Gorilla Grodd strikes again.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Every so often, one of the Arrow-verse shows will do something that forces you to marvel at how far this superhero universe has come since the gritty, grounded days of Arrow: Season 1. “Attack on Gorilla City” was definitely one of those episodes. Who would have thought four years ago that we’d one day see Flash, Vibe and Killer Frost travel to another universe to do battle with Solovar and Gorilla Grodd in the middle of Gorilla City? And all that a mere 24 hours after Supergirl and Mon-El battled Mr. Mzyzptlk. You have to admire the willingness of these shows to explore the craziest corners of the DC Universe, week in and week out.
Even when the show teased a Gorilla City-centric episode last season, part of me doubted it would ever come to fruition. Having just one all-CG character like Gorilla Grodd or King Shark is a huge strain on The Flash’s relatively modest effects budget. How are they supposed to handle an entire city of walking, talking CG apes? The answer, it seems, is very strategically.
“Attack on Gorilla City” had its share of impressive CG work. We got a few sweeping views of Gorilla City and thousands of bloodthirsty apes crowded into the gladiatorial arena. And the effects team has only gotten better at rendering Grodd and making him feel like a living, breathing character. But it was still obvious where the crew was cutting corners here. The “tropical jungle” surrounding Gorilla City looked suspiciously like the Pacific Northwest, and both Grodd and Solovar spent an awful lot of time speaking through human surrogates rather than appearing in the flesh.
So there was this nagging sense that we could have gotten more - more Gorilla City and certainly more Solovar. It seems a waste to cast the legendary Keith David as the voice of a talking simian king and then limit him to a handful of lines. But you can’t really fault the Flash crew for working with what they had. And visually, this episode was still pretty darned impressive. There’s nothing like seeing the Fastest Man Alive punch an ax-wielding gorilla into submission.
And the good news is that, even with Barry and the gang spending most of the episode trapped behind bars, there was plenty of humor and character drama to go around. Aside from all the gorillas, easily the biggest highlight of the week was seeing Tom Cavanagh reprise the role of Harry. Not that his H.R. hasn’t been a hoot, but there’s no substitute for the cranky, overbearing Wells of Earth-2. As it turned out, the best scene of the episode didn’t involve gorillas at all, but rather Harry reuniting with his doppelganger and trying to wrap his head around the fact that this goofy, brainless dork has become an indispensable member of Team Flash. Nowhere has Cavanagh’s versatility been on better display. Is it too much to ask for an all-Wells spinoff?
Unfortunately, the obligatory Earth-1-based subplot didn’t really hold up its end of the bargain. I’ve enjoyed the growing bond between Wally and Jesse this season, but their reunion felt a little pointlessly melodramatic. It also seems like the writers are really rushing things by having Jesse seriously consider pulling up stakes and moving to an entirely different planet to be with a guy she’s only hung out with for a few days. Relationship drama is a necessary element of these shows, but right now it feels like the writers are leaning a little too heavily on that element. Between the Wally/Jesse subplot and Julian’s aggressive infatuation with Caitlin, it’s all getting to be a little much. Honestly, I was more intrigued by H.R.’s allusions to missed opportunities in his own love life than anything else this week.
The plot was generally pretty straightforward this week, and without the nonstop novelty of seeing Earth-2 doppelgangers of familiar characters, this particular Earth-2 crossover didn’t quite reach the heights of last year’s “Welcome to Earth-2.” That said, there was an intriguing thread in terms of how this field trip tied into the larger Savitar conflict. Barry is obsessed with changing the future as he saw it and hopefully preventing Iris’ death. He saw this trip as a way of wiping away another item off the dreaded news ticker. And during the course of his clash with Solovar and Grodd, Barry was faced with the question of whether it was worth violating his ethical code to assure a different future. He thought he could keep the moral high ground and still achieve his goals, but the fact is that he helped bring about the very invasion he was trying to prevent. This begs two questions for the remainder of Season 3. Will Barry’s current actions wind up bringing about the very future he’s trying to change? And will he eventually have to choose between being the hero and saving Iris’ life?
Hopefully those questions will be at the forefront as the second half of this conflict plays out next week. Generally, these two-part storylines tend to be stronger in the latter half once all the setup is out of the way. An episode with three speedsters taking on an army of gorilla warriors promises to be truly epic. That said, I can’t help but look back at Season 2’s “The Runaway Dinosaur,” which ended with a similarly awe-inspiring shot of Zoom’s supervillain army. That potential was squandered in the follow-up episode, and I’d hate to see the same thing happen in “Attack on Central City.” Grodd deserves better.
The Verdict
If not quite as strong as last year's big Earth-2 storyline, "Attack on Gorilla City" was hardly lacking in entertainment value. This episode delivered plenty of CG gorilla goodness, a heavy dose of Harrison Wells and some new wrinkles to Barry's ongoing "fight the future" mission. And the best part is that the battle has only just begun.
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