The Flash S05E18 Review: Oh My God

The Flash, Season 5, Episode 18: Godspeed

I have been really behind on CW shows. Things have been... things have been really hectic on my end, and as such due to circumstances, while I was able to write a fair bit -- hence why reviews and longer articles keep showing up -- I have no time to actually watch said episodes, y'know? Throw in hiatuses here and there, and I just... I just sort of fell off.

And this episode, "Godspeed", is... it's a well-done, if pretty narratively obvious episode. It's one that's neat because it feels different, and the direction with some obvious but not too on-the-nose homages to Barry's first day as the Flash is pretty neat. Most of the episode is basically a flashback to the future (ah, time travel shows) to how Nora first got her speed while the cast is reading through the mysterious time journal or whatever.

And... and it's kind of pretty obvious? The episode is a pretty solid 45 minutes of television, the story is shown well, Godspeed (voiced by B.D. Wong of Gotham and Jurassic Park fame) is a pretty cool if bland villain, and while a lot of the events that happened -- Iris being a bitch, Nora and Iris's falling out, the archetypal "discover how powers work" storylines and Nora meeting the sketchy mentor in Eobard -- are pretty much things we could genuinely just infer from previous episodes, it's nice to have confirmation. Some of the details that we uncover are neat, like learning that Iris actually withheld information that Barry is the Flash, framing a lot of Nora's complaints about Iris in a harsher light.

The main storyline of Nora finding out about her powers is also pretty interesting. While working as a CSI alongside her doomed-backstory friend Lia, Nora ends up discovering the fact that a series of chemical thefts are being committed by Godspeed, who, despite all the hype built up around him, is just a flashy (heh) looking Power Ranger armoured villain that's doped up on a variation of Velocity-9. During the process of trying to prove that a speedster is behind all the crimes, Nora gets zapped by Godspeed's lightning, and appears to develop super-speed thanks to said accident. Of course, Godspeed's lightning didn't actually give Nora super-speed, but rather deactivated the power inhibitor chip, leading to the whole drama with Iris.

Lia gets killed because this is a superhero origin story, we get Nora fighting and arguing against Iris, and she eventually seeks help from the only person who seems to be honest with her, Eobard Thawne, in prison. It's... it's still a dumbass move, honestly, and as Barry notes, still doesn't excuse Nora going back and talking to Eobard as many times as she does especially when she learns of Eobard's true identity and the degree of his crimes, though.

Nora's situation is pretty interesting, being a variant of the first season's role of Harrison Wells mentoring Barry Allen's early days of being the Flash for an ulterior motive. This time, future Eobard is doing something similar, although being far more forthright that he's a supervillain, while giving the illusion of being helpless thanks to being in prison.

After the whole flashback sequence and a confirmation that the only reason Nora picked the year that Cicada attacked was because he (or she, rather) was "the one that got away", and we get to see Iris being very much willing to forgive and forget, even springing Nora from prison to give her a chance to explain herself. The ending of the episode is.... it's bizarre and uncharacteristically mean, in that Barry straight-up just banishes Nora back to the future without consulting Iris, with the random ass-pull of Speed Force sense abilities or something? I dunno. The rest of the episode, for all my complaints about it being predictable, was enjoyable enough, but this last sequence really feels like something that's another one of those "Barry forgets how to trust people" morals that, while more forgivable in Arrow since Oliver's more paranoid, is a lot less so in Flash.

It's enjoyable, honestly, but I genuinely feel like it doesn't really tell us too many real new revelations, and is just there to further the drama even further.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Godspeed, a.k.a. August Heart, is a relatively newly-introduced supervillain, formerly a colleague of Barry Allen who is out on a rampage to find his brother's killer, and eventually received super-speed due to a freak Speed Force storm. Posing as Barry's ally, August would use his Godspeed persona to kill and steal the speed of other speedsters created by the same Speed Force storm. This version of the character doesn't really share much other than name.
• Bug and Byte are a pair of minor Firestorm criminals, only while here they are just a pair of robbers with guns, in the comics are a pair of siblings with technology-related powers. Byte was able to command as well as turn herself into pure electricity, while Bug was able to do the same but with technology and computers. 
• Dayton Labs is a reference to Doom Patrol team leader Mento, a.k.a. Steve Dayton. 
• Throughout the first act of the episode, Iris is apparently in Coast City, home of Hal Jordan/Green Lantern.
• One of the names given by Lia, "Lady Flash", is actually the name of a minor Flash villain.