Not since the halcyon days of Challenge of the Superfriends has my television been so inundated with comic concepts that just shouldn’t work on television succeeding wildly. Be warned, some spoilers follow.
1. Grodd on a TV show. 2015, amirite?
During Avengers: Age of Ultron, I had to pinch myself for a second: if you had told ten year old Brian that, one day, he’d see the Vision fighting Ultron in a movie with believable special effects, I’d have probably cried. I had the same thought tonight: nearly 25 years after the first Flash TV series struggled to put the Trickster on the air, The Flash had fucking GRODD, and a Grodd that was actually scary, somewhat believable, and fit perfectly into the fabric of the show.
The show has, thus far, really relied on the particle accelerator to be the god of metahumans, creating them in an almost random way. Grodd both continues and bucks that trend; on one hand, Wells is absolutely responsible for Grodd’s creation, as the accelerator did give Grodd the boost he needed, but Grodd is really the child of both Wells and General Elling. If not for Elling’s testing on him he would have maybe been a more powerful gorilla, but wouldn’t have the psychic abilities or conversational skills that he has.
The show was also wise to leave just about everything else about Grodd to be wide open: we know he escapes, but beyond that? His story can take him anywhere. Like, maybe, to…
2. Gorilla City?
This show has been magically Silver Age-y thus far, but they realize that viewers in the mainstream sometimes need a more grounded origin or take on a character before they buy in. Due to that, Grodd wasn’t made special by space stuff, but instead by science stuff. But could he still raise up a Gorilla City? I mean, the idea is so ridiculous that it barely warrants a question, but just a few months ago, so would half the stuff we’ve seen on this show. We’ve seen Barry run across the country for a pizza. We have seen a man plug a meat thermometer into another dude and steal his face. We saw FIRESTORM AND MARK HAMILL IN HIS RETRO TRIXSTER DUDS – is Grodd traveling to Africa (to escape Elling) and starting a Gorilla City really all that far fetched?
What a time to be alive!
3. Iris is still as frustrating as Barry is fast
I get why the show keeps trying new things with Iris, but going from petulant bore to petulant whiner to petulant member of the team just doesn’t work. This isn’t about Candice Patton’s acting ability, although at times that doesn’t really help, this is about the way the show has built up Iris as a character. She is only important when interacting with one of the characters that we care about.
Iris was of most interest when she was the Lois Lane to Barry’s Superman, being Central City’s primary source of Flash news. Now? Well, let’s see – she’s leading two men on, she’s bad at her job, and she’s a huge ingrate to just about everyone. Season 2 really needs to find a way to get her back into some interesting stories, and allow her to do something other than just bug everyone all the time.
4. Literally everyone knows he’s the Flash
Elling figured this out? Seriously, why not just take out a billboard? It will save time so that now Barry doesn’t have to have that awkward “So, you know I’m the Flash, right?” conversation every few days for the rest of the year.
For whatever reason, these producers hate the concept of secret identities. As long as they can keep pulling it off, I’m ok with it – but something about it really rankles my long time fandom.
5. Wells Was Missed
Wells, in this episode, was the least subtle and least interesting that he has been all season. He kidnaps Eddie, and then turns into mustache-twisting villain X, telling him all about his plans, about the future, and giving Eddie motivation to break free. Their scenes were constructed just so that viewers didn’t forget that Wells had Eddie kidnapped.
Continued belowI understand that this episode was a really important one in the grand scheme of the show – it allowed the series to go farther than it ever had before in terms of Silver Age weirdness, and it set up a potential big bad for a future season, and it gave us a look at what a Wells-free show would look like. Those are all good reasons to go light on the Wells this week.
That said, the episode suffered for it. In one way, it was fun to see the team consistently use things that Wells had taught them/shown them (like Barry running 5.2 [or whatever it is] miles to punch Grodd), but have his absence felt. But in another, the team seemed rudderless, and didn’t know exactly how to operate in the Wells power vacuum.
My honest prediction for the end of this season is that, despite all signs pointing otherwise, Wells does actually get away. He’ll be back at some point, but maybe we only see him as Eobard Thawne from now on – maybe that’s a convenient way to say goodbye to Tom Cavanaugh, but not the character. For the record, I hope Cavanaugh comes back to the show, because he is a great actor and a perfect fit for this role. Plus, you know, Ed was filmed where I grew up. Stuckeybowl for life!
Let’s get a nice chat going in the comments. What did you think about this episode of The Flash?
