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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 01 Episode 21: Grodd Lives

May 6th, 2015 by Todd Black Comments

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As we near the finale, many things have come to a boiling point, and with a show in its first season, these things can burst and bring things down. This episode was meant to be the truly be the arrival of Gorilla Grodd, a major part of the Flash’s Rogues Gallery, but instead…he was more or less a B-story. And that sucks. For the first time in its run, I was not impressed with a Flash episode.

Despite its title, “Grodd Lives” honestly didn’t focus too much on Grodd. In fact, we didn’t see him until the back half of the episode! And though when he did show up it was incredibly impressive, it just didn’t last like it should’ve. Now I’ll be fair, Grodd’s scenes were one of my favorites for the episode. I liked how they used Eiling to show off his mind control powers, and put the fear of Grodd into them…but why attack a gold depository? Sure, it was a flashy (sorry for the pun) to get the gangs attention…but so is doing a bunch of other non-flashy things. I know it was said that Wells used Grodd to distract Barry and crew…but you honestly didn’t get that connection, mainly because Wells never mentioned Grodd at all in the episode.

I will note that I like how Grodd is still “young” in his mindset, using basic words and sentences to convey what he was thinking or feeling. And I couldn’t help but laugh when he said, “Grodd hates bananas!”, that’s a classic from the Justice League cartoon. Hopefully, with a few more appearances, he’ll become the true intellectual gorilla the DC universe has come to fear.

The other bright spot was with the family Thawne. Though short, the repore between Eddie and Eobard was really compelling. Especially when Eobard revealed how Eddie was a “failure” to the eyes of his family. At first it was unclear what he meant, but then when he revealed that Eddie lived an “unremarkable” life, “forgotten by history”, it really hit. Oh, and then he dropped the bombshell that Iris and Barry will get married…NOT COOL EOBARD!!!

You have to wonder how this will affect history, this happening. Eddie knows the future, or at least how it is right now, everything can change…but will it? Will he (Eddie) try and change things so that it doesn’t end up like that paper? We’ll find out.

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And now…for the part I’ve been dreading…Iris. Iris, Iris, Iris…IRIS!!!!!

Can you tell I’m not happy? Good, cause I’m not. I didn’t mind that Iris found out about Barry being the Flash, honestly I didn’t. How it played out? THAT I mind.

I hated how she overreacted to almost everything Barry and Joe said or did. As if she was truly innocent in all of this. Like she had never lied to ever of them ever in their lives, and yes, that includes the big things. This what caused a lot of people to not like Laurel in seasons 01 and 02 of Arrow, these “mood swings” she would have in regards to Ollie and her father, and yet, she was doing just as secretive of stuff. Now we’re getting that with Iris, and it stinks.

On a side note, how did Iris get into Star Labs without any of them noticing? I thought about it in the Every Man episode, but now I’m REALLY wondering. Especially with Cisco even stating that he was keeping the security cameras Wells was using. I mean…come on! What if that was Wells and not Iris? What then? Exactly.

This was the first time I was happy to see the end of the episode, and it came with some good points. Eiling is free from mind-control, and out on the hunt for Grodd. All the while stating he’d help take down Wells. Eobard not only (epically) revealed his location, but stated his endgame was ready. Hopefully, with now only two episodes left…things will go back to where they showed be.

It is with a heavy heart that I give the lowest score in Flash history…on a plus, that should show how great I think this season has been so far.

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Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!