It’s the episode that we have been hanging out for since the first glimpses of the mighty psychic gorilla that has been teased at all season, and after Ryan teased us on the DC Domination podcast like a month ago, the agonising wait it FINALLY over! Grodd lives, and he is MAGNIFICENT!
The episode starts with a gun wielding man with a mask blowing things up, The Flash gets involved and captures the man who turns out to be General Eiling (remember the guy from the Firestorm episode who Wells captured?) yeah, that one. When he is taken back to Star labs, it is revealed he is being controlled by Grodd. Now if you do not know who Grodd is, he is a psychic Gorilla who was created by STAR labs after being experimented on, when the particle accelerator went off, it activated all of the drugs and bang, Grodd lives!
If monkey’s aren’t your thing, Iris also figured out last week that The Flash was Barry Allen…so now naturally like every female in every comic book reveal in history, she is PISSED! Annoyed at her father, friend and finace for holding out on this secret, she goes into full CW brood mode and tries to bring down the episode. Fortunately the constant “Flashbacks” to Grodd keep it exciting and stop it from being a complete Hart Of Dixie-esque .
Moving along from one hairy situation to another, the group decide that Barry, Joe & Cisco should go and find Grodd in the sewer and embark on an investigation underground. The banana-hating (yes, that’s right Grodd hate bananas!) ape kidnaps Joe, while Barry & Cisco get out of there before Grodd can delve further into their minds.
This leads into the single most terrifying scene of The Flash so far, Grodd is a psychic ape and can control others minds and actions. Joe pulls out his gun when Grodd approaches and makes him turn it on himself, when the gun is cocked, I must admit I took a massive gulp, if any character is disposable on this show, it is definitely Joe.
What follows is one of the most impressive CGI sequences I have seen on a network television show, the recreating of the supersonic Flash punch with Grodd, involving crumbling walls and several freight trains, was explosive and was a mash up of all of my nerdy fan-boy fantasies exploding on screen in front of my eyes (board shorts were DEFINITELY needed!)
Wells is more confident this week, with not having to play both sides, he zips around the city, informing Eddie of his future and how Barry ends up with Iris. It truly was a great insight into the future of both characters, and with Wells finishing his secret invention, the remaining two episodes look to be an explosive finale for The Flash.
Review by Alaisdair Dewar
