The Flash - 'Attack on Gorilla City'

"What have they got in here? King Kong?"

As with Supergirl, we begin exactly where we left off, with Jesse arriving to explain that Grod has her father. She expands that he received a message asking him to go to Gorilla City – because fuck yes, Earth 2 has Gorilla City – but it was a trap. His companions were killed and he vanished.

Barry asks Julian to cover for him, which he does by telling the Captain that they're both going to a conference and turning up in his Indiana Jones kit, excited to explore other worlds and, in his spiky and understated way, looking out for Caitlin, who is accompanying them because of her past rapport with Grod. They reach the bizarrely non-sweltering jungles around the city, but are swiftly overcome by gorillas with blowguns and placed in a cage where Grod somehow dampens their various powers.

Grod.

Using Wells as a mouthpiece, Grod explains that Solovar, leader of the Gorillas, wants war with the human world. Grod brought first Harry and then the Flash there to stir up trouble, so that Barry would have no choice but to fight Solovar in the arena for the fate of Central City, thus protecting Grod's home. Unable to escape, Barry agrees to the fight, and Solovar initially wrecks his shit, because speedsters are cripplingly vulnerable to giant apes, before pulling off a Reverse-Flash vibrating palm move and putting Solovar out in one punch. He refuses to kill his defeated foe, but his 'quality of mercy' speech is cut short by another blowgun dart.

Back in the cages, Grod reveals that Solovar never intended a war of aggression, but that Barry has both taken him out of Grod's way and provided him with a cassus bellum. He will force Cisco to open a rift and return to reclaim his home. Determined to stop this – not least because it will change another future headline – Cisco suggests that they kill him; Julian agrees it would stop Grod, but since the only one capable of doing it while caged is Caitlin – whose frost powers Grod does not know about to block – they would lose both of them. Instead, Caitlin cools Barry to seem dead, so that he is taken out of the cage and can free the others, and Cisco breaches them home.

Gorilla City hospitality.

Unfortunately, Grod has a plan B; Gypsy.

And Jesse and Wally have some romantic complications, resolved when he asks her to stay on Earth 1 and HR persuades her to say yes, his motivation apparently to aggravate his Earth 2 self. Caitlin warns Julian to be afraid of her, and he responds by asking her out. Man, Julian is actually fricking adorable when he's not being a dick. No wonder Draco Malfoy drew such a following.

So, this episode showcased one of my favourite things about The Flash, which is to say Grod. There was also some good dialogue, nice relationship moments and all, but mostly there was Grod - yet another facet of the Arrowverse strongly rooted in the Silver Age, although they have made a good fist of making Grod legitimately terrifying in his appearances, and Gorilla City lacks the ultra-tech of some of its incarnations - and a city full of Grods who are now poised to invade Earth 1. Gorilla City is visually spectacular, and I hate to think what percentage of the budget this episode ate.

Next week's episode has the mirrored title 'Attack on Central City', so I'm guessing we don't need to wait this time. I'm not sure if Gypsy was being mind-controlled or on retainer, but either way it's not big fun for Cisco, and of course means that that Gorilla Chaos headline is still a go.