Mark Mardon arrives in Central City looking for Joe to avenge his brother. Meanwhile Cisco is getting more suspicious about Dr Wells.
Tropes:
- Apologetic Attacker: Wells before he kills Cisco.
- Avenging the Villain: Mark Mardon seeks to avenge his brother, who as we've seen in the pilot wasn't the nicest guy around.
- Battle in the Rain: Mark invokes this by always bringing rainfalls in his appearances via his Weather Manipulation powers. Doubles as Actor Allusion since his actor, Liam McIntyre, is known as "The Bringer of Rain".
- The Big Damn Kiss: Barry and Iris.
- Bound and Gagged: How Joe ends up at the end of this episode.
- Broken Pedestal: Cisco's look while Wells is doing The Reveal is pretty depressing.
- Bury Your Gays: Captain Singh takes a lightning bolt for Joe and may have brain damage.
- Career-Ending Injury: It is stated by Cap. Singh's doctor that his injuries may prevent him from going back into police service ever again.
- Captain Obvious: Barry and Cisco's conversation when Barry arrives at the morgue.Cisco: What's going on? What do you see?
Barry: A dead body.
Cisco: Barry, you're in a morgue. You're going to have to be a little more specific than that.
Barry: The coroner. He's dead. - Celebrity Paradox: Caitlin tells Cisco at the beginning of the episode that she would watch The Walking Dead (2010) with him. This creates very interesting paradoxes in the Arrowverse...
- Sarah Wayne Callies was not only a main on that show, but also on Prison Break along with Wentworth Miller (both their characters being that show's Official Couple in fact), Dominic Purcell, Robert Knepper and Peter Stormare, all of which are playing villains Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Clock King and Count Vertigo II respectively in this universe.
- Audrey Marie Anderson, who plays major Recurring Character Lyla Michaels in Arrow, had a Small Role, Big Impact in that show's fourth season note .
- Emily Kinney, who is set to appear as Brie Larvan/The Bug-Eyed Bandit, was part of said show's main cast for four seasons including (as of this episode) the most recent one note .
- Emma Bell, who played a guest character on the second episode of Arrow, was the very first human casualty on that show.
- Circling Monologue: Wells circles around Cisco when he confronts him near the end.
- Cosmic Retcon: The effects of the ending.
- Darkest Hour: Cap. Singh is critically injured, Joe has been kidnapped by Mark Mardon and is also critically injured, Cisco figures out Wells' true identity and is killed for it, and Mark Mardon creates a huge tidal wave to engulf Central City. Good thing Barry Time Travels.
- Death by Secret Identity: Wells kills Cisco after revealing who he really is and his goal.
- A Death in the Limelight: While the Time Travel in the ending undoes this, the episode surely centers around Cisco and his relationship with Wells.
- Death Is Cheap: Wells kills Cisco after he finds out he is the Reverse-Flash. However, as the promo for the next episode shows, Barry traveling back in time undoes this.
- Deconstructed Trope: Cap. Singh being struck by lightning is not Played for Laughs, being treated as something that could cripple him for life or make him a vegetable. No walking it off or impromptu x-rays here.
- Defiant to the End: Joe continues to defy Mark, despite having been chained, tied up and having a broken leg.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Cisco's ramblings about Dr. Wells' involvement in Nora Allen's death and her murder.
- Devil in Plain Sight: Mark, a notorious wanted criminal, somehow got into the CCPD HQ without anyone but Cisco noticing him.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- When "Wells" goes to confront Cisco, he leaves his wheelchair behind at Jitters, where Caitlin can see it.
- Assuming this is going by the comics purely, "Wells"' past intention of killing Barry counts as this; if Barry is the main fuel of the Speed Force, killing him would mean that Wells would lose his powers. This appears to be tentatively confirmed two episodes later when it's revealed that the Reverse-Flash's powers disappeared right after changing history so the Flash never existed.
- Double-Meaning Title: Both Wells and eventually Barry traveled back in time to the past, hence both are "Out of Time".
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Barry is required to run faster than he ever has before, back and forth over a shoreline to create a vortex to counter a tsunami created by Mardon, and in doing so inadvertently travels back in time.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In a flashback to the pilot, the audience is treated to the camaraderie between the Mardon brothers.
- Exact Words: After threatening her, Mark tells Iris to go to the bay without telling the police. By police, he assumes police officers and detectives. So what does she do? Tells Barry, who is a police forensic scientist.
- Face Death with Dignity: Cisco quickly figures out that he's screwed the moment Wells started vibrating his right hand, but doesn't falter.
- Family-Values Villain: Mark loved his brother and looked out for him, despite the latter being an asshole.
- Forced to Watch: Mardon kidnaps Joe and gives him a "front-row seat" while Mardon destroys everything Joe loves.
- Foreshadowing:
- Wells casually mentions that the old-time movie he's seeing was "before his time." Way before, since he's Eobard Thawne.
- And his name Harrison Wells is a Shout-Out to H. G. Wells, the author of The Time Machine.
- Wells dismisses Barry's "illusion" at the beginning as a time mirage.
- Giant Wall of Watery Doom: How Mardon seeks to attain revenge on Joe and the city.
- Godzilla Threshold:
- With a giant tsunami threatening to wreck the city and Iris refusing to leave his side, Barry decides to out his secret identity to her, something that Joe warned him against since the beginning of the series.
- A minor one from Captain Singh who quietly approaches Barry and Joe about asking Iris to contact the Flash, as he realizes Mark's abilities are way beyond what the police can handle.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: We get one of Joe's broken leg.
- He Knows Too Much: "Wells" kills Cisco after The Reveal.
- Heroic BSoD: Cisco just falls apart when he realizes who Wells really is.
- Here We Go Again!: Barry himself via Time Travel.
- Idiot Ball: Joe's Ineffectual Loner attitude throughout the episode is completely nonsensical and only causes problem after problem. Barry calls him out on it a number of times.
- I Have Your Wife: A Variant. Mark calls Iris and tells her that he has her father.
- Ineffectual Loner: Joe, with regards to going up against Mark. A metahuman who can control the weather.
- Internal Reveal: Eventually subverted, as both are undone by Barry's time-traveling.
- Barry reveals to Iris that he's the Flash.
- Wells reveals to Cisco that he's the Reverse-Flash.
- Irony: The wizard's wand is designed as a Kryptonite Ring for the Weather Wizard when in the comics it is the source of his power.
- It's Personal: Between Joe and Mark.
- Kill the Cutie: Cisco, even though Barry's time travel undid it.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Let's just say Mark is really, really angry at Joe for killing Clyde.
- Laugh of Love: Barry and Iris have a bit of this at the bowling alley.
- Like a Son to Me: "Wells" to Cisco before killing him. He seems to genuinely regret that it had to come to that.
- Love Epiphany: Iris finally realized that she's in love with Barry.
- Made of Iron: Joe was pushed out of a window by a strong wind and only broke a leg.
- Memory Wipe Exploitation: Barry reveals his secret identity to Iris and they share their first kiss. Afterward, to save Central City from a tsunami, Barry runs back and forth across the coastline to create a barrier, but he runs so fast that he travels back in time to the day before, erasing Iris' memory of the event.
- Mood Whiplash: Cisco gets murdered by the Reverse-Flash, and in the very next scene, Iris finally confesses her love to Barry and they have The Big Damn Kiss.
- Moveset Clone: The Mardon brothers have the same Weather Manipulation powers.
- Mythology Gag:
- Cisco dubs Mardon Weather Wizard and states he's been waiting to use that name since week one.
- Cisco's method to stop Mardon is a wand that can shut down his powers. The comics' Weather Wizard uses a wand to control weather.
- Mardon's jacket subtly echoes his second costume, with lighter colored pockets on a dark green fabric and an upturned collar.
- Barry finally performs an Instant Costume Change (alas, minus the Flash ring). It can also remind fans of Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman.
- Cisco is killed by Wells' vibrating hand, bringing to mind his comics counterpart's superhero identity Vibe. Death by vibrating hand is also a favorite murder method of the comic Reverse-Flash.
- While they were caused by entirely different things, Captain Singh's Game-Breaking Injury may bring to mind the second Zoom. The clincher? Zolomon wanted the Flash to use time travel to undo the damage, which Barry eventually does at the end of the episode.
- Near-Villain Victory: Weather Wizard is the greatest threat Barry has encountered up to that point, nearly succeeding in destroying Central City. His actions are so catastrophic and life-threatening that in order to negate them, Barry has to go back in time and stop him before he begins.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: An indirect example. Barry runs so fast to stop Mark's tidal wave (by generating an opposing one of his own) that he travels back in time to the beginning of the episode, undoing Mark's evil acts and unintentionally preventing Cisco's death.
- Noodle Incident: Barry's first girlfriend, "Becky Cooper".
- Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: Wells asserts that no-one is going to prevent his returning to his world.
- Oh, Crap!: Joe and Barry when the latter turns on the radio and the announcer reports clear skies...even though it is raining around them. This alerts them to Mardon's arrival.
- Once More, with Clarity: At the start of the episode, after seeing another Flash run past him, Barry abruptly stops at an intersection in confusion at what he just saw. A couple of seemingly inconsequential events are shown occurring around him, like a woman failing to flag a cab. When he sees himself again — this time from the other side — he stops at the same intersection, and witnesses the exact same inconsequential events, tipping him off that he traveled back in time.
- Personal Raincloud: As seen in Oh, Crap!.
- Police Are Useless: Mark Mardon sneaks into CCPD HQ and only Cisco, who is not a cop, notices and identifies him.
- Reset Button Ending: Ties in with the Flash seeing himself earlier in the episode: he travels back in time, changing everything that has happened in the episode.
- The Reveal:
- "Wells'" real name: Eobard Thawne.
- "Wells" is from a distant future and has been stuck in the past for 15 years.
- "Wells" wasn't at Barry's house to kill Nora Allen. He was there to kill Barry.
- "Wells" is training Barry to go faster because he is planning to somehow use Barry's speed to return to his own time.
- The Reverse-Flash that was caught in the trap and beat up "Wells" was just a hologram.
- There is no second Reverse-Flash. "Wells" is just so fast that he can appear in two places at once.
- However, all are undone by the final reveal: the second Flash Barry saw at the start of the episode was himself time-traveling after trying to stop the tidal wave.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Mark against Joe, but eventually he focuses his hate against the city.
- Shout-Out:
- Cisco and Wells watch The Cameraman starring Buster Keaton.
- Caitlin agrees to watch The Walking Dead with Cisco.
- From Mark Mardon:
- Barry's first line after discovering he just went back in time? "Oh, boy."
- Stealth Pun:
- The lack of The Stinger for this episode, in relation to the episode title.
- An episode featuring Weather Wizard is directed by a guy named Thor.
- The Story That Never Was: The episode's events are reversed when Barry time-travels to earlier in the day when attempting to stop the tidal wave.
- Taking the Bullet: Cap. Singh shields Joe from Mark's Shock and Awe.
- Time Travel: The episode ends with Barry, trying to prevent the tidal wave from crashing into the city, running fast enough to go back to the start of the episode.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The PaleyFest trailer showed future episodes of the season including Joe and Cisco being alive and well, and Wells seemingly keeping his masquerade longer.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Iris' co-worker passes suspicion to her, and then Iris to Barry, and then Barry to Cisco and Caitlin regarding Dr. Wells, sowing Cisco's own growing suspicion on Wells, leading to his untimely death. That same co-worker would also withhold more information from Barry when he starts asking around.
- Urban Ruins: Central City is turned almost into ruin thanks to the Weather Wizard's tidal wave.
- Viewers Are Morons: When Joe and Barry realize that it's only raining on their car, an external shot of the car shows clear skies all around and a puddle collecting around the car as rain falls heavily on it. But they've been driving the whole time, so there should be a long trail of water behind them as well. There is not, presumably because they feared confusing the point that it has only been raining on the car. Compare the raining-inside-the-car scene from Oh, God!.
- Voodoo Shark: The Reverse-Flash hologram and Wells' "speed mirage" ability explain how he was in two places at once back in "The Man in the Yellow Suit", but it does raise some other questions. (If "Wells" was just a speed mirage, then why were he and the Reverse-Flash dressed differently, instead of the same as seen in this episode? He'd have to be doing multiple Instant Costume Changes, while fighting Barry and doing whatever he needs to do to make the "Wells" mirage act like him.
- Weather Manipulation: Just like his brother, Mardon has the ability to control weather but with more precision. He's had many more months to practice, after all.
- Wham Episode: Cisco finds out about "Wells", "Wells" kills him, Iris finds out about Barry...and it seems like all of this is rendered moot as Barry travels back in time to the events at the start of the episode.
- Wham Line:
- While Cisco is watching the hologram of the Reverse-Flash in the trap.Reverse-Flash: Oh, I'm not like the Flash at all...
Harrison Wells: [standing behind Cisco] ...some would say I'm the reverse. - This following line counts too (especially for those who read the Flash comics):Harrison Wells: [to Cisco] You and I have never been truly and properly introduced. I am Eobard Thawne.
- While Cisco is watching the hologram of the Reverse-Flash in the trap.
- Worthy Opponent: Wells expresses his admiration for Cisco's genius when Cisco figures out his secret.
- You Are in Command Now: With Cap. Singh critically injured and Joe kidnapped, Eddie steps up and leads the CCPD on arresting Mark Mardon.
- You Killed My Father: Joe killing Clyde at the pilot is what drives the latter's brother Mark into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
