Uncategorized

FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 2×07 – “Gorilla Warfare”

 
The Flash
(2×07) –
“Gorilla Warfare”
Written by: Aaron & Todd
Helbing
Directed by: Dermott Downs
After the recap, we open on Barry’s latest
physical therapy session and considering he’s going from quote Charles at the
end of X-Men First Class to a Doctor House impersonation in a little over a
week I’d say Barry’s doing really, really well. 
However, we are all our worst critics and after he stumbles Barry slumps
into Eobard’s old wheelchair feeling defeated. 
Speaking of people who aren’t the original
Harrison Wells, Earth-2 Harrison is ready to go home to fight Zoom.  He just needs Cisco to take him down to the
Speed Cannon, unfortunately for Harrison (and Cisco) Caitlin is adamant that he
stay to help them.
After Wells and Caitlin leave, Cisco gets an alert
on his computer for his date with Kendra Saunders that night and makes his own
exit to some playful teasing from Barry and the Wests. 
Then Barry’s phone rings and… What’s this? Clouds
parting? Birds singing a joyful tune? A smile on my usually sneering face? It
must be; Patty Spivot!
Patty’s calling to check in with Barry since Joe’s
told the CCPD that he’s down with some sort of cold or flu.  She offers to come over and take care of him
with some homemade chicken soup but Barry blows her off with a lie about liking
the canned stuff better and I officially join Team Zoom.  She’s too good for you, Barry!
Caitlin follows Wells to a bar across town and
tries to talk him into helping them again. 
He explains that Barry defeating Zoom was pretty much all he had and now
he intends to go home and get his daughter or die trying.  Caitlin starts to leave, telling him it was
lucky that they hadn’t figured out how to close the breeches as he parting
words and this gives Wells an idea.  If
they close all the breeches but the one under STAR Labs then they can properly
trap Zoom.
Cisco has chosen to take Kendra to a revival
showing of The Princess Bride and it seems she’s never seen it. (Which only
serves to remind me that I’m probably old enough to be the target audience’s
father.)  Seeing this, Cisco is selling
the movie to her, and when he succeeds she rewards him with a little first date
hand-holding which triggers Cisco’s powers. 
He sees a person with wings and panics and bows out of the date to return
to STAR Labs.
Over at a pharmaceutical lab a team of scientists
are working on a project when the lead scientist suddenly is bombarded by
images.  He goes into a trance, steals a
chemical and assaults one of his partners and leaves.  Once outside, the trance wears off and he
comes face-to-face with Grodd before the ape kills him.
The next morning, Joe and Patty are on the
case.  Patty’s found hairs all over the
scene and she points out to Joe that this is the second lab technician killed
in two weeks after they stole drugs designed to treat brain problems.  When Patty asks about Barry, Joe unknowing
outs him as a liar before he leaves to help Barry with his physical therapy.
Barry’s graduated to running on a treadmill, but
this only serves to remind him that Zoom took him out behind the woodshed and
then dragged his broken body through the city. 
He falls off the treadmill but when Iris and Joe try to help him he
explains that he doesn’t know how to recover people’s faith in him.
Cisco and Caitlin are studying the breech and
Cisco asks if she’s heard anything about a birdman.  We all wonder for a moment if she’ll make a
Michael Keaton Joke but she says that she hasn’t heard anything.  Then she receives images and much like the
lab techs she punches Cisco and leaves. 
Joe and Iris are talking about Barry when Iris comes up with a plan and
Joe receives a call from Patty.  The
drugs were for enhancing intelligence and the hairs were from a Gorilla and Joe
knows all he needs to know and he runs off to tell the others.  Wells and Cisco try to figure out where and
why Grodd took Caitlin while Joe calls the CCPD to see if Grodd has been
sighted recently so they can find a pattern.
Caitlin wakes up somewhere else and finds herself
with Grodd.  The gorilla asks for her
help to make others like him.  Meanwhile,
Barry’s back on the treadmill and it seems he’s on the brink of making a mental
breakthrough but can’t get past the wall. 
Cue Henry Allen.  Iris called him
back to help Barry get over his issues.
Wells and Cisco are working through the data Joe
acquired while Cisco catches the man up on Grodd’s history.  As he listens, Wells finishes putting in his
data and begins running a computer program to triangulate Grodd’s most likely
location and they come up with three possibilities.  Henry and Barry are talking through things
when Cisco comes in with the plan he’s worked up with Wells.  Wells will pose as Eobard to talk Grodd into
releasing Caitlin.
After two false starts, Cisco and Wells find
Grodd’s hideout and Wells goes in.  He
does a pretty convincing Eobard impersonation but the trick is foiled when he
asks Grodd to let Caitlin go instead of simply taking her.  Grodd attack him and while Cisco gets Caitlin
out Wells uses the drugs Grodd has gathered to incapacitate him and get out as
well.
Back at STAR Labs, Caitlin explains that Grodd is
alone and feels that isolation more as his intelligence grows.  Barry doesn’t see what else they can do but
Wells does.  He shows them that while all
52 breeches open in Central City on Earth-1 on Earth-2 they open all over the
planet.  If they can find the specific
one he’s hoping for they can send Grodd through it; taking care of him and
giving him a home and others like him at the same time.
Joe points out that traps need bait and Henry has
it; The Flash’s going to lead Grodd there. 
Caitlin and Barry go back to Grodd’s hideout and draw him out then Barry
leads him to the breech where Cisco and Wells have set up the Speed Cannon.
The plan doesn’t quite run smoothly and Barry
starts to take a beating so Caitlin steps into act as the bait.  Grodd approaches her and Cisco and Wells turn
on the speed cannon.  Even that isn’t
quite enough so Barry gives him a mach-1 left cross with help from Henry for
good measure and Grodd is gone.
With Grodd defeated Henry says his goodbyes to the
STAR Labs team and Barry takes him to the West home.  Cisco and Caitlin promise to help Wells
figure out how to close the breeches.  At
the West residence Henry takes his bow and a couple of pictures of Barry as a
kid.  After they leave, Joe laments that
he never knew what it was like to have a son of his own and maybe, just maybe,
Iris starts to wonder if she made the right choice keeping his possible son
with Francine from him. 
Barry finds Patty in the lab and tries to apologize
for being a jerk to her this episode.  He
even uses his father’s recent visit as cover and says that people still look at
Henry distrustfully and he didn’t want to put her through that.  Patty once again proves how much better she
is than everyone else and forgives him and points out that maybe what Barry
needs is a little faith in himself.
Cisco goes to find Kendra to try and make up for
bailing out on her.  Suspiciously, she
gives him a bit of a good natured hard time and after the two talk she gives
him a kiss.  Again, Cisco has a vision of
the person with wings and he realizes vision is of Kendra looking very much the
part of Hawkgirl.
Back on Earth-2, Grodd arrives on the other side
of the breech and sees a city below him. 
A Gorilla City.
Pretty good episode this week, unfortunately since
last week’s episode found a home on the top of the mountain it shouldn’t
surprise anyone that this was a of a step down. 
Still a lot of the plots were moved forward as the team figures out a
way to stop Zoom.
Meanwhile, Barry finds himself suffering from a
loss of faith.  His body may be healing
fast but his spirit did take a blow as devastating as a broken back.  We’re seeing more and more that much of
Barry’s confidence stems from the trust and belief people have in him, he sees
that faith and trust as a responsibility and he feels that Zoom took that from
people.  It doesn’t help that Zoom does
seems to be stronger than him, but there’s still a long way to go for Barry to
find a way.
I liked seeing the group actually starting to
welcome Wells in.  His relationship with
the team is different than it was with Eobard and that’s where the fun is
coming from for me.  As for Joe and
Henry, it shouldn’t surprise people that this was where the meat and potatoes
was for me this week.  Though I will say
this, Candace Patton stood on her own with them and reminded me how much I’ve
enjoyed her this season.  She’s been much
better now that she’s in the inner circle than she was in the dark last season.
However, Iris wonders if she made a mistake hiding
knowledge of Francine’s son from Joe?  Yes,
Iris.  You’ve made a mistake, don’t be a
Lance.
As for Grodd. 
He was a good choice for a villain of the week.  Both in that he presents the physical problem
for Barry to deal with in counterpoint to the emotional turmoil Barry is facing
and that the nature of his origin gives him some sympathetic pull for the
audience and I liked that they found a way to give Grodd a home that could also
come back to haunt him but giving him a bunch of hyper-intelligent gorillas to
work with/take command of in the future.
Good episode, not great.  We’ll be back in two weeks for the yearly
crossover event.
Three Things We
Learned This Week:
1)     
Grodd is still gaining intelligence and has
found a home with others of his kind.
2)     
Kendra Saunders is very likely Hawkgirl.
3)     
The breeches open up on Earth-2 in a variety of locations
around the planet.
Three Questions:
1)     
Was Kendra acting so understanding because she
knows the members of Team Flash?
2)     
Will Iris tell Joe about his son?
3)     
Will sending Grodd to Gorilla City come back to
haunt the Team or is Grodd gone for the foreseeable future?

Just another guy on the internet.