I’m actually sort of disappointed with The Flash this week. Not from the name; it’s an obvious pun, sure, but that really doesn’t enter into anything. I’m disappointed that the broken back didn’t even stick for an entire episode. I get that the psychological aspect will continue, presumably for the season, but I didn’t expect Barry’s mutant metahuman healing factor to fix it in a week. Literally, they say it’s been a week; I was hoping they’d have at least one full episode where they had to figure out a way to resolve things without his speed.
But, can I start off by saying… I was actually joking when I said they still had a motorized wheelchair. Seriously, he spends a couple of scenes in it. Sure, he has the cane to help him walk because his spine is only 90% healed, but any time he fails to do something because he flashes back to that one time Zoom broke his back an humiliated him in front of everyone, he retreats to the wheelchair. It’s almost like it’s some form of security blanket to protect against the shame of failure. I really didn’t expect it to get that much use.
Aside from all of that, everyone’s favorite psychic gorilla is back. And, for a character smart enough to do math that is frankly beyond me (I’m not too good with anything beyond basic calculation), he sure hasn’t learned to avoid attention. Or maybe he just doesn’t care. Sounds in character for an 800 pound gorilla to me. He might have gotten further along with his plan if he hadn’t taken the time to kill each of the people he psychically manipulated to bring him the chemicals he wanted, though. Specifically, hitting that one guy so hard he flew into a sign attached to an overpass and leaving gorilla hairs all over the place. He left a forensic wonderland for the CCPD, man. They wouldn’t have suspected him until he took Caitlin at least, and even then, they would’ve had less certainty.
Anyway, Grodd is stealing all of these chemicals with designs to make more gorillas like him. He kidnaps Caitlin to this aim (and makes her cold clock Cisco on the way out), because he needs her to mix them into the drugs that were used on him. The problem being that he was the result of those drugs reacting with the particle accelerator explosion. So Caitlin has to stall for as long as possible for someone to help her, because 800 pound psychic ape. Even though he actually likes her compared to everyone else, she’s not really going to get one past him.
Their plan to get her back is obviously not going to work in the long run, if at all. They decide to have Harry impersonate Earth 1 Wells in the Reverse Flash suit. They forgot to tell Barry about this, and he slams Harry into the wall before they stop him. Apparently there was an extra suit in the time vault, which reminds me that it’s weird that they haven’t really gone back in there since the end of last season. I mean, there’s an A.I. with a whole bunch of seemingly useful information in there. I can understand not wanting to fuck up time itself, but they already did that when Eobard Thawne got trapped in the past in the first place, and when Eddie killed himself to stop him. The timeline that was supposed to exist is already pretty well fucked.
They just barely get her away, thanks to some quick thinking from Harry and the anti-mind control earbuds Cisco made. Everyone but Caitlin thinks its just a good idea to kill Grodd, because he’s already been on a murderous rampage twice and he has no compunction against killing to get what he wants. But Caitlin sympathizes with him; he’s lonely, and he just wants a place to belong. Harry, knows just the place in Earth 2; a nature reserve established in Africa to house apes that had been the subject of scientific testing just like him. Their solution to mach speed punch him through an anomaly when he doesn’t go willingly is absolutely hilarious.
In other news, Cisco is dating Hawkgirl. He vibes on her when he was taking her to see The Princess Bride, and totally bails because he’s freaked out by the vibe. If they keep going like this, I honestly think they’ll reach a more natural and reasonable Justice League than the film universe will. They’re already not trying to push for it with just one show.
Final Thoughts:
- “Oh my God! I was wrong! It was Earth all along! You’ve finally made a monkey out of meeeee!” You have no idea how hard it was to hold that in.
- I’m really not anticipating Batman vs. Superman. Can you tell? And yes, I know it’s all for Legends of Tomorrow.
- Harry’s working on getting the Flash ring working. I’m not quite sure what to make of this.
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