Command: Flee

It seems that your position is that the target could not use their action or bonus action, so they could not Dash at all then. The target could go through one closed door but not two, etc.

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Don't really have a position about actions per se, was just pointing out that I think the intent of the spell is fail your save = lose your turn.

As others have mentioned, there is a plenty of room for DM discretion here. While I'd interpret spending it's turn moving away from you by fastest available means as using the Dash action, I could see circumstances, such as the gauntlet of seasoned warriors described up thread, where the Disengage action might be better. In either case, it moves the target away from the caster as quickly as it (safely) can.

Sorcerers Apprentice said:

Of course. But you don't need to be fully conversational in Goblin to know that "Rarka!" is a command to flee.

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Uh-huh, but that would be "Rarka!" with falling pitch. Unfortunately, not being fully conversational in Goblin, you just told Squeedle the goblin to "Rarka!" with rising pitch, so now let me explain what you actually told them to do...

"Your mother is a big hippo!"

"More oil please!"

"Throat warbler mangrove".

Hussar said:

I'd be wary of nerfing the effectiveness of the spell simply because of the wording.

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You could easily argue the opposite, that you shouldn’t strengthen the spell because of the wording.

Others have noted that the core of the spell seems to be “losing a turn”. Anything that goes beyond that should be carefully considered, especially because the spell does have some “harm protection” built in

I'm not sure if that's true. "Grovel" forces you to lose your action and go prone. True, you're not eating AO's for that, but, OTOH, you just granted advantage to virtually everyone around you. How is that any different than granting AO's?

I mean, is dropping prone while surrounded by 5 experienced warriors any less dangerous than moving out of their threatened reach and eating 5 AO's?

Causing an opponent to drop their weapon strips them of AO's as well, which is beyond simply losing a turn.

The only action that arguably doesn't have any additional impact would be Halt - since that one simply forces you to not move and take no actions. But, really, why would anyone use Halt instead of Grovel? Even Approach is going to place you in a really bad situation.

Like I said, I'd be reluctant to nerf the effect. It should be equivalent to other 1st level spells. Guiding Bolt deals damage and grants a single Advantage attack. Seems pretty similar to granting a few AO's.

The more I think about this, the more I think "Flee!" should always force a Dash action.