Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) is now embroiled in a civil war from the future on The Flash. Instead of being the sole focus of a speedster villain, Team Flash has found itself in the middle of a conflict between two feuding factions of Godspeeds. Amid the buildup to The Flash’s 150th episode and the long-waited debut of Bart Allen, a.k.a. Impulse (Jordan Fisher), the show’s long-standing Godspeed mystery is finally starting to unravel.
To this point, the white-clad speedster hasn’t been around much on The Flash, having made only a handful of appearances ahead of season 7. For this reason, the characters have understood little about these androids and their creator, August Heart, especially since season 6. They battled and defeated him in a season 5 episode alongside Nora West-Allen (Jessica Parker Kennedy), but the post-Crisis Godspeed has developed a much more mysterious presence on the show. Because of the Crisis, everything they knew about him in season 5 may not matter anymore.
Well into its second half, The Flash season 7 is now shining the spotlight on Godspeed, who could end up evolving into Team Flash’s biggest threat for the season’s remaining episodes. In addition to that, it looks like he may be at the center of what comes next with Barry’s future family, or at least that’s what Barry fears may be true. Here’s everything that can be gleaned from The Flash in regard to the Godspeed civil war, August Heart’s role, and the future they come from.
What Is The Future Civil War? Why Godspeed Drones Are Fighting
In The Flash season 7, episode 15, a half-dozen Godspeed clones stormed S.T.A.R. Labs and attacked Team Flash, only to be stopped by another group of Godspeeds. Barry guessed correctly then that a civil war was unfolding between two different factions of Godspeeds. After capturing one of the Godspeeds who didn’t attack Barry, Team Flash was able to get some answers on what he was after and why he was fighting. The team learned from him that the Godspeed drones were created for a singular purpose. They are indeed androids of some kind, but they’re not simply robots. They have gained sentience and enough self-awareness and independent thought for a few of them to have goals and ideas of their own.
Apparently, the Godspeed drones who saved Team Flash value the lives they’ve been given, while the others are only interested in fulfilling the purpose they were made for: steal Barry’s speed and give it to their master. One way they’re accomplishing this is by harvesting it directly from the Speed Force; Barry encountered some of them feeding on the Speed Force when he tried to visit the future. Later in The Flash, Deon (Christian Magby) told him that draining this speed is a long and drawn-out process due to the fact that the Godspeed drones can’t remain in the Speed Force for extended periods. That explains why the Godspeeds are continuing to stick around–but it may be about to end. Calculations made by Chester (Brandon McKnight) indicate that the war is about to go “turbo” with Godspeed attacks occurring much more frequently than before.
According to the drone Barry spoke to, once their master gets everything he needs from Barry and the Speed Force, they’ll all die, possibly because he has a way of pulling the plug on all of them. That’s presumably why the Godspeed drones saved Barry in episode 15 as they know that they lose if the villains get what they’re after. In order to live, they need their own creator to die. They’re willing to align with Team Flash to make that happen but are also on board with killing Barry if he opposes them.
How August Heart Is Involved
Most likely on account of the Crisis, the man behind the curtain in the Godspeed story is different than the one they fought in season 5. Previously played by Kindall Charter, season 7’s new August Heart is portrayed by Karan Oberoi. It was he who created all the Godspeed drones involved in the civil war. He’s the person Godspeed meant in season 6 when Godspeed said the drones' master wanted “infinite velocity.” As pointed out by John Diggle (David Ramsay), Heart is the key to winning the war since his death can end it for the rebel side.
Heart also turned out to be the reason that the civil war was brought to the present. Team Flash’s Godspeed prisoner explained that they had “no choice” but to come to the current point in time, as it is where Heart is currently located. That being said, the character himself isn’t a threat to Team Flash – or at least, not yet. After finding him, it was discovered that Heart – who must have time-traveled to the present either accidentally or on purpose – has amnesia. Plus, Caitlin’s scans show that he has no speedster powers of any kind. Heart may have started the war, but he’s not pulling the strings now. It could be that time-travel or some other incident affected his memory of who he really is and what his plan was meant to be.
The Flash Future Timeline Explained
Godspeed and August Heart are from 2049, which is the same time that Nora West-Allen is from. In the original timeline, Nora grew up without Barry since he went missing in the Crisis in the 2020s. Later on, Nora clashed with August Heart near the beginning of her superhero career. Their conflict eventually resulted in his arrest. The post-Crisis timeline is obviously different in a significant way. Now, Barry has two children, Nora and Bart. Bart mentioning that Barry doesn’t mind him being called “Pops” proves that Barry does indeed get to have a life with his kids, which wasn’t the case before the Earth-90 Flash (John Wesley Shipp) made the ultimate sacrifice for him in the Crisis. It could be that in the future, an older and more experienced Barry Allen teamed up with both of his adult children to do battle with Godspeed (and potentially other existing and unrevealed Arrowverse villains) in the 2040s. If so, Nora and Bart will surely get an opportunity to tell Barry about it in The Flash’s 150th episode. From all appearances, it looks like Barry has a nice life ahead of him, but his dream about Nora is an ominous sign that the Godspeed civil war risks rewriting that future and erasing it from existence.