I knew I was in for a long episode when Iris was narrating. Slate that, I actually thought I was watching an episode of Grey’s Anatomy which isn’t much better. I knew Grodd (which thankfully you can’t hear me say wrong over and over) was going to be in this episode, I just didn’t know they were going to make it all about Iris at the same time. Here’s why… Iris is a terrible character.

I have yet to find anyone that disagrees with this. In fact my house hold which consists of me and two women all groaned at the sound of Iris’ voice and took turns telling Iris “fuck you” when she would say anything remotely selfish and stupid. Which is basically her throughout the entire episode.

I’m going to get the Grodd shit out of the way quick and hey spoilers if you care.

If you know anything about Grodd then you know his power set which made this episode actually pretty fucking boring for me. I knew that he was mind controlling General Eiling the minute I saw the character and while I don’t remember why he needs gold, I wasn’t surprised that he was going for it either. Grodd fucks with Barry and the team has to overcome the fact that they don’t have Dr. Wells and figure out how to beat Grodd… which they don’t really do. The CG on Grodd is actually pretty fucking good for a TV show which is why they’ll basically only use him in very small doses and we’re likely to see the same animation over and over. Basically Grodd has been sent to distract them so Wells/Reverse Flash can finish his shit and talk to Eddie a lot about how he’s a fucking failure and what was all that about knowing too much of the future again?

Really the bulk of the episode is spent with Iris who has figured out on her own that Barry is the Flash… finally. Which means that all of the main characters on the show now know his identity. Four or five sub-characters know his identity. All the main characters on Arrow know his identity and basically all the villains locked in the prison know his identity… so good for her.

She tests Barry to see if he’ll break and tell her, but when he doesn’t she shows up to STAR labs which still just lets anyone in and finds Cisco, Caitlin and Barry talking about their first Grodd encounter with Barry in the suit. After that is a series of selfish conversations on her part in which she asks why they lied to her, why they haven’t gotten back her boyfriend, why everyone knew but her and blah, blah, blah.

Again… fuck you Iris.

It really isn’t that she’s whinny, it’s that she sucks. The writers have butchered this character and actress Candice Patton really doesn’t do anything to spice up the role. She gives the same emotion the entire episode and it’s just very in-line with a lot of acting on the CW. And that sucks because other than Iris and Barry the rest of the cast can actually act… okay Eddie too, but I always forget to count that guy. I mean Caitlin definitely has a limited range, but when she’s in the range she does just fine. Iris has no range. She’s basically just fake happy or annoyingly stupid and selfish which the writer’s think means “upset.”

If you haven’t watched the episode yet pay close attention to how many times Iris walks into the main room at STAR labs and just finishes everyone’s sentence like she was listen to everything. One of the times she does this it’s impossible for her to even know what the fuck they’re talking about because she knows nothing about their operation which was extremely annoying.

But hey… at least she’s not the damsel right? I’m mean her boyfriend and father are damsels and then she’s pissed at everyone for not doing more to get them back and save them. It’s funny because she disses on her father for throwing himself into danger and yet she doesn’t say shit about Barry doing it because he’s fast… what? Again, everything she says or does in this episode is about her and how she’s hurt or has been wronged. Even when she gets her dad back she reminds Barry that they still need to get Eddie… Fuck you Iris.

Overall I called every twist about this episode. The General being a puppet. Grodd not doing anything and Barry and the team not actually stopping him. And the worst one, the worst one that I called was that Wells was actually right underneath them… because why wouldn’t he be. I’m scoring this episode a little higher just due to the CG on that gorilla, but otherwise it was a terrible episode that made me lose all faith in the show, especially now that they’ve adapted the system of the triple ending and added Iris to the team instead of just letting her be the annoying sub-character she was before. Lastly… when is someone going to stop them from using STAR labs? I mean… Wells technically owns it so… huh…

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Score: 2/5

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The Flash 1.21 – "Grodd Lives" The Flash airs Tuesdays 8/7 C