5 Thoughts About Flash: "Attack on Gorilla City"

1.)  Once again, Tom Cavanagh proves himself the best actor on this show.   Playing no less than three different people in the same episode between Earth-2 Harry, Earth-19 H.R., and "Gorilla Grodd", dude killed it and managed to be believable in each part. 

2.) Speaking of Earth-2 Harry, the plot of this episode involved Gorilla Grodd kidnapping him in order to lure Barry and Cisco to Gorilla City to get Cisco to open a breach to Earth-1 so he could conquer Central City.   This Gorilla Grodd plot is probably Flash's coolest long-running storyline--the "evil speedsters" are always wrapped up in a neat little bow at the end of every season, and the Rogues is far too haphazard, but we've really built Grodd up and explained how he went from normal zoo specimen to ruler of Gorilla City over the course of three years.  That's pretty dope, and it's honestly the most like a comic book any of these comic book TV shows have ever felt.

3.) The biggest bummer about Jessie Quick coming back like this is that she was basically just used to further Harry and Wally's storylines.  She didn't play a part in saving her dad, and the most important thing she did on Earth-1 was deciding whether or not she wanted to be "Facebook official" with Wally.   As literally the only lady speedster--or really, the only woman with powers that isn't completely and utterly terrified to use them, this wasn't really a strong showing.

And it doesn't even make sense!   Wally spent the episode trying to convince her to come to Earth-1, but doesn't Earth-2 have crime she could be dealing with?  Isn't she Earth-2's only hero, or is there a super-team there we don't know about?   And if she was just going to come to Earth-1, why bring in Earth-19 Harry?  She and her dad both could've just stayed on Earth-1 to begin with, and we could've avoided this whole Grodd thing.

4.) Okay, this is like the second time Caitlin's used her Killer Frost powers without anything bad happening.  To escape the prison Grodd put them in that somehow neutralized everyone's powers despite never explaining how they did it, Caitlin freezes Barry until he looks dead.  At this point, I feel like you either need to figure out a way to train her, or stop.  Because when you're trying to change the future and one of the things you know is your best friend turns evil, maybe spamming the abilities that makes her go evil isn't the brightest idea?

5.) After being captured, Grodd informs the group that Solovar will demand to face them in combat or see them killed--and of course, Barry accepts on the condition that Solovar releases them if they win.   So first off, I just have to say that they did an excellent job of balancing the budgetary needs of this episode--it was weird they were captured in cells and we never actually saw the insides of Gorilla City, but what we did see--the outer edges of the city and the coliseum where they do battle--looked classically epic.

But the fight itself?  Ugh.  Is it really so easy to beat a guy who goes Mach 5?  Barry basically gets his ass kicked until a last second usage of a vibrating hand knocks Solovar out, but honestly it should've been over in seconds--fuck dramatic tension, there's no way you could react fast enough to stop super-speed punches OR Barry tossing lightning.  (Which, for I'm guessing budget reasons again, he never even did.)  This show's biggest problem continues to be them refusing to let Flash actually BE the Flash.

Oh well.  Despite that complaint, this was still a decent episode, and overall I'm enjoying this season more than the last, no question.