After trying to start a family, it seems like Barry and Iris have finally gotten their wish in the most recent episode of The Flash season 7, but an old foe resurfaces as Godspeed (or multiple versions of him) returns to Central City.
The Flash isn’t really the sort of show that does a lot of what you might call long-lead storytelling, so the fact that the show has been teasing the return of villainous speedster Godspeed for over a year is a fairly unprecedented event.
Granted, “Enemy at the Gates” is maybe not the episode that all that build-up deserves, since it tells us precious little about where all the Godspeed clones are coming from or what they want. But it does feature several fantastic fight sequences between Barry, Frost, new Team Flash sort of friend Mark Stevens/Chillblaine, and a half dozen Godspeeds. And though it doesn’t make a ton of sense just yet, it’s still pretty darn entertaining to watch.
Iris West has been curiously absent from episodes of The Flash season 7, sabotaging the series' efforts to present Iris as an equal partner to Barry Allen. This absence was particularly notable in the case of the episode "Enemy At The Gates," given that the story was centered around Barry's efforts to confirm Iris' pregnancy. This led to numerous scenes where Barry Allen was required to talk into a phone to keep an off-screen Iris informed regarding the action of the episode, as she was said to be at home resting.
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Iris' continued absence became unintentionally comic in The Flash season 7, episode 15, "Enemy At The Gates," as Barry tried to conduct a pregnancy test in secret; a necessary step given his secret identity and the fact that meta-DNA signatures could misrepresent hCG levels on a standard pregnancy test. This left Barry trying to get some time alone in either the bio-lab at STAR Labs or his own lab at CCPD Headquarters, only to be continually interrupted by various friends and the sudden arrival of multiple Godspeeds. All of this distracted away from what should have been a major character moment for Iris West, to the point that the pregnancy subplot seemed to be a distraction in the minds of the writers, despite being the focus of the season's storyline.
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The middle of a Godspeed clone attack seems to be a strange time to launch The Flash’s first big romantic pairing in who even knows how long, but despite their slightly rushed status, Frost and Chillblaine are still adorably well-matched as a pair of former villains trying to figure out what comes next in a world that will always side-eye them for their previous dark ways. True, The Flash should have given us more than approximately thirty seconds to adjust to the idea of an even mildly reformed Chillblaine before having him fight side-by-side with Team Flash, but that idea that Frost might get the chance to show someone how to be a better person – because Caitlin did it for her – is stll a pretty appealing concept.
Finally, there is momentum on the Kramer storyline though. Just kidding. It’s relegated to one scene early on and just completely forgotten about until the literal final minute of this episode. There is no reason for it to be in this one at all beyond just reminding the audience that the storyline exists. There’s no forward momentum at all. It’s just present to be present.
As for this one scene with Kramer though, the show is acting like we’re suddenly supposed to like her just because she gave Joe the case files and they’re working together. However, it’s so sudden that it just doesn’t mean anything and even though you’re suddenly supposed to like her, you really don’t because it’s too quick a turn and feels incredibly suspicious.
