FlashForward - Spring Premiere "Revelation Zero"

Hello everyone.  Tonight, March 18th, is the long-awaited (by some) return of FlashForward.  I was able to get a sneak peek at the two-hour spring premiere, and I wrote a review about it for TVOvermind.  I really enjoyed these first two hours and think the series has found a welcome new focus.  If you're interested, you can read it here.  This weekend I'll have some thoughts on this week's Lost episode, "Recon."  Thanks for reading.

FlashForward - 2010 Preview

Yes, beleive it or not, you are actually reading my long-promised thoughts on the 2010 mega-preview that appeared at the end of the FlashForward fall finale, "A561984."  I know, I know, you could barely enjoy your Christmakwanzukkah gifts because you were beset with anguish over what I thought about the preview.  Well, your worries can be cast away, because here they are:

*Up front, I believe the preview consisted of scenes from a number of already shot future episodes, and not just the March 4 return episode.  However, I don't think the show has too many future episodes in the can yet, so what we see must occur within the first few episodes back.

*We were told that our characters' destinies are "not set in stone," and are then later asked, "How far will they go?"  It seems (as we have suspected for a long, long time) that what someone saw in his or her flash can be changed, but to do so, proactive, and perhaps extraordinary, measures must be taken.  What this signals to me is that unlike the ancient debate between whether our futures are products of Fate (see Greek mythology) or Free Will (see Western philosophy), FF is operating under the premise that our lives are determined by a combination of the two.  To steal an analogy from Lost, throwing a pebble in a river will have no effect, but if you throw a boulder into a river, the river's path will change.  Likewise, our lives may be predetermined, but if you throw a large enough boulder in the way, the path of our lives will change.  Fate is the river, and free will is the boulder.  It is an interesting concept that plays nicely with the Schrodinger's Cat theory that the observer determines the outcome of given possibilities.

*We saw Janis, Demetri and an African-American man running, guns pulled, through a scene.  The last guy wasn't wearing glasses, so I assume it wasn't Wedeck.  I hope it is the CIA agent, Marshall Vogel played by Michael Ealy.  As I mentioned in the "A561984" recap, I enjoyed his character and hope he appears again.  He's a nice counterpoint to Mark and Demetri, and who knows, he may need to help Demetri if...

*...Mark switches sides.  That seems to be the way we're supposed to be thinking.  As was revealed in "A561984," Demetri is to be shot by someone using Mark's gun (the episode title referring to the serial number on said gun), and, presumably, by Mark.  Plus, we have in the preview Mark throwing Demetri up against a wall saying, "I should've killed you."  Does Mark really turn on his partner and the FBI?  Is this scene just a show for the "bad guys?"  Does Demetri turn on Mark?  There are obviously many possibilities.  We also saw Mark getting shot up with something.  Does whatever is in the shot "brainwash" Mark (he was LOADED, OK?)?  I am actually going to place my bets on Demetri avoiding his March 15th date with death, which causes some terrible change to Mark's future.  Just as plausible as anything else, right?

*The preview also tells us, rather dramatically, that "vows will be broken."  This is coupled with a shot of Olivia kissing Lloyd.  I think we all saw this coming -- Olivia's flash has to come true, doesn't it?  The question is: does Mark's drinking push Olivia to Lloyd, or does her daliance cause Mark's drinking?  I'm thinking the latter.  With Olivia and Lloyd's banter about Harvard in the last episode, plus Lloyd's kidnapping and Olivia now charged with protecting Dylan, there is obviously a lot of emotional drama that has and will be created between the two of them.  If Keanu Reeves taught us anything, love and desire can be born out of intense situations. 

*Quickly, Janis gets pregnant, and Bryce and Nicole kiss!  On the former, I figure someone we already have met will be the sperm donor for Janis' baby.  My bet is on Bryce.  His suggestion of a sperm bank, good genes (except the cancer thing, I guess), and he's unattached.  At least until he and Nicole get together.  So much for Keiko, huh?  They've been building to a Bryce-Nicole pairing with her helping him find Keiko and her working at the hospital, but I don't really see where this is going.  I mean, an entire episode was devoted to Bryce finding his love from Japan, and on April 29th he's going to meet her, so where could this go?  I guess we'll have to wait and find out.

*Last, but certainly not least, is Mark's declaration that "there is going to be another blackout."  Now, you'll have to trust me, but about two-thirds of the way through "A561984" I actually wrote down in my notes "I think there will be another blackout."  That was going ot be my Prediction for my post.  Then, of course, we get the mega-preview and Mark says that there's going to be another blackout!  Curses!  I initially figured the second blackout would occur in the season finale, so this seems like a really big reveal for ABC to give away at this point.  This must mean that there will be an even bigger whopper come season finale time.  What that could be, I have no idea.  As far as this reveal is concerned though, I guess the mystery lies in when it will happen, who will cause it to happen, and for what purpose?  Does the FBI gain control of the blackout device (whatever it may be) and purposefully cause a blackout to disrpt the original blackout perpetrators?  Do Gibbons and Nhadra cause the second blackout?  Ricky Jay and the Three-Star guys?  So many questions to answer!  I guess that makes it a great drama.

OK, that's the preview.  Again, sorry it was so delayed.  As I explained here, the holidays, work and a new endeavor came together in a perfect storm of procrastination and made me put off this post.  I'll try not to let it happen again.  The endeavor, however, should be a lot of fun.  Over at DocArzt's site, TVOvermind, I will be writing recaps for Chuck, Modern Family, and recapettes for FlashForward.  I will continue to write my long FF and Lost posts here as well, so please continue to check out this blog as well as the stuff over at TVOvermind.  As always, take a listen to the FlashForwardCast by Jay and Jack, and check out FF recaps by the always entertaining Jeff Jensen at EW.com.  I hope you all have a happy and healthy New Year, and hope you're looking forward to what will surely be an amazing year of television in 2010!  Until then...

Enjoy.

Seasons Greetings, an Apology, and an Announcement!

Seasons Greetings, dear readers!  It's that time of year again, when the world is in love, and TV takes a hiatus because people are too busy running around to sit and watch anything, including me.  I know that I promised some thoughts on the FlashForward mega-preview, but work and the Holiday Season have colluded in preventing me from getting those thoughts up.  I actually have half the day off today, and the whole day off tomorrow, so hopefully I can get something up in the next 24 hours, but I am truly sorry for the delay.

Another reason for the delay, however, is that I have been in contact with Jon Lachonis, aka DocArzt of Lost blogging fame, about his TV wesbsite, TVOvermind.  I can announce that I have joined the site as a TV recapper and reviewer, and will be penning (typing?) my thoughts on Chuck, Modern Family, and FlashForward (Lost gets left to the Doc himself).  I am very excited about this endeavor, as it will be an opportunity for me to further engage with the programming I love and improve my critical writing as well.  I will, of course, continue to offer my thoughts on FF, Lost, V, and other topics here at Entertaining Thoughts.  I have defined duties over at TVO (play-by-play recaps of Chuck and Modern Family, and mini reviews for FF), but I have room to expound and ramble here at my blog, so I will keep at it. 

Anyway, I hope you will be on the lookout for my posts over at TVOvermind, and will continue to visit this blog for deeper thoughts and conversations on the stuff we love.  As soon as I get my thoughts on the FF mega-preview up, you'll be the first to know.  Have yourself a very safe and happy holidays. 

I leave you with a clip that I believe truly symbolizes the spirit of the holidays -- overblown stunts done to impress people!

FlashForward - "A561984," Ctd, Ctd

Sorry for the delay on the recap, but as I said, it was a busy day at work yesterday.  Anyway, here I am on a miserable day here overlooking midtown Manhattan, reflecting on a great episode of FlashForward, "A561984," the fall season finale.  As we found out yesterday, FF will not return with new episodes until March 4, after the Winter Olympics.  With such a long layoff, there will be no reruns once the show returns, which is a good thing.  However, that means three months have to pass before casual viewers can see the show again, which is a bad thing.  The show's numbers have been dripping downwards since its premiere, and reached their lowest levels during this past episode.  Will casual viewers wait three months to see the show again?  One would think, then, that the fall finale would include a major cliffhanger to pique the audience's interest for those three months.  Do I think the actual episode did?  No.  Did the three-minute preview for the back half of the season?  Oh yeah.  I'll talk about that preview next week where I normally write a post about the upcoming episode, but first things first.  Here are my thoughts on "A561984":

*The title credits picture was the words "Help Us" written in what seemed to be blood, on a cheesesteak menu or sign.  Now, I will fully admit that I was watching the show at midnight after working all day and until 11:45p, but I don't remember seeing "Help Us" anywhere during the episode.  Usually the placement of the title picture is rather obvious during the episode itself, but I didn't see it.  Did anyone?  What is its meaning, both to the story and on a meta level?  Should we as the audience be clued into something by the fact that the picture wasn't in the episode?  I'll have to watch the episode again.

*The title refers to the serial number on Mark's gun: the gun that, according to Nhadra Udaya (the woman who warned Demetri about his impending murder, played by Shohreh Aghdashloo) is used to kill Demetri on March 15.  This obviously, seems highly unlikely because why would Mark kill his partner?  Mark even asked this very question, but was given no answer.  She said that she feared too much information might bring about unwanted circumstances, but what are the circumstances?  Doe she want Demetri to die, so that something else will still occur, or vice versa?  What is the "incident" she seems so worried about?  Could it be THIS ONE?!?  Likely not, but what game is Nhadra playing?

*Chess, it looks like.  We saw her later with The Chess Player, aka D. Gibbons.  The file the FBI had on Gibbons referred to him as "Deacon," but didn't vocally reference him as such.  Production error, or is that Gibbons' name?  Regardless, we do now know that D. Gibbons and The Chess Player are one and the same.  We saw in Nhadra's office that she and Gibbons were building their own version of Mark's bulletin board.  Back in my recap for "White to Play," I scoffed at one of the characters' suggestion that D. Gibbons was seeking an explanation for the blackout.  Now though, as he is clearly aligned with Nhadra, perhaps he is.  It got me thinking that while the FBI is investigating the cause of the blackout, perhaps Gibbons and Nhadra are investigating a result of the blackout.  In other words, perhaps they saw something that will occur on April 29th that seems impossible, and they are trying to discover the circumstances that lead to that event, otherwise known as "the incident."

*Speaking of the blackout, we actually had the follow-through of Lloyd's poker victory.   Surprisingly, Simon allowed Lloyd to announce to the world that their experiment was the cause of the blackout, even though Simon wasn't so certain.  As scientists at the National Linear Accelerator Project (the origin of the nlap.us.com e-mail address), Simon and Lloyd were trying to recreate the Big Bang using a particle collidor, a copy of the experiment currently being conducted by CERN (for more info on the experiment, read here).  An unintended consequence, as Lloyd explained it, was the blackout and coinciding flashes.  Well, obviously, people were a little upset about that, to the point that one woman stole a security guard's gun and shot at Lloyd.

(Can I pause here to say, there is no way in hell that wooden podium was going to stop a bullet.  Lloyd was directly behind where the shot hit.  Why can't a crazy woman grabbing a gun and shooting wildly just miss?  That would be way more believable than the podium stopping the bullet.  OK, rant over.  Thank you for your time.)

*Whether it was the audience's reaction, the gun shot, or just his desire to escape liability, Simon was adamant that NLAP's experiments were not responsible for the blackout, declaring to Lloyd that it was now "war between us" (which reminds me of Raoul's similar declaration to the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera (sorry, my wife has been in the show for a combined five years and will be returning to it in the New Year)), and he was going to prove it so.  He went to the FBI to assist in finding the true cause of the blackout.  We learned that the towers built in Somalia in 1991 are actually super-lasers used to amplify radio waves.  Problem was, Simon created the towers...in 1992!  Uh, what the what?!  The only explanation I can come up with involves the Many-Worlds Theory Lloyd told Olivia about later in the episode (illustrated with the idea that Olivia was supposed to live in the building Lloyd's eventual wife did at Harvard).  As far as I can understand, Many-Worlds Theory states that every possible outcome of every possible situation co-exists simultaneously in an infinite number of universes.  Possibly, someone involved in the blackout conspiracy found a way to see into one of the other universes, and bring the laser technology back into this world.  Heady stuff, I know, but do you have a better theory?

*I guess I should mention the Olivia/Lloyd situation.  After his announcement, Lloyd was persona non grata around L.A.  As a result, he thought Dylan wouldn't be safe, and wanted to move him to another hospital. Olivia agreed to help him and called in a favor at a children's hospital.  As soon as I saw the EMT's who were there to transport Dylan, I just KNEW they were bad guys.  I'm sure I wasn't the only one, but one question: if the EMT was so blase about killing a security guard, why not Olivia?  He just hit her (don't you harm Sonya Walger!).  Why leave witnesses?  Bad bad guys!

Quick Hits:

*Why did Mark keep protecting Demetri?  He took all the heat from Wedeck, put himself in danger with Nhadra, and took on the CIA agent in Hong Kong, which led to his being fired (and Wedeck's great line about "pooch screwing").  It was almost as if he was trying to get fired.  Does he think that if he no longer works for the FBI he can't be in his office on April 29th?  Something to keep an eye on.

*Wow.  Janis has got baby fever!  She wants that kid and wants it now.  Liked her line about being "super gay."  Nice moment of levity.

*Either Simon or Lloyd stated that they could not be charged with a crime because they were just conducting a science experiment.  I'm not saying it's definite, but I'm pretty sure they could be charged with criminal negligence.  They did kill 20 million people (as we keep hearing about).

*I thought the whole Zoey/Mrs. Noh storyline was filler.  Yes, Zoey did finally realize what we've suspected for a long time: namely, that her flash did not show her at her wedding with Demetri, but rather his funeral.  There was a touching moment where Mrs. Noh admitted that she was staying away from Zoey because she had the same flash of Demetri's funeral, but otherwise, I didn't feel it moved anything forward, as opposed to the rest of the storylines.

*I dug Hong Kong CIA agent Marshall Vogel, played by Michael Ealy.  He, interestingly, said that he has "nothing to lose."  What that means, I have no idea.  But I liked his attitude so I hope he shows up in future episodes.  I thought I saw him in the extended preview for the second half of the season, so it appears we may be seeing more of him.

*Thought the opening scene of Mark watching A Christmas Carol, specifically the scene where Scrooge is pleading with the Ghost of Christmas Future.  Nice metaphor for Mark's deep desire to change the future he has seen. 

From my preview for "A561984," I was way off on the meaning of the title (it wasn't a date, obviously); the show did accelerate the action in creating some momentum to get us through the next three FF-free months; the public did not take kindly to Lloyd's admission at all; and I nailed the fact that Olivia was going ot help Lloyd with Dylan (as if I was out on a limb there!); and we did get a huge reveal concerning Nhadra -- she's working with D. Gibbons!

Prediction:  Nhadra and Gibbons will cause a second blackout to avert "the incident."

So there you have it folks.  No more FlashForward until March.  The story moved apace, and although I may not have been overly effusive above, I really enjoyed both how the plots developed and the speed at which we are moving now.  I can't say I'm eagerly awaiting the answer to a cliffhanger (like, say, where/when the hell are the Lostaways), but the overarching mystery has been pretty perfectly pitched so I am jazzed for the return the show this spring.  I just hope others are coming along for the ride.  Doc Jensen of EW.com, he of the famous Lost recaps, has begun recapping FF.  His first theory-filled recap can be found here.  I'm eager to read it myself.  Remember to check out Jay and Jack's FlashForwardCast as well.  Lastly, if you are Twitter-inclined, I can be found at twitter.com/MikeNJD.  If you have any thoughts, theories or questions, please post them in the Comments sections below.  As I said above, I will post some thoughts on the mega-preview that appeared at the end of the episode next week.  During the hiatus, should any FF news appear, I will post on that as well.  Of course, there is plenty of TV and other entertainments (and sports, and politics, and other stuff) to talk about, so make sure you check the blog regularly for more Entertaining Thoughts.  Thank you for reading.

I'm off to purchase a lucky Chinese cat.

FlashForward - "A561984," Ctd

Hello all.  I know I have been really good about getting my recap up on Fridays, but the provberial stuff hit the fan at work last night and today, so I will be unable to post anything today.  Tomorrow, however, I should have my full thoughts up on what I thought was maybe the best episode of the season.  While you're on pins and needles waiting for my thoughts tomorrow, chew on this news about FF's spring return.  Incidentally, V, will be returning on Tuesday nights at 10p after Lost.  That's a whole lot of sci-fi/mystery goodness.  OK, back to work.  See you tomorrow.

FlashForward - "A561984"

Hello all.  I hope my American compatriots had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and that my international readers had a great....Thursday or jueves or jeudi or اليوم or whatever last week.  I can tell that I am really enjoying FF as it seems like it has been way longer than two weeks since our last installment, "Believe."  I am pretty sure that tomorrow night's episode, "A561984" is the last one for 2009, so I'm expecting a blowout episode with a nice cliffhanger to get us through the holidays.  From the preview at the end of "Believe," it seems we'll be getting just that.  Here's what I'm looking for tomorrow night:

*What does "A561984" mean?  The easy answer is that it is a case file number, like in The West Wing's "7A WF 83429" which was the file number given to Zoey Bartlet's kidnapping (just rewatched the four episode kidnapping sequence -- such awesome stuff.  I loved that show!  Check it out!).  However, the title is screaming for the "1984" to be taken as a year.  If you do, and take "56" to be May 6 (in America) or 5 June (pretty much everywhere else), then we're looking at a date of some unknown significance.  Is it a charcter's birthday?  If so, that person would be 25 years old.  Anyone of significance on the show about 25?  Tracy or Nicole, I suppose, but the episode doesn't seem to focus on them.  Perhaps its the date the blackout technology was created or initially tested?  If so, Simon (and probably Lloyd) would have been way too young to be involved then.  If I had to bet, I'd say it's just a file number, but I hope I'm wrong and it's something extra-special cool.

*After a nice respite at a rest stop along the highway of the future-seeing mystery that is FlashForward, by all accounts, "A561984" will ramp up the Mosaic investigation by giving us a lot of info on the cause of the blackout.  From the preview, we see Lloyd actually following through with his public declaration of responsibility for the blackout.  I am still holding tight to my original prediction that Lloyd and Simon's technology is responsible for the blackout, but they were not the ones who caused the blackout to occur.  Something tells me that even if Lloyd lays out this point explicitly, the public is not going to take to kindly to it.

*Simon seems, from the preview, to be working with the L.A. FBI and revealing his and Lloyd's part in the blackout.  Now, most people tend to believe Simon is a "bad guy," so what is his angle in helping the FBI?  Is he trying to cast attention elsewhere in order to protect himself and his group's true intentions?  We will hear Simon tell the FBI, "I'll find him."  Who is "him?"  Suspect Zero?  D. Gibbons?  The Chess Player (the guy who blew up the doll factory in "White to Play")?  I think we did see a flash of someone handling chess pieces in the preview, so maybe the Chess Player is who Simon will be seeking, but why?  What cards does Simon have up his sleeve (pun, sadly, intended)?

*Olivia tells Lloyd she will help him, with something.  With Dylan?  Does Lloyd confide in her that he is "responsible" for the blackout before he tells the public?  I think it's more likely the former because why would she want to assist the man responsible for the greatest catastrophy known to man?  Oh, and how quickly will Mark run to Olivia to say "I told you so!' once Lloyd goes public?  Thirty seconds?  A minute?

*We will also see the return of Shohreh Agdashloo tomorrow night.  If you remember, she was the one who told Demetri he would be murdered on March 15.  The preview had us believe that she will tell Demetri that the one who will murder him is sitting at their table, apparently in Hong Kong.  Methinks this will not go down as expected.  I didn't see who was also in the restaurant with them besides Mark (Vreede, you there?), and although we do know there is likely a traitor in the FBI, I just think there will be a bigger reveal than the one telegraphed by the preview.  But we do get a table flipped over and gunshots in an Asian restuarant, which always reminds me that anything goes (couldn't find the exact clip that didn't have offensive blackface in it, but you know what comes after the song and dance).

I'm preparing myself to be hit with a big, and welcome, download of information tomorrow night regarding the mechanical cause of the blackout (will I also score on my satellite prediciton?).  However, the continuing mystery will be why the blackout occurred and who perpetrated it.  I would like to see some more Janis tomorrow night, as I thought they were building her character nicely, all to, literally, leave her for dead a few episodes ago and not give her much screen time since.  Maybe she'll go to Hong Kong with the boys.  I don't expect more than a passing glance of Bryce or Aaron after the last episode; I think we'll be Mosaic-heavy tomorrow night.  This, I believe, is a good thing because it is the overarching mystery that will give us the great cliffhangers necessary to steel ourselves for the cold and barren winter. 

If you need a refresher on any of FF's episodes, all of my recaps are here.  Plus, always rememebr to check out the crackpot theories over at FlashForwardCast with Jay and Jack.  If you have any thoughts or theories about tomorrow night's episode, please drop them in the Comments section below.  I'll be back this weekend with my thoughts on tomorrow night's episode.  Until then...

Enjoy.

FlashForward - "Believe," Ctd

Well, I can honestly say that my worst fears were not realized in last night's episode of FlashForward; namely, that we would have another "Stranger in a Strange Land" situation.  Did I think "Believe" was the great episode some thought it was?  No.  Was it a nice change of pace?  Sure.  Was it completely necessary?  Absolutely.  The risk FF waded into when the show was created and pitched as a sci-fi-ish, high concept serial drama (like it's big brother, Lost, and any other serialized show) was that the "weirdness" of the technical parts of the story (i.e. time travel, weird science experiment gone awry, flashbacks, etc.) might turn off a large segment of the viewing public.  As series co-creator David S. Goyer points out in his interview with EW's inimitable Doc Jensen, this needs to be counteracted with a healthy dose of character development.  Hence, after a few weeks of sometimes repetitive plot points (need to help the people who jump on the train late), we received almost an entire hour devoted to Bryce: how he came to the point of suicide, what he saw in his flash, and the ramifications thereof.  This was really a great character study, and in a sea of great actors on this show, Zachary Knighton stepped up and proved he belonged beside them.  We were given a sprinkle of plot for the other main characters, and I will touch on them briefly, but this was Bryce's (and Keiko's!) night, so let's start with them.

*The title credits picutre was of Keiko's wrist tattoo, received after she quit her job and was planning her escape to America.  Anyone out there read Japanese?  Did the tattoo say "believe" or are we all being hosed?  Let me also mention here that my original hypothesis that these title credit pictures may be overarching-series-mystery clues might not bear any fruit.  They appear to be just a flash of something important that will appear in that night's episode.  I will keep cataloguing them, however, on the off chance that there is something super-cool about them all taken as a unit.

*We learn that four weeks before the blackout, Bryce is told that his renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) has moved to Stage 4, and has spread to his brain and lungs.  When offered the possibility of another round of chemo, he refuses and proceeds to become distraught and unaware of his surroundings; which is made abundantly clear as he unknowingly backs into some jackass' hot rod.  His sadness turns into anger as he continuously slams into the hot rod.  Two weeks later, Bryce begins to zone out during surgery to the point Olivia tells him he should reconsider whether medicine is the proper field for him.  He then goes to see a psychologist in hopes of dealing with his believed death sentence.  Not receiving sufficient answers there, he turns to thoughts of suicide, the pier, a revolver, and a meeting with fate.  I know what I just wrote is more straight recap than what I normally write, but what it illustrates is the path that leads a man to suicide.  Bryce is obviously a smart guy who uses a fine-tuned body to perform complicated, meticulous surgeries that save people's lives.  Now, cancer is robbing him of his mind and body, and as a doctor, he understands this reality all too well -- he will not be able to save his own life.  This was all important background to understand why Bryce was on that pier.  Nice grace note, by the way, of Bryce unconsciously putting his seat belt on when he got in his car.  A nice little sign that he (or his subconscious at least) wanted to fight for his life.

*I think this was the first time we saw someone's whole flash.  Bryce, who, in his flash, now speaks pretty fluent Japanese, met up with Keiko in a Japanese restaurant.  He seemed very relieved to see/meet her (as she did, him), and caressed her arm, revealing her wrist tattoo.  I got a great feeling of love and fulfillment from the pair during the flash.  Bryce did, too, as this was enough to turn his outlook around, leading him to go in for another round of chemo and learning Japanese, despite being very sick.  In his words to Olivia, after she saw him nearly pass out and disovered his chemotherapy mainlines, his flash gave him "something to live for."  I loved the questions being recited by the Japanese language tapes while Bryce was throwing up, "How are you feeling today?  I hope you are well.  Can you give me the directions?  I am lost.  Who are you?  What do you want?"  These words perfectly summed up Bryce's state as they are the questions Bryce was surely asking himself on both literal and more thematic levels.  Great writing.  Olivia then gets Bryce into a trial for an experimental cancer drug in Houston, but with his time away from the hospital, he searches for Keiko.  He finds his way to her home, but he is denied meeting her by her mother, who had kicked Keiko out of the house for insisting that she wanted a different life than the one planned for her, and wanted to marry for love.  Distraught, and no doubt still believing that his time on Earth may be limited, Bryce called Nicole looking for support.  Her advice, "Sometimes you just have to be patient."  Which we will have to be, as well.

*I guess I should briefly talk about Bryce's intended love.  Keiko was introduced to us as she prepared for an interiew at a prestigous robotics company.  We quickly learned that she was not intended for the conservative buisness world and society of Japan.  She named Jimi Hendrix as an idol, and that she enjoyed playing guitar.  She did not want to be set up with a man pre-approved by her mother, and when she was brought into a meeting to serve tea to those gathered because she was the only woman in the department, she exhibited her independent streak, and quit.  This independence led to a fight were her mother when Keiko denounced her mother's plans for her.  Keiko was kicked out of the house and she ran, with her guitar, to Los Angeles, on Bryce's plane!  We saw that in her flash she will meet Bryce in a Japanese restaurant, but it is in L.A., not Japan.  One other note, Keiko was watching a video of Bob Dylan's "Shelter From the Storm."  This song is incredibly apt, as it speaks of a man "burned out from exhaustion" and "poisoned" who seeks refuge with a woman.  Certainly sounds like our man Bryce, right?  However, the song turns in its second half, when the man says "Now there's a wall between us, somethin' there's been lost / I took too much for granted, got my signals crossed."  Does this mean that post April 29, 2010, Bryce and Keiko's relationship will falter?  Will she not be his savior?  I hope not, but we'll "have to be patient."

Quick Hits:

*In non-Bryce/Keiko happenings, we had Aaron trying to deal with, on the surface, that Tracy drinks and that he, as a recovering alcoholic, can't have alcohol around.  What this really was all about, however, was that Aaron blamed himself for Tracy being in the situation that she is in.  First, Aaron was in the military, and Tracy "enlisted to be just like me [Aaron]."  Second, as alcoholism can be genetically passed to one's children, Aaron was worried that he may have "inspired" that in her, too.  Obviously, neither of these are his fault, but he is acting as a parent, and wants to protect his daughter from all threats, both those he may have control over (Jericho), and those he doesn't (her enlistment, alcoholism). 

*Mark, upon discovering the text sent to Olivia about him drinking in his flash, interrogated both Aaron and Wedeck (the only two people he told about is flash) about whether they texted Olivia.  Both vigorously denied it.  In fact, Aaron, stressed out about Tracy, blew up at Mark and told him to find another AA sponsor.  Dang!  Although, Mark did deserve to be slapped down (figuratively by Wedeck, and literally by Aaron); he was awful accusatory in tone and word choice.

*Did you catch Vreede's sideways look when the NSA agent told them that they traced a suspicious call back to one of their phones?  Perhaps Jay and Jack's caller was right?  Is he the mole? 

*The call was the one Demetri received from the woman who said he was going to be murdered March 15.  Audio analysis pointed them to the nightly Symphony of Lights celebration in Hong Kong.  Wedeck, understandably, did not want them to go, but Mark has a plan to secret he and Demetri away to China to investigate the lead.  Man, the L.A. FBI bureau has a pretty healthy budget.

*The NSA agent also todl the group that Suspect Zero's ring has an Alpha symbol on it.  I loved the fact that Wedeck asked the question all of us were, How could a symbol on the ring be determined but not Zero's face?!?  I love when shows do that.  I went back to the end of last week's episode, "Playing Cards with Coyote," and yes, the rings that were given to Ricky Jay did have the same Alpha symbol. 

From my preview for "Believe," well, we got what I expected, a Bryce-centric episode.  There was no Janis at all (boooo!), no Lloyd or Simon, and little amounts of everyone else.  There was some acrimony in Mark and Olivia's marriage, but it was short-lived, and while Aaron had the most screen time after Bryce, nothing major happened. 

Prediction:  As Suspect Zero had the missing ring, and Ricky Jay didn't seem to happy about it (evidenced by, literally, shooting the messenger) I predict Zero is actually a traitor to the group that caused the blackout.

OK, that's all for this week.  Again, sorry for the more straight-up recapping, but FF took a well-deserved pause in the breakneck pace it was setting, and let us really get to know the motivation of one of its heretofor neglected characters.  The thread of escape, Bryce from his illness/death, Keiko from a restriced society, and even Aaron from alcoholism and Demetri from fate, was woven well throught the episode.  We were given something Ivory pure to root for (Bryce/Keiko's relationship) and we were able to reflect upon how profound the events of the blackout truly were on people's lives.  To paraphrase Aaron, many people, post-blackout, are "not the people they used to be."  For some (Bryce, Keiko), that is a blessing.  For others (Tracy, and maybe Olivia and Mark) a curse.  The episode allowed us to become reacquainted with the stakes of what occurred October 6th.  With that in mind, I believe FF will move forward with a greater sense of urgency and consequence.  Remeber to check out the FlashForwardCast with Jay and Jack, and we'll meet again over FF in two weeks time.  Leve any comments or theories in the Comments section below, and, as always, thank you very much for reading.

I'm off to build a robot that can feed me jellybeans.

FlashForward - "Believe"

Hello all.  Tomorrow night's episode of FlashForward is titled, "Believe."  As the preview at the end of last week's "Playing Cards with Coyote" focused on Bryce and his search for the Japanese girl he saw in his flash, the title obviously refers to the Japanese character Bryce also saw in his flash that Nicole translated as "Believe."  I am not against a Bryce-centric episode.  Of all the main characters on the show, save Nicole, Bryce has received the least amount of attention, so finding out more about why he was going to kill himself, what exactly he saw, and what the importance is of the Japanese girl will be very interesting.  However, this episode is just begging to be compared to what is universally considered Lost's worst episode, "Stranger in a Strange Land." 

In that episode, Jack flashes back to Thailand, where he meets a mysterious woman (played by Bai Ling) who claims she can look into people and tell them who they are. As Jack has always wondered what his purpose is in life, he asks her to tattoo on him who he "is."  His tattoo's meaning is the title of the episode, "Stranger in a Strange Land."  He is then beat up by Thai locals and kciked out of Thailand.  The whole mess is very bizarre and really had nothing to do with nothing.  If "Believe" is mostly a Bryce episode and he is led on a journey to Japan, all I can say is that the payoff better be good.  If not, many Lost fans (which I would argue a supermajority of FF watchers are) may think FF has jumped the proverbial shark.  What else am I looking for tomorrow night?  Let's see:

*The only other person I saw in the preview last week was Demetri (stupid Cablevision DVR).  According to the written preview for "Believe" on ABC.com, the FBI is going to try to track down the caller who told Demetri he was going to be murdered, you know, waaaaaaaaay back in episode two, "White to Play."  It's about time, right?  I'll be interested to see how they get back to this topic.  I really hope it's not a situation where Demetri says, "Remember how I got that call I was going to be murdered?  We should probably figure out who called me!"  Here's hoping it's more integrated than that.

*Jack from the FlashForwardCast does a Carackpot Theory every week.  Last week's was that Mike, Tracy's fellow soldier who told Aaron that she was dead two episodes ago, is Suspect Zero.  He based his theory on the fact that the actor who plays Mike is 5'9", 145 lbs., just like the description of Suspect Zero.  I went back and rewatched Mike's scenes in "The Gift," and we never saw his right hand, the one on which Zero is wearing a ring.  I'd like to see some information on the rings, their importance (do they block the effects of the blackout?), and whether Mike has anything to do with the blackout conspiracy.

*Will Lloyd, having won his poker game with Simon, really go public with their responsibility for the blackout?  Being as it is only November, methinks not.  What game is Simon actually playing though?  What is their true responsibility?

*I think I want some major Janis action.  She was becoming a favorite character of mine, so now that she has been essentially sidelined for the last two weeks, I want to see her make important contributions in the office this week.

*With major parts of their flashes believed to be eradicated (Olivia trashing the lingerie and Mark killing 3-Star), I don't suspect we'll see a lot of angst in the Mark/Olivia relationship this week.  This is A-OK by me.  At some point, their marriage will have to be strained again, so I prefer that the show take a break from it for a week or eight, and return to it next calendar year.  Mark will likely be busy helping Demetri find the caller, but what motivation does Olivia have on the show other than avoiding Lloyd?  I hope the writers give her something else to do.

*I don't expect a lot out of the Aaron/Tracy story either.  We received a massive download of information last week, and FF likes to have its characters take turns in the spotlight next to Mark.  Same for Wedeck, although I would like to see some more about how his wife ends up mothering that Muslim boy she saw at the FBI funeral.  And why is Wedeck so emotional all the time?  Not that I'm complaining: I have no problem with men showing their emotions.  He just seems to take everything going on in his co-workers' lives to heart.  Is there some motivation behind this?

*Oh, and who the hell is Coyote?

That's about it, folks.  Again, this looks to be a very Bryce-centric episode.  Weird Asian characters (words, not people) and mysterious women aside, I don't think FF will fall into the same trap as Lost did, however, there is always the danger of driving what has been a very compelling narrative, straight into a brick wall, and halting the momentum necessary to get the show through the doldrums of December and January.  Here's hoping the production team succeeds because FF has become one of my favorite shows to watch and discuss.  Speaking of discussion (segue!), if you have anything to ask, say or comment upon, please leave your note in the Comments section below.  Check out last week's recap for a refresher of what's going on.  Thoughts on tomorrow's episode hopefully up this weekend.  Until then...

Enjoy.

FlashForward - "Playing Cards with Coyote," Ctd

Well, it finally happened.  I was disappointed in an episode.  I found last night's FF, while still a good hour of television, not up to the standards set in the great run of recent episodes.  I expected there to be...I don't know...more in this episode.  I mean, from the second the 3-Star guy was discovered, I knew there would be more than one guy with three stars tattooed on his arm.  But, we'll get to that in a bit.  Here's my thoughts on "Playing Cards with Coyote":

*The title credits picture was the Ace of Hearts.  We had seen during the open that Lloyd pulled an Ace of Spades when performing a magic trick for Dylan, so when the Ace of Hearts flashed, I figured it wasn't Lloyd's, although I had no real reason to believe so.  Obviously, I was proven wrong.  Any other meaning to the card?  I don't think so, although the Ace of Spades is usually considered the card of death, so maybe the Ace of Hearts has the opposite meaning?  They all have new life after Al's "gift?"

*When I saw the slo-motion opening, like that of "Black Swan," and as I didn't recognize Celia at first, I was expecting a grim scene.  Instead, we saw the exact opposite; we saw the "rebirth" of most of our characters.  Celia was given life by Al.  Aaron returned home to Tracy.  Janis returned to work after her brush with death.  Mark and Olivia rekindled their marriage.  It was a nice visual illustration of the changed reality our characters now exist in.  In Mark's words, they could all "celebrate second chances."  Last note, good news travels fast.  Al's death, and subsequent letter to Celia that said he changed the future was quickly picked up by the press.  Guess we don't have to worry about people knowing they can control their futures.

*Speaking of, there were interesting comments on the nature of the future as we and our characters now understand it.  Janis wondered "should I lean into my future?  Do I fight it?  Our choices still matter."  Nicole stated "Everything is up to us again."  Olivia agreed with me that they must take action proactively to change the future they saw in their flashes when she said, "maybe we have to work that much harder" to do so.  Mark was proactive when he, admittedly, killed 3-Star in the pet store to change his future (dramatic irony alert!).  On the other side, we had Simon waxing poetic on determinist philosophy, stating that there is "no such thing as fate, free will or 'there but for the Grace of God.'"  I certainly thought that the nature of the future would now be, at least to some extent, settled.  Turns out I was wrong; we will be having many more discussions on what is and isn't set in stone, and what the characters can change.  Then again, all of these statements that the future can be changed gave me a "The lady doth protest too much, methinks," feel. 

*The whole Simon/Lloyd confrontation hit some highs and lows for me.  The low was the poker game; it felt so inconsequential to me.  Yes, I know Lloyd won (by cheating.  Not a good example for Dylan!), so, in theory, they will announce the fact that their experiment was responsible for the blackout.  However, I think there is no way in hell they are announcing that.  Simon will not let that happen.  The highs though revealed some interesting mysteries.  First was Lloyd's email to folks with a nlap.us.com address.  Now, I'm sure many of you used the Google to find out what NLAP is.  All I could find that was somewhat relevant was the National Laboratory Audit Project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.  Los Alamos does some of the nation's most important work in astrophysics, nuclear security and computing.  Not too hard to see how work there could relate to the blackout.  Further, 3-Star's victim worked in aeronautics.  Possibly at Los Alamos?  Second, both Simon and Lloyd mentioned Q.E.D.  So, too, did 3-Star.  Now, the most common definition for Q.E.D. is quod erat demonstrandum, meaning "which was to be demonstrated."  However, the second definition is the abbreviation in physics for "quantum electrodynamics."  We know that Simon and Lloyd are physicists, so for me, this is the actual definition they meant.  Perhaps electrodynamics are responsible for the blackout.  Why 3-Star was discussing it, I have no idea.  One last thing, will Myles, an apparent co-conspirator of Simon/Lloyd, be important?

*As we saw at the end of last week's episode, "The Gift," Tracy is indeed alive.  She explained that when her Humvee was ambushed by Jericho, a Private Military Contractor, she was left for dead with a missing lower right leg.  She was somehow able to escape, and went on the run, evidently aided by a man named Kahmir.  It was revealed that in Aaron's flash, he saw a conversation he and Kahmir had about "the accounts" being "verified."  Tracy is scared that Jericho is after her because she saw Jericho brutally wipe out am Afghan village.  How does this tie in to the "accounts?"  Further, Tracy appears to be injured again in Aaron's flash: she has cuts on her face and is in bed.  Does she go back to Afghanistan to try to take on Jericho, only to be captured again, and Aaron is there to negotiate her release?  Is she somehow in an undercover situation?  Color me confused by this storyline.  Although, it was great to see the interaction of this father's joy at the seemingly impossible return of his daughter, with a daughter's fear of exposure to the point that she doesn't even want her mother to know she is alive. 

*There was just something about the Mark/3-Star plot that fell short with me.  Perhaps it was all of the concentration on the pet store owner/witness.  I liked how Mark's flash kept, well, flashing during he and Demetri's pursuit of 3-Star through the store; it really added to the tension.  However, Mark's killing 3-Star was anticlimactic for me because I just knew 3-Star's entire group would have the same tattoo.  How could they not?  It was way too early in the season for that threat to have been neutralized and Mark's flash rendered moot.  A lot of build-up for nothing.  Well, there were a couple important things that came from this story: 1) that Mark admitted to Olivia that he killed the guy to alter his future (as opposed to defending himself); 2) there is a mole in the L.A. FBI office (maybe it IS Agent Vreede!); and 3) the bad guys are supposed to have seven rings, but only six were in the case taken from the aeronautics guy killed by 3-Star.  A theory on that in my Prediction below.  Lastly, the man receiving the rings was none other than magician extraordinaire, Ricky Jay(!), who delivered maybe my favorite line of the series to date after shooting a stooge, "Now we're sons of bitches."  Awesome.

Quick Hits:

*My immediate reaction upon seeing Lloyd and Dylan in the opening?  "What the f*&$ is Dylan still doing in the hospital?!?"  Well, he's got a DVT, or deep vein thrombosis.  This is, apparently, a common hospital malady because patients aren't moving around a lot, and blood can pool into clots that can clog veins and arteries, or break off and move into the heart, lungs or brain.  Then I felt bad for hating on the autistic kid who could die via blood clot. 

*Simon said he had "doubts" about the cause of the blackout.  Just being cheeky, or is there really another explanation?

*I audibly said, "Whoa!" when it was revealed that Mark purchased the lingerie Olivia was wearing in her flash.  Nice move FF writers.  Kudos.  To change her flash, was it sufficient that she threw the gift out?  I'm thinking, no.

*Tracy's voice-over was terrible, and I think she's the weakest actor on the show (so far).  This brings up a pet peeve.  I know that sometimes it's hard to get proper sound while filming (especially for outdoor scenes), but why is the state of TV looping so poor?  You can always hear the difference in the VO sound and the "live" sound, and God forbid that the looped portion be synced to the person's mouth moving on screen; it looks terrible!  There is no worse offender than reality TV shows, but come on people!  Technology has to be good enough that you can make the loops sound right!

*The Bronx Zoo uniforms are a lot better than the one on Ingrid in her flash.  Egad!  Oh, and I called witness protection program as soon as I saw the blond hair in her flash.  Like the FBI would ever put protected witnesses in NYC.  Please.

*Lloyd insisted that he and Simon "had to take responsibility" for the blackout.  Why?  Doe she have regrets because of Dylan's mom dying, or is there something else motivating him?

*Janis was looking into sperm donation to have her child.  Interestingly, Wedeck was very supportive of this (not that he'd have a reason not to).  This is like the third time we've seen him be very concerned about Janis' personal life.  To me, it feels like something is brewing there.

*What was the Coyote from the episode title?  Did I miss something while writing notes?

From my preview of the episode, I think I actually got a lot of what I was looking for.  Al's sacrifice profoundly effected everyone; it does seem the characters must purposefully change their futures; Jericho was involved in Tracy's disappearance and there was definitely some tension in the Aaron/Tracy reunion; Janis was back and rethinking her path, admittedly because of Al's death; and we need more info on the Simon/Lloyd dynamic.  It's funny, because I had most of wishes for the episode granted, but I still felt underwhelmed.  I guess there's no winning with me.

Prediction: We know there is a ring missing, and that Suspect Zero was wearing a ring in Detroit.  I predict that 1) the rings prevent the wearer from blacking out; 2) Suspect Zero stole the ring and is actually a "friend;" and 3) because acquiring the rings was obviously important, and the rings prevent the effects of the blackout, there is going to be another blackout by the end of the season.  A 3-in-1 Prediction; I'm feeling generous!

OK, that's all I have for "Playing Cards...."  Again, a good episode, but, I thought, a step back from the last couple weeks.  It says something about the quality of the show that I was disappointed by a B- effort.  Pleas leave your thoughts, theories and questions in the Comments section below.  Tune into the FlashForwardCast with Jay and Jack.  I'm writing this before I listen to their latest episode, but Jack is claiming on Twitter that he knows who Suspect Zero is.  Hmmmm....can't wait to hear that crackpot theory!  Thanks always for reading, and passing the word on about the blog.

I'm off to apply for the MacArthur Prize.

FlashForward - "Playing Cards with Coyote"

Good afternoon everyone.  Tomorrow night's episode is titled "Playing Cards with Coyote."  I really have no idea what that means, but because we saw Simon and Lloyd playing cards to decide whether they will tell the world about their "experiment," it appears that the title may be as simple as the fact that they are playing cards.  If this was Lost, I'd never think that title should be taken at face value, but as FF has been actually giving us answers to questions every week, the opposite may be true.  Only question is, then, who is Coyote?  I assume we'll get that answer tomorrow night.  Here's what else I'm looking for:

*How does everyone react to the meaning of Al's death?  Obviously, everyone will be very upset over Al's suicide, but how long does it take for them to realize that the flashes can be changed?  What does it mean that they can change their futures?  Who will even want to?  I hope this means Mark and Olivia will attempt a reconciliation, at least for a while.  How does Demetri accept his possible murder now?  Will he pull a Doc Brown and wear a bulletproof vest?   The characters' reactions to Al's series-exploding act will be very interesting.

*I'm also interested in whether my Prediction from "The Gift" will be true: that a person must proactively change their future.  This ties in with the question of who would want to change their futures.  I expect Mark, Olivia, Demetri and Nicole, obviously, would want to change their flashes, but what about everyone else?  Will the circumstances surrounding someone's supposedly "positive" flash actually reveal itself to be a horror?  Like...

*...Aaron and Tracy.  Tracy came back at the end of "The Gift," but what are the circumstances of her return?  I think something weird happened with that group that attaked her humvee.  I expect they are involved in the blackout, and perhaps Tracy is working for them?  I have a feeling something is going to go awry in Aaron's reunion.

*Will Janis still be recovering and otherwise out of sight?  I didn't realize how much I'd miss Janis until last episode.  I feel like I need to see her reaction to Al's death and what that means for her own future.  Will she decide to get pregnant now?  Will she come out to her co-workers?  Did she get her alarm clock back?  I hope we get some Ms. Hawk tomorrow night.

*In the preview for "Playing Cards...," Lloyd again referenced "our experiment" when speaking with Simon.  that certainly leads me to believe that my Prediction is wrong and that they actually were responsible for the blackout, albeit perhaps unwittingly.  The vibe I'm getting from Lloyd is that he's a bad guy attempting to go straight.  What is Simon's deal anyway?  Whose side is he on?  And where the hell are Suspect Zero and D. Gibbons?

In sum, I think we will get two major storylines tomorrow night: 1) FBI-related folk dealing with the idea that the future can be changed; and 2) a massiv edownload of Simon/Lloyd backstory.  We should also get a dash of Aaron/Tracy and Janis.  As FF has been getting better and better every week, I expect the same tomorrow night.  Compared to last night's V, this may be the best hour of television for the week.  Don't forget to listen to the FlashForwardCast with Jay and Jack, and if you need a refresher on last week, check out my recap of "The Gift."  Thoughts on "Playing Cards..." over the weekend.  Until then...

Enjoy.

FlashForward - "The Gift," Ctd

What is this?  This post is actually going up on Friday?  Yes, yes it is.  Don't get used to it or anything, but I decided to take notes on the show as I watched it last night so, here we are with my thoughts on a game-changing episode of FF on Friday.  It appears that my Prediction from last week was actually true, unfortuntely for Al, who I was really hoping (especially as the beginning of this episode wore on) would become a main character.  So much for that.  What will Al's sacrifice mean for our remaining FF friends?  Well, let's find out.  As Al's "gift" will obviously have far-reaching implications for all of our main characters, let's first discuss what they were up to last night, then Al, then what Al's sacrifice means for the show.  Alright?  Good.  In the words of the dearly departed, "Here we go.":

*The title sequence picture was of a bullet with "Not Today" written on it.  I actually loved the device of using Russian Roulette as a test for entrance to the Blue Hand.  It's a nice metaphor for the unknowable twists of fate and the inherent risk we all accept just by getting up in the morning.  Of course, at the time, Al thought it was impossible that he would die from the gunshot.  That is what makes the whole scene that much eerier upon reflection, as we now know that there actually was a one in six chance he would blown his head off right then and there.  The writing on the bullet ends up being a lie: anyone's death could very well be today.

*Mark/Olivia:  I liked the fact that they were at least trying to put on happy faces and get along.  When each said s/he trusted the other, it was so agonizingly forced, but with enough "I love you" that I don't think this couple is over just yet.  Plus, you could see how hurt Mark is by the whole situation when he started to cry while watching The Adventures of Squrrielio with Charlie.  This is a man who doesn't want to lose his family.

*Olivia/Lloyd: Lloyd, using the excuse of saying "thank you" again to Olivia for helping Dylan, insisted that there was no way he was going to allow himself to come between Olivia and Mark, and Olivia assured him of the same.  He even described how he and Dylan were going to move back to the San Francisco Bay Area as if to prove that he was acting honorably.  However, the whole time I couldn't detect any sincerity from either of them.  The vibe in the room seemed to be saying "we like each other," and the scene dripped with all the awkwardness of a junior high school co-ed dance.  Perhaps their attitude will change once they learn the flashes won't necessarily come true; but perhaps they want their flash to occur.

*Demetri/Zoey: The stress of believing he is going to be murdered in a few months, combined with his increasing nihilism after his experience with the Blue Hand and fellow "ghosts" (i.e. people who didn't have a flash), finally got to Demetri.  After a couple blow-ups with Zoey (and really, who hasn't had fights with their fiance over wedding preparations, even without knowing you were going to be murdered?), he finally admitted to her that he didn't have a flash.  Their whole relationship in this episode, quite obviously echoed that of Mark and Olivia last week (Zoey/Olivia: "I want you to be honest!"  Demetri/Mark: "You want me to be honest?!?").  This structure actually bothered me.  I would have preferred that Demetri's admission came the same week as Mark's: the paralell would have lent itself to some interesting directorial opportunities.  As Zoey held tight to her flash of their wedding, it was at this point that I really started to feel (contrary to my previous belief) that FF might actually kill off Demetri.  I could see the Powers That Be saying, "Oh, you don't think we would kill off John Cho because he's John Cho?  Well, we've been telling you this whole time he's going to die, so we killed him!"  By the end of the episode last night, I was back to thinking he won't die, but for a few minutes there, they had me.

*Bryce/Nicole: Bryce was drawing again.  As I thought, he was indeed drawing an Asian girl; a Japanese woman, actually.  We know she was in his flash, but we don't know her significance yet.  Nicole, who has started to volunteer at the hosiptal to make amends for whatever it is she hasn't done yet, informed Bryce that the Japanese character he was seeing was "kanji," or "Believe."  1) I could have done without this little bromide; it just seemed so false.  Of course the words he saw was "Believe!"  He didn't kill himself because of it.  How mystical! *eyes rolling*  2) Really?  Nicole randomly speaks Japanese?  Did she learn from the same place Mark learned Sufi?  Oh, and it appears Nicole thinks Bryce is cute.  Anyone know how old these people are supposed to be?  I think she's still in college, and he's obviously out of med school.  Age difference a bit odd, right?  Whatever.  As you can tell, I'm not that into this storyline.

*Aaron: In hindsight, we were being set up from the beginning of the episode to finally come to grips with the idea that Tracy, Aaron's daughter, was actually dead.  The tastefully named Mike (a member of Tracy's unit) showed up to bring back Tracy's pocketknife to Aaron.  Mike relayed the story of how he saw Tracy die, at the hands of "Jericho," which I assume is a sketchy KBR-type contractor in the Middle East.  I have never thought Tracy was dead, not after Aaron dug up her grave, and not after Mike relayed the story; however, when Aaron seemed to accept his daughter's fate (finally), I have to say, Brian F. O'Byrne's performance had me doubting.  I imagined Aaron would begin an investigation into Jericho, that would eventually lead to the blackout.  Boy was I wrong!  There she was, looking none the worse for wear, sitting in Aaron's house at the end of the episode.  Have to say, that put some hop in my step.

*Blue Hand: At first, it seemed that there would be some grand Mosaic significance to the group.  However, as I look at it now, I don't see how they are connected to anything.  We were introduced to the concept of "ghosts," i.e. people who didn't have a flash, and how Blue Hand found them through Mosaic, but I don't see the reasoning behind this storyline other than providing Al the motivation for his "Gift" to Celia.  I mean, the freaky-ness of the "club" was interesting, and I guess it was a short mediation on how some people would treat their knowing, impending death (or, for that matter, knowing that they will definitely live for the next six months), but it just didn't amount to much for me.  The whole "blue hand represents a portal" shlock uttered by Raynaud?  At this point, meaningless to me.  If someone got more out of the Blue Hand than I did, please leave your thoughts in the Comments, because I am at a loss.

*Al: Poor, poor Al.  We learned that Al was haunted by his flash, because in it, he found out that he would kill a woman, named Celia, which would orphan her twin boys.  It wasn't clear if he learned her name in the flash, but he did end up finding her via Mosaic.  She was a "ghost," which confirmed Al's flash, as he assumed that "ghosts" would be dead by April 29.   Al could not live with this responsibility, so he decided to give to Celia (and Demetri, Mark and the others) a future free from the dread of what she expected to come true (her impending death), by killing himself.  I have to admit: I was very upset by this.  I know he didn't have a lot of screen time, but I dug Al, and his protrayal by Lee Thompson Young.  In these serial shows though, and as has proven by Lost, the unexpected death of main characters can ring profoundly through a series.

What Al's death proved is that the flashes don't, necessarily, represent a set-in-stone future.  I don't think FF's theory of time involves the "course-correction" idea propounded by Lost.  Rather, I think the future can be permanently changed.  Now, if this is the case, it kind of destroys the purpose of the flashes because, if our characters aren't scared/worried/hoping for their flashes coming true, all of their motivation disappears (with the exception of finding out who caused the blackout, I suppose).  So, I actually propose that the future can be permanently changed, if a person proactively changes it.  In my theory, if a character just goes along with life passively toward April 29, then the flash will occur as the person saw during the blackout.  However, if the person takes proactive steps to change render their flash impossible (like Al jumping off a freaking building!), then the flash will not occur.  No course-correcting.  No fate.  Where the conflict in the series will lie going forward then, is in each character 1) realizing that s/he can change the future, and 2) deciding whether or not they want to change what they saw. 

Now, I had Predicted last week, after Simon's Schrodinger's Cat story, that this would be the case (score one for me!), so this was already in my mind as I watched last night.  Then, we got a number of clues: 1) Demetri emphasizing the line "I call it the way to change the game," when discussing playing Madden football with Al (and Al's echo of this right before he jumped); 2) Al, after his suggestion that Fiona tape the window so the bird won't fly into it, saying, "It's worth a shot;" and 3) Zoey saying, "We get to choose," in response to her and Demetri's conflicting flashes (and repeating Simon's statement last week that "the observer decides").  Despite all this, I was still sure that Al would be prevented from jumping.  Even as he was falling, I thought, somehow, he wouldn't die.  When he did, I was shocked.  Utterly shocked.  And that is the sign of a great televsion show.  Now that the paradigm has shifted, from an unchangeable future to a pliable one, it will be very interesting to see how each of our characters reacts to their new situation.

Quick Hits:

*That was a very cool fountain at the beginning of the episode.  Anyone know where it is?

*Turns out the "We know you are one of us" flyer was generated by the Blue Hand, and was received by Celia.  If I'm not mistaken though, the word "demteris" was not on it during the actual program.  Odd.

*Heh.  The FBI agent wore a Police shirt to a raid. 

*I have always liked Alex Kingston, who played Mi6 agent Fiona Banks last night.  I wonder, know that Al is dead, whether she will be on the show in future episodes.

*I couldn't tell if it was the "ghosts" being tortured, or people who knew they wouln't die being tortured.  Either way, I would not spend those six months being dunked in a bathtup while wearing a submissive harness.

*Who is Annabelle, and how does she relate to Simon?  The name bracelet looked like a kid's bracelet to me, so is Annabelle Simon's daughter?  A long-lost sister?

As far as what last night's episode answered from my preview, it was a mixed bag.  Aaron did step to the fore, but I was way off on the Blue Hand.  Lloyd did seem to be at least the slightest bit interested in Olivia, but I couldn't detect any game he was playing.  Lastly, Janis didn't even appear in the episode, so the pattern has been broken (tell Agent Dunham), and you know what?  I missed her.  Fast recovery Miss Hawk!

Prediction: A person must proactively change the future by making their flash impossible.

That about wraps it up.  Again, this was a game-changing episode for this nascent series.  I'm hoping they don't paint themselves into a corner by making the flashes completely irrelevant (since they can be changed), but I have faith they know what they're doing.  The show has just been getting stronger and stronger, so I'm already looking forward to next week.  As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the Comments section below.  Also, if you like what you read hear at all, please pass the word on to your fellow FF watchers.  Don't forget to check out the FlashForwardCast with Jay and Jack.  Thank you for reading.

I'm off to sail some boats in a fountain.

FlashForward - "The Gift"

No, I don't think ABC will be airing a one hour version of the movie made famous for showing Katie Holmes' breasts.  Instead we will get a more PG-13 rated hour of one of my new favorite shows, FlashForward.  I'm hoping the show keeps its momentum after a great episode last week.  Here's what I'm looking for tomorrow night:

*From last week's preview of "The Gift," it appears we will be jumping around storylines rapidly.  First off, we see someone approach Aaron with the "truth" about his daughter.  I couldn't tell if the guy speaking with Aaron was someone we've already met, but I'm willing to bet it's one of Aaron's daughter's fellow soldiers.  It seemed after he dug up her grave he was finally satisfied that his flash was going to prove untrue.  Aaron is an interesting character who has been pushed to the periphery too often, n my opinion.  It will be great to see him move to the fore, and see his hope return with a vengeance. 

*Demetri appears to have his hands full tomorrow night.  Not only did we get a glimpse of a confrontation with Zoey (will he finally tell her about his flash, like Mark told Olivia last week?), but it appears he will attempt to infiltrate the Blue Hand.  He is Asian after all.  I do expect to see Demetri admit his flash to Zoey, but am unsure what the outcome will be.  I figure she'll be supportive and say that it doesn't mean his death, but perhaps she may want out of the engagement ("Why are you lying to me?!?").  If Demetri does join the Blue Hand, will he now work semi-permanently undercover?  I think this is a distinct possibility, and assuming the Blue Hand has something to do with the blackout, maybe that is why Demetri didn't have a flash: he will still be working with them come April 29th.  Hmmmm.....  Last bit: to me, it looked like Rutherford was the guy with blue hands raising his arms in the preview.

*We also saw in the preview that Lloyd approaches Olivia; about what, I'm not sure.  She certainly doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with him, at least in the little bit we saw.  Is this because she actually feels a pull towards him and her flash could come true?  What game is he playing?  Does he like her romantically, or does he have some alterior motive, perhaps trying to cause a rift between her and Mark so Mark will drop the Mosaic case?

*Our pattern of Demetri and Janis flip-flopping the focus of the B story may come to an end this week.  With Janis in the hospital, recovering from her surgery, she can't really do all that much.  However, in the preview we did see someone (and to me the someone looked like a white woman, based on her hands, sweater and hair) looking at a document that said, "We know you are one of us.  Demetris."  First off, let me say that I first pronounced the last word like this: "duh-MEE-triss."  As opposed to how it is probably pronounced: "deh-MEE-trees," like "something that belongs to Demetri."  Demetri's.  Does this have something to do with Demetri himself, or is it a request to meet at a Greek restaurant?  Either way, the first sentence is very interesting.  If it is Janis who received this note (is this the "gift" the title is referencing?), she is one of whom?  Something tells me the gay mafia doesn't work in such mysterious ways.  Instead, was this actually Zoey finding a note from Blue Hand that is telling Demetri has been accepted to the group?  Color me intrigued.

That's about it folks.  Again, the show has been developing quite a bit of momentum, and I hope it is sustained.  A few more great outings, and word-of-mouth should really propel the show to finding a larger audience.  Don't forget the guys over at the FlashForwardCast with Jay and Jack.  Please leave any thoughts or theories in the Comments section below.  I should be able to get my thoughts on "The Gift" up on Saturday, after I finally watch V.  ABC won't put the premiere episode online until then.  That's smart.  Make sure that all those people who are interested in the show, but couldn't catch it last night, are frustrated for four days, and perhaps decide to not watch it at all.  Great work.  Anyway, until then...

Enjoy.

FlashForward - "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps," Ctd Part II

Sorry for the delay in getting my thoughts up, but I had to use the excuse of celebrating a friend finishing the NYC Marathon so I could engorge myself at one of the finest family-style Italian eateries in New York.  Anyway, I thought this was a very important episode.  Not only did we finally get to see Simon in action, a major piece of the FF puzzle may have been revealed.  What was that?  Well, read on...

*The title sequence picture was of the skeletal Blue Hand on, what looked like, a building pillar or box (something rectangular).  Obviously, we learned later the Blue Hand had some significance, but I don't think we saw it in this location during the episode.  Is this a hint to another location in which the Blue Hand operates?  More on the blue Hand below.

*The title itself (besides the Halloween tie-in) comes from the same-titled song and album by David Bowie.  According to Wikipedia (so it must be true), the song "chart[s] a woman's withdrawal from the world and descent into madness."  Does this remind you of anyone?  Especially as it was playing during a certain FBI agent's chase of men wearing masks that are haunting his future?  Hmmmm.....

*I bet Dominic Monaghan was loving the fact that he got to portray a player.  Prior to FF, he had been primarily known for playing an at-times timid, but merry hobbit, and a druggie rock star.  To be able to play dangerous, mysterious, and to have a way with the ladies -- that's a pretty nice change.  Is he really a quantum physicist?  We have no reason to doubt him (besides being relatively shady and hanging out in the backs of cars); just seems a little odd.  It was, obviously, interesting that Simon was strangling someone to death in his flash; the guy certainly wasn't familiar.  The fact that Simon was "satisfied" by killing the guy is really of not much importance to me.  It doesn't tell us if Simon was acting for "good" or "evil," just that he was probably happy he wasn't the one lying on the floor.  Although, it does bring up one thing for me: it certainly appeared that the guy Simon was fighting was considerably larger than Simon.  To me, this means Simon has some kind of super secret spy agency training.  We don't know much about him, but Simon is quite an intriguing character.  It was interesting, though, that he said to Lloyd at the end that Lloyd "disappeared to L.A.," implying that Lloyd was running from Simon and their group.  Further, Lloyd mentioned that 20 million people dies from "our experiment."  Perhaps my Prediction that Lloyd and Simon aren't intentionally behind the blackout is incorrect.  We'll have to wait and see.

*What I can confirm, however, is that it seems that we do have my first confirmed failed Prediction.  After "White to Play," I predicted Charlie and Dylan would know each other because they were both kidnapped by D. Gibbons.  Turns out, they know each other because they are, at least, taking refuge at the Benford home, if not living there.  I thought it was a great piece of writing that Dylan kept repeating the line "It's my house too," only to find out that Charlie actually told him that in his flash (of course, when Dylan first said this, I thought he meant that his mother's house was "his house too.").  This whole reveal was crafted very well.  From Charlie and Dylan's Squrrielio handshake greeting to Lloyd's realization of where he was, it was probably the most well-created episode to date.  One question though, what was the deal with the passenger on the bus?  I mean, it was nice that he wanted to help Dylan and all, but didn't it all seem a little too emphasized for that character to just disappear.  I feel like either there is a deleted scene involving the passenger, or we will be seeing him again in the future (no pun intended).

*Speaking of the confrontation between Mark, Lloyd and Olivia, how freaking awesome was that scene?  Very awesome.  As it was dawning on Mark that Lloyd was the man from Olivia's flash. you could see Joseph Fiennes, oh so subtly, seethe right underneath his calm demeanor.  The controlled venom with which he spat his order for Lloyd to leave and his slight head turn away when he shook Lloyd's hand was perhaps Fiennes' finest moment of the series to date.  Likewise, Jack Davenport matched Fiennes' intensity as he thanked the Benfords for their "hospitality."  All the while, the camera cut back to Olivia and her trepidation over the whole encounter.  But was that also a hint of disgust with Mark's reaction?  A hint of admiration for Lloyd's handling of the situation?  Oh, I think so, and I think it directly led to...

*...Olivia's outing of Mark's drinking in his flash.  Yes, there was some circuitous arguing about "only hav[ing] this moment," and being "obsessed with what we saw."  This, from earlier in the episode when Olivia first saw Mark after his run-in with the Badass Asian Assassination Squad, was in direct contrast to Mark's blaming Olivia for her affair with Lloyd that hasn't happened.  These accusations, of course, were ridiculous, and only led Olivia to pry the truth out of Mark about his future drinking.  While I was glad that he finally did admit this to Olivia, his righteous indignation, culminating in him shouting, "Don't condemn me for something I haven't done yet!" was quite unbelievable.  I mean, it was believable for the character, I just couldn't believe he could be so hypocritical.  I didn't have to believe it for long as Olivia voiced the audience's thoughts asking him, incredulously, "Do you even hear yourself?"  The real dagger came moments later when she stated that they just don't trust each other anymore.  Ouch.  I understand that he drank in the past, but is she really willing to throw their whole marriage away based on a possible future occurrence?  It appears so.  I figure that this relationship will be one of the through-stories for the entire series, so I don't expect a resolution soon.  However, one question: do you really think Olivia, knowing all she does about the future, would still fall in with Lloyd in six months?

*The whole Blue Hand thing is very odd to me.  It's not odd in that it is implausible or anything like that.  I don't know, perhaps it's just that we haven't learned enough about the group yet for me to place them properly into the story.  It appears from the preview for the next episode that we will be learning a lot more about the Blue Hand, so I'll reserve judgment (for lack of a better word) until next week.  I do have a couple questions: 1) why was the one victim's hand painted blue (besides being a calling card of the group); 2) why do they seem to all be Asian; and 3) does D. Gibbons have any connection to the group?  This plot-line did provide John Cho with some nice moments.  I liked Demetri running hot after returning from D.C. and finding out that Janis was shot.  Now, I don't know how much of his anger and go-get'em attitude as based on what happened to Janis and how much was based on his own prophesied doom, but it was nice to see these moments from him.  Lastly, I like Al, played by Lee Thompson Young.  With the introduction of Rutherford (the guy whose passport was found by Al and Demetri, and whose case was referenced by Al in his flash), and his search for Celia, it appears that Young may become a series regular.  If so, his actions raise a couple questions for me: in Al's flash, 1) what is the significance of the bird flying into the window (was it a crow??); and 2) who was he on the phone with and why did the call make him look so disconcerted?

*Perhaps the most important scene of all, though, was Simon's description of the Schrodinger's Cat theory of quantum physics.  As Simon explained, in quantum physics, if a problem's solution is unknown, all possible solutions exist at the same time, until the moment the observer sees the revealed solution.  In Simon's words, "the observer decides."  He actually played on this earlier, by telling his lady friend that the "flash forward was caused by you."  In quantum physics, in a way, he is right.  This principle that all eventualities occur at the same time until the observer decides, I believe, is the secret to the mythology of the flashes themselves.  To me, now, the flashes are just one possible outcome of the future.  Each individual person can, and will, decide what their future will actually entail.  If true, this obviously has profound consequences for the characters and the series, as none of the flashes will necessarily come true.  Fortunately for us, we'll know on April 29, 2010.

Quick Hits:

*I thought this was a brilliantly directed episode by Bobby Roth.  It was so good that this was the first time I wrote down who driected an episode.  Roth also directed "Gimme Some Truth," and other shows, including two episodes of Lost: "Whatever Happened, Happened" and "The Man Behind the Curtain."  In "Scary Monsters," there was some great work all episode, especially the juxtaposition of Simon's Schrodinger's Cat story (will the cat live or die) with Janis' surgery, and the pan from Lloyd to the entering FBI team.  Great use of The Beatles' "Across the Universe" (although I'm not sure whose cover thate was).  The repeating line of "Nothing's gonna change my world," was perfect, and played in direct contrast to Simon's theory, and, of course, everything that has happened in the characters' lives since the blackout.  Awesomeness.

*Dylan was Flaaa-vor Flaaaaaaaav!!!

*OK, I'll bite, what the hell is going on with the kangaroo?!?  I've referenced this before.  There has to be some significance to this, right?  Right???

*I like the idea of there being a Times Square celebration like New Year's on the flash forward date.  Very cool.  I just hope they remember that the ball should actually drop at 1:00am on April 30, 2010, not the 29th.

*I guess I should mention something about Janis.  Although it seemed like we spent a lot of time in the hospital and with Janis, in actuality, not a lot happened with her (the B story focus was on Demetri, following our episode pattern).  She did, however, have surgery that will make it almost impossible for her to have children.  And she was really upset about it.  Which was weird, because, as she said, she "didn't even want a child."  What will this mean for her flash?  I have no idea.  Nice that Maya sent her flowers though.

*ABC, you have been showing us Simon taking off the Frankenstein mask (interesting choice, nay?) in the back of Lloyd's car for weeks now.  How is there supposed to be any suspense if you show us the big ending?!?

From my preview for the episode, I missed on Simon's explanation for the blackout (no tie-in to the Assassination Squad, Somalia or anything else...yet), totally whiffed on the Olivia/Mark/Lloyd confrontation, was sort of correct about Janis' epiphany that she may actually want a child, got half of the Demetri story right (he was the B story, but nothing to do with Zoey), and totally nailed Mark's coming clean about his future drinking and subseqent destruction of the Benford marriage.  3 for 6?  That'll get me to Cooperstown, so I'll take it!

Prediction:  The flashes are NOT the definite future, just possibilities.  Our characters will have the power to change them, which they will.  Slightly.

That's all my friends.  Again, I apologize for getting this up late.  I should be able to post this week's thoughts on Saturday.  Look for a preview of "The Gift" tomorrow.  Don't forget to check out Jay and Jack's FlashForwardCast.  As always, thanks for reading.

I'm off to put away my Obi Wan Kenobi costume.