FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 6×13- “Grodd Friended Me”

The Flash (6×13)- “Grodd Friended Me”

Written by:         Kristen Kim & Joshua V Gilbert

Directed by:       Stefan Pleszczynski

Okay! March is here, everyone’s hounding you to join their basketball brackets, the weather’s flipping the coin between winter and spring and the bi-annual complaining about Daylight Savings has come and gone. Do you know what this means?

That’s right! The Grodd episode! Even better it’s a Grodd episode where we establish our brand new status quo!

The episode starts with a kick in the gut in the form of Barry being unable to find his parents’ graves. In an interesting comment on how much things have changed since Crisis, the latest place he’s trying to search in is not even a cemetery on Earth Prime but a freeway overpass. However, Barry can’t dwell on that too long since Pied Piper is pulling a smash and grab. Great, every time Barry changes reality Hartley changes from good to evil.

Unfortunately, Piper gets away because Central City itself has changed in ways that leave Barry vulnerable.  To compound his problems, the only people around to help are Kamilla and Chester.  Chester is really eager to help, really eager and with Barry in a mood he ends up relying on the Oliver Queen school of leadership and he ends up being a jerk.

Meanwhile, Nash and Allegra are across town with Nash trying to whip up some tech that I am sure isn’t at all about him seeing Harry. Especially since now it’s not just Harry but Harry and Sherloque that he’s seeing.  Great news, Nash! You’re on your way to the complete Wells collection.  It goes about as well as Barry’s team building episode with Kamilla and Chester.

Speaking of Barry, he’s working on the ear piece that he uses to talk to Gideon at STAR Labs but between his tweaking and Chester’s tweaking he ends up in a coma and like most TV coma’s he perceives it as STAR Labs before the Accelerator Explosion but here’s a twist that Barry won’t figure out for a while:  He’s in Grodd’s body.

It seems that Barry’s mind accidentally connected to Grodd, who is also in a coma at ARGUS.  Even better, Grodd’s dying because of the machine that prevents him from using his telepathy and best of all if Grodd dies while their minds are connected Barry dies too.

But not everything is a complete disaster. Grodd’s had time to think about what he’s done and it has left him with a sense of remorse. Unfortunately for the gorilla, Barry’s trust and hope that people and super-intelligent gorillas can change so he attacks Grodd and tries to escape Grodd’s mindscape.

And unfortunately for Barry, Grodd was telling the truth. They are trapped together and the only escape is guarded by Solovar which means the only way for them to beat him is for man and ape to work as one.  A plan which always works:

Pay no attention to that totally unrelated movie poster!

In the outside world, Frost, Chester and Kamilla manage to make contact with Barry and help him to work with Grodd. Did I say work with Grodd? I meant merge with not only Grodd but Gideon too which gives out super-intelligent-telepathic Gorilla the power of a futuristic AI but the power of the Flash too…

Overkill?  Never heard of that before.

After Barry is back amongst the living he and Frost formally welcome Chester to the team.  To return the sentiment he’s managed to track down the cemetery Barry’s parents reside in.

Meanwhile, it should come as no surprise that Not-Iris is still trying to track down ways to destroy Carver and even goes so far as to trick Joe out of his office to steal files from.  And in the mirror dimensions, Iris and Eva try to escape using Eva’s mirror powers and the machine that trapped her in the mirror in the first place.  Unfortunately it doesn’t work beyond frying Eva’s arms…

Or so we’re lead to believe!  It turns out Eva and Not-Iris are connected somehow because not only are they working together and able to contact each other through the mirror but the burns Eva suffered injured Not-Iris as well! 

Trapping people in pocket dimensions and tricking all the people they love so they can get revenge. Isn’t that just like the Fake News Media elite?

Sean and I are both so disappointed right now.

Well before we go it’s time for one last check in with Nash as he tries to tell Allegra that they’re… whatever they’ll end up being.  But his hallucinations are getting worse.  By that I mean they can touch him now and not only is he seeing Harry and Sherloque and not only are they playing some sort of psychological game on him but it looks an awful lot like Thawne’s involved. 

Fantastic.

Pretty good episode for a mostly stand-alone deal.  They moved the plots along in cool ways, upped the threat level on multiple front and brought back not one but two fan favorite villains in Grodd and Pied Piper.

I’ve come to really enjoy the creative ways they use Grodd.  It’s clear that the CGI involved is prohibitive to bring him around for more or for multiple episodes stories but each story they’ve done with him has built on the last one in such a way that it never feels like a stunt episode. (Even if they arguably are.)

As for the season plots I’m still on board with the Eva/Carver/Black Hole plot but now I feel like there’s actually something to dig in to with the Nash plot and it could not come soon enough.

End of the day, no complaints from me for this episode and I can’t wait to see how this all plays out.

Things We Learned:

1. Grodd and Barry have reached an understanding and Grodd’s been given his freedom.
2. Eva and Not-Iris are working together to get after Carver.
3. Chester is officially part of the Team.
4. Cisco is returning in the next episode.
5. Nash’s visions of other Wells are getting worse and seem to be connected to Thawne.

Questions:

1. Will Grodd be accepted in Gorilla City?
2. What did Barry do to Hartley to turn him evil again?
3. Will Barry and Grodd’s mental connection affect them or return in some way?
4. Has Chester retained his powers?
5. What did Cisco learn?
6. Is it Thawne that is coming or could it somehow be even worse?