Time Out
Written By: Barrington Smith & Paul Seetachit
Little Timothy Denbrough (Grant Feely) attends the memorial service of his grandfather Joseph. While rummaging through a drawer of his grandfather's old keepsakes, Tim discovers a strange and inviting key. He soon realizes that the key unlocks a hand-carved armoire that his grandfather had brought back to the United States from Germany. Joseph had initially discovered the armoire as a young man during his service as a private in World War II, when he and his company discovered a large collection of antiques stolen by the Nazis that had been hidden away in an abandoned farmhouse. As Tim slowly unlocks the armoire and opens its doors, his grandparents' cat Kitty leaps inside it. Before Tim can step inside the armoire himself, his grandmother Catherine (Shannon Eubanks) pulls him away from it, firmly reminding him that he isn't meant to use the armoire until he's older. Despite Tim mentioning that he once saw his grandpa step inside the armoire with a book and appeared to be fine when he stepped back out, Catherine cryptically reminds Tim that even though a person can play tricks with time, they can't cheat it, then sends the boy to join his mother. When Catherine opens the armoire again, she witnesses Kitty disintegrating into a pile of dust before picking up her collar.
Ten years later, the now-teenaged Tim (Matthew Barnes) is attending college, spending all of his free time studying to pass the bar exam. His roommate Saul (Jibre Hodges) encourages Tim to take a break from his books, mentioning that the exam he's currently studying for isn't until Friday. Saul then notices a pair of girls approaching the dorm house, recognizing them as Tim's crush Lauren (Devon Hales) and her friend Mia (Lauren Richards). Hatching an idea, Saul steps out of the room for a brief moment. When he leaves, a pair of moving men knock on the door. When Tim answers, the movers mention that they have a delivery from the estate of Catherine (who has since died), and proceed to bring the armoire into the room, as well as give Tim a letter Catherine had written to him before her death. In her note, Catherine invites her grandson to use the armoire whenever he wishes, but warns him to never step inside unless he's carrying the key, reminding him that "stolen hours are never free". Just as Tim discovers the key and prepares to unlock the armoire for the first time in a decade, Saul returns with the girls, inviting them to share a few drinks.
The sharing of drinks eventually escalates to a makeshift party, during which Lauren asks Tim why he has his heart set on the subject of law. Tim admits that he was born when his parents just graduated from college. His father wanted to attend law school himself, but was tragically killed in a car accident. Because of this, Tim now hopes to become a successful lawyer and a great dad to honor his own father, accomplishing what his old man never got a chance to accomplish in his own life. The morning after the party, Tim ends up oversleeping, and discovers that he only has 35 minutes until his exam begins. Remembering his grandmother's note, he unlocks the armoire and steps inside. Tim discovers that the armoire's interior is not only configured into a makeshift workspace, but is bathed in a sort of anomalous energy field that causes time to accelerate. When he leaves the armoire, Tim notices that time outside it has remained unchanged, and he excitedly uses this new development to his advantage by bringing his study materials inside the armoire. When the exam begins, Tim enters the testing room right on schedule, now sporting a mustache and beard. Saul notices this change, but decides not to bring it up.
Sometime later, Tim and Lauren have become engaged, Tim having the wedding scheduled for November, after he passes the bar. When Lauren and Mia leave to check out bridesmaid's dresses, Tim privately tells Saul that he also managed to buy a house just down the road from Wells & Brown, a prestigious law firm he is aspiring to join. Saul informs Tim that he looks tired and asks him to consider slowing his aspirations, mentioning that there are only so many hours in a day. Tim does appreciate his friend's concern, but he assures Saul that he's fine. Tim then goes to Wells & Brown for a job interview, where Bob (Kamran Shaihk), the head of the firm, praises Tim's credentials and asks what his secret is, prompting Tim to admit that he's "very good with time management", and he vows to continue impressing the firm. As Tim enters the garage of his new house, where he has the armoire placed, he takes more work material and once again steps inside it. Four years later, a slightly older Tim has reached the position of Senior Associate, and is boasted by Bob as having reached the position faster than anyone else at the firm. While in the bathroom, Tim notices that his hair is turning gray and starting to fall out, but pays it no mind. While building a crib, Tim is asked by his pregnant wife when he is going to see an optometrist for his failing eyesight, but he assures Lauren that he isn't having trouble with his vision. Eventually, Tim's son Henry is born, and Tim uses the sleepless nights when his new son cries to step inside the armoire for more work time.
Five years later, an older Tim (Garrett Zehner) is playing catch with his now six-year-old son (Emmerson Bennett), not minding the fact that he struggles to get back to his feet after a bungled catch. When Lauren arrives with food, Tim gets a call from work, in which Bob asks him to close an account by Monday, having appointed the task to him because of how good he is with time management. Nonetheless, Tim agrees to handle the job, boasting to his wife and son that he doesn't even have to leave home. Eventually, Tim is promoted to Junior Partner at the firm, but during his promotional celebration, he collapses. At the doctor's office, Tim is told that he suffered a mini-stroke, but will fortunately recover. The doctor also voices her concern about the fact that Tim's body appears to be physically older than Tim himself, and advises him to dial back on the work to decrease what is believed to be hypertension. After Lauren drives Tim home, she tells him that he has finally achieved what his late father was unable to achieve in life, but she warns Tim that he needs to stop working himself to death if he wants to keep what he has. Tim takes Lauren's words into consideration and puts the armoire's key into a box, then meets her and Henry in the kitchen to play a board game.
Three years later, Saul and an even older Tim discuss the list of candidates for Senior Partner at the firm. Saul reveals to Tim that he isn't on the list, while Saul himself is. Saul apologizes to Tim, but he takes it in stride, claiming that his friend deserved the promotion. That night, after being forced to miss dinner with his family, Lauren urgently informs Tim that Mia told her about the Senior Partner list. She reiterates that she doesn't care about his position with the firm, instead wanting him to focus on their family and cherishing the time they have left to enjoy it. During the early morning, while Lauren is asleep, Tim descends to the garage, reminiscing about how he was told that an important account with the firm needed a crucial task completed by Wednesday at the latest. Tim attempts to argue that he may not be able to accomplish this task, but Bob shares rumors that Tim may have lost his drive after years of service to the firm, and forcefully insisting that if said rumors are true, he shouldn't bother coming in tomorrow unless he has the work done, prompting Tim to accept the responsibility. As he approaches the armoire and opens it up, the nine-year-old Henry (David Alexander Kaplan) approaches him, mentioning that he got thirsty. Tim tells his son to wait in the kitchen, promising to meet him there.
As Tim steps inside the armoire and gets to work, he idly reaches into his sweater pocket for the key, only to discover that the pocket has a hole and is therefore empty. As he frantically searches all over the armoire for the key, Tim peeks through the keyhole and discovers it on the floor just outside of the armoire. As Henry reenters the garage, the rapidly-aging Tim begs his son to open the armoire. Henry picks up the key, unlocks the armoire, and opens the doors just in time to discover his now-ancient father disintegrating into a pile of dust. Shocked at what he has just witnessed, Henry drops the key in shock and steps inside the armoire to look for his dad, calling out for him. Apparently acting on its own accord, the armoire closes its doors behind Henry, dooming the boy to the same fate as his father.
This episode contain examples of:
- Arc Words: "Time", which is written in several locations throughout the episode.
- Bookends: The episode begins and ends with a young boy unlocking the armoire. First it's Tim, then his son.
- Bookworm: Tim is shown to be a very studious young man while he's in college, hoping to pass the bar exam and become a lawyer to honor his father.
- Call-Back:
- The monkey's paw from Night of the Paw is seen among the collection of antiques Joseph's company discovers, one of the soldiers taking it as a keepsake.
- Much like Pipe Screams, the first casualty of the episode's supernatural force is an innocent cat.
- The teens at the impromptu party in Tim's dorm are seen drinking bottles of Harrows Supreme, as well as using the stuff for a round of beer pong.
- A snazzy suitcase is also among the antiques taken by a soldier in Joseph's platoon. One can only hope that a certain gold-spitting man isn't inside.
- David Alexander Kaplan, who plays Henry's nine-year-old self, previously played Rose's brother Joseph in By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain.
- Like The Finger and Shapeshifters Anonymous, the series gives us another monster named Bob. The difference is that this Bob is a monster in the form of an unsympathetic boss who keeps Tim from seeing his family.
- During the war, Joseph was assigned to Bravo Company, the same company that was later turned into werewolves in Bad Wolf Down.
- The key used to unlock the armoire is the same key that was used to lock the Necronomicon in Public Television of the Dead.
- Clocks of Control: Clocks are repeatedly shown throughout the episode, almost as if the universe itself is subliminally bombarding Tim with reminders that he needs to listen to his wife and colleagues, and enjoy the time he has left with them before his inevitable end.
- Cryptic Conversation: All of Catherine's dialogue, including the letter she writes to her grandson, is pointlessly cryptic. She could have potentially saved a lot of drama and effort if she had just been straight with him and told him that the armoire speeds up time in the first place.
- Death of a Child: Horrifically played straight. Henry is undoubtedly going to suffer the same fate as his father, thanks to him entering the armoire without the key.
- Downer Ending: Tim ends up losing the key to the armoire the last time that he steps inside it, and this results in him aging into a pile of dust. Henry ends up stepping in it without the key as well, doomed to the same fate.
- Eldritch Location: The armoire's interior. It's shrouded in some kind of mysterious purple light, the sound of ticking clocks emanates from it constantly, there is a reverb effect on both vision and speech, and time is able to mysteriously accelerate for whoever's inside it.
- "Eureka!" Moment: As he's stressing out after oversleeping, Tim looks back at his grandmother's letter and realizes that he doesn't have time, so he enters the armoire and learns about its special properties for the first time.
- Family Versus Career: Tim experiences the classic battle throughout the second half of the episode. He applies for a job at Wells & Brown after boasting about how good he is with time management, and over the years, Bob, the head of the firm, takes strong advantage of this. After his stroke, Bob starts coming down hard on him for thinking that he's lost his drive, to the point where he indirectly threatens to fire him if he doesn't do what he's told. On the other side of the conflict, Tim is forced to miss many nights with his wife and son, to the point where Lauren persuades Tim to stop putting so much effort into his work and to just spend time with his family, preferably while he still has time to spare. In the end, unfortunately, neither side wins, as Tim quite literally works himself to death.
- Foreshadowing:
- During Joseph's funeral, one of the mourners states that they didn't know he was apparently sick. If you know how a horror anthology episode works, this is clearly the hint that a sickness wasn't what killed him.
- After Lauren drives Tim home from the hospital, she warns him to stop working himself into an early grave, hinting at his fate at the end of the episode.
- When Tim opens the box that his wool sweater is contained in, several moths fly out. When he steps inside the armoire and keeps the key in his pocket, he learns that the key actually fell out, since the moths ate a hole in the sweater.
- When Tim gets a call from work while playing catch with Henry, the boy asks him "Do you have to leave?" The end of the episode has him aging into a pile of dust when he loses the key, with the exact same phrase being repeated right when he discovers the hole in his pocket.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: The episode features no monsters, ghouls, or physical threats to generate scares. It instead decides to go in an existential/sci-fi route by showcasing how time itself can be an effective source of horror, and what abusing it could spell for people if they were given the chance to do so.
- Freudian Excuse: Tim wants to study law and become a great dad because his own father, whose wife had given birth to Tim when they were just out of college, wanted to be a lawyer himself but died young in a car crash. As a result, Tim now hopes to do anything possible to live the dream his father was unable to obtain.
- Getting the Baby to Sleep: When Henry is first born, his dad Tim uses the many sleepless nights when he cries to get his work done inside the armoire, then manages to lull him to sleep afterward.
- Good Parents: As part of his wishes to honor his late father, Tim is a wonderful dad to Henry and just as good a husband to Lauren, but when Bob's tasks and the armoire's temporal effects start taking their toll on him, he is forced to begin neglecting his beloved family.
- Graceful Loser: After hearing that Saul is on the firm's list of candidates for Senior Partner while he's not, Tim takes it in stride and congratulates his friend, telling him that he deserved the promotion.
- History Repeats: From what little we hear during Joseph's funeral, he apparently used the armoire to (other than find the time to read) become a loyal and supportive man to his family, then died when he accidentally lost the key. 22 years later, his grandson goes down the exact same path and ends up dying in the exact same way.
- Ignored Aesop: Tim is taught several times that while his good standing with work may mean more money and notoriety, his family takes just as high a priority as his job. While he remembers this, he keeps getting calls from Bob telling him to do more work, making him forget his lesson.
- Ignored Expert: Everyone who isn't Tim or his boss tells the poor guy to take it easy on his workload. When the firm's demands become greater, to the point where Bob threatens to fire him, Tim unfortunately doesn't listen to them.
- It Can Think: The armoire's doors are occasionally seen closing on their own accord when Tim enters it, meaning it may actually have some degree of sentience despite being an inanimate object.
- Karma Houdini: Bob isn't punished for indirectly making Tim work himself to death.
- Lampshade Hanging: Saul, Lauren, and the doctor all share their concerns with Tim's never-ending desire to get his work done, and repeatedly tell him to take a break. They also seem to notice his rapid aging, but most of them don't bring it up.
- Late for School: When he's in college, Tim oversleeps on the day of a crucial exam thanks to the party that Saul ends up throwing. Thanks to his discovery of the armoire's anomalous abilities regarding time, he has untold amounts of time to study for that exam, and enters the test room right on time... albeit with a large amount of facial hair.
- Married to the Job: Tim teeters on the edge of the trope the longer he works at Wells & Brown, while also trying to remain a husband/father to his wife and son.
- Maybe Ever After: Saul makes it clear that he's got the hots for Lauren's friend Mia, but we don't know whether the two of them ever got together by the end.
- Mean Boss: Bob, the head of Wells & Brown. When we first meet him, he's seen as a pleasant man impressed with Tim's credentials and proud of his rapid ascent up the corporate ladder. As the years pass, Bob shows his true colors by taking advantage of Tim's talents and forcing him to get more and more work done, preventing him from spending time with his treasured family. After Tim's mini-stroke, Bob treats him as just another worthless employee, denying him the opportunity to achieve the position of Senior Partner (and instead giving it to his best friend) even after all the essential work he's done for him. It gets to the point where after Tim tries to get out of completing a particular task because he wants to be with his family, Bob shares rumors that he may have lost his drive, and makes an offhand threat to fire him if he doesn't have the job done by tomorrow.
- Mundane Utility: Tim has access to his own personal time-stasis field, and he uses it solely to get extra work done.
- Mythology Gag:
- Tim's last name is Denbrough, same as Bill Denbrough, protagonist of IT.
- Tim's son Henry is named after Henry Northup, the mild-mannered, wife murdering professor from the original film.
- The ashtray makes its latest appearance in the drawer that Tim opens as a child, stuffed in the midst of a collection of his grandfather's keepsakes.
- Negative Space Wedgie: Based on the effect it has on time, the armoire houses one, and Tim uses it as his own personal study.
- Nice Guy: Tim is a genuinely good guy who wants to achieve his dream job and be a good husband/father to his family to honor his late father, who wanted to do the same but died young. The worst negative traits he ever had were a big amount of hubris about his time management skills and an insatiable desire to get his work done. It's a horrifically shocking change of pace for the universe to condemn him to an undeservedly-cruel death for not even doing anything wrong.
- Nothing Is Scarier: It is never revealed what actually gave the armoire that weird energy field able to accelerate time housed inside it, nor as to who owned it before Joseph and what it was doing among all those antiques.
- Older Than They Look: Thanks to his continued use of the armoire, Tim appears to look middle-aged when he's actually in his early 30s.
- Prematurely Grey-Haired: It gets more of a very faded blonde near the end, but early in the episode, Tim discovers a single gray hair that he pulls out during his first promotional party, hinting of the fate that befalls him.
- Pursuing Parental Perils: Tim uses his time-speeding armoire to graduate college early, get a successful job at a law firm, and start a family to honor his father, who wanted to do the same but died young in a car accident. He manages to hold onto his successful status for 12 years, but when he ends up losing the armoire's key, he disintegrates to dust.
- Rapid Aging: Tim's body prematurely ages every time he steps inside the armoire, even with the key, to the point where he appears to be in his late 50s when he's actually in his early 30s. Several characters actually comment on his change of appearance, but don't pursue it any further. When he accidentally enters the armoire without the key, he ends up aging into a pile of dust.
- Reduced to Dust: The fate of anyone who steps inside the armoire without the key. This is first demonstrated on Kitty, then on Tim himself.
- Riddle for the Ages: The true reason the armoire's interior accelerates time is completely unexplained.
- Shout-Out:
- Tim's college roommate, who also becomes a lawyer, is named Saul.
- The head of Wells & Brown, while bringing up Tim's credentials, mentions his clerkship under one Judge Meyers.
- Wells & Brown itself is named after H. G. Wells and Emmett Brown, both people who were known to create objects capable of altering time.
- During Tim's party to celebrate his ascension to Senior Associate, the whiteboard behind him reads "Libera te tutemet ex inferis".
- Upon his promotion to Junior Partner, the whiteboard is changed, so it now says that the firm's Wi-Fi password is DocBNov51955, and that all files of a certain type be sent to one D. Darko.
- Spontaneous Mustache: When Tim first uses the armoire to study for an upcoming exam, he enters the testing room sporting a mustache and beard. Saul notices this, but decides not to bring it up.
- Starts with Their Funeral: Barring the illustrated intro, the episode begins during Joseph's memorial service, and it's there that his young grandson finds the armoire's key.
- Supernatural Aid: Tim uses the time-accelerating armoire he inherits from his late grandmother to get a leg up in his job.
- Tick Tock Terror: The ominous ticking of clocks is heard several times throughout the story, usually during transitions. The ticking happens to come from the dilation field within the armoire, since it grows louder whenever its doors are open.
- Time Dilation: The energy field inside the armoire causes time to speed up, but only inside itself. This explains why Tim prematurely ages whenever he spends time inside the thing.
- Time Master: Tim uses the eldritch armoire as a means of perfected time management, which he plays up to Bob to get a job at his firm.
- Time Skip: In keeping with the time-based nature of Tim's situation, this episode features several time skips, which showcase Tim's marriage to Lauren, his getting a job at Wells & Brown, and the birth of his son Henry, as well as how his job starts driving a wedge between him and the family.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: When he's introduced, Bob is a reasonable and friendly boss who praises the amount of work Tim accomplishes for his firm. After Tim's mini-stroke, Bob suddenly comes down hard on him, treating him as just another cog in the machine and even threatening to fire him if he doesn't do what he's told because he wants to be with his family. He even flirts with the idea of promoting Tim to Senior Partner, but keeps him off the list of candidates and gives the opportunity to his best friend.
- Turn of the Millennium: The episode is set throughout the 2000s. A calendar in Tim's dorm notes the day he receives the armoire as being sometime in May 2000.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After Tim's mini-stroke, Bob just wants him to keep on doing his work for him, even threatening to fire him when he wants to be with his family, in spite of Tim having already accomplished a decade of tasks for his firm.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Tim's grandfather Joseph, who was the one who brought the armoire to the United States in the first place.
- Catherine later becomes one by having it posthumously delivered to Tim's dorm, which introduces him to its anomalous abilities.
- Saul also becomes one, as the wild party he throws makes Tim oversleep the day of his exam, and it's there that he discovers the armoire's special properties for the first time.
- Voice of the Legion: Tim speaks this way whenever he's inside the armoire.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Lauren's friend Mia only appears when Tim is in college. Lauren is hinted to still be in contact with her, but she disappears from the episode when she and Lauren check out bridesmaid's dresses.
- Wild Teen Party: Saul invites Lauren and Mia over to share some drinks as a means to get Tim to loosen up with his workload. This ends up escalating into a full-on college party, complete with kids playing beer pong and the long-haired kid with a guitar commonly seen on campuses.
- Workaholic: Tim is shown to be one of these as he grows older, hoping to accomplish whatever jobs Bob throws at him, even when it begins making him neglect his family.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: The anomalous energy field inside the armoire induces this effect. Inside, time accelerates at a rapid pace, but outside, it continues to function as normal. Unfortunately, this is only if someone has the key on their person, for if they step in the armoire without it, decades are able to pass by in seconds. Tim discovers this the hard way when he steps inside the armoire without the key, eventually aging so much that he collapses into a pile of dust. Before he disintegrates, Tim catches a glimpse of his son moving at a snail's pace through the keyhole.
