Last week’s episode of The Flash concluded with the reveal that Grodd had somehow captured Gypsy, which in turn has now allowed him to make his way to Earth-1 along with his army of gorillas. “Attack on Central City” serves as the conclusion to this anticipated 2-episode event, and also aims to address Jesse Quick’s choice to stay on Earth-2 with Wally West. While “Attack on Gorilla City” wasn’t great, it seemed like a good kick off to a potentially excited and awesome finale in its second part. Unfortunately, “Attack on Central City” doesn’t live up to the hype.

Cisco vibes into the future of Grodd’s attack

“Attack on Central City” does have its strong parts, more so in its character moments. Tom Cavanagh continues to impress in playing duo roles as both Earth-2 Harrison Wells and Earth-19 HR. It’s enjoyable to watch the two characters interact and see how completely different they are from one another. Cisco further establishes his power set, this time vibing into the future to see when and where Grodd’s army will attack. Cisco also had some interesting moments with Gypsy, convincing her to stand by their side in the battle against Grodd. Unfortunately his efforts seemed all for naught, as Gypsy did not play that big of a role in the episode’s “climatic” conclusion.

The relationship between Wally and Jesse stole the episode in the some ways, as their dilemma seemed more compelling at times than the attack at hand. Some humor could be taken away from Wells attempting to guilt trip Wally into asking Jesse to remain on Earth-2 by stating he’s dying. This was a lie of course and Jesse saw right through it. By the end of the episode it seems everything works out well with Wally and Jesse relationship-wise, though the episode’s final scene isn’t exactly a happy one, but I’ll delve into that further down.

What was most disappointing about “Attack on Central City” was the actual attack on Central City. Realizing this is a CW television series and knowing there probably isn’t much in the budget to produce a true worthwhile Gorilla battle, I do feel like the climax could have been a lot better. The battle simply resorted to seeing a bunch of CG-animated armored Gorillas standing around while the blurs of Jesse Quick and Kid Flash moved around them. It felt pretty lazy. Additionally, the fight between Grodd and The Flash was cut short due to the arrival of Solivar, who was brought to Earth-1 by Cisco and Gypsy. The climax did pick up the pace at this point, seeing the two gorillas battle it out in order for one to retake control of Gorilla City, but it didn’t make up for the events that preceded.

Getting help from Gypsy

Overall, “Attack on Central City” wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped. As stated before, there were some strong character moments and also there were a few moments which further established how truly menacing Grodd really is, whether it be the scene where he took control of Joe West, nearly killing him, or taking control of a Colonel with access to nuclear missiles. Other than these saving graces, “Attack on Central City” was forgettable and didn’t live up to what was promised.

Two major elements did occur in the episode conclusion. One being Barry’s proposal to Iris. The other being Wally seeing Savitar in the streets of Central City on his way to get some Big Belly Burger. Not knowing what next week’s episode has in store, it would seem Wally was in some serious trouble at that very moment, but judging from the promos for next week’s episode this projection of Savitar may have only been in Wally’s head or may possibly be using Wally as conduit to get free. We won’t know until next week’s episode “The Wrath of Savitar” premieres. In the mean time, check out The CW’s official trailer for the upcoming episode below and feel free to let us know what you thought of “Attack on Central City” in the comments.