TV Review: The Flash – Season 2 Episode 7 “Gorilla Warfare”

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

EPISODE 7: "Gorilla Warfare"

SYNOPSIS: Grodd returns to Central City and kidnaps Caitlin. Barry and team race to find her before it’s too late. Meanwhile, Cisco plans his first date with the new barista at Jitters, Kendra Saunders. Patty begins to suspect Barry is hiding something from her.

REVIEW: (Beware of spoilers!):

Last week, Barry Allen was completely destroyed physically and mentally by Zoom. The Earth Two villain beat Barry within an inch of his life and paraded him around Central City, heralding their hero as no match for the black masked bad guy. This week, Barry deals with the uphill recouperation he needs to walk again, let alone run, when another formidable foe returns to Central City. That's right, Grodd is back! The intelligent, mind-controlling gorilla has returned with another plan to take control back from those that tortured him.

But, Barry is not quite ready to run again. Physically, he is healing better than anyone could but the trauma of failing so spectacularly against Zoom has hampered him psychologically. Dr. Wells plans to leave town to go rescue his daughter on Earth Two, but Caitlyn convinces him to stay. Together, they come up with the plan to close all of the breaches between the two parallel worlds, forcing Zoom to only cross over at the opening within STAR Labs, giving the team the chance to build a trap. With Cisco's date with Kendra Saunders a failure after he vibes and sees a hazy image of Hawkman, the two scientists are caught off guard when Caitlyn is mind-controlled by Grodd and disappears from the lab,

But, Grodd doesn't want to hurt Caitlyn as she was one of the few nice people before he turned after the particle accelerator explosion. Grodd has been gathering chemicals and other material to replicate what turned him into what he is now and wants Caitlyn to make more gorillas just like him. The team needs to come up with a plan to stop Grodd after Wells narrows down his location to one of three bell towers around the city. They find a spare Reverse Flash costume and have Wells dress up to try and convince Grodd that he is his "father" while they find a way to stop him. The only problem is that Barry still doesn't have his speed back. Hence, we get a visit from Barry's father.

Henry Allen comes and confides in his son that he sometimes needs to pretend to be strong and somethign else in order to protect himself. At the same time, Wells does his best impression of his evil predecessor, but it is not enough to convince Grodd. Cisco is able to help Caitlyn escape while Wells continues to pretend he is Grodd's father, barely convincing the Gorilla but buying enough time to inject him with some drugs and make their escape. The plan then becomes to trick Grodd into following Barry into one specific breach that will lead him somewhere in Earth Two that Wells says he will be safe and away from endangering anyone in Central City.

As Barry lures Grodd to the breach, he has some traumatic flashbacks which allows the gorilla to get the upper hard. About to crush Barry, Caitlyn arrives and talks to Grodd. She empathizes with the animal and as he approaches her, they use CIsco's speed cannon to push Grodd into the breach. The pull of the wormhole is barely enough and Henry tells Barry to believe in himself and The Flash builds up enough speed to shove the ape through the hole and into Earth Two. As the team bids farewell to Henry Allen, Wells reveals that they sent Grodd to an isolated rainforest on Earth Two, begging the question as to why the breaches lead to different places on each Earth. Wells doesn't know the answer, but he is now a welcome member of the team.

With very little of The Flash in this episode, we do get to see this show's great supporting cast shine at what they do best. Cisco is funny and resourceful while John Wesley Shipp once again proves that he was perfectly cast as Barry's father. But, it is Tom Cavanaugh playing a version of Harrison Wells trying to imitate the evil version of Harrison Wells that shows just how hard his role has been on this series and why his duplicitious natures make for one truly cool character to watch evolve. Barry is also reaching the hardest part of his relationship with Patty who isn't buying his lies. Joe West also laments not having had a son, which weighs on Iris who knows she has a brother. Cisco also makes an apology visit to Kendra. But, when they kiss, Cisco vibes again and realizes his vision was not Hawkman, but Hawkgirl.

FINAL VERDICT:

NEXT ON THE FLASH: "Legends of Today" airs on December 1st: Vandal Savage arrives in Central City and sets his sights on Kendra Saunders. After Vandal attacks Kendra and Cisco, they turn to Barry for help. Realizing how dangerous Vandal is, Barry takes Kendra to Star City and asks Oliver and team to hide her until he can figure out how to stop Vandal. However, things quickly go from bad to worse when a man with wings AKA Hawkman shows up and flies off with Kendra. Meanwhile, Harrison develops a serum to make Barry run faster and asks Jay to test it out.