FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 1x21- "Grodd Lives"

The Flash (1x21) - "Grodd Lives"

Written by: Grainne Godfree & Kai Yu Wu

Directed by: Dermott Downs

This week we start with a voice-over from Iris as she tries to sort through the revelation that Barry is The Flash and has been lying to her while he's racing through the city (looking for Wells and Eddie) as passes by Jitters unaware that she is watching.

The next morning at the Police Station Captain Singh is looking for Eddie and Joe claims he's taking some personal time.  Singh then tells Joe and Barry to work on a rash of gold robberies and see if maybe they can get in contact with the Flash for help.  Barry checks on some tests in his lab and as he's about to leave Iris arrives.  She tells Barry that the Reverse Flash kidnapped Eddie and when he tries to make sure she's alright she gets upset and claims that the Flash isn't doing anything to find him.

Barry arrives at STAR Lab to find Cisco dissecting the cameras Wells had used to spy on them when they're alerted to a robbery at the Central City Gold Reserve. Barry arrives to find the man in a fire fight with guards but when he tries to stop him he's bombarded with images of torture to the point where he collapses giving the armored man a chance to escape.

Barry returns to the lab and Caitlin checks him out while she Cisco and Barry try to figure out what happened. They check out the security footage and see the thief was disoriented too and Iris arrives.  She and Barry go into another room where she and he discuss how she figured it out and more importantly why he didn't tell her.  She only becomes more upset when she learns Eddie knows and that Wells is the Reverse Flash but she leaves when she learned Joe already knows.

Eddie is still in the bunker where Wells left him when he returns.  Wells is building something and Eddie tries to question him with no success.

Iris is at the paper after everyone's gone home research the Flash with her new-found knowledge when Joe arrives.  Joe tries to explain his reasoning but she is unimpressed.  She accuses him of covering up the murder of Mason Bridge and Joe explains to her that is Wells is found out so is Barry.  Iris is still not convinced and she then claims that Eddie being missing is Joe and Barry's fault for keeping her out of the loop.  Before she or he can say anything else, Joe's called away to the station.

The next day the Police are assisting the gold reserve with their transfer by using an ice cream truck.  As they're driving along they attacked by the armored man again.  Barry arrives and knocks the man out, when he and Joe pull off the man's mask he is revealed as General Eiling.

At STAR Labs, the Team learns that Eiling is completely catatonic, they contact Diggle and he learns ARGUS has been hiding that Eiling disappeared three months ago.  When they talk to Eiling he begins talking back to them but he's acting strangely and claiming not to be Eiling.  When they ask who he is he replies "I am Grodd."

After some research, the Team learns that Grodd refers to an experiment that Eiling and Wells had worked on to create telepathic and telekinetic soldiers.  Wells shut down the experiment after learning about Eiling methods however.  Grodd disappeared during the explosion, likely activating the abilities they had been trying to create and he is now controlling Eiling's mind. Joe believes that Grodd is being used as a distraction. Iris offers to help with reports of animals and disappearances in the sewers.

Joe Barry and Cisco head into the sewers to search for Grodd and find writing on the walls that show the expansion of Grodd's intelligence.  Meanwhile, Caitlin and Iris discuss Ronnie's situation back at the lab.  The guys hear a noise and Barry is once again assaulted telepathically while Joe is abducted.

Joe wakes up and confronted by Grodd, the gorilla telepathically forces Joe to turn his gun on himself before he has the man throw his gun away.  He "tells" Joe that Wells hates guns and that Wells is not there. Joe tries to bribe the gorilla unsuccessfully with a Banana before Grodd leaves.

At STAR Labs, Barry is  frustrated looking for a way to help Joe but Cisco isn't sure they can do anything to counter Grodd without Wells' help.  Iris lays into them, wondering how they can help people every day until it's time to help her father and boyfriend before she storms out.

Barry follows her and the pair argue again.  She is still trying to blame her father but Barry strikes back saying he could have told her anytime he wanted but didn't and Joe respected that.  He tells her if she wants to be mad at someone to be mad at him but she's been hiding things too.  He accuses her of sending him mixed signals since he told her his feelings back in December, he then leaves.

Wells enters the bunker again and he and Eddie argue. Wells calls Eddie a failure compared to the rest of their family.  He tells Eddie that he wastes his life and then shows him that in the future Barry marries Iris.

Cisco comes up with a  device to counter Grodd's telepathy just in time for the tracker Cisco managed to get on the gorilla to activate.  Barry runs to a prearranged point and Cisco uses the steam vents to force Grodd out of his lair into place for Barry to use the same super-sonic punch he used to knock out Girder.

It doesn't work and while Grodd can't use his powers, Barry can't seem to hurt him either.  Grodd throws him through a wall into the subway tunnels damaging Joe's anti-telepathy device and Grodd assaults him again.  As a train bears down on him, Iris talks to him and manages to break through the noise in Barry's head. Barry avoids the train and after it passes Grodd leaps at him to kill him, only to get struck by a second train.

Barry comes down to the Pipeline and finds General Eiling is himself again.  He asks how long Barry intends on keeping him and Barry opens his cell and lets him out explaining that the Pipeline was designed for meta-humans.  Wells tells Barry he's known Barry was the Flash for months and they'll have to work together to stop Wells whether they like it or not.

Joe is recovering up in the main lab and after a grilling on Grodd from Cisco he asks to talk to Iris alone.  They talk things through and vow to start telling the truth. Meanwhile, Barry Cisco and Caitlin discuss Grodd.  He agrees with Joe that Grodd was a distraction.  Cisco tries to apologize for not coming through with the device but Barry tells him that that wasn't the point.  The point was that they were able to stop Grodd without Wells and if they work together the three of them can accomplish anything.  To which Caitlin says "The four of us" referring to Iris.

Iris and Barry meet on the roof of Jitters.  Barry tells Iris that the reason he could fight Grodd was because she was there and she was a part of his life whether she knew or not she was a part of everything.  Iris tells him that she loves Eddie and none of what Barry feels matters if they can't save Eddie.

In Wells' bunker, Eddie watches as he completes the device he's been working, when Eddie asks him about it Wells calls it a key.  He then opens a hatch above them revealing the inside of the particle accelerator.  He uses the key in the accelerator tunnel which powers up the lights and he says to himself, "Time to go home."

So where to begin?  The episode was good, a few stumbles here and there but they did a very good job introducing Grodd and reincorporating General Eiling. Grodd felt a little over the top at times but that's par for the course with the character.  I could fault them a little bit for the final Grodd shot since it didn't make much sense beyond "This will look cool" and I've come to expect more than that at this point.

I like the team trying to rebuild their chemistry in the wake of the revelations of the last few weeks.  Could have used more Wells but that is likely result of him being so prominent for the last three or four episodes. Though, now that Eddie knows that he and Iris don't marry will he change as a result is the question.  After all, Barry and Wells have both successfully changed their futures, can Eddie?

Where the episode falls down is the b-plot with is Iris. Once again, she comes off as too harsh and self-involved to be sympathetic.  When she's ranting about trust try to remember that Iris initially started her blog to expose the Flash and posted a photo of his face on the front page of the Newspaper not long after she got the job.  For her to be mad now that she wasn't included falls pretty flat.

I hope they can correct this because they're doing a disservice to Candice Patton and the character at this point.

Three Things We Learned This Week:

1)      Iris knows.

2)      The Explosion affect more than just humans.

3)      Barry knows that Eiling knows he's the Flash.

Three Questions:

1)      What WAS Wells building?

2)      How much of ARGUS knows who the Flash is?

3)      Does simply having knowledge of the future itself change the future?