Gorillas in the Mist - The Flash S03 and Gorilla Grodd

Since this was a closely-related two-parter, I waited until both episodes aired before talking about it on here.

In the first episode, "Attack on Gorilla City," we travel back to Earth-2 to rescue Harry Wells. And in the second episode, "Attack on Central City," Grodd finally gets back home to Earth-1 to take vengeance for his exile.

Spoilers ahead!


So we know Harry Wells was taken prisoner by Grodd because Jesse ran back to Earth-1 for help to get her dad back. She and Kid Flash are left behind there to keep an eye on things, while Barry, Caitlyn, Cisco, and Indiana Jones head to Earth-2 to rescue Harry.

On the whole, this episode was mediocre at best, but I do have to say that what saved it from becoming a real drag was Julian. I'm pretty sure Tom Felton is having the time of his life on The Flash. Julian was super excited that Barry was earth-hopping and apparently going to the Planet of the Apes.


Anyway, there wasn't much depth to this episode. Turns out that it was a trap, of course, so that Grodd could force Flash to kill Keith David Gorilla and put Grodd in power, and then even that was a trick, because once Flash did that, Grodd reneged on their agreement and said he was going to invade Earth-1 with his gorilla army using Cisco's powers. Team Flash escapes anyway and they think that's the end of it and that they won the day and thus changed the future.

But nothing is ever that easy for our heroes! Turns out that losing Cisco's ability to open portals wasn't a big deal to Grodd, because he magically figured out how to get Gypsy from Earth-19 to do it for him.

Grodd, if you had Gypsy in the first place, why did you bother with all the Flash shenanigans?

Excuse me for... dropping in, Central City.

As a story involving an army of invading telepathic gorillas, this episode managed to be phenomenally boring. Grodd takes over a military general to gain access to nukes so he can blow up Central City, I guess? When that doesn't work out because Flash, they invade, but even that is stopped when Cisco and Gypsy bring Solovar, aka Keith David Gorilla, back from wherever, and Solovar proceeds to kick Grodd's ass. Afterwards, Solovar nopes out of Earth-1 with his gorillas, and Grodd apparently belongs to ARGUS now.

So I guess the main point of the entire storyline revolved around Barry's internal debate about whether he should kill Grodd or not, because Grodd always comes back more powerful and more annoying than the previous time. And everyone falls over themselves to tell him not to be like Oliver Queen, because Barry ought to be good and pure. So Barry doesn't kill Solovar in the first episode, and he doesn't kill Grodd in the second episode, and this is the true moral victory, I guess.

I don't know, I was a little bored by what was supposed to be a grand comic-book based story. Maybe the biggest sin wasn't even boredom, it was the lack of any real character development for anyone. I mean, Barry was already too pure for this world; I'm not sure I ever bought the idea that he would seriously murder anyone.

Other items of note:



Jesse has decided to stay on Earth-1 with Wally, and her dad isn't happy about it, so Harry decides to be a giant douche and lie to Wally about being chronically ill. When Jesse finds out, she calls her father on his bs. I'm always down for having a female speedster around, since we don't get a lot of those.

Caitlyn and Julian are a thing, and he seems to be pretty good at helping her control her Killer Frost persona.

And the only thing that really matters in any of this:



That's right, Barry has proposed to Iris. She hasn't said yes. Oooo, cliffhanger!

Also in these episodes: HR's true reason for existence is revealed, as he beautifully annoys the piss out of Harry.

The Flash airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on the CW.

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.