In ‘The Flash’ recap, Barry, Cisco, Caitlin and Julian travel to Earth-2 to rescue Harry but find out that Grodd has more in store for them than they expected…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Longtime readers of ‘The Flash’ comic books have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of Gorilla City on the TV show and the latest episode delivered in a big way.
Actually, ‘Attack on Gorilla City’ is planned as a two-part episode with the first unraveling on Tuesday night as Barry, Cisco, Caitlin and Julian travel to Earth-2 on a quest to save Harry but soon find out their trip was manipulated by Grodd, who wanted them to show up while asking for their help.
Of course, Grodd’s true intentions were eventually revealed and now he’s about to unleash a gorilla attack on Central City in Earth-One with plans to conquer the human race and take the planet for his own.
It’s a rather ambitious strategy of attack but it’s clear that Grodd’s intellect only seems to evolve with each passing day, but if there’s one other aspect of his psyche that has grown alongside his mind, it’s his undying thirst for vengeance after he was vanquished to Earth-2 a season ago.
Now Grodd has designs on conquering Earth but how did we get there exactly? Let’s recap the latest episode of ‘The Flash’ titled ‘Attack on Gorilla City’ to find out…
It’s a Trap
As Jesse Quick arrives on Earth-One, she’s frantic as she asks Barry and the rest of Team Flash to travel to her world to rescue her father Harry, who she believes has been taken hostage by Grodd and the inhabitants of Gorilla City. Jesse explains that on Earth-2 there is a place in Africa called Gorilla City where super intelligent gorillas have set up a society but her father recently got an encrypted distress call asking for his help.
Harry traveled to Gorilla City but two weeks later he’s disappeared and the rest of the team he took with him were found dead. So now Jesse needs Barry and the others to go looking for him.
Barry agrees, which means Cisco has to go along for the trip to open up the breach between worlds while Caitlin joins in as well hoping that her past connection with Grodd might stop his latest rampage. Julian then volunteers to go — complete with his Indiana Jones attire — because he wants to see another world in the multi-verse but also because he feels a need to protect Caitlin as she continues to struggle to push back Killer Frost finally breaking through to the other side.
As for Jesse and Wally — Barry instructs them to stay behind so they can protect Central City while he’s gone. Wally doesn’t mind the plan but Jesse seems a little off after finding out that her sort of boyfriend now has speedster powers and never bothered to tell her about it. More on that later.
Barry also hopes that by traveling to Earth-2 that he can stop a premonition for the future because amongst those headlines he captured before watching Savitar murder Iris was a news story about Central City still recovering from an attack from a gorilla army. Barry believes if he can keep Grodd on Earth-2, then the gorilla attack on Central City will never happen.
Barry and the team assemble together and travel through the portal to Earth-2 but before they can even track down Harry or run into Grodd, they are all shot with tranquilizer darts before waking up in locked cages downstairs in a dirty, dank basement.
Somehow Grodd has also managed to dampen Barry and Cisco’s powers so neither of them can escape. Finally, Grodd shows up — while talking through Harry who finally appears out of nowhere — and tells them about the evil leader of Gorilla City named Solovar and how he intends on attacking Earth-One with a gorilla army.
Grodd wants to stop him because there are still people he cares about on that world as he looks directly at Caitlin but he’s not powerful enough to fight Solovar and win. That’s why he’s summoned the Flash to Gorilla City because he wants him to battle Solovar in a winner take all fight that will stop him from attacking Earth-One and conquering all of humanity.
Barry agrees to take the fight but tells Grodd that he won’t kill Solovar no matter how much he might want him dead.
My Name is Gladiator
In the gladiator pit, Barry faces off with Solovar as the entire population of Gorilla City watches inside the arena. Barry gets coaching from Cisco but his plan to use speed punches fails and then the strategy to throw lightning at Solovar comes up short as well.
With Barry down on the ground and bleeding, Cisco has one last idea to save the day and stop Solovar once and for all. Cisco tells Barry to go Reverse Flash on him.
Just like Reverse Flash has killed so many people in the past by vibrating his hand and phasing through flesh, Barry does the same as Solovar attacks and he flattens the giant gorilla with one punch. Thankfully, Barry only punched into Solovar but didn’t kill him and he refuses to kill him.
Instead, Barry shouts to the mass audience of gorillas and tells them that humans are not the enemy and he didn’t come there to conquer them but rather to make peace. A second later, Barry gets another knockout dart in his leg before waking up back in the cage next to his friends.
Grodd reveals himself again but this time he tells Barry and the others his real plans for Gorilla City.
It seems Solovar was too powerful for him to defeat in battle so Grodd called on Barry to do his dirty work for him. Now that Solovar has been vanquished, the gorillas will follow Grodd and he wants to open a portal, take his army to the other side and conquer Earth-One. Grodd has always desired to go home again and now he has the soldiers to help him squash humanity once and for all.
Speedy Romance
Back on Earth-One, Wally is trying to get close to Jesse again but she’s giving him the cold shoulder after he’s largely ignored her for the past few weeks after gaining his speedster powers. Watching him thwart a robbery only convinces Jesse even more than Wally may not have cared for her as much as he was attracted to her speed.
Of course, Wally tells her that couldn’t be further from the truth and he not only wants to be with Jesse but he hopes that she would relocate to Earth-One permanently.
With a few words of encouragement from H.R. — who sucks at science but understands the chemistry of the heart — Jesse decides to stay on Earth-One with Wally. Needless to say, Harry may not exactly love that idea.
Escape the Planet of the Apes
With Grodd’s plan of destruction now revealed, Barry and the others have to find a way to escape or risk that the gorilla army actually finds a way to Earth One. The only solution Cisco can figure is for someone in the group to kill him because if he’s dead, there’s no way Grodd can get a portal to crossover to the other side.
Strangely, Barry agrees with Cisco that someone has to die but it won’t be him.
When Grodd returns to the cells a few minutes later, it’s Barry laying on the ground dead instead of Cisco. Caitlin explains that Barry expired after suffering several injuries in his fight with Solovar and his body finally gave out. Grodd opens the cell to check on him and Barry’s body is ice cold.
Grodd chucks Barry’s body on the trash heap and proclaims that the speedster already did what he wanted him to do so he’s of no use to him anyways.
A few moments later, Barry’s body starts to vibrate and he wakes up after shaking off the extreme cold that was passed onto him from Caitlin. Remember, Grodd had no idea that Caitlin had powers now so whatever he was using to dampen Barry and Cisco’s abilities didn’t affect her.
Barry rises from the ice grave and helps his friends escape including Harry before racing them out into the middle of the forest, far away from Gorilla City. Cisco opens up a breach to travel back through to Earth-One just as a giant roar is heard in the distance. The group races through the portal and Grodd arrives just a moment too late as he shrieks in anger after his plans go awry.
Back Up Plan
Barry and the group arrive back on Earth-One and Jesse is overjoyed to be reunited with her father. Meanwhile, Caitlin tries to warn Julian that his need to help her may cost him in the end because sooner or later Killer Frost will emerge and he’s probably going to pay for being too close to the cold.
Julian says he’ll take his chances and the two of them can face that fear together when the day finally arrives.
Barry goes back home with Iris and with Wally happy alongside Jesse, everybody seems happy with the way things played out.
Little do they know a world away on Earth-2, Grodd has amassed his troops for an attack while revealing his back up plan in case Cisco failed to open up a portal to get him home again. There we find Gypsy — the Earth-19 bounty hunter who possesses the same vibing powers as Cisco to hop between worlds — and it seems she will be the key for Grodd to mount his attack on his home world.
Barry and the rest of Team Flash can rest for tonight because next week Grodd’s gorilla army arrives in Central City hell bent on destruction.
‘The Flash’ returns with a brand new episode next Tuesday night at 8pm ET on the CW.
