Iris watches Flash speed across Central City, after realizing that he’s Barry.
The next day at the station, Singh wonders where Eddie is. Joe and
Barry tell him that Eddie took some personal time off, and Singh asks
them to contact Flash about a new series of gold thefts. Once he leaves,
Barry goes to his lab and Iris arrives. She tells him that Reverse
Flash took Eddie, and says that Flash promised to find her boyfriend.
She suggests that the police should start searching, but Barry warns her
that they can’t deal with Reverse Flash because of his speed. Iris
admits that it’s hard to trust Flash right now, and Barry asks her to
trust him. He then promises that everything will be okay.
At the Central City Gold Reserve, a man in a gold-lined battlesuit walks up and fires a bazooka at a transport truck.
Barry goes to S.T.A.R. Labs and finds Cisco trying to adapt Harrison’s
computers now that the villain has revealed his true colors. The
computer pings an alarm at the gold reserve and Flash speeds there and
attacks the villain. However, before he can land a punch, Flash is
suddenly hit by a wave of mental images of doctors operating on him. The
thief staggers back stunned, but Flash took the brunt of the attack and
is unable to stop the gold thief from escaping.
When Barry
returns to S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin confirms that he’s okay. Barry says
that he felt overwhelming fear, and they figure that the thief wasn’t
the source of the attack since he was affected as well. Iris comes in
and sees Barry in his Flash costume, and makes it clear that she already
knows his secret identity. They go off to talk privately in the
treadmill chamber, and Caitlin and Cisco secretly listen in via the
surveillance cameras.
Iris tells Barry that she felt the same
jolt of electricity when she touched Flash as she did when she touched
Barry in his coma. Barry admits that Eddie knows, and explains that
Harrison is Reverse Flash and killed Nora. He insists that he’ll get
Eddie back to her, and admits that Joe was the one who asked him not to
tell Iris the truth. Angry, Iris tells Barry that it’s time for him and
his father to both stop protecting her and leaves.
Harrison
returns to his lair where he has Eddie tied up, and Eddie demands proof
to support Harrison’s assertion that they’re related. The scientists
says that he doesn’t have to prove anything. Eddie continues trying to
taunt him, and Harrison superspeeds over and tells him to shut up.
That night, Joe goes to the Picture News
to talk to iris, who is bringing up information on Nora’s death. He
admits that he was wrong, but points out that Reverse Flash killed cops
and Iris’ mentor Mason. He insists that he’s trying to keep Barry safe
as well, but Iris says that she’s also angry that Joe didn’t tell her
how Barry really feels about her. Joe says that was Barry’s secret to
tell, not his, and Iris says that Eddie might not have been taken if she
had been with Barry when she realized how her friend felt about her.
Angry, she says that what happened to Eddie is his fault, just as Singh
calls. Joe says that he has to take it and his daughter goes back to her
work.
Once he takes the call from Singh, Joe calls Barry at
S.T.A.R. Labs to tell him that the gold reserve is transporting $300
million out of town. Cisco wonders how they plan to transport the gold.
The next day, a mother approaches a parked ice cream truck with her
children. The driver insists that they don’t have any ice cream left and
closes the door. Joe and an assault team are in the back along with the
$300 million in gold. The driver heads out of town and the thief takes
out the truck with a mind. He then walks forward and Joe prepares to
shoot him. However, Flash arrives and knocks the thief out. They unmask
the thief and are surprised to discover that it’s... General Eiling.
Barry takes Eiling to S.T.A.R. Labs and they lock him up in the
pipeline. The general just stands there, staring off into space, even
though Caitlin has confirmed that he’s unharmed. Cisco checks with Lyla
Michael and confirms that ARGUS is covering for the fact that Eiling
disappeared three months ago and hasn’t been seen since. Eiling doesn’t
respond to Joe, but when Barry asks if he remembers him, says, “Flash.”
He then looks at Caitlin and calls her “good,” and they realize that
someone is speaking through the mind-controlled Eiling. The controller
says that Eiling hurt it, and that its name is Grodd.
Cisco and
Caitlin recognize the name and show Joe and Barry five-year-old footage
of Harrison and Eiling experimenting on a gorilla. Caitlin explains
that Eiling was secretly trying to develop super-soldiers with
telepathic abilities. When Harrison found out what he was doing, he shut
down the project and kicked Eiling out. After the explosion, Grodd
disappeared. Cisco figures that the explosion transformed Grodd into a
meta-gorilla, just as it has transformed some humans into meta-humans.
Caitlin checks the brain scans she took of Grodd at the time and
confirms that they match a brain scan of Eiling’s current state. She
figures that Grodd is using his new powers to control Eiling, and Joe
figures that Harrison had Grodd send Eiling as a distraction.
Iris comes in and overhears them, and insists on helping. She has been
tracking reports of wild animal attacks in the sewers. Two works
disappeared several weeks ago, and Cisco finds a manhole entrance near
where they disappeared. Barry prepares to investigate, and Joe insists
on going as well, and bringing Cisco with them.
As the three
men move into the sewers, Iris points out that Caitlin lied to her about
Ronnie’s identity as the Burning Man. Caitlin says that Ronnie is fine,
and they then return to watching the monitors hooked up to the men’s
helmet cams. Cisco finds Grodd’s name written on the wall over and over,
with drawings that get progressively more detailed. They figure that
Grodd is evolving, and hear it growling in the darkness. The gorilla
hits Barry with another telepathic attack, and then swings down, knocks
him out, and swings away with Joe.
When an injured Joe wakes
up, he finds himself lying in a hidden chamber. Grodd comes in and Joe
tries to draw his gun, but Grodd telepathically controls him into
turning it on himself. Scared out of his wits, Joe begs Grodd to stop
and the gorilla finally makes him throw the gun away rather than shoot
himself. It says that “Father” hates guns, and Joe realizes that
Harrison is still controlling the creature through its paternal
affections for him.
At S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin confirms that
Grodd telepathically attacked Barry. She warns Barry that he can’t go
after Grodd unless he has some way to resist the next telepathic
assault, and Cisco worries that he can’t create a shielding device
without Harrison’s help. Furious, Iris says that they should be able to
save Joe and Eddie after all that they’ve accomplished in the lab, and
storms out. Barry goes after her and she complains that Joe should never
have gone along because he isn’t a metahuman like Barry. Realizing why
she’s really mad, Barry says that it’s his fault, not Joe’s that he
never told Iris his secret identity. Iris is still mad, and Barry points
out that she lied to him as well: about how she really felt about him.
Eddie warns Harrison that the others will find him eventually, but
Harrison isn’t impressed. He says that Eddie is the exception: a Thawne
that never turns out to be a success. Eddie has an uneventful future
that Harrison knows about from the era where he lived, and never gets
the girl. When Eddie wonders what he means, Harrison shows him the
hologram of the newspaper headline with the byline by Iris Allen-West.
Cisco manages to build a telepathy-shielding device on his own. Iris
comes back and the computer pings the GPS tracker that Barry managed to
shoot into Grodd in their first encounter. As Barry prepares to go after
his foster father, he tells Iris that he never imagined her being in
the lab helping him. She tells her friend to bring her father back.
Rather than enter the sewers, Flash moves to a spot three and a half
miles way. Cisco then remote-opens the sewer access door and then floods
the tunnels with steam to force Grodd out into the open. Caitlin
explains that they’re setting Grodd up for the same hypersonic punch
that Flash used against Girder. However, when Flash speeds into the
sewers, Grodd grabs his fist in mid-punch and then slams him into a
wall. The gorilla is unable to telepathically attack Flash because of
the shielding device, and Flash hits his opponent with hundreds of
superspeed punches. Unphased, Grodd grabs him by the throat and slams
him through the wall into an adjacent tunnel. The impact knocks off the
shielding device, and Grodd hits Flash with another telepathic assault.
Cisco detects a service train approaching, and Caitlin warns Flash.
Flash is still paralyzed from the telepathic onslaught, and iris tells
him to concentrate on her voice and focus. She tells the speedster to
stand up to Grodd for her and Joe. Inspired, Flash manages to focus and
speeds out of the way just in time as the train roars past. Grodd leaps
through the hole and Flash ducks out of the way... and another train
slams into Grodd. When it passes, there’s no sign of the meta-gorilla.
Flash quickly finds Joe and tells Iris that he’s bringing her father
home.
Later, Barry goes to the pipeline and confirms that
Eiling is free of Grodd’s control. Much to Eiling’s surprise, Barry
releases him and says that he’ll get what’s coming to him eventually.
Eiling boasts that he knows that Barry is Flash, but Barry figures that
Eiling will keep his secret because he still needs him. The general
concedes that they have a common enemy in Harrison and may need to fight
together, and then leaves to find the scientist.
Caitlin binds
Joe’s broken ribs and tells him to get some bed rest in the lab
infirmary. Once they’re alone, Joe tells Iris that he thought he was
going to die... and all that he could think of was losing Iris. He
admits that he was blind to how she’s grown because of his love for her.
As they hug, Iris tells her father to trust her enough to tell her the
truth.
In the other room, Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco try to
figure out their next movie. Barry is convinced that Joe was right and
Harrison used Grodd and Eiling as a distraction against them. Cisco
worries that they failed to stop Grodd for good, but Barry assures him
that the three of them saved Joe on their own, and together they can do
anything. Caitlin points out that Iris helped as well and that there
were four of them that saved Joe.
Later, Barry meets Iris on
the rooftop where she first met Flash. He thanks her for her help
against Grodd, and explains that thoughts of her is what keeps him going
as a hero. Barry tells Iris that without her, there wouldn’t be a
Flash, and Iris admits that she’s been thinking about their
relationship. However, she can’t set aside Eddie, and Barry promises to
bring him back. After that, they’ll see what happens.
On a nearby clock tower, Grodd climbs to the top and then leaps off.
Harrison finishes work on a power cylinder and tells Eddie that he has
the key. He then climbs back up the ladder... into the particle
accelerator tunnel at S.T.A.R. Labs. He uses the cylinder to power up
the accelerator and says that it’s time to go home.
Written by Gadfly on Jun 23, 2019