THE FLASH Post-Mortem: Andrew Kreisberg, Tom Cavanagh, and Candice Patton on the Insane ‘Out of Time’ Fallout

[This post contains massive spoilers for THE FLASH’s “Out of Time.” Please do not read this post if you’ve yet to see the hour.]

THE FLASH blew things up with its latest episode: Cisco realized Dr. Wells was the Reverse Flash…in time for Wells to kill him (and who knows what he had planned for Caitlin, who had also figured out his secret; Barry and Iris admitted their feelings for each other, right before he revealed his true Flash persona to her (in an attempt to save Joe/the city).

Fortunately for all, Barry’s early-episode premonition of seeing his double was foreshadowing: at the end of the episode, Barry went so fast he actually went back in time before the madness of the hour started. So, Cisco is alive, Wells’ secret is safe, Iris is in the dark, and Joe is not in the target of a mad man…for now.

So what comes next? THE FLASH executive producer Andrew Kreisberg and series stars Tom Cavanagh (Wells) and Candice Patton (Iris) teased what’s in store to reporters…

On the risks of undoing such a big episode:

“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,” Kreisberg acknowledged. “As always, we try to not keep every secret all the time; we try to dole some stuff out, and start to give the audience some of the answers they’ve been craving. There have been plenty of things that have been unsaid — what Wells, ultimately, wants from Barry, and how things are going to play out. But this episode felt like an amazing opportunity to do some crazy stuff. And hopefully, as people are watching it, they’re not going to see the ending coming, so as they’re watching it, it’s all happening as if, ‘Holy crap, this is what’s really happening.'”

But how much of went down will just simply repeat itself when Barry gets the chance to do some of these things over?

“The ramifications of this episode are the fun of episode 16 — and seeing of what happened in 15 is still happening, and how much might possibly change,” Kreisberg teased. “How certain events occur that prevents Cisco from following along this same trajectory. Watching how things play out, but in a completely different way.”

Meanwhile, the actors loved how deliciously insane the hour was.

“I think when, as actors, you read something like this — and we have table reads — and what you put in the bank beforehand, that’s one of the greatest things about television as opposed to two-hour [movies]: you can put in 15 hours prior to this, so we have investment,” Cavanagh pointed out. “And then you read something like this, and you get to pay off a little bit. But the danger is, is it a precipice, or the slippery side of the slope? What’s been so impressive for us is that is a really strong episode of television, but the ones to come, we’re spring boarding off it…for us, the next one that comes, we’re like, ‘That happens!’…our season finale is also something to be reckoned with…this episode for me, personally, and this season, feels like, to use a racing analogy, the bell lap goes off, and this is the start of the first turn. And we’re down the backstretch and we keep going. It escalates nicely.”

“You can only imagine what the finale’s going to be like,” Patton teased.

On Wells’ true identity…Eobard Thawne!

In the comics lore, Harrison Wells was a Flash newbie. But in tonight’s episode, he revealed his true name: Eobard Thawne (AKA Professor Zoom), who, yes, is related to Eddie.

“[In the pilot] when you hear [Eddie’s last name] is Thawne, even the people who are even semi-knowledgable are like, ‘A ha! Here we go. Clearly that’s going to be reckoned with at some point,'” Cavanagh acknowledged.

“That was one of the things we did very early on — if we name Eddie, Eddie Thawne, immediately comic book fans are going to go, ‘Oh, he’s the Reverse Flash,'” Kreisberg said. “I get it, and hopefully they were surprised when it turned out to not be the case…as always, we’re not trying to purposely trick the comic book fans, but…the show has to live on its own…it can’t just be an adaptation of comic books people have already read and know so well. Obviously we thought of this since the very beginning, and it’s been leading up to this.”

And the familial relationship will be explored soon.

“I think you can take him at his word — that there obviously is a family connection between the two of them,” Kreisberg teased. “There are some great scenes coming up between Tom and Rick. That starts to become a storyline.”

Though Wells killed Cisco, Cavanagh and Kreisberg insisted Wells’ affection for the team is genuine.

“He’s just a guy trying to get home,” Cavanagh noted. “I think we can all appreciate that, emotionally…the starting point has always been as Eobard Thawne. Everything starts there, and then Harrison Wells layers upon that. What I think is good about that is…it’s not exactly [duplicitous]. There’s an element of that, but [as THE FLASH executive producer] Greg [Berlanti] said, he doesn’t lie. He doesn’t lie to them — he almost never lies. He tells the truth. He’s furthering his agenda, but he’s also furthering Barry’s agenda, and those two agendas are simpatico. As he’s working with them, he is appreciative, and all that stuff you see is not a mustache-twirling starting point…for the first season, we’re accomplishing [the goals] together. Which as we see in this episode, it makes it a little more heartbreaking when the next phase of the plan starts to happen. I think that’s good writing…if he was just a dick the whole time, when he kills Cisco, you [would go], ‘I just hate him.’ But we’ve established they’re a group, a part of a team, to watch that fracture, I find it more compelling.

“[In that period away from home] you wouldn’t be sitting there by yourself; you’d meet people, you’d make friends,” Kreisberg added. “And even if, intellectually, you know these people have been long-dead, it doesn’t really matter to me where I come from, every one of them could die and my home is still where it is — no man is an island. 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 incredible amounts of kindness and generosity…there’s nothing he said in that scene with Cisco that isn’t the truth: he’s sorry he found out, he’s sorry it had to happen. But it does have to happen. There’s a scene in episode 16 that mirrors that scene that speaks to that.”

And if that Cisco/Wells scene got you emotional, one of the most heartbreaking elements of it was unscripted.

“The scene between Tom and Carlos [Valdes (Cisco)]…we didn’t even script that [Cisco] cries,” Kreisberg shared. “And this notion that Tom and Carlos worked out, that the minute [Wells] walks into the room, [Cisco] knows he’s going to die. I just get chills even thinking about it — it wasn’t something we intended, it’s what they brought to it.”

On the love triangle of it all.

“Iris, when she’s backed against a wall and she realizes they could both lose their lives, it compels her to finally come to grips with how she’s been feeling about Barry,” Patton shared. “And I think that’s so important that at the root of how she feels, she loves Barry. That also makes it complicated because she does love Eddie, but it’s in a very different way.”

And with Barry going back in time, there’s the possibility the two won’t get to that exact moment again, which means Iris’ relationship with Eddie could continue down the path it has been on — Iris feeling conflicted, but still keeping quiet about it.

“I think [Iris and Eddie’s] relationship continues to be complicated,” Patton said. “I think Eddie will always see there is a relationship between Barry and Iris that he can’t compete with to some degree. That’s unfortunate. But Eddie is strong-willed about keeping Iris in his life; he loves her, he’s a good mate for her. He’s kind, he’s loving, he’s everything, I think, a woman would want in a man. And I think Iris knows that. We’ll continue to see their relationship blossom and continue to have relationship falters.”

“Eddie and Iris dated for nine months without Barry being around,” Kreisberg pointed out. “They’ve been together for a long time…for Eddie, all of a sudden this guy appeared, back in her life, and it’s causing all these problems. I don’t think Eddie gets enough credit for being the most emotionally stable and also he’s the one who sees the two of them together and says, ‘I’m not good with this.’ He sees it even if she doesn’t…I think it’s fun the tough, gruff cop is the one who’s most in touch with everyone else’s feelings.”

Looking ahead…

• The show will be exploring both Wells’ backstory, and also diving into what went down while Barry was in his coma: K: “In episode 17, we’re going to get a flashback story from [Wells’] point of view that we’re really excited about,” Kreisberg teased. “And then in a future upcoming episode, we’re going to have everyone flash back to that time that Barry was in a coma. You’ll see that time from Wells’ point of view and Caitlin’s point of view, and Joe and Iris. You get to fill in a little more of the backstory — things we always had in our head, but you get to see on camera…New questions will come up, and that will drive the series forward. But most of the questions we proffered at the beginning of the season will be paid off.”
• While there’s no exact time travel rules in real-life, “we’ve come up with what we feel are our rules, and we try and stick by them,” Kreisberg shared. “A lot of stuff we’re doing now is stuff set up from the pilot. You can go back to the pilot and go, ‘Oh, I get it, that’s why this string of things is happening.'”
• In the finale, “Wells begins to impart some tidbits about a certain character’s future possibilities,” Kreisberg teased.
• “Liam [McIntyre (Weather Wizard)] is coming back this season,” Kreisberg previewed. “He’s in episode 16, but he’s also coming back later in the season.”
• The story that might be running on Wells will give him some face time with Iris: “I enjoy it when we have scenes together,” Cavanagh said of working with Patton. “I feel like we went a half season with almost none of them. We do have a pretty significant one [in] I think it’s the next episode. We’re gaining a little bit of traction in that we’re in the same scene, finally.”
• So about that Grodd tease? “He’s coming back. And he’s mad,” Kreisberg hinted.

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So, what did you think of tonight’s THE FLASH?

Related:

THE FLASH: Grant Gustin Teases a Bump in Barry’s Plans
THE FLASH: Tom Cavanagh on Putting on Reverse Flash’s Suit
THE FLASH: Candice Patton on Iris’ New Mentor, and How Barry’s Confession ‘Turned her World Upside Down’

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