When the show first introduced the coming notion of Grodd with the tag from one of its first episodes, and after I heard some background on what Grodd was exactly, I was dubious. A giant, super-intelligent gorilla is loose in Central City? The concept sounds laughable. The Flash has carefully doled out pieces of its large canon to build a base in which they can deploy certain elements at a certain time. This episode is Grodd's time to shine. Surprisingly, it works on the whole. Grodd is actually terrifying. Even sympathetic at times. 


 

What's amazing is that the show is open about its intentions. Grodd is meant to be deployed by Wells as part of his master plan. Grodd is the distraction unleashed onto Team Flash for them to deal with as Wells/Eobard bides his time with Eddie in captivity. Within that process, the episode also functions as a highlight for Iris' story.



It would be hard to say that Iris is no longer a problem character for the series based on what happens in this episode. But it is effective in making her less of a problem than before. Almost immediately, Iris finds out about Barry's secret. The revelation is very sudden, and doesn't have the power of the same revelation in "Out of Time" simply because of the absence of both characters in peril. She knows because she put together all of the facts to confirm her suspicions. 

This kind of action gives Iris an agency that had been missing throughout most of the season. That was primarily due to the fact that all the men in her life decided to keep the secret away from her. The fallout from the secret being in the open spills in front of her. Barry tries to justify what they did as protection to keep her safe, in the process outing Joe's role for retaining the secret. While Iris' anger is justified, her personality fully changes to give her a self-righteous streak that may well become another reason to dislike the character. It's early in the proceedings here, but I think it's something to bear in mind when watching the series from now on. Her point that it would have been better to keep her safe if she had been told and known earlier about Barry being the Flash particularly hits home. 



Everything that she says in indignation over this big secret makes a lot of sense. They have been the criticisms levied at the series since it became a noticeable pattern in keeping Iris in the dark, thus sabotaging her character entirely. Whether that was the writers' intent from the beginning, thus keeping the revelation to now, is unknown. What is known now is the fact that Iris is now a full-fledged member of Team Flash. That can only be a good thing, as she is no longer a separate part of the narrative.






Her initiation into Team Flash is fraught with peril, though. Grodd functions as the initial threat by putting presumably dead General Eiling back into the field. Grodd's mind control powers are incredibly effective, so much so that he can both control Eiling (and I think Wells does have some ulterior motive for the gold he stole) and throw the "whammy" at Barry whenever he's in Grodd's proximity. There is the very sensible notion that the "whammy" is a side effect of Barry and Grodd being connected by the particle accelerator explosion. But this means that the team has to combat Grodd using their own wits. They are now without the services of Dr. Wells, who has been openly revealed as evil.




This opens up avenues for other methods of storytelling the show can use. Now that Team Flash is down one genius (who knows of the future, no less), they can be shown as fallible. Indeed, that plays out here. Putting aside the questionable decision to put Joe and Cisco in danger by sending them into the sewers to hunt for a giant gorilla, they make errors that almost get people killed. Joe is kidnapped by Grodd, and well, that is a rather scary prospect for Joe. It's easily seen on his face. That helps to sell the kind of threat Grodd is. Also helping that impression is the fact that Grodd easily counters Barry's combat tactics. It's literally strength versus speed facing off here, and for a moment, brute force wins out. 








There have been multiple times this season where Barry has felt fear in the face of possible mortal danger, but it has not been as palpable as it was here. His cockiness does need to be brought down a notch, and Grodd is the one to do so. It plays very well despite the obvious CGI limitations. Grodd's little skirmish with Team Flash is effective as a smokescreen for Wells' actual plan. He has accelerated his plan to return to his own time. This means it's looking more and more likely that Eddie will sacrifice himself to make sure Wells/Eobard doesn't exist. The faceoff between the Flash and Reverse-Flash is going to play out over the remaining two episodes of the season. It's going to be a hell of a ride.