Gorilla Grodd returns to Central City – with an army of armoured apes at his command – in this surprisingly low-key two-parter…
It’s been hard to review this Gorilla Grodd two-parter. On the one hand, the show definitely doesn’t have the budget to match up to the wild Silver Age of Comics premise. On the other, it’s great that The Flash team would be brave and ambitious enough to try something like this in the first place, so it would be mean-spirited to complain.
For instance, the titular attack on Central City amounted to little more than a third act scuffle in the middle of a street. It was a lot of fun to see the three speedsters unite against a platoon of apes but the highlight has to be the Grodd vs Solovar fight. It was perhaps not quite as impressive as the gladiator battle from last episode, but it was still awesome.
Instead, the bulk of the episode was spent with our heroes in STAR Labs. Barry’s arc saw him address the age-old superhero question: should he kill his enemy? It’s slightly jarring to have the usually brighter Barry considering going all Punisher but it is believable that he would be considering this when he is fighting for his beloved’s life.
Yes, The Flash one-upped Supergirl here by having a Valentine’s Day episode two weeks after February 14th. As well as Barry treating Iris to a special breakfast, we had Wally and Jesse deciding to stay together and Cisco tempting Gypsy into fighting the good fight. The two speedsters’ relationship is, ironically, moving along at super speed but Cisco and Gypsy’s attraction is working much better as the writers are allowing it to take its time.
The best bit of this episode, though, has to be having two times the Wells. Tom Cavanagh is always brilliant but here he got to play both Harry and H.R. bouncing off each other, in perhaps the first comedy duo to be played by one man in history. Why does Harry have to go back to Earth-2? Who says Cavanagh couldn’t permanently play two Wellses?
The most shocking part of ‘Attack on Central City’ isn’t a big superhero moment, though, but Barry’s surprise proposal to Iris at the episode’s end. Yet with Savitar apparently back (even if Wally is just hallucinating, it still spells trouble), it looks like the Flash won’t be finding domestic bliss anytime soon…
Speed Thoughts:
- Barry buddy, why would running straight at Grodd’s shield ever be a good idea? Wally and Jesse worked out that they should run around the gorillas, why didn’t you?
- Harry’s talk about being terminally ill had me going there for a second. His bare-faced lie was played for laughs but I felt pretty bad for Wally. At least apologise to him, Harry!
- We got a brief glimpse of Earth-19’s Flash this episode. Fans of comics will know this to be the Accelerated Man, one of Earth-19’s steampunk-flavoured heroes.
Rating:
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