The Flash Season 2 Episodes 6-7 review - Enter Zoom/Gorilla Warfare

Schedule note: Because of Thanksgiving both The Flash and Agents of SHIELD will not be airing next week, unfortunately that means a triple episode review of Agents of SHIELD when we're at mid-season break. The reviews of Doctor Who and Star Wars Rebels will continue unopposed. 

With that out of the way, let's look at the next 2 episodes of the Flash

Enter Zoom

So the plot decides to move forward, and oh boy does it hit us hard

The Flash decides to be both amazing and frustrating in the same episode as we get to see the full power of Zoom right in front of us but providing dubious motivations of characters in the first place to get to the meeting

So, the plot. Doctor Light initially agrees to help them catch Zoom but because Cisco is a f*cking moron she escapes never to be seen again in this episode. Needing a decoy to lure Zoom in they use Doctor Light’s counterpart, Linda and train her to use her weapons. And we get the interesting idea of goodish actors having to act like their character is a very bad actor.

Zoom meanwhile demonstrates why he’s a force to be reckoned, shrugging off their attacks and landing Barry, well… Holy sh*t

So yeah the final battle with Zoom was awesome, the rest of it… Not so much. Let’s start with the motivation for going after Zoom so recklessly. Barry says it’s because Eobard (as Wells said he’ll never truly be happy. But I don’t see how stopping Zoom equates to that. In fact the whole Doctor Light sequence felt like padding, it was pointless since Zoom did not show up and only showed up later to kick his ass, the whole episode was building to this so much that they did that thing where they flash forward (would’ve been intense had we not found out exactly what was going on in the teaser)

Speaking of Wells, he’s still a jerk but we get a bit of backstory about his relationship with his daughter, did I mention he’s still a jerk? I want to make that point clear, that he’s a jerk I mean. Yeah… I’ll try and avoid making this joke in the next episode, if he’s still here

I largely glossed over Paddy’s contribution this week, I don’t find her particularly interesting as a character and she hasn’t done anything of consequence to the plot yet so… Maybe in a later episode.

Rating 6.5/10

Gorilla Warfare

I say this again and again, I’ve never considered the Flash better than Agents of SHIELD, so far this season has managed a pitiful 5.25/10 average, and unfortunately this episode isn’t gonna go far to improve it.

That’s not to say this episode is bad but… It had way too many threads running concurrently that none of them got the screen-time they deserved and the endings of most of them were rushed or unsatisfying

Let’s start with Barry’s rehabilitation. We knew he wouldn’t be crippled for life so it’s not a surprise they got this out with this episode, especially since the next one is the Flash/Arrow crossover. I’m also pleased that looked at Barry’s emotional state following the incident. How his confidence had been knocked back. The problem is this is like the umpteenth time now and I’m getting sick of it. And whilst I appreciate bringing back Henry for motivational speech #625, and it’s nice that they drew parallels between the two’s situations, it’s still motivation speech #625, and frankly I’m sick of them, especially since they always seem to be the solution to Barry’s woes

So, let’s take a look at Harrison Wells from Earth 2, I’m glad they’re doing something different with his from Eobard Thawne’s Wells. And he came of less of a jerk in this episode, which is progress. He has a habit of running away from his failures, we saw this when he didn’t really take accountability for the particle accelerator on his world and we’re seeing it again in his desire to return to Earth 2 here.  But upon discovering a new plan thanks to unlikely intervention of Caitlin. I suppose since Thawne never really got inside her head like he did with Barry and Cisco she finds it easier to overlook. And you can definitely see he was genuine, his willingness to offer himself up as the Reverse Flash was interesting.

But more issues sadly arrive with Grodd himself. I feel this plot was underdeveloped in the grand scheme of things. We’re only given tidbits as to what Grodd wants and his plot is largely unexplored as most of the runtime is dedicated to the Wells/Barry plotlines. The ideas are smart but the execution felt a bit off. I do like the reference to Gorilla City in Earth 2 but it seems to be in South America rather than Africa as it’s usually depicted (or at least it was in the Justice League Cartoon)

We also briefly get some scenes between Cisco and Kendra Saunders (aka Hawkgirl) where he gets ‘vibes’ about a hawkman coming in the two-parter coming up.

This an ok-good episode, I’m sorry but we really need a great episode soon or this will be the next show I decide to drop

Rating 6/10

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