Out of Time Plot:
Mark Mardon (Liam McIntyre), having survived his apparent death during the black-matter explosion, returns seeking revenge on Joe (Jesse L. Martin) for the death of his brother Clyde (Chad Rook) and has the same weather-manipulation powers as his deceased sibling.
This episode of The Flash was full of WTF moments. Those moments made it, by far, the best episode of the series so far.
To recap the episode, let’s go through some of the craziest parts of ‘Out of Time.’ We will start with the “insane” and end with the “completely bonkers OMG what the hell just happened?”
5. The Captain May Never Walk Again
Whoa. And you thought the episode was already getting heavy with all of the romance. In a fight with the Weather Wizard, Captain Singh (Patrick Sabongui) takes a bolt of lightning intended for Joe and ends up paralyzed. The fight itself was another one of those: “And explain again why everyone doesn’t just shoot him?” moments but the CGI lightning was great. It was better than some of the X-Men movies. The biggest surprise from the scene came when Singh’s fiancé told Barry that Singh liked him. And even after he spilled coffee all over the man in the $500 suit. Come on!
4. Barry and Iris Kiss
This event would be a much bigger deal if it didn’t get completely over shadowed by everything else that happened tonight. Barry and Linda (Malese Jow) go on a double date with Iris (Candice Patton) and Eddie (Rick Cosnett). It is ruined for both Linda and Eddie by Barry and Iris’ chemistry. Later when the Weather Wizard is about to kill everyone, Iris confesses that she is in love with Barry and THEY KISS! It was great. Everyone always says that father’s kidnappings are a natural aphrodisiac. Then Barry reveals his secret to Iris because he has to beat another Weather Wizard by running really fast at water this time.
3. Mason Bridge Knows Something
How much Mason Bridge (Roger Howarth) knows is questionable but it is clear now that he is onto Dr. Wells (Tom Cavanaugh). He even has a secure file that will implicate Wells further. Originally, Mason only shows Iris an image of Wells entering Simon Stagg’s (William Sadler) facility on the night of his disappearance. Later in the episode, he reveals to Barry that he follows Wells around all the time so he could have far more intel than just the picture. Considering his introduction as a jaded reporter, fans of the show didn’t expect much from Bridge but it’s looking like he is exactly what the team needs to get to the bottom of what Wells is up to.
2. Barry Can Time Travel
I was really confused about how we were going to get out of this one. The whole wall of wind idea didn’t seem like it was going to actually work. So surprise surprise, when Barry reaches a certain speed (88,000 mph?) he can travel back in time. Not only that, but that “reflection” that Barry saw earlier in the episode was, in fact, himself and he ended up exactly where the episode started. The only difference is that now Barry has the knowledge of everything that is going to happen up until the tidal wave. He knows that Iris is in love with him. He knows that the police chief likes him. And most importantly, he knows all of the events that are going to take place and how to stop them. Unfortunately, when he was on the phone with Caitlin (Danielle Pannabaker), he missed one small piece of information that he could have really used.
1. “My name is Eobard Thawne”
This moment literally made me, and I am assuming most of you, jump out of my seat. Until this point in the series, we all knew Wells was some sort of Reverse Flash. The problem is that there have been more than one of those. Eobard Thawne was a frontrunner but Hunter Zoloman was always also an option. He was a convincing option because Zoloman was also wheelchair bound. There were even other theories that Barry was dealing with a future version of himself and while that one isn’t 100% off the table, I think we have a pretty good idea of who we’re dealing with now. Unfortunately, Barry still doesn’t.
https://youtu.be/LWS_J3FoMxE
In what may very well be the best scene the show has produced thus far, Cisco learns that Wells’ containment field was merely a hologram. Wells enters the room right as the hologram is about to say “Some would say, I’m the Reverse” and finishes the line. He does an excellent villainous clap and explains to Cisco his whole evil plan. Wells reintroduces himself as Eobrad Thawne (finally). Not only did he kill Nora Allen, but he was really trying to kill Barry. Eobard didn’t explain exactly why but it has something to do with being temporally displaced. Now that Barry is time traveling, it is all starting to come together.
Cisco is in tears for all of this. “I can help you” he says as a last attempt to talk Eobard out of what we all know he is going to do. “You’re smart, but not that smart” Eobard says as he raises a vibrating right forearm. Eobard tells Cisco that he is “quite fond of him” but ultimately puts the vibrating arm through Cisco’s chest, killing him instantly. The last thing Eobard says is an incredibly cold “Forgive me but to me you’ve been dead for centuries.” Bravo Carlos and Tom.
And none of that matters because Barry didn’t see any of it and now it’s yesterday!
Rating: 10/10
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Matthew Nando Kelly is an incredibly cool and handsome staff writer for Pop-Break who was allowed to write his own bio. Aside from weekly Flash reviews, he writes about film, television, music, and video games. Matthew also has a podcast called Mad Bracket Status where he discusses pop culture related brackets with fellow Pop-Break writer DJ Chapman. He loves U2, cats, and the New Orleans Saints. He can also occasionally be found writing lists on Topless Robot and his twitter handle is @NationofNando
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