day, this city will be yours. I promised you. I intend to honor that promise."

What the hell did all that mean? Was Harry just improvising here, saying what he thought Grodd wanted to hear, or does he really have a secret plan for him? I honestly couldn't tell, but I'm leaning toward secret.

• Harry comes up with a plan to rid Central City of Grodd by sucking him through a breach and dumping him onto Earth-2, in a place "where there are more like him."

Grodd's lonely and wants to find more apes like himself, right? So why not just explain the plan to him? If he knew there was an ape sanctuary on Earth-2, wouldn't he want to get there as fast as possible? Why the elaborate scheme to trick him into being pulled into the breach? Other than to eat up some air time, of course.

• After Grodd's gone, Barry says they should destroy the spare Reverse Flash costume. But not before Cisco figures out how it fit into Well's ring. You know what that means! The Flash is finally going to get a suit that pops out of his ring! Woohoo!

• At the end of the episode, Grodd is plopped next to Gorilla City on Earth-2.

I was kind of expecting that Grodd's plan to have Caitlin create more apes like him would eventually lead to the founding of Gorilla City, but holy crap, it already exists over on Earth-2! This is a deviation from the comic of course, where the city was on Earth-1, but who cares? It's Gorilla Freakin' City on our TV screens!

In the comics Gorilla City was a large community of super intelligent apes in the jungles of Africa. The apes got their smarts after being exposed to the strange rays of a crashed spaceship. They eventually became more advanced than humans, creating technology years ahead of our own. The Flash regularly clashed with various residents of Gorilla City.

I have a feeling Grodd's going to take over the Earth-2 city and eventually lead an army of intelligent apes back to Earth-1 for revenge!

• So now we know that both Atlantis and Gorilla City exist on Earth-2. It's like the show's using this alternate world to store all the weirder aspects of the DC Universe, leaving Earth-1 a tiny bit more grounded.

• Earlier in the episode Cisco cut short his date with Kendra Saunders. At the end he returns and apologizes to her. I had to laugh at his Say Anything homage (although he used a picnic basket instead of a boombox). They even used the same Peter Gabriel song on the soundtrack!

I'm gonna go right ahead and say it— that Kendra Saunders is very pretty, but man, she has a mouthful of teeth, doesn't she? She looks good as Hawkgirl though, complete with giant wings. 

So is she Hawkgirl right now, or is that something that's going to happen later, once Legends Of Tomorrow starts up next year? If you're a fan of the Cisco/Kendra pairing, I wouldn't count on it lasting though, since she's going to be on a completely different show next year, AND she'll be partnered with Hawkman. Poor Cisco.

The Flash Season 1, Episode 21: Grodd Lives

It's been a long time coming, but this week The Flash finally gave the fans what we've been wanting all season— a giant, telepathic gorilla!

Way back in the very first episode there was a throwaway scene in which Dr. Wells gave Barry a tour of the partially-destroyed STAR Labs, as they passed a broken cage labeled "GRODD."

And at long, long last, we finally get our Grodd episode. So how was it? Was The CW up to the task? Yes! Yes, they were. Grodd was appropriately terrifying, and looked far better than he had a right to look, especially on a TV budget. Kudos to the effects team!

Now that Iris has discovered Barry's secret, actress Candace Patton finally has something to do on the show. She puts in an excellent performance this week, proving that the problem with her character was the fault of the writers and not her.

Seriously, her transformation, while welcome, comes so fast it probably gave the audience whiplash. She went from a whining annoyance to fully realized and mature human being in the space of one episode. Kudos to the writers, but... why the hell did it take this long to get her right?

SPOILERS!

The Plot:

After discovering last week that Barry's really the Flash, Iris visits him and gives him one last chance to tell her the truth. He doesn't, but assures her he'll do everything in his power to find Eddie, who's been kidnapped by Dr. Wells. He then gets a call from the STAR Labs Gang, and awkwardly leaves, which doesn't sound like he's going to be looking for Eddie.

Meanwhile a masked gunman robs an armored truck carrying millions in gold. Barry arrives on the scene, but is assaulted by some sort of mental attack, as the robber gets away. Back at STAR Labs, Caitlin examines Barry but can find no reason for his attack. Just then Iris walks in, revealing that she knows Barry's secret, and confirming that STAR Labs apparently doesn't have a lock on their front door.

Iris rips Barry a new one for not telling her about the whole Flash thing. He gives her the old worn out excuse that he and Joe and Eddie and pretty much everyone on the show were just trying to protect her. She rightly points out that if she knew, she could have protected herself.

Another gold shipment is hijacked by the masked man (boy, there sure seems to be a lot of gold being transported in Central City!), but this time the Flash and the CCPD is ready for him. Barry knocks the gunman out cold and reveals him to be none other than the missing General Eiling!

The STAR Labs Gang puts Eiling in Dr. Wells' illegal secret super jail. As they question him, he says, "Eiling hurt me. I hurt Eiling. I am Grodd. Fear me!" Caitlin recognizes the name Grodd as the gorilla who was experimented on by Eiling and Wells months ago in STAR Labs. They realize that Eiling is being mentally controlled by the now telepathic gorilla! Joe also makes the mile-wide intuitive leap that Wells is using Grodd/Eiling to distract them from searching for him and Eddie.

Meanwhile Wells is holding Eddie in some sort of underground hideout while working on some futuristic doo-dad. Eddie questions Wells' claim that he's from the future. Wells tells him that the Thawne family is full of influential politicians and scientists, and Eddie is the most useless member of the line. "Waste of a life, waste of a man, and, oh no, you don’t even get the girl," Wells says, as he shows Eddie his future newspaper with the Iris West-Allen by-line. That's pretty cold.

The STAR Labs Gang tracks Grodd to the sewers, so Barry, Joe and Cisco head underground to find him. Grodd takes out Barry and captures Joe. When Joe wakens and sees the giant gorilla in front of him, he draws his gun. Before he can fire, Grodd uses his telepathy to force Joe to point the gun at his own head. He comes thisss close to making him fire before letting him go, as the audience runs to the other room to change their soiled drawers.

Cisco and Caitlin whip up a device to protect Barry from Grodd's telepathic blasts, and he heads back to the sewers to rescue Joe. He tries a supersonic punch, but somehow Grodd deflects him. He then lures Grodd into the path of an oncoming subway train, which hits and dispatches him... for now.

Now that Eiling is free of Grodd's influence, Barry lets him go. Of course Eiling reveals that he knows Barry's the Flash, and says they now have a common enemy— Dr. Wells.

Back in the underground bunker, Wells finishes work on his doo-dad. It's some sort of key, which activates what appears to be the particle accelerator. Wells says it's time for him to go back... to the future!

Thoughts:

• Brace yourselves: "Kneel Before Grodd" posts are coming!

• Captain Singh asks Barry and Joe if they know where the Flash is, because the police need his help. Would a police captain really want the help of a superpowered citizen? 

The Flash is a vigilante. A good vigilante yes, but a vigilante nonetheless. Seems like actively seeking out his help would open a big can of legal worms for the police department.

• A few weeks ago I marveled (!) at how apparently anyone can just waltz right into STAR Labs unannounced and unchallenged. Welp, looks like I was right. In this episode Iris walks in and surprises everyone and says she knows Barry's the Flash. 

Jesus, I work a marketing department and our building has stricter security than this lab full of dangerous equipment (and criminals!).

STAR Labs was partially destroyed in the particle accelerator explosion, so maybe she walked in through the giant hole in the wall.

• Back in Fallout (Episode 14), the Reverse Flash captured General Eiling and tossed him in the sewer, where he was apparently attacked and killed by Grodd. I knew Eiling wasn't dead— he's too good of an adversary to toss away so soon, and I was right.

• Barry visits Iris at the newspaper to try and explain himself. She's working late and is apparently the only one there. 

I don't know how things work in Central City, but when I worked at the newspaper there were reporters there at all hours, day and night. That was a few years ago though— with the sad decline of the newspaper industry, maybe this really is the way things are now.

• When Joe suggests searching the sewer for Grodd, Cisco is less than enthusiastic, saying it's full of roaches, feces, C.H.U.D.s and "R.O.U.S.s."

OK, I'm not too proud to admit I had to look up what the hell "R.O.U.S." means. Turns out it means "Rodents Of Unusual Size." Sorry guys, I've only seen The Princess Bride twice in my life.

• In the comics, Gorilla Grodd became a super intelligent, telepathic ape (along with the rest of his tribe) when a radioactive spaceship crashed near his African home (always with the radiation). 

Grodd and another intelligent ape named Solovar then constructed a secret and advanced metropolis called Gorilla City. The gorillas lived there in peace until humanity encroached on their city, and Grodd began trying to wipe mankind from the planet. He then clashed quite often with the Flash.

• "GRODD HATE BANANAS!"

• In the sewer, Grodd telepathically forces Joe to aim his gun at his own head.  You know, for a horrifying moment I thought they were really going to kill him off.

• When the show first started teasing Grodd's appearance, I wondered if they'd actually have him talk, or if he'd just "speak" telepathically. I said it would most likely be the latter, as that would be easier— and less silly looking— than animating his lips. Looks like I was right!

• Play the Flash "Grodd Lives" Drinking Game! Take a shot every time Barry says to Iris, "I'll find Eddie no matter what!"

• Speaking of finding Eddie— back in Tricksters (Episode 17), the Trickster hid a bomb somewhere in Central City. Barry used his super speed to search inside every building in town to find it. So why doesn't he do the same thing here to locate Eddie? Other than because there are still two more episodes to go in the season.

• When Barry's searching for Grodd in the sewer, Iris looks at a display on a STAR Labs monitor. She asks Caitlin if the red dot represents Barry, and she says yes. She then asks what the blue dot represents. Well gosh, Iris, since it's clearly labeled "GRODD" in 48 point type, offhand I'd say it represents the giant telepathic gorilla everyone's searching for.

To be fair, they may have added the helpful graphic in post, long after Iris spoke those lines.

Iris is definitely playing the Cabbage Head™ in this episode, asking what everything means so that Cisco and Caitlin can explain it to her, and thus to the audience.

• We all suspected Cisco was nothing short of a genius, but this episode confirmed it. Somehow he's able to control the steam pipes in the sewers (from his computer yet) to herd Grodd to Barry's location.

• Did you catch Grodd scaling Central City's equivalent of the Empire State Building at the near of the episode?

• Wells telling Eddie that he doesn't do anything interesting with his life or end up with Iris worries me. I have a bad feeling Eddie's going to sacrifice himself to try and prevent Eobard Thawne from ever being born.

• So Dr. Wells is holed up in a subterranean hideout, while Cisco, Caitlin and Barry continue to work in STAR Labs. The STAR Labs that Wells built. Does that seem right? Shouldn't Wells have changed the locks or at the very least hung up a CLOSED sign?

Where exactly is Wells' hideout? At the end it looks for all the world like he's inside the particle accelerator. Unless there are two of them in Central City, it's looking a lot like Wells is hiding right under the STAR Labs Gang's feet!