The Flash Season One: Grodd Lives

"I am Grodd!"

In order to distract Barry the Reverse Flash releases Gorilla Grodd on the city meanwhile Iris confronts Barry about her finally knowing the truth.

I got to tell you I have nothing but praise for the people behind The Flash show because every week they seem to step up their game more and more. Especially more for this episode when it came to adapting probably one of the hardest villains from comics for TV without the help of a massive budget that films get. Grodd just looked so impressive in this, props to the CGI people on this show,  and it was probably one of best villain debuts in live action. First off I actually really like this changed backstory for Grodd because not only does it gives him a more tragic element it simplifies it a bit for the show and involves Eobard more with Grodd believing he is his father. They also made Grodd really damn creepy as well; the way he spoke through Eiling, the search for him in the sewers and the fear that was in Joe when being controlled (that there was some damn good acting). We didn't really see Grodd all that much (because of budget constraints) for the first half but they made up for that with the "less is more approach" that is used in Jaws and they used it well here with the whole sewer search that I mentioned above. However when they did get to the action it was so epic, The Flash looked completely outmatched and the way Grodd caught the Speed Punch was a big WTF moment. All I all I was really looking forward to seeing Grodd and I was not disappointed at all and I am sure we will see more of him in Season Two where his powers will be even stronger.

As for everything else it is great seeing Eiling alive again because as I said before Clancy Brown is such a great actor and it looks like he has now formed an uneasy alliance with Barry (wonder if he will help with Eobard?). It was also really cool to see him in that kickass military suit while he was fighting The Flash and I hope we see that again soon. Then there was the scenes with Eddie and Eobard and it is great to see Tom Cavanagh fully embrace the antagonist role when he has been playing a split one for ages. All this taunting of Eddie makes me think they are setting him up to be another incarnation of the Reverse Flash for future seasons which would be cool. Eobard also had some really great lines too such as saying how he is a genius where he is from which makes him far superior in this time and his torture of Eddie by saying how insignificant he really is. There was also the big reveal that he was underneath STAR labs all along and I'm guessing that vial he used at the end was made from Blackout's blood who managed to steal Barry's powers for a while. Finally there was Iris dealing with the lies everyone has been telling her and I really agreed with a lot of what she said though she may have went too far with Barry because it really was all Joe's stupid idea in the first place, Barry shouldn't have any blame in my opinion. I don't know how much help Iris will be to Team Flash but at the very least she is in the know now.

Overall this was such a perfect episode that I really have no complaints with and an epic debut for Grodd! Again I know I am using a pic from an older episode but Screencapped hasn't updated their Flash and Arrow lately.

SCORE: 10/10

Highlights: Everything with Grodd
                   The scenes with Eobard and Eddie
                   Iris finally knowing the truth
       
The great screenshots of the episodes where provided by the great site Screencapped. You can look for yourself from the link below;





http://screencapped.net/                    

The Flash Season One: Plastique

The episode begins with Barry hanging out with Cisco, Caitlin, Iris and Eddie in a bar and he finds out that his high metabolism prevents him from getting drunk. Meanwhile a red haired woman has stolen some files and caused a powerful explosion in a building. Barry arrives in time to save the window - cleaner by running up the building, Iris also gets there in time to see Barry in his costume. West, Eddie and Barry investigate the scene the next day and Barry cannot find any trace of explosives but manages to find the folder with the missing file. At the CCPD the military has taken over the case and a General Wade Eiling (Clancy Brown) demands all of the evidence. S.T.A.R labs then finds out that the missing files belongs to Bette Sans Souci (Kelly Frye) AKA Plastique and Barry goes to her address but she manages to blow up his suit just by touching it.

Now this is really cool!

Back at S.T.A.R labs West tells Barry that Iris's blog on The Streak is getting out of hand and Barry tries to talk her out of it but she refuses. Later Barry tracks down Plastique who wanted to kill a doctor who experimented on her and talks her out of it but not before Eiling arrives and one of his men shoots her, Barry takes her with him. At S.T.A.R labs the team tell Plastique that her powers is the result of the anti - matter explosion bonding the shrapnel in her body she received in Iraq with her cells however this is cut short when a tracker is found in her bullet wound. Wells stays to confront Eiling while the rest escape and it is revealed the two have worked together before but are not on the best terms. That night Barry visits Iris in his costume while changing his voice to convince her to stop writing the blog but she still wants to do it.

If she blows up whatever she touches then how could she get her clothes on?

At S.T.A.R labs the team tell Plastique that her powers cannot be removed, Barry wants her to join the team but they say that may be impossible because of the extreme nature of her powers. Later Wells convinces Plastique that she should do one more mission and kill Eiling because he will keeping hunting Meta Humans. She lures Eiling to her and knocks out him and his men with her powers but Barry arrives to stop her delivering the finishing blow however Eiling comes to long enough and shoots Plastique dead. Barry then uses his speed to run on water and takes Plastique's body away from Central City because it was detonating. Later Barry once more tries to convince Iris to give up on the blog but when she again refuses Barry says they need to stop seeing each other. Eiling then visits Wells and thinks they should co operate but Wells refuses because he knows Eiling wants the Meta Humans as weapons. The episode ends in a Flashback five years ago and Wells refuses to perform certain experiments on an ape for Eiling, on the ape's cage the name read GRODD.

Like running up buildings, this was really cool!

SPOILER ON POSSIBLE FUTURE FLASH VILLAIN BELOW



Finally we get a Meta Human who isn't hell bent on the destruction of Central City or killing those who wronged them before they got their powers. It is quite the change to sympathise more with the Meta Human who didn't even like the powers they where given. Besides from being the first female Meta Human she defiantly comes off as a victim of the anti - matter the way she is hunted down by Eiling and she did also give us some great scenes with her powers. It is actually a damn shame they killed her off because I wouldn't have minded seeing her again, maybe not as a main member of the team but maybe she could come back in certain episodes to help out. Also once again they gave the Meta Human a great backstory which provides the source of her powers and I liked how her corpse turned into a bomb in the end.

Good idea meeting on a roof........only Superman, Batman and Arrow have done it first

I also really liked the confrontations between Eiling and Wells and their conflicting views and I hope this rivalry between them continues I future episodes. I hope Eiling comes back and maybe has a few Meta Humans on his side and also I like Clancy Brown he is a great actor and is in two of my favourite films; Highlander and Starship Troopers. Also really like the possible appearance of Gorilla Grodd on this because he is a great villain in The Flash comics. Those who doesn't know Gorilla Grodd is a super intelligent, super strong ape with telekinesis and I am looking forward to seeing him on the TV series. His broken cage was spotted in episode one but that could have been just an Easter Egg but this pretty much confirms he will be in it. I didn't mention it before because I don't want to spoil possible future villains or storylines they might use e.g. I haven't given you my thoughts on the guy in the yellow light yet because since there has been barely anything known about him in the TV series what I might say could ruin future episodes but since most people can guess what has happened to GRODD now during the ending I don't mind giving you bit of info.

She's evolving!

What I didn't like in this episode was the overblown drama between Barry and Iris because I just think her blog and Barry not telling her is just a nuisance now. I know they need Iris to be involved in the story, and I did like the rooftop conversation they had, but this is really just creating an unneeded problem for Barry. I blame her because of her stupid blog and her stubbornness of not listening to West or Barry about removing it but I also blame West and Barry because it really would be just so, so easy just to tell her. I just hope they get this little sub plot resolved soon because I just think it is something the series could do without.

When will we see Grodd?

Other quick mentions; I did really like that Barry's abilities to run up buildings and on water where finally addressed in this episode. It was awesome seeing him do both and it looked really cool; I was wondering when he will be able to do that from the comics and they finally brought it in. Lastly I found the scene with Barry and West funny because of West's reaction to Barry changing his voice.

"Forget asking nicely if we can use your powers, we're just going to force you"

Overall this was a great episode because we have a different kind of Meta Human introduced and again it just raises more questions about Wells and they way he convinced Plastique to kill Eiling, it is kind of too bad she died before telling Barry about it.

SCORE: 8/10

Highlights: Plastique
                   Wells vs. Eiling (with possible Gorilla Grodd)
                   Barry's new abilities

Let - Downs: Killing off Plastique
                      The Barry and Iris drama