When it premiered last year, The Flash quickly became one of the most fun shows to watch each week. It had a light-hearted tone, especially when compared to its sister series Arrow, a dynamic cast, as well as an unabashed commitment to being as “comic book-y” as possible. The Flash pulls characters, their looks and storylines directly from its namesake DC Comic.
There’s nothing that’s off limits here. Last season’s overarching plot revolved around using the Flash’s speed to travel through time while this season focuses on the effects of newly-opened portals to a parallel earth. (Sure, why not?) However, the series outdid itself with its most recent episode, the absurd “Gorilla Warfare”.
After a near-death battle with Zoom in the previous episode, the Flash (Grant Gustin) is left out of commission. This forces Team Flash to do the more dangerous work, stopping the telekinetic gorilla Grodd from creating other hyper-intelligent gorillas. This is a for-real plot line on a television series that airs in primetime, and it’s amazing.
“Gorilla Warfare” serves as a follow-up to last year’s Emmy nominated “Grodd Lives” which introduced the classic Flash villain to the television audience. And, if you would have asked me how close to the comics The Flash would stay, I would have never predicted Grodd let alone the ending to this week’s episode. (Which I will not spoil.)
Despite the embrace for the weird and wonderful side of the DC Universe, “Gorilla Warfare” sticks close to a typical Flash episode formula, but 30 episodes in and it’s still working. Barry’s pep-talk-of-the-week comes courtesy of Henry Allen (John Wesley Shipp), and is another in a long line of great father-son moments that the series prides itself on. The drama here being underscored by Barry’s adoptive father Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), who points out that it’s hard to forget that Barry isn’t his real son when Henry is around.
***Spoiler Warning***
In the battle with Grodd, Team Flash disguises Earth 2’s Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) as the Reverse Flash in order to trick Grodd that his “father” still lives. The absurdity of the plan matches the absurdity of the villain, but it does lead to a great scene where Tom Cavanagh is playing one Harrison Wells to imitate the old Harrison Wells. When the plan backfires, it’s up to a fully-healed Flash to save the day, of course. Though their brawl is brief, its visuals do not disappoint and it ends up being among the series’ best set pieces.
New episodes of The Flash air Tuesdays at 8 PM e / 7PM c on The CW
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