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Plot
John Diggle arrives in Central City with a weapon to help Barry stop the Godspeed War. Meanwhile, Allegra and Ultraviolet’s new bond following he surgery is put to the ultimate test, as Joe and Kristin Kramer are hunted by her former colleague.
The Flash comics of Joshua Williamson (use of Still Force and Godspeed characters), Ghostbusters (general design of the entropy trap), and The Most Dangerous Game (Joe and Kramer being hunted.)
Goofs
The official show summaries keep changing Kristen Kramer's name, spelling her first name with an "i" and an "e' (Kristin/Kristen).
Cecile mentions that it is the year 2021. However, the events of The Flash season 7 have taken place within a four week period following the events of 703, which was firmly set in mid-2020 based on the Season 6 episodes leading to the battle with Mirror Monarch.
Joe retrieves his oversize gun seemingly from nowhere during the final confrontation with Creyke.
It's a minor point, but the episode never addresses if Caitlin (who knows more about metahuman neurology than most) examined Diggle while he was in Central City or after his breakdown facing Godspeed.
Performances
It's always good to see David Ramsey as John Diggle and the scenes between him and Grant Gustin improve this episode immensely.
Flash Facts
The entropy trap which Diggle delivers is said to be a one-of-a-kind due to it being constructed from some unique Time Trapper tech. This is a reference to a classic villain from the Legion of Superheroes comics - a time-traveler from the future who became the Living Embodiment of Entropy. This also confirms that the Time Trapper exists in the Arrowverse.
August Heart is said to have worked for Dayton Labs' Central City branch in the future. In the DC Comics universe, Dayton Labs is a research facility owned by Dayton Industries - a company owned by the superhero Mento, who was part of the Doom Patrol.
Adam Kreyke claims to have the power to die over and over. There are a few DC Comics characters who have a similar power of immortality, but most of them (such as Resurrection Man and Multi-Man) gain a new superpower each time they die.
At the end of the episode, Nora West-Allen's lightning is only purple when it was purple and yellow in Season 5. This is believed to foreshadow that the newly introduced Bart Allen Jr. is her twin brother, as his lightning is yellow, like his father's.
In the original The Flash comics, Barry and Iris did have twins, a boy and a girl, who inherited Barry's powers, but they were named Dawn and Don and were known as the Tornado Twins.
Bart Allen Jr. desribes the Speed Lab as "crash." This is a future slang term from the comics, used by Impulse to describe good things.
Technobabble
The Godspeed War generates a build-up of electricity, shielding Central City from outside electrical signals, basically acting as a giant Faraday Cage. This prevents Cecile from calling Joe, who is outside of the city.
Adam Creyke is armed with an advanced pulse rifle and a scrambler program that prevents people close to him from using a phone.
The motion-detection plate on the entropy trap has a response time of a picosecond. The plasmatic wave it generates eliminates all entropy from any object or person, freezing it in time.
The metal band that Caitlin creates to replace Ultraviolet's mask is made of the same unique metal alloy, so her body won't reject it and it will still maintain the laryngeal structure.
Diggle confirms that the doctors at the neurology clinic in Gotham didn't find anything wrong with him physically.
Chester's algorithm confirms the Godspeeds are returning at an exponential rate.
Caitlin's scan of August Heart's brain and body show no sign of speed powers, organic or artificial. However, his neurological scans show severe memory degradation yet his somatic memory cells are still intact, but inactive. She says a nano dose of neurogenic dark matter might reactivate the cells, but the procedure is risky and it would still only restore his memory temporarily.
Dialogue Triumphs
Diggle: So you want to tell me what's really got you so upset that you're talking to your teammates like that? And don't tell me it's about some broken tech, Barry.
Barry: It's my daughter. Nora. Before she came to join us, she lived in the future. The exact time Godspeed's from.
Diggle: Okay, and with everything that's going on, you think it affects the future somehow?
Barry: Dig, if... If August Heart is here, what does that mean for Nora? And the future of our family? Is she okay? Will Iris and I still have a family? Is Nora even alive in the future anymore? (breathing heavily) Now all I want to do is run to and make sure Nora's okay. See with my own eyes that my daughter's safe. But I can't do that.
Diggle: Why not?
Barry: Dig, you know better than anyone what could happen if I did. Besides, man, with this civil war destroying the city staying here to fight is the right thing to do.
Diggle: No, it's not. Barry, I lived a long life here on this earth. I've been a spy, a vigilante, a soldier... hell, I've even been the Green Arrow. The most important job I've ever had is as a dad. And there's not a bullet I wouldn't take, there's not a timeline that I wouldn't risk changing if it meant protecting my family. I know that now. Lyla... my kids, they're my heart, man. My soul. My entire world. How far would I go for them? As far as it takes. Everything else be damned. Don't be afraid to do the same.
Continuity
The events of this episode take place sometime after the Batwoman episode Rebirth (B216) as Diggle makes reference to his clinic visit in Gotham City from that episode.
As the episode opens, the Godspeeds are randomly running around Central City attacking people when they aren't fighting each other.
Barry has another dream vision of Nora West-Allen, like the one in 715, where she tells him that the future is changing and something happened to their family.
Iris is still suffering from a sickness that has her confined to her and Barry's apartment.
Cecile hasn't heard from Joe since he left Central City with Kristen Kramer 8 hours earlier
Joe and Kramer are revealed to have escaped their exploding car and hide in the woods as Creyke hunts them.
Kramer recognized Creyke's attack coming because she knew what the light of his pulse rifle looked like.
Barry is said to have six broken ribs and internal bleeding after his latest battle with the Godspeeds, but he says he'll be fine after an hour thanks to his speed healing.
Barry tells the rest of the team about his vision of Nora and wonders if he should go to the future to check on her.
Diggle arrives from Star City with a device Cisco constructed - an entropy trap - which he thought might help with the Godspeeds.
Diggle volunteered to deliver the entropy trap personally, as he is still working with ARGUS.
Chester is aware of who John Diggle is (presumably having read up on previous Team Flash adventures) and says that he is a big fan.
Barry plans to use the entropy trap to catch a Godspeed so they can question him as to why the Godspeeds are fighting.
Caitlin heals Ultraviolet and says she won't need any more surgeries or bio-chip updates to live.
Ultraviolet plans to go after another Black Hole team right away. Allegra says that's stupid.
Ultraviolet asks Allegra to help her. Allegra agrees, but says they will only work to capture the Black Hole forces - not kill them - and that it will have to wait until after the Godspeed War is over. Ultraviolet agrees to those terms.
Barry attempts to lure the Godspeeds into the entropy trap by broadcasting one of their signals through the speakers built into his suit. They manage to catch one.
The Godspeed refuses to answer questions, which Diggle takes as a sign that he's a soldier and will talk when he is ready to volunteer information.
Diggle tells Cecile that ARGUS is aware of her empathy powers, despite her efforts to keep her status as a metahuman a secret.
Cecile tried to read the Godspeed but could only sense hatred and determination.
The Godspeed was trying to contact his other selves but was blocked by Allegra's powers.
The Godspeed finally speaks and reveals that he knows Barry Allen's secret identity.
Joe wants to flee and get back-up but Kramer wants to confront Adam Creyke.
Joe asks why Creyke would be trying to kill Kramer now when he tried to save her before. She says that he must not know who he is hunting, which gives Joe an idea.
The Godspeed reveals that there are two factions within the Godspeeds - those loyal to August Heart, who want to take Barry's speed and deliver it to him. The other Godspeeds wish to live freely, as they "did not ask to be born, but we do ask not to die" which is the inevitable fate of all the Godspeed clones.
The Godspeed reveals that the original August Heart has come to the present day from the future and the Godspeeds are trying to find him. It also says the only solution is to kill August Heart before he becomes Godspeed.
The Godspeed escapes after Barry refuses to help kill August Heart, thanks to Barry forgetting that the anti-meta safeguards in the Pipleine only work on naturally created metahumans - not artificial speedsters created by a Velocity drug.
The Godspeed also breaks the entropy trap, which can't be rebuilt as it was made using repurposed Time Trapper tech that ARGUS didn't have much of in their possession.
Barry snaps and yells at Chester when he says he can't fix the entropy trap. This prompts a lecture from Diggle.
Allegra overhears Diggle's speech about the importance of family and resolves to help Ultraviolet against Black Hole now.
Diggle references having been the Green Arrow for a time during Arrow Season 6.
Iris gave Cecile Nora's journal to search for information on August Heart. Cecile found mention of a few places Nora found that seemed personal to Heart which might be worth searching.
Barry agrees to let Cecile search for the original August Heart, but asks her to take Diggle and Allegra with her.
Cecile winds up going with Frost and Diggle, as Allegra isn't answering her texts for some reason.
John has a massive migraine, which he says is the worst one that he's ever had.
Cecile feels John's pain, describing it as like fighting a hurricane. She also claims to have sensed something behind the pain which felt infinite in power.
Barry tries to enter the Speed Force to visit Nora in 2049 but is ambushed by a mob of Godspeeds.
Barry is pulled out of the Speed Force by Deon Owens (aka The Still Force) who tells him that the Godspeeds are feeding on the Speed Force and that "big sis" (i.e. Nora Speed Force) has her hands full trying to deal with them.
Deon refuses to send Barry to the future, saying it is too risky until the Speed Force is done cleansing herself. Besides that, it is taking all of his strength to protect Iris, who is being pulled out of time by some outside force, which is causing her illness.
Deon promises to protect Iris, but tells Barry he's needed to fight the war in the present.
Diggle attacks the Godspeeds using a dose of nanites devised by Ray Palmer that neutralize superspeed. (The same nanites were used by Oliver Queen against Eobard Thawne in 122.)
Diggle has another headache, this time hearing a chorus of voices say "Worlds Await," over and over.
Frost saves Diggle while he is down.
Allegra is revealed to be tracking Ultraviolet, who ran off without her despite her promises to wait. She finds her in the middle of a massacre, critically wounded.
Ultraviolet has just enough time to curse Allegra for letting her die alone, but she says that she will not die afraid.
Ultraviolet's body dissolves into dust upon her death.
Frost, Diggle and Cecile check out the future site of Dayton Labs' as Nora's journal said August Heart worked there for a while in her time. That lab doesn't exist in the modern day, however.
They find a man they think is the original August Heart, but he's amnesiac and was only at the Dayton Labs site because he felt it was important for some reason.
Adam Creyke claims to have died 17 times and been reborn over and over.
Adam Creyke recognizes Kramer and asks who she really is, claiming that the real Kramer was killed during Operation Griffin.
Creyke defends his mercenary actions, saying he gave half of the money he earned back to the reservation they grew up on.
At Joe's urging, Kramer doesn't shoot Creyke.
Chester calculates they have 90 minutes before the next wave of Godspeeds.
The only thing Cecile can sense from August Heart is the same confusion and fear an amnesiac would have.
Chester tells Diggle to thank Cisco for the Time Trapper tech and to tell him that he's going to do what he can to repair it himself.
Diggle leaves Central City, telling Barry there's something he's been putting off for far too long and it nearly got him killed. This coincides with a quick flashback to A810 and Diggle's discovery of a glowing green object in the meteor that nearly hit him when he was loading his moving van.
Barry and Diggle hug before he leaves and Barry offers whatever help he can.
The mystery man confirms his name is August after Caitlin injects him with dark matter.
Cecile has still not gotten in touch with Joe at the episode's end.
Nora West-Allen appears and tells Barry she wouldn't have come to the past if it weren't important.
Nora points out that the fact that she is there is proof that Iris will be all-right, as is the person who traveled with her. This leads to the introduction of her brother, Bart Allen Jr.
The motion-detection plate on the entropy trap has a response time of a picosecond. The plasmatic wave it generates eliminates all entropy from any object or person, freezing it in time.
The metal band that Caitlin creates to replace Ultraviolet's mask is made of the same unique metal alloy, so her body won't reject it and it will still maintain the laryngeal structure.
Diggle confirms that the doctors at the neurology clinic in Gotham didn't find anything wrong with him physically.
Chester's algorithm confirms the Godspeeds are returning at an exponential rate.
Caitlin's scan of August Heart's brain and body show no sign of speed powers, organic or artificial. However, his neurological scans show severe memory degradation yet his somatic memory cells are still intact, but inactive. She says a nano dose of neurogenic dark matter might reactivate the cells, but the procedure is risky and it would still only restore his memory temporarily.
Dialogue Triumphs
Diggle: So you want to tell me what's really got you so upset that you're talking to your teammates like that? And don't tell me it's about some broken tech, Barry.
Barry: It's my daughter. Nora. Before she came to join us, she lived in the future. The exact time Godspeed's from.
Diggle: Okay, and with everything that's going on, you think it affects the future somehow?
Barry: Dig, if... If August Heart is here, what does that mean for Nora? And the future of our family? Is she okay? Will Iris and I still have a family? Is Nora even alive in the future anymore? (breathing heavily) Now all I want to do is run to and make sure Nora's okay. See with my own eyes that my daughter's safe. But I can't do that.
Diggle: Why not?
Barry: Dig, you know better than anyone what could happen if I did. Besides, man, with this civil war destroying the city staying here to fight is the right thing to do.
Diggle: No, it's not. Barry, I lived a long life here on this earth. I've been a spy, a vigilante, a soldier... hell, I've even been the Green Arrow. The most important job I've ever had is as a dad. And there's not a bullet I wouldn't take, there's not a timeline that I wouldn't risk changing if it meant protecting my family. I know that now. Lyla... my kids, they're my heart, man. My soul. My entire world. How far would I go for them? As far as it takes. Everything else be damned. Don't be afraid to do the same.
Continuity
The events of this episode take place sometime after the Batwoman episode Rebirth (B216) as Diggle makes reference to his clinic visit in Gotham City from that episode.
As the episode opens, the Godspeeds are randomly running around Central City attacking people when they aren't fighting each other.
Barry has another dream vision of Nora West-Allen, like the one in 715, where she tells him that the future is changing and something happened to their family.
Iris is still suffering from a sickness that has her confined to her and Barry's apartment.
Cecile hasn't heard from Joe since he left Central City with Kristen Kramer 8 hours earlier
Joe and Kramer are revealed to have escaped their exploding car and hide in the woods as Creyke hunts them.
Kramer recognized Creyke's attack coming because she knew what the light of his pulse rifle looked like.
Barry is said to have six broken ribs and internal bleeding after his latest battle with the Godspeeds, but he says he'll be fine after an hour thanks to his speed healing.
Barry tells the rest of the team about his vision of Nora and wonders if he should go to the future to check on her.
Diggle arrives from Star City with a device Cisco constructed - an entropy trap - which he thought might help with the Godspeeds.
Diggle volunteered to deliver the entropy trap personally, as he is still working with ARGUS.
Chester is aware of who John Diggle is (presumably having read up on previous Team Flash adventures) and says that he is a big fan.
Barry plans to use the entropy trap to catch a Godspeed so they can question him as to why the Godspeeds are fighting.
Caitlin heals Ultraviolet and says she won't need any more surgeries or bio-chip updates to live.
Ultraviolet plans to go after another Black Hole team right away. Allegra says that's stupid.
Ultraviolet asks Allegra to help her. Allegra agrees, but says they will only work to capture the Black Hole forces - not kill them - and that it will have to wait until after the Godspeed War is over. Ultraviolet agrees to those terms.
Barry attempts to lure the Godspeeds into the entropy trap by broadcasting one of their signals through the speakers built into his suit. They manage to catch one.
The Godspeed refuses to answer questions, which Diggle takes as a sign that he's a soldier and will talk when he is ready to volunteer information.
Diggle tells Cecile that ARGUS is aware of her empathy powers, despite her efforts to keep her status as a metahuman a secret.
Cecile tried to read the Godspeed but could only sense hatred and determination.
The Godspeed was trying to contact his other selves but was blocked by Allegra's powers.
The Godspeed finally speaks and reveals that he knows Barry Allen's secret identity.
Joe wants to flee and get back-up but Kramer wants to confront Adam Creyke.
Joe asks why Creyke would be trying to kill Kramer now when he tried to save her before. She says that he must not know who he is hunting, which gives Joe an idea.
The Godspeed reveals that there are two factions within the Godspeeds - those loyal to August Heart, who want to take Barry's speed and deliver it to him. The other Godspeeds wish to live freely, as they "did not ask to be born, but we do ask not to die" which is the inevitable fate of all the Godspeed clones.
The Godspeed reveals that the original August Heart has come to the present day from the future and the Godspeeds are trying to find him. It also says the only solution is to kill August Heart before he becomes Godspeed.
The Godspeed escapes after Barry refuses to help kill August Heart, thanks to Barry forgetting that the anti-meta safeguards in the Pipleine only work on naturally created metahumans - not artificial speedsters created by a Velocity drug.
The Godspeed also breaks the entropy trap, which can't be rebuilt as it was made using repurposed Time Trapper tech that ARGUS didn't have much of in their possession.
Barry snaps and yells at Chester when he says he can't fix the entropy trap. This prompts a lecture from Diggle.
Allegra overhears Diggle's speech about the importance of family and resolves to help Ultraviolet against Black Hole now.
Diggle references having been the Green Arrow for a time during Arrow Season 6.
Iris gave Cecile Nora's journal to search for information on August Heart. Cecile found mention of a few places Nora found that seemed personal to Heart which might be worth searching.
Barry agrees to let Cecile search for the original August Heart, but asks her to take Diggle and Allegra with her.
Cecile winds up going with Frost and Diggle, as Allegra isn't answering her texts for some reason.
John has a massive migraine, which he says is the worst one that he's ever had.
Cecile feels John's pain, describing it as like fighting a hurricane. She also claims to have sensed something behind the pain which felt infinite in power.
Barry tries to enter the Speed Force to visit Nora in 2049 but is ambushed by a mob of Godspeeds.
Barry is pulled out of the Speed Force by Deon Owens (aka The Still Force) who tells him that the Godspeeds are feeding on the Speed Force and that "big sis" (i.e. Nora Speed Force) has her hands full trying to deal with them.
Deon refuses to send Barry to the future, saying it is too risky until the Speed Force is done cleansing herself. Besides that, it is taking all of his strength to protect Iris, who is being pulled out of time by some outside force, which is causing her illness.
Deon promises to protect Iris, but tells Barry he's needed to fight the war in the present.
Diggle attacks the Godspeeds using a dose of nanites devised by Ray Palmer that neutralize superspeed. (The same nanites were used by Oliver Queen against Eobard Thawne in 122.)
Diggle has another headache, this time hearing a chorus of voices say "Worlds Await," over and over.
Frost saves Diggle while he is down.
Allegra is revealed to be tracking Ultraviolet, who ran off without her despite her promises to wait. She finds her in the middle of a massacre, critically wounded.
Ultraviolet has just enough time to curse Allegra for letting her die alone, but she says that she will not die afraid.
Ultraviolet's body dissolves into dust upon her death.
Frost, Diggle and Cecile check out the future site of Dayton Labs' as Nora's journal said August Heart worked there for a while in her time. That lab doesn't exist in the modern day, however.
They find a man they think is the original August Heart, but he's amnesiac and was only at the Dayton Labs site because he felt it was important for some reason.
Adam Creyke claims to have died 17 times and been reborn over and over.
Adam Creyke recognizes Kramer and asks who she really is, claiming that the real Kramer was killed during Operation Griffin.
Creyke defends his mercenary actions, saying he gave half of the money he earned back to the reservation they grew up on.
At Joe's urging, Kramer doesn't shoot Creyke.
Chester calculates they have 90 minutes before the next wave of Godspeeds.
The only thing Cecile can sense from August Heart is the same confusion and fear an amnesiac would have.
Chester tells Diggle to thank Cisco for the Time Trapper tech and to tell him that he's going to do what he can to repair it himself.
Diggle leaves Central City, telling Barry there's something he's been putting off for far too long and it nearly got him killed. This coincides with a quick flashback to A810 and Diggle's discovery of a glowing green object in the meteor that nearly hit him when he was loading his moving van.
Barry and Diggle hug before he leaves and Barry offers whatever help he can.
The mystery man confirms his name is August after Caitlin injects him with dark matter.
Cecile has still not gotten in touch with Joe at the episode's end.
Nora West-Allen appears and tells Barry she wouldn't have come to the past if it weren't important.
Nora points out that the fact that she is there is proof that Iris will be all-right, as is the person who traveled with her. This leads to the introduction of her brother, Bart Allen Jr.
Location
A wooden area somewhere near Midway City.
Untelevised Adventures
Iris is off-camera for most of the episode, being protected by the Still Force.
Barry is ambushed by several Godspeeds while evacuating City Hall.
Frost is said to be out in Central City fighting the Godspeeds for most of the episode.
Iris gave Cecile Nora's diary so she could search for information on August Heart.
The Fridge Factor
Iris is reduced to a damsel to be protected by this episode.
Ultraviolet is killed off an episode after being cured, purely to give Allegra angst about abandoning her family and likely setting up her inevitable conclusion that Team Flash is her family now.
The Boomerang Factor
Barry's forgetting that the safeguards in the Pipeline only neutralize the powers of natural born metahumans seems like a major oversight, as does the safeguards somehow not working on those who get powers from temporary means like Velocity-9.
The Bottom Line
Overstuffed but comfortable, like an old easy chair. The scenes with Diggle are enjoyable and expand well upon his mystery. Unfortunately, the urgency of the Godspeed War is seriously undercut by all the subplots involving Iris' disappearance, Joe helping Kramer and everything involving Ultraviolet. It's clear they didn't have as much time to develop everything with the shorter season order and, ironically, it's probably for the best they had to abandon the Elongated Man storyline they had planned lest this seem even busier. That being said, the final two minutes bode well for the 150th episode and the arrival of Impulse.
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