Another season, another Grodd episode and thankfully it was thoroughly entertaining after last week’s shame parade that was Zoom. This week saw the return and exit of Henry Allen, Caitlin stepping up and taking control of the team, and even some interesting West family moments but there were three big things that caught my attention this week. Lets look at them one by one.
Are We Really Using This Title Already?
I get it, Flash writers. That is a great title for a Grodd episode and you clearly cannot pass up a good pun but really? Now? As a big Flash fan, pre show, I was desperately hoping to see a real life psychic gorilla on the show and was ecstatic to see his name hinted at in the pilot. Since Captain Cold seems to be busy with Spinoffs of Tomorrow, I imagined Grodd would make a great Season 2 villain. He could break up the speedsters for a bit and he has that personal connection to the team that made Slade so effective on Arrow. After the conclusion of Gorilla Warfare, Grodd he is taking a long vacation on Earth-2 and while I’m sure we will see him in the future, the whole thing seems like a missed opportunity.
Don’t get me wrong. I love a good Grodd episode. They are the kind of things I really look forward to in a Flash season right along with the crossover episode and some sort of musical thing (please Flash writers) but this time I wanted something more. There were good signs. Grodd is now interested in making more Grodds. That’s a start. And now we seem to have thrown him into an environment with a ton of them. My issue is that if this is the episode called ‘Gorilla Warfare’, does that mean there isn’t one with actual Gorilla warfare somewhere in the future? I sure hope not.
When Harry met Groddy
Near the tail end of the episode, we were treated to a very interesting exchange between Grodd and Harry. Up until this point, Harry has made it abundantly clear that he is not the same man who killed Barry’s mother and until yesterday I didn’t question him. Now I am starting to wonder.
Two weeks ago, Barry was fighting with Dr Light and Harry came up with a great idea Barry could use to defeat her. Barry would move so fast he could appear to create multiple copies of himself. He used the word speed mirrage. As he said that phrase, the camera lingered on a confused Cisco that remembered Earth-1 Wells using that exact phrase in Season 1.
Fast forward to this week. Grodd is confronting Harry and Harry’s back is up against the wall. He was using all the right words (mostly Buddy) but Harry asked when he should have taken and Grodd knew something was up. Then Harry called on his inner-Wells and reiterated a promise to Grodd that he had to the gorilla in the past. The only problem was, Harry shouldn’t have known that promise. Wells didn’t tell anyone that part of his plan. Joe didn’t hear it from Grodd while he was being held captive. The only explanation is that Wells and Harry share some sort of weird connection that allows them to share that knowledge. That or Harry and Wells are somehow the same guy and things are about to get real complicated, real fast.
The Patty Problem
Now I love Detective Spivot as much as the next guy. Probably more. She’s fun. She’s positive. She can keep up with Barry. She’s a big nerd. She’s a female character that wasn’t instantly kidnapped and used as bait. Oh wait. Four out of five ain’t bad. But I have a feeling Patty may be unsustainable in her current form because at a certain point the detective working so closely with the Flash is a bad detective if she can’t figure out that he’s the Flash.
Last week was really the first time I noticed it but this week brought up new issues. The Barry’s girlfriend things isn’t great but being Joe’s partner is not working. Eddie also took forever to figure it out but Eddie worked because he was never supposed to be a smart character. In fact, he was kind of a bad detective. It was part of his charm. Patty is not Eddie. She only works if she is as smart as a character like Barry and a character that smart would have figured this shit out by now.
Since next week is the crossover episode and the characters will be far too bust taking pictures together or whatever it is they do in those, Flash has to do one of these things in Episode 9. Either Patty has to reveal that she has known about Barry since King Shark and is cool with it or she has to just break up with Barry and get Joe in trouble with Captain SIngh. Think about it from her perspective. She is working on a case. She calls Joe to let him know she found something. He somehow already knows it’s Gorilla hair and then never brings it up again. That is a hostile working environment if I’ve ever seen one.
Rating: 7/10
Bonus Zoom Theory
You remember Jay, right? The square jawed Flash of Earth-2 that knows everything about Zoom except for how to defeat him and who he is. That Jay. Well where on Earth-1 is he? After the Zoom incident, Jay should have come back to S.T.A.R. and talk to the team. His absence is incredibly suspicious and it brings up a very interesting question: Every Earth-2 villain has come back and killed their doppleganaer establishing the rule that every Earth-2 character has an Earth-1 doppelganger. This episode we even learned that there is an Earth-2 Grodd. So instead of looking at the Earth-1 characters and wondering who their doppelgangers are, let’s ask the opposite question. Where is Earth-1 Jay Garrick?
I said last week that I believed Zoom originated on Earth-1 because of how similar his costume looks to Earth-1 Flash. Who’s to say that Zoom isn’t Earth-1 Jay Garrick? Jay got his powers from an accident that seemed unrelated to the particle acelerator. Heavy metals or something like that. What if that also happened on Earth-1? We never heard about it, because why would you, and Jay Garrick 1 (Zoom) was transported to Earth-2 for reasons, where he immediately sought out his double, Jay Garrick 2 (Flash)? Let me know what you think of this half baked theory in the comments.
Matthew Nando Kelly is an incredibly cool and handsome staff writer for Pop-Break who was allowed to write his own bio. Besides weekly Flash recaps, he focuses on film, television, music, and video games. Matthew also has a podcast called Mad Bracket Status where he discusses pop culture related brackets with fellow Pop-Break writer DJ Chapman. He has an unshakable love for U2, cats, and the New Orleans Saints. His twitter handle is @NationofNando. Did we mention how handsome he was?
