I use to think of different things that I’d love to see in the Arrowverse and then go “Nah that’ll never happen”. I start saying that less and less now. We got an episode with Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, and Julian going to an alternate universe, to save their friend from a city of sentient, telepathic Gorillas that want to rule over humanity. When it comes to the Arrowverse, I no longer ask the question “would they do it?” I ask “When, and on what show?”
So, the last episode ended with Jesse running through a breach back to earth-1 and telling Wally that her father had been taking by Grodd and we get a flash (no pun intended) of that happening at the top of the episode. Jesse recaps what happened to Harry. Barry, Caitlin and Cisco decide to go to Gorilla city to rescue Wells and Barry tells Jesse to stay on Earth-1 with Wally to protect Central City. When Barry asks Julian to cover for him, Julian gets excited at the prospect of other worlds and a city of Gorilla’s and plans to go with him. The four of them go to Earth-2 and are swiftly captured by Grodd. While in their cages, Grodd talks to them in the form of Harry and tells them that the leader of Gorilla City, Solovar, plans to travel to Earth-1 and take over Central City because he fears humans. Grodd tells Barry that if he kills Solovar, then he will take over Gorilla city and keep the Gorillas on Earth-2 and in Gorilla city. Solovar challenges Barry and when Barry defeats him, he refuses to kill him, hoping it’ll change the Gorilla’s minds about Humans. They’re recaptured and Grodd informs them that he was the one who was planning on attacking Central City all along, using Cisco to open a breach. They make a plan to trick Grodd and escape back to Earth-1 so Grodd can’t use Cisco. It seemingly succeeds but Grodd has a back up plan. He’s captured Gypsy and will use her to open a breach to Earth-1.
The visual effects throughout the episode were great. I wonder how big the budget is for both of the Grodd episodes because the fight between Solovar and Barry looked amazing as did all the shots that involved Gorillas. There were a lot of smart things the show did to reduce the budgetary needs, such as the Gorillas speaking through Cisco and Wells but when they did show them the Gorillas looked great. I’m excited to see what they do next week.
Wally and Jesse have their own side storyline that addresses their relationship. Jesse seems less than happy to see Wally and Wally originally thinks it’s because he has powers now. Jesse denies this and tells him that she’s upset that he doesn’t contact her anymore now that he has powers. She says that she feels like she has no place in his life because he seems so complete and he says that she makes him complete and that he wants her to stay on Earth-1. This storyline felt a bit awkward to me. I don’t know how much Wally and Jesse have communicated off-screen but as far as the audience has seen, they went from kind of flirting, to a kind of going on a date, to full fledge relationship and Jesse moving to a different earth for Wally. The relationship just has not been fleshed out for me to believe that this was a good decision or a logical step. If Jesse were to say that she was going to stay for a little while to see where the relationship goes, that would be more realistic.
We also get a bit of interaction between Jesse and HR. Jesse mistakes him for her father at the top of the episode which makes for a sad and awkward moment but she then encounters him when she’s contemplating whether or not she should stay on Earth-1. HR gives Jesse advice and tells her to think about staying. Do what makes her happy. This was a very sweet moment and I enjoy seeing HR be the heart of the show. His goofiness has grown on me but it’s also nice to see that he has a wise side to him. It makes him more of a three dimensional character.
Julian and Caitlin’s relationship is further developed. While they’re in Earth-2, Julian reveals that he actually went with them to keep an eye on Caitlin. When it’s suggested that Caitlin kill Cisco so that Grodd wouldn’t have a way to Earth-1, Julian vehemently protested, saying that if she killed Cisco there’d be no coming back. At the end of the episode Caitlin warns Julian about getting too close to her but he says he doesn’t care and still wants to be with her. Their relationship feels more like a friendship to me than it does two people who are attracted to each other but I’m also not opposed to their relationship developing into something more. Maybe I’ll get used to it as their relationship develops more.
I mentioned the visual effects of the fight but not necessarily the fight itself. The fight was a bit weird. There were moments where Barry was literally sitting still as Solovar hit him and he was winding up to do the lightning toss and was taking weirdly long. It usually only takes him a couple wind ups but he kept going for some reason. And he was having such trouble fighting Solovar but then beat him in one hit with a “Reverse Flash” hand. The resolution just felt a bit weird. And usually doing that kills people but for some reason it didn’t kill Solovar? I just wasn’t a huge fan of it.
The end of the episode was also spoiled by the “previously on the Flash” thing. Them showing Gypsy gave it away that she was going to be their way of getting to Earth-1.
The episode was very well done and I’m very excited to see what happens next week.
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