The Flash, Season 2, Episode 7: Gorilla Warfare
Well, the big cliffhanger last episode, that Barry is paralyzed, added with all the promotional trailers of Barry rolling around in Harrison Wells' old wheelchair... end up kind of being just a big tease. Not that I mind, though, spending a crapton of time just for our hero to recover while he mopes around in a wheelchair isn't my idea of a good time. It's a bit of a nice little fake-out, since we remember that, well, Barry has super-healing. And Caitlin shows some MRI images that tell us that Barry's dislocated spine is healing relatively well, even if he has to progress from a cane to slowly treadmilling and whatnot... but by the mid-point of this episode he's more or less fully recovered. But his shaken confidence leads to him (being very painfully) thrown from the treadmill, and it's a mental problem that seemed to be at least subconsciously blocking him from properly utilizing his speed. Or something. Him recovering from emotional trauma is definitely an actual story instead of spending the entire episode with him just being all recovering from his broken back and being all pull-ups with ominous pseudolatin chanting in the background like The Dark Knight Rises.
Also, unlike what I speculated last episode, Barry hasn't lost his speed. The lightning is still with him.
I absolutely love bringing Henry Allen back (is Zoom Earth-2 Henry Allen, maybe?) to be the one to talk things through with Barry, though. And the farewell with him and Joe bonding over being Barry's daddy, and all the lines of dialogue between Barry and Henry, is a far better exit than just randomly having a party and him just scampering off. It's nice, and we did get a lot of nice, heartwarming (if a bit cheesy) moments between father and son. I really can't talk about it much without resorting to paraphrasing and describing each scene and I'd rather not do that. Let's just say that it's a couple of pretty nice scenes going on here. Henry getting a look at how Team Flash does things, and his utter confidence that his son, the Flash, can save the day, is absolutely awesome.
I thought the 'I am reminded that he's not my son' moment is a bit on-the-nose since the show has made it clear abundantly, many many times, that Barry considers Joe as much his father as he does Henry... and that seemed just to be a jab at the hints that Wally West is in the works.
But let's talk about Grodd, shall we? Grodd makes his dramatic return and boy, the show's improved budget does make the CGI gorilla look far more impressive. He doesn't just show up in the sewers anymore and while the show does cheat a little by having some of Grodd's scenes happen at night and in that dark clocktower, it's far more confident in showing us Grodd in full view just being, well, a gigantic scary gorilla and shit. The voicework for Grodd is still spot-on, and while this episode definitely has less of a horror vibe than Grodd's debut episode, it's still a pretty impressive one.
That initial scene of Grodd taking over the scientist, and then him showing up in the flesh and whacking the scientist so hard he leaves a blood splatter on top of a crate should've been cheesy and stupid-looking, but the visuals really make the scene work.
Grodd is shown to be slightly unconventional compared to his original comic-book incarnation, but it's fine. His main plot here seems to just trying to avoid loneliness, kidnapping Caitlin because he wants to make more intelligent gorillas. A nice little feminist-friendly variant of King Kong kidnapping a lady because she's pretty, isn't it? And Grodd's interactions with Earth-2 Harry really does show that in a twisted way, Grodd and Thawne-Wells does have some mockery of a father-son relationship, because Grodd looks utterly pissed when he realized Harry isn't Thawne (it's hard to type Thawne instead of Wells, a testament to how memorable the impostor Harrison Wells was), yet looks so... vulnerable when Harry scolds him for hitting him. Like a big boy being scolded by a parent. Man, who knew apes can be so emotive?
And, while the CG does look kinda off in that short scene in the security cameras when Grodd steps out of the shadows, for the rest of the episode Grodd looks fucking wonderful. Especially in the end.
I am also a big fan of how we went from Harry just giving offhanded references of 'oh yeah we totally also have talking gorillas in Earth-2' to it being an actual plot point. I thought it was mighty convenient that the same thing that Caitlin said to get Harry to stick around -- the multiple portals -- also is the key to getting rid of Grodd in a humane way. And while I don't exactly agree with Caitlin that Grodd is just lonely and therefore it's an excuse to make him happy or whatever (he kills at least two dudes this episode, and he killed a bunch of others before), it's still a nice exit for Grodd.
And, y'know, freaking Gorilla City!
I do like how elements of the comics that are deemed to exotic for 'Earth-1' are all relegated to Earth-2, like Gorilla City. And while it's still more Rise of the Planet of the Apes than the futuristic dome we have in the comics, the backstory that Harry gave us, that there were multiple gorillas granted intelligence by something or other, kind of makes sense. And, well, freaking Gorilla City!
And with Grodd probably harboring a vengeance against Caitlin Snow and the rest now for shooting him into another dimension, well, I say it won't be long until Grodd shows up with a giant ape army on his heels. It'll be great!
Speaking of which, Harry is in tiptop shape this episode, going from sarcastic to showing this fun odd friendship with Caitlin, and his interactions with Cisco as he tries so hard to try and emulate the evil Harrison is acting gold as Tom Cavanagh absolutely nails, well, his current character trying to impersonate his previous character. It's wonderful. Also equally wonderful is the scenes as Harry makes their crazy plan work, with him just bluffing Grodd enough with his acting even when I'm pretty sure that the Thawne-Wells will never use the word 'buddy' while talking to Grodd. Him going all 'you hit... father' while delivering that stern, manipulative speech was absolutely well done.
Finally, after my complaints about Caitlin not doing anything but nonsensical romance plots for the past six episodes, she finally shines! Here we see a softer side to her as she tries to at least acknowledge where Grodd is coming from, seeing his reasons -- while at the same time knowing that Grodd is a dangerous animal (in all sense of the word) and that he needs to be dealt with, participating in the confrontation to bring Grodd down. She gets great moments with Harry as well, appealing to logic and recognizing that they need all the allies they can get to beat Zoom.
We've got a B-plot running with Cisco going on a date with Kendra Saunders, and it's honestly a lot more interesting and funny and plot-relevant than the overlong scenes we had with Patty from two episodes ago... I mean, I know I am not too pleased with how Patty Spivot is handled initially, but I liked Cisco and Kendra a lot more. And, well, the little previews we're getting with Cisco vibe-ing into Kendra's future as Hawkgirl... and the little adorkable moment at the end with the portable movie projector... this is really how these kind of romances should be done. Short and sweet, not overstaying its welcome and shoved down our throats.
Though for her credit, Patty isn't in this episode a bunch, and the short scenes with chicken soup are actually funny. The fact that we seem to be playing the 'oh my god a superhero is keeping his secret identity from his girlfriend' drama once more feels me with nothing but dread, though.
Also, for all the talk about oh-my-god-Jay-Garrick-is-going-to-be-a-major-character, he does jack shit after recreating that old comic book cover, yeah? He's basically a non-entity in this episode and the previous, and it sucks.
But lack of Jay Garrick aside, it's a great episode. Barry and Henry were great, Grodd was excellent, Harry was awesome, and the little hints to future episodes featuring Hawkgirl and Gorilla City are absolutely more than welcome. Next episode is going to be the crossover 'part one at Flash, part two at Arrow' episode, though, and I do hope it fares a bit better than the previous one. Also it kind of means I have to catch up with Arrow, yeah? I've watched the premiere of the fourth season, but really haven't reviewed it or caught up with the rest. Damn.
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