Catching Up: The Flash Episode 207, "Gorilla Warfare"

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Gorilla Warfare Flash Grodd CW Critical Blast RJ Carter

After his battle with Zoom, Barry (Grant Gustin) was left without feeling in his legs. In case you were worried, don't be; he's got a very fast metabolism, and he heals pretty fast. His broken back is already mostly stitched back together as this episode opens.

However, while Barry is almost walking, his running speed isn't back. It's not the physical damage, but the emotional damage that leaves The Flash crippled. He was dragged all over Central City by Zoom, and the city that depended on The Flash to be their hero has now seen him defeated, and that has given him a mental block about using his abilities.

(By the way, this isn't the first time the hero has faced this kind of a physical challenge.)

Meanwhile, with Zoom have skipped town after Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) shot him with the speed-reducing serum, Dr. Harrison Wells of Earth-2 (Tom Cavanagh) doesn't have a reason to hang around, and is ready to go back to Earth-2 himself. But as he maps out all the breaches so he can use one, Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) convinces him to stay, when she gives Harry the idea of trapping Zoom by sealing off all the breaches except one, limiting his entryways between the Earths.

And just in case we forgot this is a show about relationships, Cisco is excited about his upcoming date with Kendra Saunders (Ciara Renee), while Barry has been assiduously avoiding contact with Patty Spivot (Shantel VanSanten) to hide his injuries from her. In the first instance, the stage is set for Cisco to "vibe" Kendra, allowing him a glimpse of her future as Hawkgirl, while Patty is getting conflicting stories from Barry and Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), leading her to be suspicious about Barry's lies.

But the real draw of this episode is Gorilla Grodd (voiced by David Sobolov). He's been taking mental control of scientists to have them steal certain drugs and leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. When he takes over Caitlin, he reveals to her his motives. He's getting smarter, and he wants to know how he was created. Caitlin is the only one who was nice to him, so he trusts her. However, what he really wants is to make more like him -- he's alone. But setting up another Dark Matter Explosion is not an option, which is not the answer Grodd wants to hear.

To get Caitlin out of her Fay Wray role, Cisco and Wells suss out Grodd's location, after which Wells goes in wearing the Reverse-Flash's yellow suit. It's a ploy that almost works, except for Wells-2 being too nice (if you can imagine such a thing). With Cisco, Caitlin and Wells out in the field, Barry is running operations from S.T.A.R. Labs, coming up with the solution that ultimately pulls them out of the fire -- for now.

While all this has been going on, Iris (Candice Patton) decides that if Barry won't listen to their advice, she'll find someone that he will listen to. Enter Henry Allen (John Wesley Shipp) to give Barry just the advice he needs to hear about accepting the fact that people may see you as something you're not. Henry had enough of that when everyone saw him as a murderer.

When Joe idly wishes they could put Grodd away where he would never be a problem, Caitlin thinks she means to kill him. Wells, however, has another idea. Here it's revealed that, while the 52 breaches on Earth-1 are all in Central City, on Earth-2 they're scattered globally (and, no, not even the characters know why that is). And one of the Earth-2 breaches happens to go somewhere that Grodd might find hospitable -- a gorilla refuge for apes that had been experimented on. All they have to do is lure Grodd to the breach and shoot him through with the Speed Cannon. When Grodd almost beats the gravitational pull of the breach, it's up to Barry to get up to speed and deliver the supersonic punch necessary to push the big ape through.

Takeaway moments:
-- Joe wonders to Iris what it would be like to have a son of his own, while Iris knows he already has one
-- Flash's suit is about to get micro-compressed into the ring
-- Full vision of Hawkgirl
-- Gorilla City!