Title: The Flash: “Godspeed” Review
Release Date: April 16th, 2019
Network: The CW
Genre: Superhero, Drama, Action
I have mixed opinions on this episode as a whole and some of those mixed opinions are focused on our newest speedster, Godspeed.
For starters, his suit and everything in the episode looked absolutely fantastic. It’s probably in my top 3 Flash suits alongside Reverse-Flash and The Once and Future Flash suit from season 3. The only possible nitpick here is the eyes. I would have preferred they be yellow or some kind of glow to them other than the strange, almost alien-like, eyes we got. Again, completely nitpicking but overall, Godspeed looked amazing from a visual perspective.
As a character, all I can say is that I hope we see more. I’m glad that he’s still August Heart and the series didn’t twist this into someone deeply connected to Team Flash like Eddie Thawne or Julian. Unfortunately, I could not find out who portrayed Godspeed outside of the suit. Whoever it was, he didn’t have much to go off of so it’s hard to judge his performance. It looks like BD Wong (Jurassic World, Gotham) voiced Godspeed and hopefully, he sticks around. Tony Todd is the voice of Zoom and that’s one of the many reasons why fans loved that character so much. Despite Godspeed’s short amount of screentime, the speedster still sounded intimidating and that’s because of BD Wong (the suit helped too).
Full disclosure, I watch this series with my brother each week and I want to publicly apologize to him because I may have gotten a little too excited when Godspeed showed up (keywords there are “may have”). From what I’ve seen so far, the character has a ton of potential and has a stunning costume. This was a decent introduction but The Flash has to use this character more often in the future. Don’t let him be the next version of The Rival. That’s all I ask.
The way Godspeed was taken down was a problem for me. This was Nora’s first villain and Godspeed was beaten fairly easily there at the end. Granted, Eobard Thawne was helping Nora but still. Could you imagine if Barry had fought (and defeated) someone like Savitar in the pilot episode? That would have been insanely dumb. Here’s my prediction so we can move onto the other major aspects of this episode. I think Eobard is going to somehow use/team up with Godspeed in order to break out of prison. This would re-establish August as a big threat and make Eobard look like the cunning mastermind that he has been known to be over the show’s entire run.
“Godspeed” was essentially Nora’s pilot episode. There were a ton of callbacks here from Nora being late at the start of the episode to the Poker Face scene to Eobard’s classic “Run…Barry…Run” phrase. Some of it worked completely. Some parts didn’t land. No big deal. Personally, I’m just ecstatic that they brought Velocity 9 back into the series somehow. I thought they forgot about that after season 2. There were some cool easter eggs from the Flash Museum as well.
There have been quite a few Barry-less episodes this season and, somehow, The Flash hasn’t fallen off the rails. Maybe some people think differently but I think Nora is a great addition to the main cast. I also think Jessica Parker Kennedy is an amazing actress and that’s another reason why The Flash season 5 hasn’t lost steam yet.
So, here is the gist of Nora’s origin story. She finds an evil speedster, discovers that she secretly has superpowers since birth, accidentally gets her best friend killed, and teams up with the one man responsible for so much heartache in her family. This is all so she can spend time with her dad and possibly find a way to save him from “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. As origin stories go, XS definitely fits as a comic book superhero. It also ties in nicely with Nora’s hatred of Iris in the early half of this season. Nora had just lost her best friend and thought that if she had been a speedster for her whole life, she would have been prepared in that situation and stopped Godspeed.
Her best friend, by the way, had a few similar traits to Cisco. At one point, I thought maybe that she was his daughter but after watching her get brutally murdered by Godspeed, I really hope she wasn’t. Well, the Ramons are familiar with the old hand through the chest trick.
Another negative this week goes to Iris’ makeup in the future. I wanted to get invested in her scenes with Nora but I couldn’t get over the fact that Iris didn’t look that much older, other than the few gray streaks in her hair. With Arrow and now The Flash doing future scenes like this, the makeup for these older versions of our heroes could use some work.
Finally, I want to get into all of the stuff surrounding The Flash himself. The trio of Grant Gustin, Tom Cavanagh, and Jessica Parker Kennedy are just excellent in every scene they share with one another. Gustin had this look of heartbreak and betrayal throughout the episode, giving you a sense of how many times he’s fallen for this ruse. Barry’s just sick of it and he never expected his daughter to be the next person to lie to him like that. All of that emotion just boiled over with the after credits scene, where Barry just loses it on Eobard Thawne. Make no mistake, these two are on a collision course sometime soon and it is sure to be epic.
Take that anger you saw from Barry in the present day and then watch the message Barry sent to Nora in the time vault. It’s still meant to be heartbreaking but in a polar opposite sort of way. Excellently executed and seriously, Danielle Panabaker did a great job directing this episode.
Verdict: Ultimately, “Godspeed” is a well put-together episode of The Flash that focuses on Nora’s origin and how she teamed up with Eobard. Despite a few missteps, it was a compelling arc and a fitting origin story for XS. The only major issue this week is with Godspeed himself but that’s only due to my worry that he’ll be relegated to a one-off character or a joke in future appearances. My hope is that those in the writers’ room see that the Godspeed character is massively popular and worth investing in as a major threat for future seasons.
The Flash: “Godspeed” Review
Nora’s origin story
Grant Gustin, Jessica Parker Kennedy, and Tom Cavanagh
Godspeed’s suit looked awesome and he sounded intimidating. Still has a ton of potential for future appearances
Callbacks and easter-eggs
Worried that Godspeed was either a one-off villain of the week or will be relegated to a one-episode per season character
Not all of the callbacks landed as some felt forced
Iris looks no different in the future
