It has taken almost an entire season, but we were finally able to see Grodd in action. It takes a lot to impress this writer but the CGI used to bring Grodd to life is quite impressive. Hopefully in season two we will get to see more of this Hominidae Protagonist.
In a bit of a twist the show kicked off with a voice over by Iris. Listening to her expound on her feelings about finding out that Barry is The Flash made this writer think of that old LeBron James, “What should I do” commercial (seriously, look!). In any event, it is hard to argue that Iris has some valid points. How would you feel if your best friend had been lying to you for the past year? Now that said, Iris unfortunately comes off a bit annoying in this episode. Again, we can’t discount the validity of her argument, but man she drones on an on about how she has been wronged.
Iris tries to catch Barry in a lie by telling him that The Man in Yellow had kidnapped Eddie and that The Flash told her not to tell anyone. Naturally Barry lied to her and said he had no idea what was going on and The Flash was right. What else could he say? Regardless of how Iris may feel Barry had the best intentions in mind in not reveling his secret to her.
After The Flash is disoriented while trying to stop a robbery, Iris literally walks into S.T.A.R Labs as Barry is still in costume. Yes, you read that correctly. She just strolls in. Apparently being at war with Dr. Wells and having a basement full of super villains isn’t enough to remind Cisco or Caitlin to lock the front door. No TV show is perfect, but this is one of the most egregious oversights in logic this writer has ever seen.
Flash manages to take out the armored robber and it is revealed that the assailant is actually General Eiling. It seems Grodd didn’t kill Eiling way back when Wells delivered him to Grodd in his underground lair. Eiling seems to be Grodd’s puppet. Not sure which is worse, being dead or being a finger-puppet for a gorilla.
In another shockingly silly move Cisco, Barry (in street clothes for some strange reason) and Joe decide to hunt Grodd in the sewers. Side note: Cisco was on FIRE with his movie references in this episode. He managed to reference, “C.H.U.D”, “The Princess Bride”, and “Jurassic Park” in less than 20 minutes. Grodd manages to knock out Barry and abducts Joe. Abducting Cisco would have made the most sense. That way Team Flash would be short one of their big brains. This was a rare mental lapse by Grodd. While in captivity, Joe offers Grodd the banana Cisco decided to bring to try to bargain with Grodd. Needless to say, Grodd was not amused by this gesture. It seems he doesn’t take to kindly to gorilla stereotypes. Yes, that is a thing. Don’t believe me? Google it.
You totally just Googled that, didn’t you?
Next we are treated to the world’s most awkward family reunion when Dr. Wells visits Eddie in the underground lair Wells is keeping him prisoner in. This episode has tons of underground lair action. Wells proves he is by far one of the smartest villains in TV history as Eddie attempts to bait him into monologuing about his plan. Wells immediately shuts Eddie down. When Eddie refuses to shut up Wells goes Reverse Flash on him complete with glowing red eyes. Speaking of which, this writer can’t be the only person who thinks about the “Total Eclipse of the Heart” video every time Wells powers up. TurnAroundBrightEyes…
Eddie enquires about his connection to Wells and Wells hits Eddie with a few hard truths. Wells tells Eddie that Eddie’s life is pointless. He is an afterthought when it comes to the greatness that is eventually associated with the Thawne name. Wells even tells Eddie that he is such a loser that he doesn’t even get the girl. Of course Eddie doesn’t believe it until Wells shows Eddie the news article from the future that has the Iris West-Allen byline. Whether you like Eddie or not, it is hard not to feel for him at this point. How would you react if you were shown proof you will never have the one thing you really want?
Wait you never saw the “Total Eclipse of the Heart” video? Come on! It's comedy gold.
Rick Cosnett’s portrayal of Eddie Thawne has had its ups and downs, but this may have been his finest scene. It wasn’t the delivery of his lines as he questioned Wells, it was his facial expressions as Wells slowly broke him down before hitting Eddie with a veritable shoryuken to the face with the “you don’t even get the girl in the end” line. This writer almost fell over in his chair when Wells said that.
The Team tracks Grodd and finds his underground sewer lair. Inserted random Ninja Turtles joke here. Sorry, it’s been a long night and twitter has pretty much cornered the market on the Grodd/Ninja Turtles jokes tonight.
Caitlin and Cisco develop a tin foil hat (basically) to protect Flash from Grodd’s mind control. Instead of trying to face Grodd head on Flash decides to try to take him out with one blow. Flash charges up for the super sonic punch he used to take out Girder in the beginning of the season. Grodd sees him coming and catches Flash by his fist and tosses him through a wall. That was impressive. Not sure how that works physics wise, but let’s just go with it solely because it was a great visual.
The tin foil hat Cisco gave Flash to protect himself from Grodd’s telepathy gets damaged, which surprisingly (if you were wondering, that was sarcasm) leads to Flash’s mind getting attacked as he is standing on the train tracks. The only thing missing from the scene was Dr. Wells with a bowler hat and a long thin mustache laughing manically. If this scene couldn’t get any cheesier, it takes a pep talk from Iris for Flash to get his wits about him. As Grodd notices Flash is back in control of his mind, Grodd lunges at Flash and ends up getting hit by a train. That had to hurt.
In the end we see Grodd has actually survived the train crash and Dr. Wells is seemingly hiding in the lower levels of S.T.A.R. Labs. Didn’t see that coming.
Episode grade 7.5
As awesome as it was to finally see Grodd in action it is hard to overlook the glaring plot holes in this episode. Sorry, but the idea that two geniuses don’t lock doors is too much for this writer to deal with. Iris’s character has developed nicely this season but she took a bit of a step back in her development with her incessant whining this episode was a bit off putting. One would hope that now that she is a part of the team she would be less annoying.
With only two episodes left the battle line have been drawn. The next episode features the return of Firestorm and Arrow. They will be coming to Central City to help Flash face off with Reverse Flash. Let’s hope the next episode focuses more on action that emotion.