But if so, it’ll be in spite of his underwhelming debut this week. Maybe Godspeed still has the potential to be a major foe for Team Flash. I’d like to think that you don’t cast Wong as your voice actor if he’s only ever going to be used for a handful of lines. We can only hope that the writers do actually have bigger plans for Godspeed despite the way he was handled here.
Why bring a character as significant and as ripe with potential as Godspeed if he’s just going to be treated as a throwaway, one-off villain? The series is running low on new speedsters to draw from as it is, so why waste the character when any number of random villains could have filled his place? This is the one area where the episode really stumbled.
Here, he’s basically a mash-up of Zoom and Savitar - just a guy with a Velocity-9 addiction and delusions of grandeur. In the comics, he’s a childhood friend of Barry’s who gains speed powers as an adult and ventures down a more morally dubious path than his friend. For those who don’t keep up with DC’s current comics, Godspeed is one of the more recent speedster villains added to Barry’s rogues gallery. The big question coming into this episode was how Godspeed (played by Kindall Charters and voiced by BD Wong) would factor into the plot. His few scenes really highlighted the ruthless nature of the character, as he seemed completely oblivious to the way he shredded the relationship between Nora and Barry. Even Sherloque stood out more than usual. There was a terrific blend of cold menace and fatherly affection in his interactions with Nora. Cavanagh had plenty of great material to work with here, as Thawne faced the end of his long, twisted life even as he found an unexpected chance to pick up where he left off with Barry all those years ago. No matter how many incarnations of Harrison Wells he plays, the original “Thawne as Wells” will always be the gold standard.
This was a great episode for Cavanagh in general.
Even after five seasons, Tom Cavanagh knows how to elicit chills with a simple “Run,, run.”
There were a number of fun throwbacks to Season 1 along the way, most notably with Thawne coaching Nora on how to tap into her full potential and beat her enemy. Focusing on Nora’s backstory allowed the series to really get back to basics and spotlight a young hero learning her way around the Speed Force. Which is a funny thing to say considering that it focuses on a completely different protagonist and time period, but it’s true. Undoubtedly the best thing about “Godspeed” is how much this episode felt like a throwback to Season 1-era Flash. Though between Nora’s time-meddling and Oliver Queen’s intention to sacrifice himself, will Barry even need to record that video in the end? That’s a terrific seed to plant this far ahead of time. The red skies in the background suggest as much, anyway. Speaking of which, it appears the show is teasing the upcoming “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover with that video. It’s another to see her make that discovery and to watch her react to the farewell video Barry left her. It’s one thing to hear about her troubled childhood as a fatherless girl who didn’t even know she had powers.
This episode’s biggest success on the Nora front was in shining a brighter light on her motivations for wanting to be a speedster and craving a meeting with her father. But regardless of expectations, the end result was a largely satisfying episode that did a great deal to flesh out Nora and her relationship with Thawne. Instead, what we actually got was more of an extended origin story for Nora, one punctuated by a dash of the West-Allen family drama teased in the trailer. The series seemed to be building to a big showdown between Nora and Team Flash, with Eobard Thawne stepping out of the shadows and making his presence known again. This week’s Flash episode is one of those cases where the trailer wasn’t a very good indicator of what to expect. If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our review for Season 5, Episode 17. Warning: Full spoilers for The Flash Season 5, Episode 18 below.