Violet recaps Season 2 Episode 7 of The Flash, titled Gorilla Warfare, where Grodd makes another appearance! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of The Flash, Season 2 Episode 7: Gorilla Warfare
The episode begins with Barry trying to recover from breaking his back. Dr. Wells comes in and says it’s time for him to go home so he can go take care of Zoom before anyone else gets hurt. However, Caitlin says they need him to stay on this Earth to help with Zoom here. But he does not agree. Cisco gets an alert about his date with Kendra Saunders, so he heads out. Barry gets a call from Patty, but he says he’s sick, and doesn’t want her to catch his bug.
Caitlin finds Dr. Wells at a bar. She tries to convince him that the best way to save his daughter is to stay and help them, but he says no. Caitlin makes a comment that he’s lucky Cisco and Dr. Stein never figured out how to close all the breaches. This prompts Dr. Wells to come up with a plan to close all of the breaches except for the one at STAR Labs, and set a trap for Zoom.
On Cisco’s date, they are about to go see a movie, when he takes her hand and gets a vibe. He says he has to go, and leaves her there.
At Vaughan Pharmaceuticals, a doctor named Dr. Shore seems to be possessed, and steals a tank of something. When he goes outside, he comes to his senses and wonders what just happened. Grodd shows up and swats him, the force of which throws him into a building and kills him.
The next day, Patty and Joe investigate the scene. Patty tells Joe something similar happened with another lab tech recently. The serum Dr. Shore stole is used to treat blood disease in the brain. Patty asks Joe about Barry, and his response makes her suspicious — Barry had told her he loves canned soup, but Joe says he’s bringing Barry homemade soup because Barry hates canned soup.
At STAR Labs, Barry is out of the wheelchair and running on the treadmill. However, he gets some flashbacks about what happened to him, and he falls. Iris tries to talk to him to help him, but Barry says she wouldn’t understand. Iris leaves the room, and Barry tells Joe that he’s upset that he failed to protect the city.
Cisco asks Caitlin if she’s gotten any reports of a bird man attacking anyone. He tells her about his vibe of a man with wide bird wings. Suddenly, Caitlin seems possessed, and punches Cisco, then walks off.
Patty calls Joe and tells him that the other lab tech had stolen a serum used to treat vertigo. Patty says both drugs are used to enhance intelligence. She also reports that the hairs found on the scene belong to a gorilla.
Joe runs over to STAR Labs to tell them about Grodd, and Cisco realizes that Caitlin was being mind controlled by Grodd. The team tries to figure out how to track down Grodd. Barry is down on himself that he doesn’t have his super speed to help, though Joe tells him to use his brain.
Meanwhile, in Grodd’s lair, Caitlin wakes up, and Grodd greets her telepathically. He says he needs help, and asks how he become Grodd. She tells him about the particle accelerator explosion. Grodd tells her to make more Grodds.
Cisco fills in Dr. Wells about Grodd. Dr. Wells comes up with an algorithm to track him down.
Iris has Barry’s dad stop by STAR Labs for a visit. Dr. Allen checks out his charts, and says Barry’s good to go. Just then, Cisco comes in and tells Barry about the 3 sites they’ve narrowed it down to where Grodd could be. Their plan to get her back is to use Dr. Wells dressed as Reverse Flash and try to convince Grodd that this Dr. Wells is Grodd’s father. Barry says he’s not going to be able to help if anything goes wrong, and Dr. Wells says that’s a chance he’s willing to take.
After checking out two of the sites and coming up empty, Dr. Wells and Cisco approach the third site. Cisco has created some anti-mind control earbuds, but they may fail, so Cisco has Dr. Wells practice acting like the other Dr. Wells.
Back at STAR Labs, Barry and Henry monitor what’s going on. Barry has a heart to heart with his dad about what happened with Zoom. Henry tells Barry that he knows what it’s like being destroyed, and gives him some advice.
Dr. Wells enters the bell tower and greets Grodd, saying he’s back. Grodd gets suspicious when Dr. Wells asks him to let Caitlin go, saying that father never asks, father takes. Caitlin tells him to run, and runs herself, but is stopped in her tracks. However, Cisco runs in with some anti-mind control earbuds and puts them in Caitlin’s ears, so they run outside. Grodd gets angry, throwing Dr. Wells, saying he is not father. Barry radios in, saying that an overdose of the drugs he stole will shock his brain. Dr. Wells continues to pretend to be Grodd’s father, and gets angry at him for hitting him. Grodd seems to believe him, and Dr. Wells gets close enough to inject Grodd with several syringes of the serum. Dr. Wells tells Cisco and Caitlin to run, and they do.
Back at STAR Labs, Caitlin patches up Dr. Wells and thanks him for rescuing her. Joe suggests that the team needs to do something about Grodd. Caitlin tries to defend him, and tells the others that he wants more apes like him. Dr. Wells says he knows somewhere they can send him, and says they can send him through a breach.
Caitlin goes to Grodd’s bell tower and calls his name. He jumps out, but the Flash runs her to safety, and says that if Grodd wants Caitlin, he’ll have to catch him first. The Flash lures him to a trap that Cisco and Dr. Wells have set. For a moment, Barry has a flashback, and Grodd swats him, throwing him several feet. However, Caitlin talks to Grodd and says she can give Grodd what he wants, he just has to trust her. Grodd approaches Caitlin, and the Flash runs Caitlin to safety once more, as Cisco activates the trap. However, Grodd seems to be breaking free. Henry tells Barry that he can’t let Grodd get free, and to believe in himself and conquer his fears. The Flash runs forward and pushes Grodd through the breach.
Back at STAR Labs, Dr. Wells explains that they’ve sent Grodd to a refuge where other apes who have been subjected to experiments like Grodd can run freely. Cisco wonders why the breaches on our Earth leads to different places on Earth Two, but Dr. Wells doesn’t know, but he does know that they have to close them all — though he doesn’t know how to do that. Caitlin assures him they’ll work together to find out, and help him save his daughter.
At the West house, Henry, Barry, Iris, and Joe look through old photos of Barry. Then Barry takes Henry to the bus station, but first, Joe gives Barry a heads up that Patty’s not buying his sick story. After they leave, Joe admits to Iris that it makes him sad when he’s reminded that Barry is not actually his son. Iris assures him that if he’d had a son, he would have been just as great with him as he was with Barry.
Barry stops by the lab to see Patty, and admits that he wasn’t actually sick. She asks why he lied to her, and he says that his dad was in town, who had been convicted of murder. Patty says she needs to know that she can trust him. They kiss.
Cisco stops by Jitters as Kendra is closing up, and apologizes for bailing on her. He explains that he’s a liaison with the CCPD and there was an emergency. He wants to pick up their date where they left off. She takes his hand, and they kiss — and he gets a vibe of her dressed as a bird woman.
In the final scene, we see Grodd come out of the breach and arrive in the ape sanctuary.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 7 of The Flash: Gorilla Warfare
I guess it was inevitable that we’d see Grodd again at some point. I think he’s actually pretty good CGI, especially for a TV show. But I don’t feel that I’m as excited by him as other people are. I mostly just feel sorry for him, kind of along the lines of Caitlin. The poor guy was experimented on, and now he wants to be with others like him, because he’s alone in the world. Yeah, it’s bad that he’s killing people, and they did need to stop him from hurting anyone else, but it was still kind of sad there at the end. He actually liked Caitlin since she was always nice to him, so he probably felt tricked and betrayed. I’m not sure what to make of his reaction when he got through the breach. It seemed angry, but shouldn’t he be happy to find others like him? Maybe it was a happy roar. Or was the place deserted? I didn’t actually see any gorillas, just the landscape in the shape of gorillas, and gorilla statues and such. Is this the last we’ve seen of Grodd, or will something come up again?
We also have Barry going through a sort of mental crisis as he recovers from his physical challenges, and the only person who can get him out of this funk is his father, since he’s been through something similar before, where people stopped believing in him. But once again, Henry leaves town! I still don’t understand this logic. It seems like Barry does better when his dad’s around, so I’m not sure how it makes any sense for him to stay away.
The other thing that continues to annoy me is the Patty situation. Literally everyone else knows, so might as well tell her too. Instead, Patty gives a spiel about how she needs to be able to trust him, and Barry brushes her off. Yeah, I’m sure this is going to go well sometime down the line when Patty eventually finds out that he’s the Flash and he’s been lying to her all along. So much for trust. I’m sure she’ll get over it quickly though.
Next up, we have two The Flash/Arrow crossover episodes, where it looks like we’ll be getting a lengthy introduction to the new Legends of Tomorrow spinoff series that premieres in January. Just in time, since we’ve just seen Cisco vibe the intro of Hawkgirl.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Flash, Season 2 Episode 7: Gorilla Warfare
Our favorite telepathic, gigantic Gorilla is back! I feel like this storyline was purposely mirrored to that of King Kong’s storyline. He is a big gorilla, who kidnaps Caitlyn, a girl, and takes her to the top of a tower. But anyway, this was an interesting episode, as fort the bulk of it, we had an injured Flash, which means other methods of taking care of Grodd had to be used. I am glad they decided to use the most humane way though, releasing him into a jungle with others like him. It was pretty odd seeing Reverse Flash’s outfit again, and I wonder how much use it will have in the future.
As for depressed Barry, it looks like his injuries eventually became more mental than physical, and his father recognized that. But it looks like Barry did too, and eventually became the day-saver in the end.
A couple other interesting bits to the episode–we were introduced to Hawkgirl, via Cisco, and it looks like we are again setting up Legends of Tomorrow further. We will have to see where that goes. Other than that, I look forward to the cross over episodes coming up in the next episodes of Arrow and Flash. Time for the team up again!
Scenes from The Flash, Season 2 Episode 8: Legends of Today
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Flash, titled Legends of Today:
