Grodd is back! The latest episode of The Flash brought the return of one of our favorite Flash villains, the giant mind-controlling gorilla with daddy issues, Gorilla Grodd. Barry grapples with some psychological issues post his confrontation with Zoom, Gorilla Grodd resurfaces in Central City, and more on The Flash: “Gorilla Warfare.” Spoiler alert.
Not Strong Enough
Last week on The Flash, the Flash faced off against a far superior speedster, Zoom, with devastating results. Barry was left bruised, battered, and paralyzed. Thank goodness for his magnificent Wolverine-like healing powers, which helped propel his speedy recovery, at least physically anyway. Barry also suffered psychological trauma as a result of his showdown with the speedster villain from Earth-2, but unfortunately his accelerated healing powers couldn’t help with that. That’s what daddy’s are for.
Thanks to a good deed by none other than Iris West, Henry Allen was back in town this week to give his son Barry some much needed support and encouragement to once again assume the role of hero in Central City. As it turns out, Henry’s presence and poignant pep talk about being destroyed was just what Barry needed to get his head back in the game. The wise father spoke to his son about his own personal experience of being destroyed—you know, people not believing in him—and the importance of embracing it in order to move forward and ultimately believe in himself again. He urged Barry to do the same, no longer allowing monsters to take hope away from either of them, which then gave Barry the kick in the pants that he needed to suit up for a confrontation with an old foe. Enter Grodd.
The Grodd Takedown
After a mysterious death of a local scientist leads Patty to uncover strange similarities to another recent case involving the confiscation of neurotropic drugs, she reveals a connection that signals to Joe and the rest of Team Flash that Grodd is back in Central City. And to confirm their suspicion, sure enough they catch Grodd on a security camera just outside of S.T.A.R. labs following behind Caitlin—who had just clocked Cisco out of nowhere—after he telepathically summoned the Team Flash resident nice one to his newly upgraded lair. Aside from the fact that watching them interact looked eerily similar to say a King Kong movie scene, when Caitlin awakened in Grodd’s lair she found out that she was summoned for a specific purpose: Grodd wanted her to help him make more Grodds.
Meanwhile, back at S.T.A.R. labs, Team Flash was busy at work trying to figure out a plan to take down Grodd…again. And rescue Caitlin, of course. Cisco and his new bestie—not!—Dr. Wells/Harry came up with the perfect plan to accomplish both goals: Earth-2 Wells would become the Reverse-Flash. Remember, last season we learned that the Harrison Wells on Earth-1/Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash is the one that created Grodd, and over time Grodd came to refer to that Harrison Wells/Reverse-Flash as father. The plan then, was for Earth-2 Wells (dressed as the Reverse-Flash) to use that background information to get close enough to momentarily immobilize Grodd so they could escape his lair. Once they were all safe and sound, the Flash would be waiting for Grodd and engage him with a friendly game of chase, leading him straight to the speed canon where Grodd would get sucked into a breach that would take him to “a place that he could call home.” Ok, obviously that would be Gorilla City.
Also, this week on The Flash, Barry and Cisco both made progress in the love department. Barry and Patty had their first fight about his lying to her about being sick, but even more than that trust issues. Hello, things just became serious between those two. But it’s all good because they handled their first fight pretty well, even sealing it with a kiss. So that was over before it really started. Then, too, Cisco finally got to go on his first date with Kendra Saunders—you know, the beautiful barista from his favorite coffee shop—and from the sound of it he was hoping for things to go really well. I believe “dinner and a movie and maybe some breakfast” were his exact words. Unfortunately, Cisco lost all of his nerve to initiate anything beyond the movie after he accidentally vibed Kendra as Hawkgirl. Check her out.
The Flash also teased Gorilla City—you know, where Grodd and his legion of meta-gorilla followers live in the comics—which was kind of epic. In keeping with the high caliber of special effects since season one, the show didn’t disappoint, visually speaking, with the beautiful homage to all things gorilla. Needless to say, we haven’t seen the last of Gorilla Grodd, folks.
Next up on The Flash, another team-up; a two night event on both Arrow and The Flash when both shows return with new episodes in December. Nerds rejoice! The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8:00pm EST on CW.