The Flash Review: Grodd Lives (Season 1 Episode 21)

This week’s episode of The Flash stuck by its title’s namesake: Grodd Lives.

The hour starts off with Iris telling Barry that Eddie was kidnapped by the Man in the Yellow Suit. It’s interesting that she holds back her hunch about Barry being The Flash, but I guess, after the opening monologue, it makes sense. This is her best friend, and he held back a huge secret for her.

You can see her surprise and pain when Barry acts like it’s his first time hearing of Eddie’s fate, and although he says everything he usually says: that The Flash is probably trying his best, and that Eddie will be fine. Everything seems just a little skewed since the audience knows that Iris knows.

Barry encounters a Meta Human that seems to be able to get into his brain. He sees (or is shown) visions — or memories of what looks like a surgery. After a couple of attempts, which end in Joe being kidnapped as well, it is shown that this human is none other than General Eiling, who is being telepathically controlled by Grodd. And that Grodd is a previous experiment of Wells (gone wrong!) who seems to be getting smarter.

While the team comes up with a plan of action to confront Grodd and save Joe and Eddie, Iris just walks into Star Labs and declares she knows Barry’s secret. (Does Star Labs not have locks?) And so, Barry and Iris have at it.

They argue — incredibly loudly, and about the most irrelevant things ever (Much like when Iris and Joe fought a little earlier). These scenes seem to want to show Iris’s frustrations with Barry’s ‘betrayal’ and Joe’s adamancy to keep things from her, but her boyfriend and then father had been kidnapped and she somehow always ends up on her feelings for Barry.

Timing Iris. Timing. I’m hoping for some character development for Iris before she and Barry inevitably get together.

Iris and Joe make up after he’s rescued by Barry, and Caitlin happily accepts Iris as their fourth member of Team Flash. This is going to be an interesting dynamic if it follows through, especially with Iris indicating she does have feelings for Barry. Also, does this mean SnowBarry isn’t a thing anymore?

We see that Eddie is being held captive by Professor Wells, and honestly, he just seems angry. I’m happy that Eddie believes in Barry so much as he threatens Wells that the Flash would come to save him. And Wells takes it in perfect fashion too. He breaks Eddie down mentally with information from the future. That Eddie turns out to be a failure, because his life as a Police Detective is just… uneventful. And, of course, Iris marries Barry.

Eobard Thawn: You don’t even get the girl.

Honestly, I felt so bad for Eddie. I remembered in the beginning when he was just Iris’s new boyfriend, the one who made Barry feel like he had missed his chance, but now, I feel like he’s an integral part of this universe. And seeing his heart break, made me feel like punching Wells, to be honest.

Lastly, we’re then given a quick scene of Wells saying he has the key now. To what? asks the audience as well as Eddie. And then Wells pulls out a glowing cylinder tube, and inserts it into a secret keyhole… thing, which lights up a tunnel. His response?

Home.

Things to think about:

• What do you think Grodd’s favorite food is? He’s not a big fan of Bananas.
• Cisco is pretty much the fandom. With most of his knowledge coming from cult movies and TV shows, I could honestly say I would act exactly like him if I were in these situations.
• A quick shout out goes to Jesse once again for his amazing acting skills this week. Watching Joe be controlled by Grodd and maybe forced to shoot himself, was by far my favourite scene of the week- even if it did raise my blood pressure just a bit.

What did you think of The Flash Season 1 Episode 21? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.