The Flash S03E13 Review: Planet of the Apes

The Flash, Season 3, Episode 13: Attack on Gorilla City

"I am a gorilla." never sounded so badass.

See, for all the problems that I bitch about Flash ever since we had all the inconsistent plotlines and repetitive nonsense in season two, episodes like this week's "Attack on Gorilla City" is why I watch and love this show. It's predictable, yes? It's your basic action movie fair, no? The CGI's conspicuous at some parts, ain't it? It doesn't progress the plot, yeah? I don't care. Yes, when it comes down to it, this episode probably is a merely slightly-more-impressive-visually version of your standard procedural fare. But you know what? Fuck you! Like, seriously. I really liked this episode.

Like, go back and read my review on the episode of Grodd's debut. Fuck, man, it's Gorilla Grodd. Without repeating everything I said in that review, know that throughout this episode I was still being a huge fanboy going "ohmygod Gorilla Grodd is on the teevee again!"

And honestly, compare the latest few episodes to the early days of Arrow's first season, where the showmakers are even too chickenshit to call their vigilante "Green Arrow" because it's not mature or badass enough. Well, this episode we've got Flash, Vibe, Killer Frost and Draco Malfoy Indiana Jones Doctor Alchemy going off to an alternate-Earth Gorilla City to fight Gorilla Grodd, ending with a gladiatorial death-match between Flash and King Solovar. Not bad from a show that's so scared of DC's more wild characters that they're even too afraid to adapt Firefly and re-imagines him as this wussy angry arsonist.

I knew Gorilla City was coming after last episode's teaser, but I didn't realize how much of it will be shown. The CG of a high-budget show like Game of Thrones tend to depict battle scenes and dragons very strategically, how would the Flash fare? Last two seasons only managed to have one entirely-CG character like Grodd himself or King Shark, and even this season's Savitar relies on being invisible to non-speedsters and reusing some animation between episodes. But they manage to be very strategic. It's not that the gorillas aren't shown, it's that we get shown just a couple of sweeping views of the city, or the huge coliseum, but the main brunt of the action and closeups are saved for just Grodd and Solovar. And even then, for a fair amount of scenes, Grodd speaks through Cisco or Wells. The actions scenes with Flash also features some slo-mo rotation scenes which I'd wager is far easier to animate than for the entire five minutes of the battle to be constant movement.

And honestly? I'm fine with what they did. Both Grodd and Solovar looked impressive, and, yes, there were times where the CGI looked a bit suspect, especially the big gorilla army pan at the end, or the turnaround during Flash's speech, but for the most part it's amazing. We get to see Grodd be a creepy telepathic gorilla and his voice is always amazing. David Sobolov gives this perfect blend of barely-contained animalistic rage, a deadly intelligence and the general creepiness that really makes it feel that Grodd is projecting his thoughts out to everyone. It also helps that he gets a lot of really, really awesome lines. "I am an animal. Kill or be killed!"

Grodd's plan is simple, of course. He eggs both Solovar and Flash on to rise into power. Solovar seems to be portrayed as a warlord here, and Grodd's attempts to curry sympathy has enough of a selfish streak to make us buy into at least part of it... though of course, he's Gorilla motherfucking Grodd, he's a card-carrying villain. Team Flash doesn't necessarily know it, though, they think Grodd's just using them to gain power, whereas Grodd's real plan is to invade Earth-1 and wreak vengeance. It's pretty simple plot, and, yes, there are a lot of plot holes in it -- why didn't Grodd use mind-control to force Cisco to make the portal as soon as he became leader? Why did Grodd drag Flash out of his cell only to leave him right outside it? Why are there no gorilla guards? How did the power-dampening happen and why does it only work in the cells? I don't care, I've got the fastest man alive fighting a gigantic albino gorilla with a spear-axe in a gladiatorial match, I can deal with a couple of tiny plot holes.

It's also amazing to see Harry Wells reappear. H.R. is entertaining, that's for sure, but as much as the show pretends that H.R. is an essential part of the team, he absolutely can't hold a candle to the cantankerous Harry Wells of Earth-2. Shame he spends three-fourths of the episode being either unconscious or a gorilla's puppet, but hey, what little screentime he got, he used very, very well. Caitlin also has a brief subplot where she learns to use her powers more without turning into Killer Frost, and Julian has a lot of great scenes, from him showing up in full Indiana Jones gear and showing off his inner archaeologist, to him caring for Caitlin -- a chemistry that works so much better than the shoehorned Caitlin/FakeJay last season due to how this is allowed to build up over time.

It's a shame the Earth-1 subplot was so weak. It's great to see Jesse Quick back, but her subplot with Wally, and wanting to stay on Earth-1 with Wally, felt absolutely weak, and Wally does come off a bit like a douche for going all "we need to solidify our relationship" when Jesse's worried sick about her father, who's on a different Earth kidnapped by a fucking city of gorillas. The whole Jesse being upset because Wally's life felt complete (dude lives in a different dimension, you'd think not writing back for a couple of months would be acceptable). It's a very badly-paced story mostly because Wally and Jesse hung out like twice before this. H.R. has some great scenes and steals all the Earth-1 scenes, though. The whole 'stop the future from happening' plot is glossed over somewhat, though certainly the main appeal and plot is, y'know, escaping the city of telepathic gorillas.

Ideally, we'd see more of Solovar, more of Gorilla City in general. Solovar comes off as a flat might-makes-right warlord whose only redeeming factor was that he's not Grodd. But you work with the CGI budget you get, and while it's a more villainous take on Solovar than the tradition, he has one helluva badass voice.

And besides, we definitely haven't seen the last of Grodd. He's apparently got Gypsy (whether it's the same Gypsy we met, or if she's Earth-2's version, or if she's brainwashed is not clear) and a full army of armour-plated gorillas ready to invade Earth-1. Gypsy's return would have actual shock impact if, y'know, the recap section didn't randomly focus on her. Not sure if this will happen later this season or if it's just next season's Grodd episode, but dang, I was so happy watching this episode. No, it's not perfect by any means, but fuck you, we've got Solovar creating gigantic shockwaves with his spear, and Flash punching Solovar with a vibrating hand, Grodd being a badass evil psychic gorilla and man, if you don't find that awesome, I dunno. Go watch like the five o'clock news or something, because clearly superhero shows aren't for you.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• King Solovar is the king of Gorilla City in the comics. The comics' Solovar is more of the wise allied king, though, instead of the strength-based leader he is here. Gorilla City is also a location from the comics, although in the comics gorilla-kind have hyper-advanced technology instead of living like the tribal setting we see them here. Solovar also has his comic counterpart's telepathic powers. 
• Grodd last appeared in season two, and he recounts being dropped off near Gorilla City in that episode. Caitlin recalls Grodd's affection for her in their previous two outings (though Grodd's grown past that now). Grodd also refers to his 'father', Reverse-Flash, while Caitlin recalls her doppelganger, Earth-2's Killer Frost. In addition to all that, when learning of Caitlin's powers, Harry also notes how he never believed that he and Cisco were responsible for releasing Barry from Mirror Master's mirror. 
• Julian gets abnormally excited about the "Planet of the Apes", repeating it twice while talking to Barry. Julian's actor, Tom Felton, was in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as a glorious monkey-hating douchebag. Referencing the franchise is, of course, Cisco, who notes how Grodd had Flash "damn dirty work."
• Bludhaven, which has been a setting in Arrow for a couple of episodes, also known as sister city to Gotham City and romping grounds of Nightwing, gets mentioned yet again.