Grodd brings his army to Earth-1 in this episode of The Flash, titled “Attack on Central City,” and Barry begins to contemplate if the only way to stop Grodd is to kill him. Fortunately, Iris and Harry are there to offer some advice.
Speaking of Harry, since Jesse decided that she’s going to stay on this Earth with Wally, she has to break that news to her father. How does that go? Read on to find out.
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Happy Friends Day! Celebrate with an Army of Giant Gorillas!
H.R. decorates the Speed Lab for his Earth’s equivalent of Valentine’s Day. While Barry and Iris, and Wally and Jesse, are together — and Caitlin and the out-of-town Julian are “just friends,” which basically means “becoming more than that very soon” in TV talk — Cisco laments that he’s stuck in the friend zone. This all happens just as the team’s ready to celebrate what they think is a big win over Grodd, only for the reappearance of Gypsy, who attacks both Cisco and Barry, to reveal that they couldn’t be more wrong.
Grodd may be “a giant gorilla who’s probably leading an army of giant gorillas,” as Barry puts it when he’s frustrated that they can’t find them, but he’s also a genius giant gorilla. Fortunately, Harry, Caitlin and Cisco come up with a way to launch a preemptive strike against Grodd: widen the scope of Cisco’s vibe so they can see more of the future.
But they’re going to have to do that without Gypsy, who refuses to help, even though it would mean getting more time with Cisco. When Grodd had control of her mind, she saw what he’s planning (the city in ruins, people in pain, lots of death), but it’s not her fight. She has a fugitive to catch.
Once Cisco vibes the intersection where they expect Grodd to be — which would lead right into the middle of the city — Barry, Wally and Jesse suit up and join Joe and SWAT in the street. However, Grodd simply takes control of Joe and has him aim his gun at his head. Barry saves Joe, but they realize it’s just a distraction. So what is Grodd’s plan? To grab a general.
Harry comes up with the idea to get Joe to remember the flashes he saw when Grodd was controlling him. At this point, Joe just sounds so resigned to them putting magnets on his head to look into the mind of a psychotic murderous ape that he agrees with “Fine.” It works, and Joe draws a photo of a man. But while the team is busy trying to identify him, Grodd is using the general to gain access to nuclear missiles.
Is Killing Grodd the Answer?
Tired of seeing the people he cares about in danger, Barry can’t help but wonder what they’re going to do with Grodd once they stop him. If they send him back, he’ll just return to Central City again. He thinks he needs to follow the rule in Gorilla City: kill or be killed. Showing mercy is what makes him a hero, Iris argues, but Barry still thinks that maybe the only way to stop bad things from happening is to get rid of what causes them.
And killing Grodd might change the future enough that it saves Iris. But Iris reminds him that showing mercy separates him from everyone else and is why everyone looks up to him. She doesn’t want him to compromise who he is, even if it’s to save her.
When Barry brings up killing Grodd to Harry, the other man agrees with Iris. Yes, Harry has done things he’s not proud of. But as he points out, every time he does, it makes it easier to do that the next time. Looking at Barry battling the darkness with honor and hope reminds him that there’s always another way. That’s what he has to do here: find another way.
And he’s going to have to find it fast because thanks to H.R. thinking about Weird Al’s hair, they’ve managed to identify the man with the military cut that Joe drew: General McNally, in charge of nuclear missiles. And he’s just authorized their launch. Fortunately, Barry can try as many of the 90,000 possibilities for the five-digit kill code as he wants without setting off the nukes, and he gets the right one with two seconds to go.
That leads to Grodd leading his army in an attack on Central City, and the three speedsters are greatly outnumbered as they try to hold them off. That is, until Cisco comes through a breach with Gypsy after convincing her that she can be the hero he knows she want to be. And they’re not alone. They bring Solovar with him, and the other gorilla challenges Grodd. Solovar wins, but Barry stops him from killing Grodd. Leave him on their Earth instead, Barry tells him, and spare his life like Barry spared Solovar’s. Solovar agrees, and it’s back through the breach for the rest of the gorillas and off to A.R.G.U.S. for Grodd.
Gypsy too goes through a breach back to her Earth, but Cisco’s not letting her leave without an admission that she’s into him. “Even if I was,” she tells him before kissing him, “you couldn’t handle me.”
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“So, Dad, About Returning to Earth-2…”
Jesse decides to just go for it when it comes to telling her father about her plan to stay on Earth-1 with Wally. To her surprise, Harry doesn’t yell or throw anything. “Your happiness is what matters to me,” he says. “I respect your decision. Don’t screw it up.”
However, when Wally later brings up them coming to visit him on Earth-2, Harry tells him that he doesn’t know how much time he has left, implying that he’s sick. He’s not as well as he once was, Harry goes on to say, and yes, he’s seen a doctor. But he doesn’t want Jesse to know. So, of course, the first chance Wally gets, he tells Jesse that she should go home with her father because he’s really sick.
But is he? Jesse knows her father and confronts him, and Harry says he just said he didn’t know how much time he had left, which is true for all of them. Jesse’s moving to Earth-1 and that’s that. By the end of the episode, Harry says his goodbyes and returns to Earth-2.
All that’s left is for Jesse to find a place. But for now, she and Wally are hanging out at the West house, watching a movie, until she decides she’s hungry. But when Wally goes out for food, he crosses paths with Savitar?!
Making a Future
Iris comes home to find candles and rose petals everywhere. Barry admits that he’s been so busy trying to avoid the future that he forgot there’s always another way. Now he’s focusing on making a future — by proposing! But Iris’ answer is going to have to wait until next time.
Do you think Iris is going to say yes? Do you want to see more between Cisco and Gypsy? Do you wish Harry had stayed longer? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
The Flash season 3 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW. Want more news? Like our Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of The CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
If it’s on TV — especially if it’s a procedural or superhero show — chances are Meredith watches it. She has a love for all things fiction, starting from a young age with ER and The X-Files on the small screen and the Nancy Drew books. Arrow kicked off the Arrowverse and her true passion for all things heroes. She’s enjoyed getting into the minds of serial killers since Criminal Minds, so it should be no surprise that her latest obsession is Prodigal Son.
