Barry has to rely on his friends and unexpected help from Earth 2’s Dr. Wells in this week’s episode of The Flash. Titled Gorilla Warfare we finally see the return of Gorilla Grodd, who kidnaps Caitlin in a plan to make more intelligent gorillas just like him. With Barry still healing from nearly being killed by Zoom, Barry has to rely on Dr. Wells and Cisco in attempt to save Caitlin’s life.
The Positives
Henry Allen is back! If you’ve been keeping up with my reviews then you’d know I questioned exactly where Henry Allen was awhile ago. The answer was made in tonight’s episode. Showing up as a bit of motivation to Barry get his head back in the game it was refreshing to see Henry appear once more. The battle between Grodd and The Flash doesn’t disappoint at all and the CGI never gets tiresome with The Flash. From Grodd’s movements, to his emotions, and even the look in his red eyes all look amazing. The people in the CGI department have an incredible attention to detail and there is no laziness in their effort to make Grodd lifelike. I have to give the CGI people at The Flash credit with them taking their craft so seriously. I really can say I don’t see me mentioning effects as a negative in The Flash ever. The episode itself sets up beautifully for the highly anticipated Arrow and The Flash crossover and the writers have very small subtle ways of reminding you that it’s coming soon. I’m a fan of good foreshadowing, and the writers here do it effortlessly. I don’t want to spoil the episode for you, but let’s just say that Cisco’s date sets us up for something big in the future. I think the real key moment that stands out in this episode actually is Dr, Wells. Although Barry in the end steps up to defeat Grodd, Dr. Wells was willing to sacrifice himself to save Caitlin’s life. I think this was a turning moment in his relationship between him and Team Flash as a whole. I hope by Wells attempting to make this sacrifice it shows that he’s different from his Earth-1 counterpart. I know Cavanagh it basically playing the “same” character but he pulls off Earth-2 Dr. Wells nicely. It really says something when an actor can make you hate a character for a whole season, then make you go right back to loving the very same character without a thought the very next season! Tom Cavanagh is an excellent actor and I hope he doesn’t go anywhere anytime soon.
The Negatives
If I really had to pick on something that’s a negative with this episode it would have to be the certain timing of things this episode. What I mean is while trying to find Grodd, its revealed by Wells that he knows where some of the portal breaches go– in this instance Gorilla City, home of intelligent apes. I kind of found this as being “too easy” for the ending of the episode, however its forgivable because the plan itself leads to a bigger plot by Team Flash to stop Zoom. I think my complaint is basically I wanted a longer fight with Grodd. I think the writers at The Flash have made me greedy with his and King Shark’s introduction. These are two showdowns that are pay per view material in my opinion!!
The Verdict
Overall I thought Gorilla Warfare was a great and solid episode. We saw the return of Henry Allen, the revelation of more heroes to come through Cisco’s vibe, and also we see a glimpse of Gorilla City- which hopefully means Grodd’s return. The writers of The Flash continue to not disappoint me and I’m definitely glad that we se Earth 2’s Dr. Wells sacrifice to save Caitlin’s life. I hope that this changes the interaction between himself and the rest of the team. Will Grodd return? Does Dr. Wells finally have a way of stopping Zoom? I promise you that you’ll be asking the same questions right after you see the show credits.
