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TV REVIEWS: FTN Review The Flash Season 01 Episode 15: Out of Time

March 18th, 2015 by Todd Black Comments

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Well…how about those last ten minutes?

If there’s one thing The Flash has done pretty much every episode it’s been doing big things in the last few minutes. In fact, it’s pretty much tradition for something huge to happen to tease future episodes. With the last ten minutes of “Out of Time”, not only did things get set up…thing got rewound! Yep, TIME TRAVEL!!!

But I’m getting ahead of myself just a bit. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

“Out of Time” really started off interesting with a rewind/extension of the pilot episode. Where we got to see the brothers Mardon get struck down by collider explosion. While this could have been a cheesy “hey, did you remember he had a brother?” kind of moment, it actually set up the main story quite well. As it showed the relationship the Mardon’s had, and what it would do to one as the other fell…

The entrance for the Mark Mardon, aka Weather Wizard was great. The hail itself was a little weird looking…but I digress. His numerous scenes were powerful. Especially his many showdowns with Joe. Unlike his brother, Mark had a clear presence about him, and it showed. Even when he delivered a similar line that his brother did, it was done a lot better. The use of his powers was also epic. From hail, to rain, to lightning, to wind, TO A FREAKING TIDAL WAVE!!!! It was cool.

That being said…I wish he had more of a focus. He felt dispersed in the episode, a means to an end if you will. The ending scene (which I’ll get to…), though cool, really showed just how much of a tool (for plot) he was. I almost thought this was going to be a literal two-parter. With Mardon bringing up the tidal wave and then it cutting to black. It’s entirely possible he’ll be back in the next episode…but who knows?

Also, Joe’s single-mindedness to catch Mark was off to me. If he didn’t know about the superpowers, I’d understand that. But openly going after Mark with no backup, no Barry, nothing, was off. That’s not the seasoned cop we all know. A cop that’s proven to adapt pretty well to the metahuman threat.

Speak of “off”. Let’s talk about that love quadrangle…and by that I mean “WHY DO I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THIS LOVE QUADRANGLE!?!?!” Seriously, every time I think Iris is going to turn this around and be the person we want her to be…she does something like this. Is she really that dense? Did she really think the things she was doing with Barry WASN’T going to be noticed? I loved how both Linda and Eddie chewed her out royally. I hope it happens again soon. Seriously.

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What makes matters worse was that the kiss many a Flash fans have been waiting for was not only forced, but negated (for now). Why did she profess her love for Barry when a tidal wave was coming towards her? Sure, last moments, blah blah blah, too cliche. And Barry! What happened to, “I don’t feel that way about you anymore”. Really? That’s what I thought.

A GREAT subplot for this episode featured Cisco doubting what really happened the night they “caught” the man in the yellow suit. Cisco’s doubts, and him using Caitlin to distract Wells while he figured out the answer was great. As was the scene where numerous freaking bombshells got dropped!

Wells? He’s Eobard Thawne, the one true Reverse Flash. Why’s he here? He’s trapped in the past, and Barry is his key out. Is he a heartless monster? Well…he did admit that Cisco was like a son to him…then he killed him…so there’s that.

Ok, the final scene. The tidal wave was epic. Barry having to run really fast (Run, Barry, Run!) to great a wall of wind was also epic. Which lead to him traveling back in time to when things first happened. Now, the question is (though we technically know the answer), how will things be different? Obviously Barry’s interactions with everyone and his knowledge of the future will affect how certain events go down. And obviously Cisco isn’t going to die for real because we know he’s alive in future episodes (thanks “rest of season” trailer!), so things are obviously going to change.

Which leads to this problem. Though many of the developments in the last 10-15 minutes were great…they’re now negated. Joe being captured and crippled by Weather Wizard? Not going to happen. Same for the chief who got electrocuted most likely. Cisco? Alive. The kiss? Never happened. And based on what we saw in the previews, his acting on it will make a new enemy with Eddie. So…while they were interesting, and definitely chat worthy…it’s nothing more than a plot device.

In the end, “Out of Time” did deliver some great scenes and moments. But the introduction of time travel made many of them moot. And while Weather Wizard had a great introduction and fight scenes, he really should’ve been more of a focus. So while this episode was great, it could’ve been a lot better.

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Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!