Shermdawg says of last week’s “Grodd Lives”:
Previously on "The Flash"...* When we last left our hero, Barry Allen "The Fastest Man Alive"...had just found Iris West, who's boyfriend Eddie Thawne had been taken mid-proposal by the nefarious Dr.Harrison Wells aka Eobard Thawne aka "The Man in Yellow" aka Reverse-Flash aka that dude from Ed. As Barry raced off to rescue Eddie, little did he know that he inadvertently dropped a clue that exposed his secret identity.
* Barry criss-crosses the city attempting to find Wells but to no avail.
* Iris is waiting on Barry in his office the next morning. She tests him with "news" that Eddie had been taken. Barry plays along unaware she knows his secret. She says The Flash should be out looking for him along with the police. Barry disagrees and tells her that the cops are no match for "The Man in Yellow." She asks if he thinks The Flash is out looking for him. "Yes" Barry replies. "I'm finding it pretty hard to trust The Flash right now" she says knowing he's lying to her. "Then trust me" Barry tells her before running off.
* Wells begins construction on some sort of small mechanical device while Eddie looks on tied to a chair.
* In a wtf worthy scene, a masked man in riot gear armed with an rpg approaches a gold reserve, he for some reason blows up a Humvee that's closer to him than the four security guards standing across the parking lot.
GRODD 1
* Barry arrives at S.T.A.R. Labs where he finds Cisco working on a few cameras that Wells had been spying on them with (instead of....y'know....being hard at work with Caitlin trying to lock the place down in case their traitorous landlord returned?) They get an alert on the gold reserve attack and Barry races off.
* Back at the reserve, a firefight has broken out. Flash arrives on the scene and just as he confronts the masked man, he's blinded by a white light and rapid pov visions of what seems to be someone being experimented on. The visions disorients Barry to the point it lays him out. His adversary appears to be seeing them as well, which causes him to slouch over like a dangling marionette but quickly comes to his senses and runs off.
* Back at S.T.A.R. Labs Caitlin examines Barry who is still in costume, and as they discuss what had just happened....Iris walks in. (Seriously, S.T.A.R. Labs has less security than the Luthor Mansion on Smallville.) Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin's jaws drop.
* Barry and Iris have their big "how did you know I was the Flash?" conversation. She tells him she felt a jolt of electricity when he let go of her hand the previous night when he raced off to save Eddie, the same jolt of electricity that she experienced when reaching for his hand in the hospital after the particle accelerator explosion. Barry tells her that Wells is the "Man in Yellow" and was responsible for his mother's death. That and both Eddie and her father knew he was The Flash and they all kept her in the dark about it to protect her. Shocked by those revelations, she tells him "maybe it's time you stopped" and walks off.
* Joe goes to see Iris at work, who's looking at newspaper records of Nora Allen's murder. He tries to apologize. She cops an attitude. He tries to drive in the fact that the "Man in Yellow" is dangerous and lets it slip that he killed her co-worker Mason Bridge. Shocked by the news of his death, Iris accuses him of covering it up. Joe explains that he had to keep quiet about Wells to protect Barry. Iris argues that if she had been in the loop she would've been safe, and could've helped put away the bad guys. She expresses frustration that he kept Barry's true feelings for her secret, and says those secrets ultimately led to what happened to Eddie.
* Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry tells Cisco and Caitlin that Joe was informed that the gold reserve would be transferring three hundred million in gold bars to another location and to avoid the masked man, they would be using ice cream trucks. Cut to one of the trucks which goes along its route, it's revealed Joe and a few cops are in the back armed to the teeth in SWAT gear, which is a good thing given the masked man is already on to them and is shown holding a detonator. He sets off a low powered mine which takes out the tires and then charges the truck firing.
GRODD 2
* Cisco alerts Barry of what happened and he races to the scene. Before he arrives, the cops pour out the truck in a firefight, three are taken down with Joe the last man left leaving him and the gunman in a stand off. Before either fire, Barry shows up and slams the villain into the side of the truck knocking him out. They remove his mask....it's Clancy Brown! Or General Wade Eiling as we know him on the show.
* Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, we see an unresponsive Eiling standing in one of the containment pods. Cisco informs the others that he just got off the phone with A.R.G.U.S. who claimed Gen.Eiling was on administrated leave, but Lyla Diggle told him it's a coverup and he's been missing for months. They question Eiling about the attempted gold heist, he looks at Barry and in a caveman-like voice utters "FLASH!" The group is stunned that yet another person seems to know his secret. Barry questions him further, he cuts him off "EILING NOT HERE, EILING BAD." They ask him why Eiling is bad, to which he responds "EILING HURT ME, I HURT EILING." Barry asks if he's not Eiling, who is he? Ominous music kicks in and he replies"I...AM...KHA...er...GRODD....FEAR ME!!!" "What's a Grodd!?" Barry asks.
* Grodd....is a gorilla, as we're shown in laboratory footage. Cisco reveals Eiling and Wells had once worked together on a program to improve soldiers cognitive abilities on the battlefield. What they didn't know was Eiling was trying to create soldiers with psychic abilities, and when Wells found out, he shut the program down adds Caitlin who also reveals Grodd went missing after the particle accelerator explosion. Cisco theorizes all of the drugs and chemicals Eiling had injected him with combined with the dark matter from the accelerator might've created a "meta-gorilla." Caitlin agrees with part of that theory and compares older scans of Grodd's brain to those of Eilings, both are lit up in the same way, so they must be psychically linked she determines. It's feared that Grodd could have a whole host of powers... "mind control, telepathy, who knows what he is capable of"
* It's revealed that Grodd and Wells had a special bond, and Joe thinks because he showed up all of a sudden, it's to throw them off the hunt for Wells. "If we find Grodd, we find Wells, if we find Wells..." "...we find Eddie" says Iris as she walks in. (God dammit, Cisco.) Iris says she's going to help and may know a thing or two about gorillas.
* Iris says two sewer workers went missing a few months back and there were reports of a monster lurking around down there. (Shouldn't that be something Joe would already be aware of?) They pull the location of the disappearance and Barry, Joe, and despite some initial protest, Cisco head off to investigate.
* In the sewers the group come across chalk writing, drawings, and equations on the walls, Cisco says Grodd's evolving. Within a second or two they hear something approaching....something BIG. Barry panics and fires a tranquilizer dart when a monstrous shadow moves across the tunnel's wall. A split second later he is disoriented by another telepathic attack, suddenly a gigantic arm from above swings down and sends him crashing into the wall knocking him out cold. Joe starts unloading his shotgun aimlessly before being grabbed by Grodd and pulled into the vent above. Iris screams for her dad back at the lab.
* Joe wakes up, and hears Grodd walking towards him. He pulls out his gun, but some unseen force grabs ahold of his hand slowly forcing him to turn the gun on himself. He starts to panic, yelling for Cisco, but Cisco doesn't answer. "No help here" says Grodd telepathically as he cocks the hammer on the gun and moves it closer to Joe's head who begins to cry in fear before Grodd suddenly has him toss it away. "Father hate gun" he says. Figuring "father" is Wells, Joe asks Grodd where he is. "Father not here" Grodd answers. Thinking it will calm him down, Joe pulls out the banana he took from Cisco upon entering the sewers. Grodd sees it, leans in and roars in Joe's face. Turns out Grodd "hate banana." Joe begs for his life and Grodd walks off disgusted.
* Back at (where else?) S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin does some tests on Barry's noggin. (Yup, they just left Joe down there.) She says Barry has suffered some sort of psychic attack from Grodd. (*sigh*) NO FUCKING SHIT HE'S SUFFERED SOME SORT OF PSYCHIC ATTACK FROM GRODD! NOT ONLY IS IT THE SECOND TIME THAT DAY IT'S HAPPENED, BUT YOU TOLD EVERYONE HE PROBABLY HAD PSYCHIC POWERS BEFORE THEY WENT DOWN THERE YOU STUPID BI....ahem...so Caitlin tells him he's suffered some sort of psychic attack from Grodd, while Iris frets about her missing father and boyfriend. Barry promises her he'll find them. Cisco tells Barry he put a tracker in the tranq dart he shot Grodd with even though it wasn't clear he actually shot him. (I'll take his word he did though. You know something I wouldn't take his word on? That he beefed up security at the lab.) Anyways, Barry says he can't sit around and wait for the tracker to go off, and he'll search every inch of that groddamned sewer if he has to. He asks them if he can build him some sort of tech to prevent Grodd from getting in his head. "Maybe, if Dr.Wells were here" Cisco says doubting himself, which ticks off Iris."Every day you find a way to help people, all the Flash's powers, and all this equipment, and you can't save Eddie and my dad?" she asks before storming off. Caitlin promises Barry they'll figure something out as he follows her.
* Barry follows Iris into the hallway where she flips out yet again.
* When she's finished he reminds her that she didn't have feelings for him back at Christmas when he told her how he felt, and he doesn't think things are that simple. That seemed to shut her ass up good.
* Meanwhile back at Wells' hideout, Eddie pokes fun at the name "Eobard", Wells snaps back that the Thawne family has had many distinguished members, but Eddie was the one that was forgotten. He says his life was wasted, his career as a detective was a failure....and he didn't even get the girl. Eddie asks what he meant by that causing Wells to stop working on his device long enough to show him the holographic newspaper from the future revealing that Iris will one day marry Barry Allen.
* Cisco develops an "anti-telepathy strip that uses magnetic resonances to neutralize any foreign neurological stimulus" and gives it to Barry just as the tracker goes off. Barry suits up and heads off to rescue Joe.
* Back at the lab Cisco remotely releases steam in the sewers to move Grodd exactly 5.3 miles from Barry, which is exactly the distance needed to perform a supersonic punch that will hopefully be enough to bring the gorilla down as it did another impossibly strong villain earlier in the season. Cisco gives him the signal and off Barry races towards Grodd, but Grodd senses Barry approaching, he turns around and charges toward him. Barry goes for the punch but Grodd blocks it grabbing his fist and flings him down the tunnel knocking off his anti-telepathy headset. Barry quickly puts it back on. Grodd approaches and tries to take Barry down again with another psychic attack, but thankfully the headset works and blocks it! Cisco suggests some speed punches. Speed punches are thrown, but it turns out that little mutha-fucking speedstah can't hang with a gorilla.
* Grodd grabs Barry by the throat and tosses him through a brick wall into a subway tunnel, once again knocking off the headset. (Probably should've inserted the anti-telepathy strip inside his mask, guys.) Grodd lets loose on Barry with another psychic attack paralyzing him. Cisco spots a service train approaching, he can't stop it. Iris jumps on the mic and tells Barry to concentrate on her voice. To stand up to Grodd. To do it for her. Grodd's visions of abuse at the hands of Gen.Eiling are now replaced with memories of Iris which breaks Barry free of Grodd's hold and at the last second he dodges the train. Grodd waits for it to pass and charges him.
* Unfortunately for him, he didn't notice a second train following the first, and it hits him as Barry jets out of harm's way. He finds Joe, and tells Iris he's bringing him home.
* General Eiling now free of Grodd's control is released from his cell by Barry, he tells Eiling he'll get what's coming to him. Eiling says he's not ashamed of his actions, Barry's seen what metahumans are capable of and soon his prison won't be enough. "Not all of them are dangerous" Barry replies. Eiling asks Barry is he's afraid he knows he's The Flash, but before Barry can answer Eiling reveals he's known for months and if he wanted, he would've already came after him. Eiling tells him that Wells turned him over to Grodd and used him like a puppet, they have a common enemy and if he'll excuse him....he has a gorilla to hunt.
* Joe and Iris patch things up agreeing on no more secrets.
* Cisco has second thoughts about the quality of the headset he built for Barry, claiming it wasn't good enough and he could've been killed. Barry tells him his tech worked, and that it was proof they didn't need Wells to bail them out of a jam, they could exist on their own, and together....the three of them could do anything. Caitlin reminds him there was another person that helped.
* Barry finds Iris at her "special spot" where she first met him as The Flash. She starts up the "I don't even know you anymore" nonsense again...but Barry tells her that down in the sewer, the things she was saying to him to break Grodd's control, the reason why he wasn't afraid, and didn't give in, is because she was there. She was the reason he stood up to Grodd. That every time he falters, the thought of her picks him up and keeps him going. He tells her just because she didn't know everything that was going on with his life, that doesn't mean she wasn't a part of it. Without her, there wouldn't be The Flash. Iris tells him she's been thinking about what he said. About him. About them. About Eddie. Wondering where he could be, what he's thinking, is he thinking of her? And if he will ever return one day. She says maybe Barry was right, but Eddie is the man she lives with, the man she loves, and he's still missing. Barry promises to bring him back, but asks "and after that?" To which she replies "I don't know.....I don't know."
* The point of view pans over to the tower off in the distance from Barry and Iris, Grodd is shown climbing it and then jumps off simply for money shot purposes.
* Back at Wells' hideout, we see him putting the finishing touches on the device, a device he claims is "the key." Wells climbs a ladder into a larger chamber above where he inserts the device into a slot which then lights up a giant tunnel inside.....THE PARTICLE ACCELERATOR! It appears he has been hiding under Team Flash's noses the entire time!!! (SEE! I told you the security at S.T.A.R. Labs sucked!)
* "Time to go home" says Wells.
* The preview for tonight's Flash spoiled last week's Arrow. Good job, CW....good job.
TLDR VERSION !!!
* Barry couldn't find Eddie after being taken by Thawne.
* Iris finds out... Barry's the Flash, everyone knew but her, Wells is the "Man in Yellow", and that he murdered Barry's mom as well as her co-worker.
* Iris flips out....a lot.
* Clancy Brown's General Wade Eiling returns as a puppet of Grodd who Wells uses as a distraction.
* Grodd injures Joe.
* Grodd takes down Barry several times with his telepathic powers, but Iris helps him defeat the beast.
* Eiling comes to his senses and because they have common enemies, forms an uneasy alliance with Barry.
* Wells builds a device that acts as a key to getting him home and appears to power the particle accelerator.
The CW says of this week’s “Rogue Air”:
As Wells once again gets the upper hand on the S.T.A.R. Labs team, Barry realizes he needs to make a big move and reaches out to an old foe, Captain Cold, for help. Joe and Caitlin warn Barry that Cold can't be trusted. True to form, Cold has his own agenda that involves the meta-humans trapped in the containment cells. As things seem to be going from bad to worse, The Flash gets reinforcements--Arrow and Firestorm.
SPOILER!! Little does Captain Cold know – he and Firestorm will become teammates on next season’s “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”!!
8 p.m. Tuesday. The CW.
The Prequel To GAME OF THRONES!! $21.78 Hardback!! $11.99 Kindle!!
