TV Review: THE FLASH: Season 2, Episode 7: Gorilla Warfare [The CW]

The CW’s The Flash Gorilla Warfare TV Show Review. The Flash: Season 2, Episode 7: Gorilla Warfare saw the return of Gorilla Grodd, a villain that made an appearance during the first season. Even though we still didn’t get Grodd as a full villain yet, the episode managed to set up the huge ape’s potential growth as a major villain when he returns. Gorilla Grodd became the central focus in the episode and it paid off handsomely.

Just like his previous appearance last season, the show really showed off their visual effects with Grodd on a high scale. You don’t get to see this much effects with so much detail on a network show. It was really extraordinary to see the size of Grodd with all his fur and displaying such powerful emotions. We were able to see what Grodd was feeling thanks to the facial expressions and the body language. Seeing that sad face on Grodd before being sucked into that portal really gave an impact.

Grodd’s arc during the episode was pretty simple and it was connected to Barry Allen’s (Grant Gustin) dilemma when he lost confidence in himself. Grodd could’ve been given a better role, but it did give him a chance to be part of something bigger down the line. What Grodd really wanted was to make a family of his own who shares the same intellect as he does. He thought kidnapping Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) would force her to reach that goal and make more Grodds. However, he just ends up being transported into another world where super-intelligent gorillas rule in their own city.

It was great that fans were treated with a first look at Gorilla City, one of the most famous locales from the DC comics. This turned out to be one of those great moments on live-action that we’d thought would never be pulled off on TV, but it totally worked. Hopefully we get another appearance by Grodd in the future so we can explore more of Gorilla City and other creatures from the DC lore. With Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) alluding to Atlantis, it appears that the show may also look into other cities in Earth-2 that may be too obscure for Earth-1 to have.

Another part of the episode that went well was Barry’s storyline. We got to focus more on Barry’s psychological state after his humiliating defeat by Zoom during last week’s episode and how that affected him. The episode hit all the right notes on this one with Gustin giving another remarkable performance. His romance with Patty (Shantel VanSanten) grows as strong as ever, but it feels like the show is repeating what happened between him and Iris when he kept his identity as The Flash a secret. Patty seems to be a trustworthy person, so it’s only a matter of time before she becomes a part of the team.

It was great that we had the return of John Wesley Shipp playing Barry’s father Henry Allen. It was great seeing the father-son interaction and how much of a support they give to each other. There’s also a nice tie-up to Barry’s latest predicament with Henry’s tribulations as a wrongly accused murderer. It’s still hard to believe why Henry left Central City and spending some time with Barry, but Shipp’s arrival gives us hope for more appearances.

Another surprise was Tom Cavanagh, who really stood out during this week’s episode. Wells has slowly become an ally to Team Flash as he was willing to sacrifice himself in order to save Caitlin. It was really disturbing to see Wells wearing the Reverse-Flash outfit even though he isn’t like Earth-1 Wells. What was astounding about Cavanagh’s performance was that he was playing a character who was trying to imitate another version of the same character. It’s amazing that Cavanagh can play someone who is so different from his season one character so well. Even the scenes with Wells and Grodd make you think about how much this Wells knows about his doppelganger and his relationship to Grodd. It looks like we may have to keep an eye on him if he has more secrets to carry.

‘Gorilla Grodd’ kept the excitement going this season as the show brought back Gorilla Grodd into the fold. This villain deserved some more attention, but at least this episode managed to set him up for some bigger things in the future. Even though Barry’s storyline was a little dark and somewhat predictable, Tom Cavanagh and John Wesley Shipp really stepped up big time with their performances.

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