This week on The Flash, we see some familiar faces. Godspeed returns and so does Hartley Rathaway a.k.a. Pied Piper. And all of this happens while Team Flash is trying to deal with last week’s revelations about the Mirrorverse. So let’s start there.
In Central City
The episode opens with Barry, scared and upset, sneaking into Joe’s WITSEC home. Barry just needs to vent for a bit and tells Joe that he should have seen this sooner. For all the times that Barry and Iris have been pulled apart by metas or had their lives threatened, Barry seems really rattled by this.
It doesn’t get easier when Barry tells the rest of the team about the Mirrorverse and the clones. When Cisco finds out Kamilla is a clone, he flips out. He’s upset that Kamilla isn’t Kamilla and he’s upset that Barry doesn’t have a plan. It hurts to lose those you truly love and Barry and Cisco are both clearly showing that pain.
Without a plan, or even an idea for a plan, Barry goes back to working on the artificial speed force. Then out of nowhere, Godspeed rushes in and tries to steal Barry’s speed using a combination of speed and vibrations, creating thunder. Unlike the previous Godspeed, this one can talk, rather than just make high-pitched whirring noises. Godspeed keeps saying that “We need your speed”, but no one knows who “we” is. Nash comes in just in time with a blaster that sends Godspeed away. After Barry fills the rest of the team in on what happened, they decide they should ask Hartley Rathaway for help since sound is his area of expertise.
Unfortunately, in this post-Crisis world, Hartley hates Team Flash. In this timeline, Barry accidentally hurt Hartley’s right-hand man, Roderick, during their fight on the bridge, causing his molecules to destabilize. Since then Roderick has been at Mercury Labs in a special containment unit. Hartley, who also knows everyone’s secret identities in this timeline, agrees to help Team Flash defeat Godspeed if Team Flash can help put Roderick back together. But ultimately, their first attempt at healing Roderick fails and Hartley says, “Don’t ask me for anything. My world is over.” and storms out.
Defeated, Barry goes back to working on the speed force and Cisco goes back to finding a way into the Mirrorverse. But there’s a pep talk coming. Nash goes to Barry and tells him that he too, has been through trauma as The Pariah in Crisis and while dealing with Thawne and reminds him that he can save Iris but he also has to forgive himself. Meanwhile, Cecile tells Cisco that his real superpower is his brain and that he can still do the impossible without being Vibe or having Kamilla by his side. I love that Cecile has become Team Flash’s mom this season. This is enough to get the two of them out of their heads and back on the task of helping Roderick and defeating Godspeed. In a moment of realization, Barry understands that Roderick is Hartley’s boyfriend and uses that to give Hartley a pep talk of his own.
When Godspeed returns, he threatens to kill someone every sixty seconds if The Flash doesn’t hand over his speed. Barry doesn’t have much speed left but he also doesn’t have much of a choice. He has to try. After Barry’s pep talk, Hartly decides to join Barry in the fight against Godspeed. The two of them work together and recreate the accident that hurt Roderick, combining lightning and sonic sound. Ultimately, this causes the villain to fall and they find “charged sound” leaking out of Godspeed’s body, which they collect and use to save Roderick and put his molecules back together.
Yes, Team Flash defeated a Godspeed, it wasn’t the real one either. Once Barry got him to Iron Heights, he started chirping like the others about infinite velocity. Now for the Barry Allen Pre-Season Finale Speech. Barry gathers everyone in the cortex and reminds them all that they’ve lost a lot this year but they can still do anything if they have faith in themselves and in each other. But Eva McCulloch has never faced Team Flash head on and that’s all about to change. Cisco also announces that he has found a way into the Mirrorverse but he needs to go to Atlantis to get what he needs.
Meanwhile, Frost is still recovering and is preparing to go see Carla at Tanhauser. Life Coach Ralph checks in with her and tells her that she is just as valuable to the team as Caitlin. Even though Frost is nervous to meet Carla, Ralph assures her that that’s a normal reaction to meeting parents.
In The Mirrorverse
Back in the Mirrorverse, Iris still can’t believe that Eva tricked her. Not only that but her headaches are getting worse and she’s begun getting really anxious as she begins to suffer the neural dissonance Eva warned her about. Thankfully though, Iris finds Kamilla, who has been looking at data but can’t make sense of it. Kamilla tells Iris to forgive herself for letting Eva trick her so they can focus on finding a way out.
