For the eponymous character, see August Heart.

"There hasn't been a speedster in Central City since that... crisis piece your mom wrote about, like, decades ago. I mean, Flash, Kid Flash, Jay Garrick, that—that weird purple speedster that just showed up one day. They're all gone."

—Lia Nelson to Nora West-Allen

"Godspeed" is the eighteenth episode of the fifth season of The Flash, and the one-hundred-tenth episode overall. It aired on April 16, 2019.

Synopsis

After discovering that Nora is working with Thawne, Barry and Iris disagree about how to handle their daughter in the wake of this shocking news. Team Flash isn't sure they can trust Nora, so they go through her journal to find out exactly how she came to work alongside their greatest nemesis.[src]

Plot

Barry is enraged about Nora's treachery and takes it out on Sherloque, mad at him for not telling everyone else sooner. At Ralph's suggestion, they take a look at Nora's journal to learn the truth.

In 2049, Nora is late to a crime scene: a robbed chemical truck. At the scene, Nora concludes that the perpetrator picked the lock on the truck, disabled the camera and got what he came for before a failsafe chemical in the camera could knock him out.

Back at CCPD, Nora shares her theory with her lab-mate Lia that a speedster was responsible for the theft, despite the fact that all known speedsters haven't been seen since 2024. Nora checks the Flash Museum, formerly S.T.A.R. Labs, for clues when she picks a call from her mom - Iris. Unfortunately, the museum closes before she can find out what she needs.

Lia calls Nora over to another lab where on old teacher of the former's helps them figure out what the chemicals are used for. On their way out, the speedster speeds in and takes more chemicals. He declares himself to be the God of Speed.

The speedster fires lightning at Nora, launching her against a metal rack and knocking her out. She wakes up in the hospital, where Lia shows her a small piece of metal that was in her shoulder. After goofing around with Nora's powers in the lab, she fails in her first outing as a superhero. To figure out the speedster (dubbed "Godspeed" by Lia) is up to, Nora decides to speak to another villainous speedster. Nora goes to Iron Heights Prison to see Thawne, who quickly figures out Nora is a new speedster, but will not help her.

Back at the lab, Lia tells Nora she didn't get her powers from Godspeed's attack — the piece of metal in Nora's shoulder was a power-dampener made by S.T.A.R. Labs 25 years ago. Concluding that her mother put the chip in her, Nora is torn about whether she can trust her ever again. The two are having coffee when they figure out the last component Godspeed needs to utilize what he already stole. They check the only lab in the city that has the chemical. Godspeed shows up, but Nora is no match for him. He defeats Nora, kills Lia, and leaves with the chemical.

In present day, the Team reads that Nora's closest friend died in her arms. Iris sees the second chance Nora gave her in spite of what she did in the future. In return, Iris does the same and releases Nora from the Pipeline, despite Barry's objections.

Back in 2049, Nora confronts Iris about the power-dampening chip. She later learns Godspeed's real name is August Heart. After visiting the Flash Museum once again, she realizes that Godspeed is trying to recreate Velocity 9 and make its effects permanent. She goes to see Thawne again, who finally agrees to help her. He leads her to a lab that has the device Godspeed needs to stabilize his Velocity 9.

Godspeed arrives and Nora manages to get a power-dampener cuff on him. Unfortunately, Godspeed uses another dose of Velocity 9, allowing him to break free of the cuff. After a chase around the city, at Thawne's recommendation, Nora leads Godspeed before a satellite, which immediately destabilizes the Velocity 9 in his system. She goes to Iron Heights to celebrate with Thawne. She asks him to train her just to discover he's on death row. Instead, Thawne directs her to the Time Vault in the Flash Museum, where she finds a video her dad left before he vanished in the Crisis.

In the present day, Nora tries to explain herself. Barry asks everyone for a moment alone with Nora. Despite understanding why she went to Thawne for help, he reiterates that he doesn't trust her after she lied about working with him. He takes her back to 2049, warning her that he will know if she comes back to his time through the Speed Force.

Barry confronts Thawne in Iron Heights, who tells the former not to blame his daughter for what happened. Barry speeds off, leaving Thawne closer to death row.

Cast

Starring

• Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash
• Candice Patton as Iris West-Allen
• Danielle Panabaker as Dr. Caitlin Snow
• Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon
• Hartley Sawyer as Ralph Dibny
• Danielle Nicolet as District Attorney Cecile Horton
• Jessica Parker Kennedy as Nora West-Allen/XS
• Tom Cavanagh as Sherloque Wells and Eobard Thawne
• Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West

Guest starring

• Kathryn Gallagher as Lia Nelson
• BD Wong as Godspeed (voice)

Co-starring

• Ese Atawo as Detective Frankie Curtis
• Kindall Charters as August Heart
• Fraser Corbett as Bank Guard
• Garry Garneau as Uni #1
• Everick Golding as Trevor Shinick
• Robert Picardo as Dexter Myles
• Andy Thompson as Dr. Bruce Bonwit

Uncredited

• Ryan Handley as Godspeed and Zoom (archive footage)
• Tony Todd as Zoom (voice; archive audio)
• Allison Paige as Trajectory (archive footage)

Trivia

• The title is a reference to DC: Rebirth comics speedster named Godspeed.
• This is the second episode in the fifth season of The Flash in which Grant Gustin doesn't have a lead role, with "Cause and XS" being the first one.
• This is the first episode of the season where Chris Klein (Orlin Dwyer) is not credited in the main cast bill, due to the death of his character in "Time Bomb", the previous episode.
• Danielle Panabaker makes her directional debut in this episode.
  • Panabaker revealed that the most challenging thing to direct was Nora's backstory. She stated: "creating a world 30 years in the future on a TV episodic budget. It allowed everyone to be really creative and really push themselves, but it was certainly a challenge."^[1]
• Most of the episode takes place in 2049.
• Lia Nelson mentioned that there was a speedster with purple lightning who briefly operated Central City. The identity of the speedster is unknown, but it's presumed that she's talking about Iris when the latter was briefly given Barry's powers in "Run, Iris, Run".
• This episode includes many references to Season 1, especially "Pilot":
  • At the beginning of the flash-forwards, Nora is seen running late to a crime scene she's supposed to investigate, similar to Barry in the pilot.
  • Nora gets knocked into a shelf full of chemicals by Godspeed, rendering her unconscious. This is similar to what happened to Barry when he was struck by lightning in "Pilot" and gained powers.
  • After getting struck by lightning, Nora wakes up at the hospital, while we see Lia from her point of view and the song "Poker Face" plays in the background. The same thing happened to Barry in "Pilot" when he woke up in S.T.A.R. Labs with the same song playing, from Cisco and Caitlin's point of view.
  • The way Nora catches the power-dampening chip is similar to how Barry caught the coffee cup at Jitters in "Pilot".
  • The first time she used her super speed, Nora accidentally runs into a truck with the name of Gambi, getting confused about what just happened. The same thing happened to Barry in "Pilot".
  • When trying to teach Nora how to phase, Eobard gave her the exact same speech he gave to Barry while teaching him how to phase in "Tricksters".
  • At the end of the flashforwards, Eobard is seen drinking a Big Belly Burger cup, which is the same drink he used to have many times throughout Season 1.
  • The way Nora responded to Gideon when they first meet is exactly the same as how Barry reacted to Gideon when he first met her in "The Trap".
    • It's also the same as when Sherloque first interacts with Gideon in "Memorabilia".
  • Nora's murder board in her investigation of Cicada's identity is similar to the board Barry kept up in his lab when trying to find out who the Man in Yellow was in order to prove that his mother hadn't been murdered by his father.
• In the Time Vault, Gideon pulled up a video filmed by Barry. Though Barry's face takes up most of the screen, a red sky looms ominously in the background. The sounds of a battle rage around him; Oliver Queen can even be heard shouting indistinctly. At one point, something off-screen flashes and causes Barry to flinch. Red skies, of course, are significant to the Anti-Monitor Crisis event where Iris also noted red skies as well as Barry, Oliver, and other heroes being present amid the chaos in her article.
  • This is also a reference to Marv Wolfman and George Perez's DC comics event Crisis on Infinite Earths; when the sky turns red, it heralds the death of the multiverse.
• The footage of Zoom that Nora watched at the Flash Museum was taken from "Rupture".
• When Nora's hurrying to a crime scene, she bumps into someone, and then apologizes, saying she's "really late for an important date", possibly referring to a quote by the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.
• The way Nora began to see Thawne, who is incarcerated at Iron Heights, to ask his help to catch Godspeed, is very similar to the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs.
• On his profile, August Heart was fired from Mercury Labs after being found guilty of administering Tachyon stimulants to 17 different comatose patients. This is a reference to his comic book Rebirth storyline, in which a Speed Force storm gave a whole bunch of people (including August) speedster abilities, to which Godspeed then kills them all to take their speed.
  • Also on August Heart's profile, his birth date is August 16, 2021, a reference to his first appearance in the Flash Rebirth, which was released August 2016.
• A Flash comic is shown on Nora's desk in her office, issue #172 when Cicada tries stealing Wally West's speed using his Speed Force daggers. This marks the second time that the comic is shown, the first being in "Memorabilia".
• One of the nicknames that Lia gives Nora is "Lady-Flash". In the main DC comics, Lady Flash's real name was Ivana Christina Borodin Molotova, a speedster from Russia.
• Nora visits Ollins Laboratories, a reference to the Firestorm comic issue #19 (January,1984), in which the lab was testing a drug called "Nuvafed" on Fred Delmar, turning him into Goldenrod.
• In the storage room, Nora picks up a box labeled "Flash suit version 16" with Choi Industries on it, referencing Ryan Choi, the future version of the Atom.
  • Nora previously mentioned in "Nora" that Choi designed the Flash suit that she brought from the future.
  • In addition, a Choi Enterprises building was briefly shown when Nora fought Godspeed.
• Iris in 2049 is in Coast City for the majority of the episode, which in the comics is the home of the Silver Age version of Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern.
• In the storage room in 2049, the Killer Frost, Vibe, and Kid Flash costumes can be seen.
• Barry warns Nora that he'll sense her in the Speed Force if she tries to come back, a reference to when Jay Garrick stopped him when he tried to travel back in time again in "Paradox".
• After Nora destroys several cop cars, one of the cops states that, "Captain Frye is gonna be mad", a reference to the New 52 Flash comic book run, where Captain Darrel Fryre was captain of the CCPD.
• Nora tries to apprehend two robbers Bug and Byte, who in the comics, are a brother-sister criminal duo and enemies of Firestorm. They appeared in The Fury of Firestorm #23 and #24.
• Godspeed conducted his experiments at the "Tracy Brand" building, a reference to Tracy Brand from season three.
• Nora defeats Godspeed at Central City Citizen Media, which was originally Iris's newspaper article building.
• Even though she isn't a villian, Detective Curtis is the tenth case of genderbending on the show, after Bug-Eyed Bandit, Dr. Light, Top, Black Bison, The Fiddler, Null, Spencer Young, Josslyn Jackham, Raya Van Zandt.
• It is revealed that the countdown in Eobard's cell is the time he has left before his execution.

Goofs

• It's noted that no speedster other than Godspeed has white lightning. However, Savitar's lightning was white whenever he wore his suit.
  • However, when Savitar ran without his armor, his lightning was yellow, meaning that Savitar's lightning wasn't actually white; it just looked that way because of the way it reflected off of his armor, as stated by Tracy Brand.
• An intelligent CSI like Lia would know the way to open a drum with a lock-ring closure is to loosen the bolt on the lid ring. Instead, she wastes valuable time trying to pry the lid off with a bung wrench, which is useless for either approach, as it is designed to open an entirely different type of drum.

References

The Flash season 5

"Nora" • "Blocked" • "The Death of Vibe" • "News Flash" • "All Doll'd Up" • "The Icicle Cometh" • "O Come, All Ye Thankful" • "What's Past is Prologue" • "Elseworlds, Part 1" • "The Flash & The Furious" • "Seeing Red" • "Memorabilia" • "Goldfaced" • "Cause and XS" • "King Shark vs. Gorilla Grodd" • "Failure is an Orphan" • "Time Bomb" • "Godspeed" • "Snow Pack" • "Gone Rogue" • "The Girl With The Red Lightning" • "Legacy"