Entertainment

Gorilla Grodd Gets a New Origin on 'The Flash'

by Emma Lord

The past of Harrison Wells seems to leak out bit by bit as The Flash goes on, and another revelation came on Tuesday night as we learned Harrison Wells may be responsible for the creation of Gorilla Grodd. A flashback to five years ago at S.T.A.R. labs shows Harrison and General Eiling arguing over what we all assume at first is a human, ending with Harrison declaring that he won't let Eiling "hurt him anymore." By "him," it turns out Harrison means the radioactive, super-intelligent gorilla that will eventually become one of Barry Allen's most notorious villains.

This is certainly an interesting twist on Gorilla Grodd's origin story — the villain originally had his DNA altered when an alien spacecraft crashed into his home in Africa, causing him and several other gorillas to mutate and gain a crazy amount of brain to go with their brawn, and even the ability to move things with their minds. I can see why the writers of The Flash probably wouldn't want to go into detail about how the alien that crashed into them formed Gorilla City, and that Grodd overthrew the alien and then become hell-bent on taking over the world, because as intriguing as all of that sounds, it might not make sense to be cutting to the jungle every five minutes. It appears that like many of the characters on this show, Gorilla Grodd's story is getting a fresh new makeover.

This leaves us with a few questions that are bound to be answered sometime in the next few episodes. What exactly did Harrison and Eiling do to Gorilla Grodd? Where has be been all this time? Was he a "meta-gorilla" before the metahumans started taking over Central City? Now that they've gone to the trouble of introducing him it seems impossible that this is the last we're going to see of Gorilla Grodd, but if he's got a bone to pick with Barry or Harrison, he better take a number behind all the other metahumans trying to take them down. Honestly, what does a 25-year-old who can't get drunk gotta do to catch a break?

Image: Jack Rowand/The CW