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So in season 2, episode 7 of The Flash ("Gorilla Warfare"), the ginormous, hyper-intelligent gorilla Grodd makes a comeback. The heroes (mainly Caitlin) discover that he really just wants the company of other hyper-intelligent apes like him, and the Wells from Earth 2 informs them that he knows of a way to send Grodd to a place on Earth 2 where he will be in good company.

So - especially given that Grodd clearly trusted Caitlin - couldn't they just have had Caitlin explain their plan to Grodd instead of trying to trick him and then violently/forcibly coercing him into the singularity without explaining anything to him? I mean... Grodd was pretty darn intelligent, and clearly capable of reasoning (and of listening when other people tried to reason with him, as Caitlin did).

So why was it necessary to use trickery and violence to get him through the singularity instead of fully explaining the situation right off the bat to see whether he would cooperate more peacefully before they resorted to violence?

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    Because everyone in this show carries an idiot ball the size of Harry's ego.
    – cde
    Nov 6, 2016 at 3:21
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    I think at that point though, the scoobies no longer see Grodd as a normal person, but a dangerous villain, after the incident with Grodd using the General as an armed attack dog. Would you try to reason with an anger prone giant ape that can take over your mind, who has trust issues due to being tested and used for military projects?
    – cde
    Nov 6, 2016 at 5:06
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    @cde IIRC, they have some devices (earplugs or something similar) to counteract his mind control. Your first comment, however, was spot on.
    – Vedran Šego
    Nov 6, 2016 at 13:41
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    I don't think it is anything specific with the show. Writers and producers do this all the time, I assume because an exciting climax is considered to be what audience wants, versus just a talking it out.
    – Paul
    Nov 6, 2016 at 16:51
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    I agree, it was a dumb plot. Like all the apes on Earth-2 are gonna be THRILLED that a really pissed off super ape got unwillingly dumped on their doorstep!
    – Jason K
    Nov 8, 2016 at 15:23

2 Answers 2

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I suspect they thought that there was a risk that, if Grodd knew the plan and decided against going along with it, he'd be far better prepared to counter the suddenly necessary physical version of the plan. Suppose the super-intelligent gorilla with mental powers decided he didn't want to be removed from his home universe?

A surprise attack may have seemed less risky in terms of success. After all, it's better to seek forgiveness than ask permission.

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If they did that then they ran the risk of him playing mind tricks on them. I seem to recall that every time they got near him, he'd attempt to mess with them - so why take the chance?

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  • As you can read in the comments on the question, they had ways to counteract that. That combined with the fact that Grodd tended to listen to Caitlin without trying to mind-control her? The mind-control thing definitely wasn't an issue in terms of trying to talk him down.
    – ghostdog
    Apr 25, 2017 at 23:13

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