The Flash executive producer Andrew Kreisberg and star Tom Cavanagh discuss the shocking events of The Flash season 1, episode 15, “Out of Time.”
Warning: This post contains major spoilers from The Flash season 1, episode 15, “Out of Time.”
The Flash‘s return was nothing short of a game-changer. Mark Mardon, brother of weather metahuman Clyde Mardon, targeted Joe to avenge his brother’s death; in the process, he sent a tidal wave toward Central City. Before preparing to stop the wave, Barry revealed his secret to Iris, and Iris admitted her feelings for Barry.
Meanwhile, Cisco’s suspicion of Harrison Wells deepened, forcing Wells to confront him and reveal his true identity — the Reverse Flash, Eobard Thawne. Wells/Thawne then killed Cisco while Barry ran so fast in his attempt to stop the tidal wave that he traveled back in time.
Ramifications
We now have to wonder what sticks with Barry’s trip into the past, and what answers are only there for the audience.
“The ramifications of this episode are the fun of episode 16, and seeing exactly what happened in 15, how much of it still happens and how much of it might possibly change,” Kreisberg teases.
He adds, “It’s sort of the advantage of having a show that dabbles in time travel; this episode allowed us to give people a tease and a taste and make some big reveals, because, as always, we try to not keep every secret all the time.
“We try to dole some stuff out and start giving the audience some of the answers that I think they’ve been craving, because there are still plenty of things that have been unsaid — what Wells really wants for Barry ultimately and how things are going to play out — but this episode just felt like an amazing opportunity to do some crazy stuff.”
Wells vs. Cisco
As for Wells/Thawne murdering Cisco, Cavanagh says, “There’s a genuine affection between them,” and points to the two watching a movie at the beginning of the episode as evidence. “When Thawne is in the current time, he’s wholly invested and he truly cares about Cisco and is truly impressed with him.”
Cavanagh adds, “When he says that line, ‘you’ve shown me what it’s like to have a son,’ he’s not saying that idly. He means it. At the same time, the guy’s gotta get home.”
According to Kreisberg, “Eobard Thawne himself is not an evil man. He has a reason for doing what he’s doing and he has an agenda, and he thinks of himself as the hero. Bad people can love other people, bad people are capable of love, bad people are capable of incredible amounts of kindness and generosity.”
With that in mind, “[t]here’s nothing he said to Cisco in that scene that isn’t the truth. He’s sorry he found out, he’s sorry it has to happen, but it does have to happen, and there’s a scene in episode 16 which kind of mirrors this scene that I think really speaks to that.”
Kreisberg also gives credit to the actors in terms of the emotional note of that scene. “We didn’t even script that [Cisco] cries; it was a notion that Tom and Carlos worked out where the minute Tom walks into the room, Carlos knows he’s going to die,” he explains. “It wasn’t even something we intended, it’s what they brought to it.”
Wells’ agenda
As for Wells’/Thawne’s agenda, Kreisberg explains, “He wants to get home. He wanted to kill Barry and he thought it was going to be a neat and easy thing, and instead he’s found himself trapped here for the last 15 years and all he wants to do is get back.”
Cavanagh adds that Wells/Thawne is “furthering his agenda but he’s also furthering Barry’s agenda, and those two agendas are simpatico and so as he’s working with them, he is appreciative. All that stuff is not a mustache-twirling, villainous starting point, it’s actually genuine.
“We’re trying to accomplish something, and for the first season, we’re accomplishing it together, which makes it a little more heartbreaking when the next phase of the plan starts to happen. And I think that’s just good writing because if he was just a dick the whole time, when he kills Cisco it’d be like, ‘I just hate him.’ But now we’ve established that they’re kind of a group and a team, to watch that fracture, I find it all the more compelling,” Cavanagh explains.
Time travel rules
And now that time travel has been introduced into the series, a question of rules comes up. Kreisberg says of time travel in The Flash, “I think one of the fun things is discovering what’s a fixed point in time and what can’t be changed — what things always have to happen and what things are changeable and mutable. It’s a mixture of both.”
He adds, “None of us knows how time travel really works, but we’ve come up with what we feel are our rules and we try to stick by them. A lot of what we’re doing now is a lot of stuff that was set up in the pilot.”
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW.