THE FLASH Recap: “Kneel Before Grodd”

There wasn’t as much Grodd in this episode as I would have liked. But this is a television show, not a big budget film, so I’ll allow it. But what I won’t excuse is missed opportunities. The two thousand pound gorilla in the room that got mostly overlooked, was Grodd’s mind control power. That’s what makes him a super villain. In this episode Grodd uses his power twice; to make Joe West shoot himself in the head. (Flash stops him) And then to take control of a military guy so he can drop a nuke on Central City. (And by the way, wouldn’t that make the city uninhabitable, even for gorillas?) But when it comes to the big showdown, Grodd doesn’t use his mind control power on Flash, Kid Flash, or Jessie Quick. What’s up with that? If he’d taken over one of the speedsters and pitted them against each other, that would have totally amped up the stakes. But as it was, the trio of speedsters fought the gorilla army so fast we couldn’t really see what was going on. We just saw speed-force lightening flashing around CGI gorillas. And that battle didn’t even last that long. After the episode-long buildup, it was a bit anti-climatic.

Here’s what happened: Team Flash is back from Earth-2 feeling pretty pleased with themselves. After all, they think they’ve stopped Grodd’s gorilla army from attacking Central City. But what they don’t know is that Grodd has captured Gypsy. She just happened to be chasing some breech-hopping bad guy near Earth-2’s Gorilla City. Yeah that is a pretty improbable coincidence, given the vastness of the multi-verse, but just go with it. Anyway; Gypsy transports Grodd and his army to Earth-1, and then he sends her to Star Labs to kill Team Flash. But our heroes don’t go down that easy, and they prevail, stopping Gypsy. Then Cisco asks Gypsy to stay and fight Grodd, but she’s had enough of that monkey-business and teleports back to her Earth. Can you blame her? So now Team Flash has to find Grodd and his army of apes and stop them from destroying Central City.

Cisco vibes Grodd’s possible location. Then Team Flash, plus the CCPD show up to confront the gorilla army, but they aren’t there. And this is where an unseen Grodd uses a mind-control whammy on Joe West, compelling him to shoot himself in the head. But Flash saves Joe, and they realize that this has all been a diversion.   Grodd really wanted everyone out of the way while he kidnaps the Military dude that controls the Central City nuclear missiles. Now hold on a second! Why does meta-human infested Central City have six nuclear missiles just sitting out in the open ready to fire? Seems like bad planning to me. But anyway, Team Flash figures out Grodd’s plan, and The Flash deactivates the nuclear missiles before they get launched. It was kind of a ticking clock scenario, but on the reals, nobody actually believed that Central City was destined to be a nuclear fireball. So when Barry stops the launch a few seconds before the missiles fire, it’s less of a ‘sigh of relief’ and more an ‘okay what now?’

Grodd, a bit upset that his nuclear solution didn’t wipe out Central City, decides to get things going the old-fashioned way. So he leads his gorilla army into gorilla warfare. And it’s apes versus speedsters for about five minutes. I guess the CCPD decided to sit this one out. Then Cisco and Gypsy show up, yeah he charmed her into helping out after all. And they bring Solovar back from Earh-2. He’s the ape that was in charge of Gorilla City before Grodd took over. Grodd and Solovar fight it out, and Solovar wins. So now Solovar is back in charge of the Gorillas, including Grodd’s gorilla army. And he marches them back to Earth-2 where they belong. Without Grodd! Barry takes the defeated Grodd to ARGUS, to be locked up next to King Shark. And so everything is right with the world once again. In fact, everything feels so right, Barry asks Iris to marry him. But the scene ends before she can give an answer. Don’t you hate that?

And exactly how may speedsters does one city need? Jessie Quick has decided to move to Earth-1 to be with Wally, aka Kid Flash. So that gives Central City three speedsters and leaves Earth-2 with none. How does that seem fair? But Wally might be in trouble. When he super speeds to Big Belly Burger to get his girl some eats, he runs into Savitar, the self-proclaimed God of speed. STAY TUNED!!!!

LAST WORDS: So, will there be a wedding in May, or a funeral? Or neither? And what about Jessie and Wally? The show is called The Flash, not The Flashes. My prediction from last week stands. I think Wally and Jessie are going to move to Earth-2, if they stay together. But if their love doesn’t last, I think Jessie will go, leaving Wally on Earth-1. But however they work it out, I just hope that no one gets killed, like Black Canary.