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FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 3×13 – “Attack on Gorilla City”

The Flash (3×13) – “Attack
on Gorilla City”
Written by:         Aaron Helbing & David Kob
Story by:              Andrew Kreisberg
Directed by:       Dermott
Downs
We open this
week on Caprica with Helo and Sharon… 

I mean the Island Oliver
Dammit! Gorilla City (Don’t blame
me they all look like the same park outside Vancouver!) and Wells is being
chased by- you guessed it- Gorillas. 
Then it’s back to Earth One for some exposition and recap.  Jesse needs help, and Team Flash is gonna go
to Earth-2 to do it because this totally isn’t a trap or anything.  Besides, there’s a mention of a “Gorilla
Attack” on the big future board so they have to do something to change the
headline. (Even if they haven’t tried to confirm if they’re actually helping or
hurting the situation yet.)  But all that
future stuff is besides the point, Barry’s going because Harry is their friend.  Cisco and Caitlin are going too while Jesse
and Wally stay behind to protect Earth One.
As a bonus,
after Julian hears about their adventure he decides to tag along to see the “Planet
of the Apes!” because it worked out well for Tom Felton last time.  
 After some dumb “global warming” banter the
gang finally establishes why they went, Harry is the only man on Earth-2
capable of opening a breach to Earth One is Harry so they have to save him to
keep Grodd from coming to Earth One.
Meanwhile
back on Earth One, since Barry and Iris are on the same page someone has to
have relationship turmoil.  Wally, Jesse,
you’re up!  Jesse’s got a lot on her
plate, Dad’s kidnapped by genetically altered gorillas, interdimensional copy of
her dad is there and worse, he’s a hipster. 
To top it all off, Wally’s a speedster now.  That’s got to be rough on a girl.  Then she sees that Wally’s a bit of a
showboat and it turns her off somewhat.
Back on
Earth-2, the gang tracks down Harry’s watch but unfortunately it’s a trap. They
wake up in the scenic dungeon district of Gorilla District (I’m told there’s a
great ramen restaurant that opened there after King Solovar captured a chef
years before) and none of their powers are working.  Well that sucks but good news! Harry is
free!  Bad news, by free I mean that
Grodd is mind controlling him to speak to them.
Yep it was
all a big trap to bring Barry there, but plot twist! Grodd brought Barry there
to kill King Solovar to create peace between man and ape.  Nope, not suspicious at all!
Back on
Earth One, Wally confronts Jesse about her being stand-offish.  She’s worried that now that Wally has speed
he won’t want her anymore.  Wally
convinces tries to convince her otherwise but since it’s still too early in the
story, she’s unconvinced.
Back to
Gorilla City, Solovar arrives… I assume fresh from talking to Commander Shepard
on the Citadel, to posture and threaten Team Flash.  
Barry offers one on one combat with
Solovar.  If Barry wins they go free,
Solovar agrees to the deal.
Next we go
to beautiful downtown Gorilla City’s deathsport district, as seen in the summer
X-Games.  It’s time to fight and sure
Barry’s got speed but Solovar didn’t take his throne by being a bastard born of
incest, he got it by being a badass so he pretty much has a counter for everything
Barry has until Barry pulls out a move from Thawne’s playbook and takes him
down.  He tries to talk the gorillas down
from war but Grodd counters his speech a dart.
When Barry
comes to Grodd reclaims Harry and reveals his big plan.  He used Barry to claim Solovar’s throne so he
could use Cisco and conquer Central City. 
Barry tries to appeal to Grodd’s ego and intellect but no dice.  He’s pretty set on killing Barry and
destroying Central City… That’s his thing after all.
So, the team’s
in quite the jam and the only way to save Earth One is to kill Cisco… Barry is
very much not interested in killing his friends, which is the sign of a good
friend if you ask me.  That’s okay
because Cisco wants Caitlin to pull the trigger since he doubts Grodd knows she
has powers.  Caitlin is also against
murdering Cisco but Barry’s got another plan.
Back on
Earth One, HR gets to pinch hit with a dad conversation with Jesse.  He convinces her that when it comes to
cross-dimensional romance with a fellow speedster fortune favors the bold.
Back in the
dungeons, Barry’s dead.  Grodd’s annoyed,
probably because Solovar stole his kill but he leaves Barry’s body in a nearby
trash heap.  After he leaves, Barry
manages to revive himself and gets the gang free and make their escape to Earth
One.
The day is
saved everyone!  Sure, I seriously doubt
Harry and Jesse can go back to Earth-2 and sure Harry’s going to have to kill
HR when he learns that Jesse and Wally are a couple now thanks to him but they’ve
completely stopped Grodd… Forever.  Never
coming back.
Just
kidding!  They’ve captured Gypsy… somehow
and will use her to attack Central City!
So, I think
I’ve finally figured out why I don’t like the crossover episodes… beyond the
fact that I don’t watch any of the other CW-Verse shows anymore so there’s a
bunch of stuff that I don’t care about invading my show.  It’s that the episodes feel like an
incomplete thought.  Sure to some extent
every episode is that way because of the nature of arc storytelling but for the
most part the episodes are reasonably self-contained. 
This episode
has the same problem.  This is an
incomplete story, hell you’ll probably notice this is much shorter than my
usual review (I finally did it after three years) but that’s because very
little actually happened, the story is stretch out and as a result, not as much
happened.  I imagine the next episode may
even have the opposite problem of everything they’ve set up hear being resolved
in part two and things end up feeling crowded.
Still, it
wasn’t terrible.  There’s some
headscratchers for sure, why try to capture Cisco if they had Wells and/or
Gypsy?  If they didn’t capture Gypsy
before how did she just randomly show up? If Harry kills HR is that murder or suicide
by proxy?  Hopefully only the first two
questions are answered.  All in all, I’ve
decided to withhold a score until I’ve seen part two. Tomorrow morning because I
work tonight.  Have fun watching tonight
guys.
N/A
Things We Learned
This Week:
1)     
All the Gorillas in Gorilla City are telepathic
like Grodd.
2)     
Grodd suffered at the hands of Solovar before
merely chaffing under his rule.
3)     
Julian’s into Planet of the Apes. (Nice touch,
and an example of unobtrusive fanservice.)
Three Questions:
1)      Seriously,
how did Gypsy end up in Gorilla City?
2)      Did
Solovar ever actually intend to attack the human world and is he still alive?
3)      Will
this attack affect the Future in either way?

Just another guy on the internet.