In ‘The Flash’ recap, Grodd prepares to attack Central City as Barry contemplates the ultimate measure to stop him…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
One of the most consequential decisions a superhero can make is whether or not it’s justice to take someone’s life.
For some heroes the idea of killing an enemy is unthinkable — it’s almost like giving into their worst instincts and that’s what ultimately separates good from evil. On the flipside for some vigilantes, killing the bad guy is the only way to ensure they never come back. Both Superman and Batman have built their entire ethos on not taking an enemy’s life — and that’s why you have so many classic stories involving the Joker and Lex Luthor because they get locked up instead of killed.
The list of heroes who kill is much shorter than the reverse, but Barry Allen was forced to contemplate that very question as Gorilla Grodd prepared to attack Central City. Each time Grodd has come after Team Flash, Barry has gotten the better of him but he always returns a little smarter and a bit more powerful. His plots more intricate and his ability to win gets that much closer to reality.
It leads Barry to ponder whether or not killing Grodd would really be the best way to get rid of him once and for all to guarantee he would never haunt Central City again. Barry knows his friend Oliver Queen has taken a life before to stop an enemy but is he willing to cross that line to stop Grodd once and for all?
Let’s recap the latest episode of ‘The Flash’ titled ‘Attack on Central City’ to find out…
Valentine’s Day
Following a fight in Gorilla City, Barry and the team have returned home where they are enjoying what will hopefully be an uneventful Valentine’s Day. Barry whips up breakfast for Iris and H.R. decorates the speed lab for “friend day”, which is the Earth-19 equivalent of Valentine’s Day.
Of course not everybody is happy.
Julian is in England with family so even though he’s stuck in the friend zone, Caitlin is all by herself as well. And then there’s Harry, who is so utterly annoyed that H.R. was the person who was ultimately chosen to replace him at STAR Labs. And then there’s Cisco, who has barely had any contact with the opposite sex outside of Leonard Snart’s sister and the almost kiss he shared with Gypsy, the Earth-19 bounty hunter who shares the same vibing powers that he does.
Speak of the devil, Gypsy arrives through a portal into STAR Labs but rather than planting a kiss on Cisco, she hits him with a laser beam and then does the exact same thing to Barry. Thankfully, Harry is still around on Earth-One and he blasts her with one of his weapons that knocks her out before she awakens in one of the power dampening cells.
When Gypsy awakens, she has no idea how she got there or what she just did to attack Team Flash. She reveals that her last memory was tracking down a criminal on Earth-2 in the African jungle, which told Barry everything he needed to know but it also created an even bigger problem.
Grodd has the ability to mind control anybody but he can’t do that between worlds, which means he’s already arrived on Earth-One and is likely plotting his attack. The only way to stop him is a pre-emptive strike, which forces the team to come up with an alternate plan — one that involves Cisco vibing back into the future to look for any details about Grodd’s attack on Central City.
Sadly, Gypsy refuses to join the fight and tells Cisco that she can’t get involved. As part of Grodd’s mind control, the person’s brain that’s been invaded sees inside the gorilla’s thoughts as well and that’s a horrific set of imagery that she never wants to witness again. So Gypsy is going home much to the chagrin of Cisco, who wants her to stay.
Still there’s work to be done and now it’s time for Team Flash to finally get the advantage on Grodd.
Plan of Attack
With some adjustments to his vibe gear from Harry, Cisco leaps back into the future and he’s able to see a crossroads in his vision, which leads the team to believe that’s where Grodd will launch his attack on Central City. Joe calls in the SWAT Team and everybody from Team Flash prepares at the crossroads, which is near a bridge that leads directly into the city.
But rather than facing a gorilla army, Barry comes face to face with Grodd after he takes over Joe’s mind. Grodd taunts Barry and then forces Joe to raise his gun to his head and pull the trigger. If not for Barry’s super speed, Joe would be dead.
If there’s some good news from this entire disaster it’s that Joe also had visions of what’s circulating in Grodd’s mind while he was under his control. That gives the team an idea to probe into Joe’s memories using a special tool that will allow them to see what he witnessed from Grodd.
Rather than any words, Joe instead grabs a pencil and paper and draws up an image of an anonymous man that’s somehow connected to Grodd. Thanks to H.R. realizing that the man had a classic military hair cut, they track him down through the Department of Defense and it turns out to be an Air Force general with launch codes to several nuclear devices. Grodd kidnapped him and used his mind control all while Team Flash was distracted on the other side of town waiting for the gorillas to attack.
Not long after an alarm sounds and the nuclear weapons are armed with several missiles pointed directly at Central City and Keystone City. If those weapons hit their mark, hundreds of thousands of lives will be lost.
The Greater Good
This latest altercation with Grodd has Barry wondering if killing the evolving gorilla wouldn’t be the better plan of attack than just finding away to defeat him and then just waiting for him to escape again. Of course those closest to Barry know that that drastic step could send him down a very dark path and he needs to really think about that choice before deciding to execute Grodd.
There’s no time to contemplate now because the nuclear weapons are armed and pointed at Central City but thankfully Barry arrives in time and he’s able to use his super speed to input combinations on the keypad to stop the launch. Knowing that Grodd was going to kill all those people haunts Barry and it makes him think even more about the ultimate solution to stop this gorilla from attacking again.
Across town, Grodd has been gearing up for his real attack in case the nuclear weapons didn’t work and he gathers his army before storming Central City. Barry, Jesse and Wally show up to mount a defense while Cisco travels to Earth-19 to find some backup.
Cisco arrives just as Gypsy hands over her criminal to the Accelerated Man (another speedster from Earth-19) and he tells her that whether she likes it or not, she’s a hero and there’s no walking away from this while Grodd plans to destroy Central City. He needs her help and Cisco knows deep down that she wants to help.
Back on Earth-One, Barry and the team aren’t faring so well against the gorillas but just when it looks like the army will get the better of them, a portal opens up from another dimension as Cisco and Gypsy emerge and they are joined by none other than Solovar!
Barry’s plan was to bring back the original leader from Gorilla City, who he defeated, which allowed Grodd to take over in the first place. Solovar appears and immediately gets into a battle with Grodd. The two gorillas fight it out until Solovar finally gets the upper hand and tosses Grodd off the top of a skyscraper.
Down below, Solovar is ready to strike the final blow when Barry stops him and reminds the true king of the gorillas the mercy he showed when they had their battle back on Earth-2. Barry asks Solovar to spare Grodd and leave him in their custody on Earth-One, which is where he belongs anyways. Solovar agrees and asks to return to Earth-2 where he takes his gorilla army to stay once and for all.
Barry hands over Grodd to A.R.G.U.S., which almost screams that we’re going to see him team up with Killer Shark at some point in the future. The good news is that Barry defeated Grodd without killing him and he never had to cross that line to stop him. Of course part of Barry wanted to kill Grodd because he knew that would change the headline in the future, which could have a butterfly effect to save Iris from Savitar.
She quickly reminds him, however, that killing Grodd would change Barry more than it would alter the future. Killing is not in his nature and that’s not who the Flash is supposed to be or the symbol he’s supposed to represent. Barry agrees and they are both happy he opted against the death penalty for Grodd.
Plan for the Future
With Grodd defeated and the gorilla army back on Earth-2, it’s also time for Harry to return home as well. He’s leaving without Jesse by his side after she decides to stay with Wally on Earth-One. Despite his best attempts to guilt trip her into staying by telling Wally that he was actually dying, Jesse knows that her father just wants her by his side but it’s time to let her go.
Harry gives his blessing for Jesse to stay with Wally on Earth-One.
Meanwhile, Barry prepares a special Valentine’s date for Iris after she returns home from work that day. Barry has been so concerned about stopping the future that he forgot the present and what truly matter most in this world. So Barry pulls out an engagement ring handed down from his great grandfather and great grandmother and presents it to Iris with a proposal of marriage.
Barry is tired of waiting — he wants Iris West-Allen in his life sooner rather than later.
Epilogue
In the final scenes in the episode, Wally and Jesse are enjoying their first night at home together when she requests some dinner from Big Belly Burger. Wally races off to get them some takeout but during his trip he’s stunned to see Savitar standing in front of him on a street in Central City.
Savitar is back — or at least he’s returned in Wally’s mind…
Check out the preview for the next episode of ‘The Flash’ below with the next episode set to air Tuesday night at 8pm ET on the CW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvQ75ZHyte0&feature=em-uploademail
