‘The Flash’ Episode 1.21 “Grodd Lives” (8 out of 10) Starring Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Rick Cosnett, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Tom Cavanaugh, and Jesse L. Martin. Guest starring Clancy Brown. First broadcast April 15, 2015.
With only two episodes to go in the first season of “The Flash,” they’re still steaming ahead, not leaving every reveal, every Big Moment for the finale. This episode, has two major plot points that are the culmination of season-long arcs, and could change the course of the series.
The more important event is that Iris West has discovered Barry’s secret. The key came in last week’s episode, when Iris recognized a physical spark of electricity that the Flash gave off, the same that the comatose Barry gave off the year before. Iris hasn’t been my favorite character on this series. Most of the time, she’s the weakest part of any episode. But the writers/showrunners did some things right by her tonight.
First, she’s the one who makes the connection. Too often the characters on a superhero series who don’t know the secret identity but are an intimate part of the superhero’s life come across as being blind, and often stupid. How could Iris be an investigative reporter, and not make the connection using that final piece of evidence? Happily, she did.
Second, Iris goes directly to Barry Allen in S.T.A.R. Labs(catching Barry, Caitlin and Cisco by suprise, even though the place has to be covered in security cameras). She confronts Barry, letting him know immediately that she knows, and she’s “disappointed” (much worse than angry), and betrayed. As she learns that her dad also kept her out of the loop, she confronts him as well. Other series would have let her know, but spent half a season with her sneaking around, playing dumb. I’m glad they gave Iris the ladyballs to confront the matter head-on.
“disappointed” is much worse than angry.
Third, even though she feels betrayed, she joins the S.T.A.R. Labs team to help Barry locate her father and take on Gorilla Grodd. She didn’t run away and pout (not permanently at least), but she helped the team, and will probably become a regular part of Team Flash.
Fourth, she didn’t just fall into Barry’s arms, declare her undying love for him, and forget oh yeah, she has a fiance who’s in the captivity of Reverse Flash. Other, similar series have had the love interest do just that; here they kept Iris and Barry attracted, but apart, and feeling all the very real-seeming and complex emotions that this relationship would have. It’s taken them a season to get to this point, but it feels genuine, and I appreciate that.
So much for Iris. Still not my favorite character, but all of those things have raised the bar, improving the character and making her…make sense. Well-done.
The other Big Event is the debut of Gorilla Grodd as a major adversary for Flash. Unlike Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Golden Glider, Weather Wizard…Grodd isn’t a “Rogue.” Like Reverse Flash, he has enough rage that he wants the Flash dead. He’s got an axe to grind against General Eiling (who he took captive earlier in the season, and has been mind controlling to wreak havoc on Central City), and calls Reverse Flash “father.” This is going to be a problem. Grodd’s not a dude in an ape suit, he’s a CGI character…but for the most part it works. He’s mostly in shadows in the sewers and tunnels beneath the city, but he’s still seen enough to be impressive–and frightening. The experiments Eiling had done on Grodd, plus the particle accelerator explosion have combined to give Grodd a super telepathy that can cripple anyone within range; the flashes of images and sounds we see when Grodd uses that superpower are disturbing. Which is great.
Grodd is huge, more than a physical match for the Flash, and smart. Also, he hates bananas. Showing the entire team scared out of their minds is a good way to set him up as a supervillain; they’ve had so many villains-of-the-week who have been laughable, Grodd is one they know they can’t screw around with…and aren’t even sure what they’ll do with him if they can catch him. He’s handled better than I imagined, and having him be a mutated lab animal works better than his comic book incarnation, where one of a tribe of superintelligent apes from “Gorilla City” in Africa. It also gives him connections to Caitlin and S.T.A.R. Labs, although his vendetta aginst Flash in particular has yet to blossom. Getting hit by a train might help that along.
Also, he hates bananas.
The episode came back around to Reverse Flash/Eobard Thawne having heart to heart conversations with Eddie Thawne in his secret hideout…I’m enjoying Wells-turned-Thawne as a villain more than I expected. Tom Cavanaugh is such a cuddly actor, and has been son nurturing on this series that I wasn’t sure I’d buy it. But he’s got menace, intelligence, and power. And he’s loving that he doesn’t need to hide between the Wells persona anymore. He assures his captive that Eddie is the Worst Thawne Ever, and “you don’t even get the girl.” All of this has to be festering within Eddie, and we’ll see where this takes that character, who up until now has been pretty forgettable himself.
All in all, this was a solid episode, although not as tight as last week’s. It did tie up some loose ends, and put the players into position for their endgames for the season. Next week looks like an all-out hero and villain extravaganza, with Arrow and Firestorm coming to help the Flash with his little villain problem.