Stunned by the reveals on Tuesday night’s “The Flash”? “It’s just Episode 15,” Tom Cavanagh said, following a screening of “Out of Time” for TV reporters.
(Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t watched the March 17 episode of The CW series, bookmark this link to come back to later. This article discusses the big reveals in detail.)
Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg, Cavanagh, who plays Harrison Wells (scratch that, Eobard Thawne!) and Candice Patton (who plays Iris West) provided some details about where the show now goes from here.
PHOTOS: ‘The Flash’ Season 1, Episode 16: Scenes From ‘Rogue Time’
Just to recap, where here is includes Cisco finding out that Harrison is actually Eobard Thawne (a distant relative of Eddie Thawne) from the future; Harrison killing Cisco by vibrating his Reverse Flash hand into Cisco’s heart; Caitlin realizing her boss can not only walk, but is a bad guy; Iris telling Barry she loves him; and Barry running so fast to stop Weather Wizard Mark Mardon’s storm with a wall of protection around Central City, that he runs back in time.
If that sounds like a lot, Kreisberg said this is the beginning of a lot more.
WATCH: ‘The Flash’: Tom Cavanagh Talks Putting On The Yellow Suit For Reverse Flash
“There’s still plenty of things that have been unsaid — you know, what Wells really wants for Barry ultimately, and how things are gonna play out, but this episode just felt like an amazing opportunity to do some crazy stuff,” he said.
So let’s tackle some of those crazy things. For starters, the episode ended with Barry back in time, so does he still have to stop the Weather Wizard?
“The ramifications of this episode are sort of the fun of [next week’s] Episode 16, and seeing exactly what happened in 15, how much of it still happens and how much of it might possibly change,” Kreisberg teased.
And will Cisco still follow the path that lead him to discover Wells’ secret?
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“Part of the fun of [Episode] 16 is watching how when time changes, how certain events occur that prevent Cisco from following along this same trajectory, so watching how things play out, but in a completely different way,” Kreisberg said.
The biggest reveal of the episode came when Harrison (well, Eobard) told Cisco that he actually came back in time to kill Barry, not Barry’s mother, and since that time he has been stuck in the past.
“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,” Kreisberg said.
Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells in ‘The Flash’ (The CW)
When asked about how audiences may react to his character’s big reveals, and potential for the audience to feel conflicted about Wells or think of him as duplicitous, Cavanagh stood up for his from-the-future-character.
“Playing that character, the starting point has always been as Thawne, as Eobard Thawne, so everything starts there and then the Harrison Wells layers upon it, but I think what’s good about it is… the word [used in the question] was ‘duplicitous,’ but it’s not exactly that,” Cavanagh said.
“He doesn’t lie to them — almost never lies. He’s telling the truth and he’s furthering his agenda, but he’s also furthering Barry’s agenda and those two agendas are Sympatico,” he continued.
“All that stuff that you see 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 — as we see in this episode — it makes it a little more heartbreaking when the next phase of the plan starts to happen,” Cavanagh added.
Kreisberg also defended the character.
WATCH: Rick Cosnett: What’s Next For Eddie Thawne On ‘The Flash’?
“Eobard Thawne, himself, is not an evil man. I mean, he has a reason for doing what he’s doing and he has an agenda and he thinks of himself as a hero,” Kreisberg said. “And bad people can love other people, bad people are capable of love, bad people are capable of incredible amounts of kindness and generosity, it’s just… like he says – this is the truth. There’s nothing that he said in that scene to Cisco that isn’t the truth, you know? He’s sorry he found out, he’s sorry it has to happen, but it does have to happen and there’s a scene that happens in Episode 16, which kind of mirrors this scene that I think really speaks to that.”
During the session with reporters, Access Hollywood asked about how things work when disrupting the space-time continuum on “The Flash,” and Kreisberg offered an explanation that revealed that although there is time travel, not everything can be changed.
“I think that like Wells said in [a] previous episode, there’s different versions of time travel. There’s the sort of fixed loop and then there’s the version where time is more plastic and mutable and I think that one of the fun things is discovering, as always, like a ‘Doctor Who,’ what’s a fixed point in time and what can’t be changed and what things always have to happen and what things are changeable, and are mutable and it’s sort of a mixture of both,” he explained.
It seems likely that many of the reveals in Tuesday night’s episode won’t stay in every character’s memory. There are photos The CW released showing Cisco in next week’s episode (with Lisa Snart, who makes her debut, played by Peyton List) for a start.
Cavanagh, who plays Wells/Thawne, said Episode 15 propels the drama forward in a big way.
“That is a really strong episode of television and yet, in the ones to come, we’re spring boarding off it,” he said. “The danger is you do something like this and it’s a pinnacle and you slide down and this is not the case. So for us, as we read the things — the next one that comes — you’re like ‘Ohhh! That happens.’ Much the same way that Cisco moment happens, we have large and small moments that use this as a starting point and build toward — I mean, our season finale is also something to be reckoned with.”
Next week will see the return of the Weather Wizard (Liam McIntyre), who Kreisberg revealed will also be back later in the season. But, in Episode 17, there’s more interesting plot to dive into with Harrison Wells.
“In Episode 17, we’re going to get a sort of flashback story from [Harrison’s] point of view, which we’re really excited about and then, in a future upcoming episode… everyone’s going to sort of flash back to that time when Barry was in the coma,” Kreisberg said. “You’ll see that time from Wells’ point of view and Caitlin’s point of view and Joe and Iris and you get to fill in a little bit more of the backstory.”
Rick Cosnett as Detective Eddie Thawne and Candice Patton as Iris West (The CW)
Since Barry went back in time, it seems unlikely Iris West will remember she confessed to Barry that she loves him too. Asked about what’s next for Iris and Eddie, Candice said there are complications.
“I think their relationship continues to be complicated,” she said. “I think Eddie will always see that there’s a relationship between Barry and Iris that he can’t compete with to some degree, and that’s unfortunate, but I think Eddie is strong willed in keeping Iris in his life. He loves her.”
As for Eddie and his (just revealed) future relative, Kreisberg said there will be scenes between the two characters.
“I think you can take [Eobard] at his word that there obviously is a family connection between the two of them and there’s some great scenes coming up between Tom and Rick [Cosnett]. That starts to become a storyline, which you might have glimpsed a little bit of in the [most recent] trailer and… it’s cool stuff,” he said.
“The Flash” airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
— Jolie Lash
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