Grodd Friended Me

"You let go of the past. Maybe I should do the same. Crisis has changed so much, and I've been so obsessed with trying to keep things the way they were before, but I can't."

—Barry Allen to Grodd on his change in Crisis.

"Grodd Friended Me"
Information
Season 6 » Episode 13
Episode number	127 of 184
Original airdate	February 25, 2020
Written by	Kristen Kim Joshua V. Gilbert
Directed by	Stefan Pleszczynski
Chronology
Preceded by	"A Girl Named Sue"
Followed by	"Death of the Speed Force"
Blog post	File_0005 "User_Chester"

"Grodd Friended Me" is the thirteenth episode of the sixth season of The Flash, and the one-hundred-twenty-seventh episode overall. It aired on February 25, 2020.

Synopsis

Feeling overwhelmed with all the changes since Crisis, Barry conducts an experiment that goes awry and puts him directly in Gorilla Grodd's path. Expecting the worst, Barry is surprised when Grodd asks for his help. Unfortunately for both The Flash and Grodd, things get worse when another villain appears – Solovar. Meanwhile, Iris works with Eva to escape the Mirrorverse.[src]

Plot

Barry strolls through Central City with a bunch of roses, but gets a meta-human alert. Kamilla and Chester both propose to help Barry; however, he chooses to work alone. Barry follows the alert to a jewelry store, where Hartley Rathaway, the Pied Piper, is attempting to burglarize it. Hartley, for a year yet unknown reason, feels deceived by Team Flash, something that occurred because of Crisis.

Barry gets disappointed by everything that he doesn't know about Crisis, and employs Gideon to make sense of all the changes. Chester and Kamilla come in, and Chester discovers that Barry is The Flash. Barry is reluctant to let Chester—who attempts to make an alteration to his comms—join the group, and confides in Kamilla that he can't find his parents graves in Central City.

Barry attempts to test his comms but it inadvertently makes him fall unconscious, and wake up in an enclosure in an obscure lab. The pen is politeness according to "Wells" (Thawne), who (alongside Caitlin) is getting ready for the atom smasher. Barry before long understands that he's gone into Grodd’s mind, who is as caught in a psychological trance-like state in A.R.G.U.S.' jail. Grodd says he needs Barry to understand what it’s like to be alone, without backup, and that he's used his time in jail to begin to make amends for his wrongdoings. Grodd requests that Flash trust him, because he needs his assistance in battling "The Gatekeeper". Barry punches Grodd out instead, and attempts to escape through an entrance in the woods, however Solovar—the Gatekeeper—stops him.

Chester discloses to Frost he needs to dazzle Barry, as they discover him unconscious in the present-day. They attach Barry to medical equipment that monitors his mind wipes and alerts them to the fact that somebody is inside his cerebrum, and attempt to contact him. Barry starts to writhe due to his battle with Solovar, which makes Frost realise that Barry is with Grodd. Frost realises that die if they don’t unsync their minds. Chester realises his mishap put Barry at serious risk, because of his tampering with the earpiece, Frost consoles him by stating that endangering Barry is like a rite of passage with team flash and that he has the opportunity now to make up for that .

Grodd comes to Barry as a projection of Joe, and tells Barry that he is aware of the progressions made post-"Emergency". He asks Barry to assist him with getting to Gorilla City, so he can at last be happy among his own kind. Barry realises that they have to try something new—and overlook the past—to battle Solovar together. Barry and Grodd combine their brains, briefly giving Grodd speedster powers. Barry tells Team Flash what's going on—and Frost discovers that on the off chance that they don't separate their brains when they escape, they're both going to die.

Chester recommends an approach to possibly spare Grodd and Barry, and Barry tells Chester that he has confidence in him. In the mindscape, Barry educates Grodd on how to utilize his speed against Solovar, and he succeeds with Barry’s help. Barry awakens in reality, successfully disconnected from Grodd’s mind.

Barry talks to A.R.G.U.S., who consent to let Grodd out under supervision and allow him to return to Gorilla City. Kamila informs the group that Cisco is coming back. Barry apologizes to Chester for how he acted previously. Chester tells Barry that he had the opportunity to locate Barry's parents' graves. The comms get a sign from Pied Piper, and Barry requests that Chester help.

Mirror-Iris meets with Joe at CCPD, and requests secret data on Black Hole and Carver. Joe advises her no, which irritates her. While Joe is out of his office, Iris sneaks in and gets the data.

Iris inquires as to whether she can possibly fabricate a machine to get them out of the mirror measurement. Eva chooses to be courageous, as a result of Iris' model. When it comes time to utilize the machine, Eva shows Iris that the machine won't work—it'll open up a gateway, but the individual strolling through will get burnt. Eva tells Iris that she needed to demonstrate the machine didn't work, on the grounds that in Iris wouldn't listen to her. She persuades Iris to leave the room and uses the mirror again—uncovering Mirror Iris, who likewise has burns on her arms. Eva heals the burns on Mirror-Iris'. arms.

Nash asks Allegra to assist him with a machine that will follow "particles" from another universe. Allegra asks Nash why he acts like he knows her, which he doesn’t answer. He then hallucinates Sherloque Wells. They attempt to turn on the machine, doesn’t work, and Nash's image of himself and Allegra’s doppelgänger drops out of his fallen wallet. Allegra sees the image and gets angry. Nash goes to Frost for guidance, and she advises him to simply talk with Allegra. Nash goes to do that, however is prevented by another variant of Wells—apparently, Thawne.

Cast

Starring

• Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash
• Candice Patton as Iris West-Allen and Iris West-Allen
• Danielle Panabaker as Frost and Gorilla Grodd
• Carlos Valdes (credit only)
• Hartley Sawyer (credit only)
• Danielle Nicolet (credit only)
• Efrat Dor as Eva McCulloch and Dr. Eva McCulloch
• Tom Cavanagh as Dr. Harrison Nash Wells, Harrison Sherloque Wells, and Gorilla Grodd
• Jesse L. Martin as Captain Joe West and Gorilla Grodd

Guest starring

• Andy Mientus as Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper
• Kayla Compton as Allegra Garcia and Maya (photo)
• Victoria Park as Kamilla Hwang
• Brandon McKnight as Chester P. Runk
• David Sobolov as Gorilla Grodd (voice)
• Keith David as Solovar (voice)

Trivia

• The title of the episode is a play on the show God Friended Me in which Greg Berlanti served as an executive producer while former The Flash recurring cast member Violett Beane (Jesse Wells/Jesse Quick) was a regular. The show also had Batwoman's Javicia Leslie (Ryan Wilder/Batwoman) as a cast member.
• The opening scene of the episode features a camera shot at the clouds towards the ground. The scene is similar to the one in "Pilot".
• Grodd and Barry merging their consciousness together is similar to when Martin Stein merges his body with both Jefferson Jackson and Ronnie Raymond to form Firestorm with the Firestorm Matrix.
• Grodd getting speedster powers is a reference to the New 52 comics version of Grodd, complete with the red lightning bolt on his torso.
• This marks the first appearance of Hartley Rathaway since the season 2 episode "Flash Back".
• This episode marks the return of Eobard Thawne since Season 5 finale "Legacy", albeit through Grodd's memories.
• It is revealed that Eva is the one who created Mirror Iris and is essentially controlling her in the real world.
• Gorilla Grodd's illusory Caitlin Snow said to Barry Allen "Use your signs". This may be a reference to the other Barry's line "My special skills include Viola, Web Design, fluent in Sign Language, Gorilla Sign Language" in the film Justice League.
• Kamilla refers to a merged Flash/Grodd as "Brundle-Flash". This is a reference to David Cronenberg's The Fly, where the main character Seth Brundle is merged with a fly and refers to himself as "Brundle-Fly".
• This is the last episode to credit Brandon McKnight as a guest star, as he is upgraded to series regular in season 7.

Goofs

• Frost says that they modified Grodd's telepathic crown to keep him in his coma, and Grodd is seen wearing it while unconscious in his cell. Barry states that Grodd had stolen the crown from King Shark. However, after defeating Grodd, King Shark got the crown back.
  • This could easily just be another change in the Earth-Prime timeline.
  • It's also possible that Tanya Lamden may have built another telepathic crown for Grodd specially designed to keep him in his comatose state; allowing the original crown to be returned to King Shark, as the latter needed it stop the neural regression of his mind.
• From within his coma, Grodd uses his powers to bring Barry into his mind through Gideon, thanks to Chester making an adjustment to the A.I.'s setting. However, the reason Team Flash put Grodd in the coma in the first place was to keep him from using his psychic abilities; Caitlin had stated that Grodd would be unable to access his powers if unconscious.
  • Furthermore, in addition to Team Flash putting Grodd in a coma, Cisco equipped Grodd's cell with A.I. power dampeners, designed to upgrade themselves as Grodd's mind grew. Even if Grodd hadn't been in his coma, this should've also made it impossible for him to mentally reach out to Barry.