You big ape!
Title: “Grodd Lives”
Director: Dermott Downs
Writers: Grainne Godfree, Kai Yu Wu
Grant Gustin as Barry Allen / The Flash
Candice Patton as Iris West
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon
Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells / Eobard Thawne
Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West
Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow
Rick Cosnet as Detective Eddie Thawne
Clancy Brown as General Wade Eiling
Patrick Sabongui as Captain David Singh
Premise
The Reverse Flash completes a part of his plan, as Team Flash– now including Iris– search for two Thawnes and instead find Gorilla Grodd.
High Points
The possession scene, and the journey into Grodd’s lair, both feel creepy, in the manner of a monster movie from a half-century ago, and that’s about right for Grodd.
Low Points
The Fastest Man Alive can’t track Grodd when he kidnaps Joe?
The besieged Team Flash just leaves the door unlocked so that Iris can walk in? Also, is anyone doing any work at STAR Labs, besides throwing together ass-pull technology to assist the Flash?
The Scores:
Originality: 3/6
Effects: 5/6 This week mixes some decent effects with some serviceable but obvious CGI.
Acting: 5/6 Clancy Brown gives the best performance this week, one entirely in keeping with the tone of the show.
Story: 4/6 I enjoyed seeing Grodd onscreen, and he worked, as I’ve mentioned, in the manner of an old-school Creature Feature. The episodes continue to rely, however, on character behavior that doesn’t really make sense, and this week also delivers too much unlikely overlapping dialogue.
Emotional Response: 5/6 I wish we could have seen more of the big ape but, F/X cost money and, hey, we still got Gorilla Grodd.
Production: 5/6
Overall: 5/6
In total, “Grodd Lives” receives 32/42
Lingering Questions
How many people think Grodd will smash the pipeline and release the metahumans?
How many people can know your secret identity before it’s no longer a secret?
Now that we’ve seen Grodd, can a giant purple super-gorilla be far behind? Will the Arrow meet an Ape? Will Jimmy Olsen almost marry a female King Kong in Superman v. Batman?
Presumably, Star Labs either has some serious coin in the bank such that they don’t need to do anything or there are others off on the side who are actually doing paying work of one kind or another. It’s also likely that some of the “ass pull tech” is being monetized somewhere. Patents and the like. There is, after all, plenty of time off screen that can be used for the general business operations.
I’m pretty sure Star Labs is pulling in good money from patents and/or other tech they developed. “Wells” knew what was coming, so he probably set something up that would enable continued operation after the explosion.
Iris just being able to walk in (again!) was ridiculous (again).
The low point for me was Iris asking what’s going on on the screen. “What’s the red dot?” “You mean the one that says “Flash” next to it? That’s The Flash.” “And the blue dot?” “The one that says “Grodd” next to it? That’s Grodd.”