Gorilla Grodd returns at an inconvenient time.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
The thing I enjoy most about this season of The Flash is that the writers aren’t wasting time before giving fans what they crave. Six episodes in, we’ve already gotten a hefty dose of Earth-2 goodness and one really great, Zoom-centric episode. And thanks to tonight’s episode, we got another dose of Gorilla Grodd. While it’s disappointing that the show hasn’t embraced Grodd’s full potential as a villain yet, “Gorilla Warfare” served as a nice appetizer until that time finally comes.
As with Grodd’s previous appearance in Season 1’s “Grodd Lives,” the villain is impressive even on a purely technical level. You don’t expect to see a fully CG character with this amount of detail and craft on a network TV show. More impressive than Grodd’s hulking size or intricately rendered fur, though, is the fact that he displays such a clear range of emotion. Grodd’s pain and loneliness is palpable thanks to his facial expressions and body language. That last, sad glimpse he gave to Caitlin and Barry before being sucked through the portal really said it all. “Grodd Lives” wound up being nominated for an Emmy for in the “Outstanding Visual Effects” category, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this episode follows suit. Surely some episode from this season will earn a nod, in any case.
Grodd’s role in the story was fairly straightforward. At the end of the day, he was really just the temporary threat Barry needed to motivate himself out of his downward shame spiral and back into the red suit. Again, I think Grodd deserves better than that, but at least this episode positioned him for bigger and better things. Grodd just wants a family of hyper-intelligent telepathic gorillas to call his own. He thought he’d accomplish that goal by making Caitlin his Ann Darrow and using her to grow a new batch of Grodds. Instead, he found himself transported to a world where hyper-intelligent gorillas have their own city.
It was a huge treat to actually see Gorilla City in the final moments. It’s just one more in a long line of DC trappings I never expected to see on live-action TV but am thrilled to be proven wrong. Next time Grodd appears, I’m hoping we can look forward to the debut of King Solivar and the resulting gorilla civil war between Solivar and Grodd. With Wells’ allusion to Atlantis recently, it seems like this show is going to use Earth-2 as a breeding ground for all the wacky hidden cities and other concepts too esoteric for Earth-1 to contain.
Barry’s storyline was a bit underwhelming this week. For one thing, it really undercut the drama to end one episode on the “I can’t feel my legs!” cliffhanger and then literally open the following episode with a scene of Barry walking. Not that I expected Barry to be out of commission for long, but can’t we at least pretend? The focus was more on Barry’s psychological turmoil after suffering a very painful and public defeat at Zoom’s hands. This episode hit all the expected beats in that regard. Grant Gustin delivered a fine performance, as usual, but Barry’s character arc felt a little by-the-numbers.
That said, it was nice to see John Wesley Shipp stop by to reprise his role as Henry Allen. It’s always a treat to see Gustin and Shipp interact, given their strong rapport. The writers also did a nice job of tying Barry’s current plight in with Henry’s ordeal as a wrongly convicted murderer. I still don’t entirely buy Henry’s reasoning for leaving town and not spending more quality time with his son, but hopefully we can look forward to more sporadic appearances from Shipp. The way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes collateral damage in the war between Team Flash and Zoom. Or maybe Zoom is Henry (either the Earth-1 or Earth-2 version).
In a lot of ways, this was really Tom Cavanagh’s week to shine. However reluctantly, Wells is slowly becoming attached to his new allies. He put himself on the line this week in order to rescue Caitlin. Simply seeing Wells wearing the Reverse-Flash costume was chilling, especially when that shuddering speed sound effect kicked in. What made Cavanagh’s performance so great, though, was the fact that he was playing one version of his character trying to imitate another version. I’ve praised Cavanagh in the past for playing Earth-2 Wells so different from the Earth-1 version. Never has that divide been more apparent than now, as Wells tried to assume the intense calm and charisma of his other self. It was a very nuanced performance. Interestingly, the Wells/Grodd scene makes you wonder just how much this Wells knows about his counterpart and what he was up to with Grodd. It seems like he still has a dark secret or three he’s keeping bottled up.
As per usual, there was a fair amount of romantic intrigue at wok to balance out the drama and superhero antics. Cisco took the lion’s share of that burden this week as he courted Kendra and inadvertently discovered her secret past as a winged avenger. Whether Cisco was seeing into Kendra’s memories or the show is going to delve into the reincarnation aspect of the Hawkman/Hawkgirl mythos, it wasn’t clear. But with both of those characters appearing in the upcoming Flash/Arrow crossover, we’ll probably learn soon enough. Hawkgirl teases aside, the Cisco/Kendra subplot was entertaining simply on a romantic comedy level. Cisco was usual charming, goofy self throughout the evening. He deserves a little happiness at this point, even i it probably won’t last.
There was also the Barry/Patty subplot. Their dynamic remains a strong one, though the show is starting to retread some ground from Season 1’s Barry/Iris conflict. Once again, it’s difficult to understand why Barry continues to withhold his secret from a woman who clearly cares for him and doesn’t deserve to be lied to. If Captain Cold and Heat Wave are privy to his secret, why not the woman he’s both dating and working with on the Metahuman Task Force? At this point I’m hoping it’s not long before Patty is officially inducted into Team Flash.
Pretty much any episode was going to be a letdown after last week’s impressive showing. “Gorilla Warfare” helped mitigate that problem by bringing Grodd back into play. This villain has yet to receive the attention he truly deserves, but at least this episode set him up for bigger and better things down the road. And while Barry’s character arc was a little predictable and bland, Tom Cavanagh and John Wesley Shipp both stepped up in a big way this week.
