Hello Future Dwellers! Another crazy episode of FlashForward in the books with their biggest twist yet! We better enjoy them while we can, because with the ratings dwindling each week, it's not looking like this one will be a candidate for renewal. Fingers crossed though! Anyway, I enjoyed this episode as well. But compared to last week's Somalia outing, it was a little bit of a slower pace until the ending sequence. And CHEESY LINES galore! ("Find Dyson Frost yesterday" anyone?) Let's dive into the recap. I will try my best to be brief again!
The episode followed a few different storylines during the episode. There was Keiko's search for Bryce and adventures in sketchy car repair land. This paired up with Bryce and Nicole's "day before chemo takes over" adventures. Olivia and Mark are trying out a separation after last episode's fallout. Olivia has a couple run-ins that we'll discuss for a second. And of course, the main plot was Mark and Vogel tracking down the mole at the FBI. Let's dive in.
Mark Moves Out / Lloyd Moves In
3 Years Before the Blackout
We learn that this is not the first time Olivia worried about their family. 3 years prior, Mark was shot close to the heart while on duty. Olivia wanted them to reassess things now that they have a child. She couldn't handle the stress of his dangerous job. So Mark tells her he'll accept Wedeck's offer for a counter-terrorist position which involves a lot of stakeouts and burritos (what we saw him and Demetri doing in the Pilot episode). Looks like that didn't work out with the blackout fallout! But Mark did utter the famous last words "Family comes first!" And that seems to be where we are today.
Present Day
We see Mark heading out and saying he's going to crash at the Wedeck residence for awhile. They both seemed resistent to the idea, but they're doing it anyway! Mark wants to keep his family out of danger. Charlie is clearly upset. Remember when we thought Mark had attempted to change the future by burning that friendship bracelet Charlie gave him? Well, Charlie noticed he lost it and made him another one. She even helped him put it on. She wants to keep the bad guys away. The future happening yet again.
Olivia and Charlie's Day at the Amusement Park
Olivia tries to take Charlie's mind off of the separation by taking her on a bunch of rides. Although we see some creepy guy stalking them. No fear, even though Olivia took precautions and ran away with Charlie, it's only a security guard hired by Mark. Hmmm you think you would tell someone about that!?
Lloyd's Epiphany
Back at the FBI, we see Simon and Lloyd catching up on some events that have led them to where they are. Long story short, Lloyd needs to go see Olivia to see if he can uncover more of the formula he saw on the mirror. Let's dive into more of the long story!
- They learned from the tower in Somalia that Dyson Frost and crew were using Tachyonic Dark matter before the concept was even possible.
- Lloyd then tells Simon about the formulas he sees in his flash forward but he couldn't see all of it. This leads him to go see Olivia to see what she saw.
- He heads to the hospital and while Olivia is leaving a message for Mark telling him how much she still loves him he barges in talking to Mrs. Benford!
- Anyway, we jump back into Olivia's Flash and she does get a glimpse of the mirror. Most of it she could not understand but she did notice one part of the formula C2HBrClF3 Halothane which is an anesthetic of some type.
- This delivers Lloyd a revelation that QED was for a Quantum Entanglement Device. He realizes that this is what he and Mark were working on in the flash. He apologizes to Olivia for harassing her and she understands he's just trying to save the world. It is awfully convenient though that he just happens to be around right when Mark moves out. I sense this will happen more often!
- Kudos, btw, to one of the commenters on the blog who called Quantum Entanglement Device a couple episodes back. If you recall in Revelation Zero, Simon asks Dental Flosso if the ring he was wearing during the blackout was some sort of Quantum Entanglement Device. So yes, it does look like they will be trying to create a device that would make people immune to the blackouts. Not sure how they could mass produce that though, but maybe that's not the plan. And why would they need some type of anesthesia as part of a device meant to keep people awake!?
Bryce and Keiko's Near Misses
Keiko's LA Adventures
Keiko looks to be just hoping Bryce walks into her life one of these days. She is hanging out at the restaurant where they're supposed to meet every day and night. Although, she does not have much money to get by on. So she goes out looking for something that requires no work via. (oh and she's learning english too)
- Keiko goes to some sketchy neighborhood where there are a bunch of cars with hydraulics and all. And she starts talking the Robotic Arm talk and everything and she lands herself a job with crazy tattoo guy.
- The guy ends up giving her a pretty tough job when they get to the car shop. Obvious "hiring masseuse" jokes happen buy "the other guys" around and Tattoo guy defends Keiko. He calls her part of the family.
- That night she hits up the sushi restaurant with this dude and guess what? It coincided with Bryce being outside! But he ended up not coming in....we'll talk about why in a second. Keiko talks to the other guy about following her destiny and he totally respects that. He, on the other hand, did not talk about his flash saying it wasn't as positive or something like that. I wonder how important this guy will end up being in the scheme of things? Or just in the story of Bryce and Keiko?
- The next day at work the Police Immigration Unit busts in on the squad and Keiko is arrested with a lot of the other crew for not having work VISAs. Oh man...if Bryce had just walked into that restaurant she most likely wouldn't have been there to get arrested. Darn the luck! Tattoo guy seems to have a plan though so we'll see! Oh and by the way, the Police Van drives by Bryce as he's on the phone with Nicole's voicemail and he looks right at it. That crazy Fate is a fickle b#$%& (Had to borrow a line from Ben Linus on the one and only LOST! Well I couldn't let an episode go by without one!)
Bryce and Nicole
Nicole decides to stick with Bryce during his chemotherapy. And since it is 24 hours before the sickness part kicks in, she's gonna take him out for a night on the town!
- They pass by the sushi place where Nicole wants to eat. Bryce complains that if he does meet Keiko that might mean he'd have to eat that stuff that tastes like someone's thyroid all of the time. Good times!
- Bryce says that he guesses he could get the teriyaki if she has sushi. (this sounds like me and my wife! She loves sushi...me? Not so much, so I always go for chicken Teriyaki!) Then he pulls out the cancer card which was kinda much. But not the biggest doofus thing he did. He actually KISSED Nicole! She pulled back though because he was talking about Keiko the whole time.
- By the way, loved the Gizmo/Gremlins reference!
- Obviously, we saw this coming. Bryce is going to have to make a choice between Nicole and Keiko. And of course, this kiss made them forget the sushi place and he will make it up to her with a burger. As they walk away we see Keiko sitting by the window. Woa...
- The next day when Bryce was on the phone he was apologizing to Nicole for the kiss, but then decided he wasn't sorry and thinks she's great. Hmmm interesting....I wonder how this Keiko thing is gonna go down!?
MOSAIC LOCKDOWN
Two things going on in this story. Mark was trying to get closer and closer to finding D. Gibbons (Dyson Frost), and in the midst of it, trying to find the mole in the FBI. The 2 seem to get intermingled.
Somalia Debriefing
- We see the entire D. Gibbons video that Demetri and Simon watched at the end of last week. You know the one where Dyson Frost said hi to Demetri 19 years before it happened?
- Turns out that Dyson has had hundreds of flash forwards!! woa. And in nearly "ALL OF HIS FUTURES" he ends up dying on March 15th. Hmm, all of his futures eh? This whole "POSSIBLE" future seems to be the key. Things definitely can be changed from what they saw as we have proven. But maybe after various flashes they can kind of predict what's going to happen. Hmmm, what if we do get another blackout PRIOR to April 29th and again it's a flash of 4/29 but with different outcomes? That would be kind of crazy, right? Probably not, but it would be interesting! It would seem that they can Flash forward to different periods of time. Although we don't know if it's unpredictable or they can set a time they want to see. I believe in the novel they flash to something like 20 years in the future. But it was not a conspiracy in the book, just a crazy accident.
- And of course we cannot forget that March 15th is also the day that Demetri is supposed to die, which 1991 Dyson Frost also knew. He assumes that the Global blackout was successful (so it was planned back then? Or maybe they flashed and saw that it actually happened and THEN planned it). He also referred to the "near miss" in Pigeon, Utah. Pretty nuts! Dyson then says for the end game, the next move is Mark Benford's. For the rest of the episode, we see Mark trying to track him down.
- Dyson did discuss the concept of narrowing outcomes which seemed to be hinting towards another blackout. Mark brings Demetri into the fold on the possibility of another blackout. So the narrowing outcomes concept does seem to suggest that the more flash forwards they have, the better chance of predicting the future. For what purpose? Still don't know! But Wedeck wants Frost like YESTERDAY guys! (so cheesy!)
Mark gets a Lead
Demetri attempts to get information on Dyson Frost and fails. Mark, on the other hand, hit the jackpot with researching chess tournaments. Now all of this that followed was a bit of a stretch!
- Dyson placed 3rd in a league in 1987. He beat a guy named Ian McKinnon, reigning champion, using a gutsy move called the Queen Sacrifice. Forcing the opponent to take their queen so that they can force a checkmate. When Mark called Ian and mentioned Frost, he hung up.
- But that's not all, Dyson made moves every 2 or 4 seconds and each game had 50 oves and then he'd resign. They figure out that it's a Morse Code for a prepaid cell phone number. Mark dials the number and Dyson's voicemail picks up "Well Done, leave a message" Benford's response: "Dyson Frost. Agent Benford. Your Move!" I just don't know about all of that. Would Dyson Frost really have gone to all of that trouble for Mark to find it 23 years later? And how in 1987 did he have the phone number? How could he have been flashing in the 80's too when they thing wasn't invented until 1991 (when even then it couldn't be invented?) Do somewhere in the distant future, someone invents time travel and comes back and gives Dyson Frost a machine that will allow him to flash forward? I'm totally kidding, but that's the only thing that makes sense to me!
- Anyway, Mark and Demetri go to San Francisco to track down Ian McKinnon and guess what? He was killed! And it was near a giant Chess Board. Crazy right? Was that near Ian's house or something? Why would Mark and Demetri just happen to stumble upon this crime scene for any other reason? Oh well...TV show Mike, it's just a TV show!
Interrogation of the Mosaic Squad
So, 2 minutes later Mark is back in Los Angeles (TV show Mike, TV show!) talking to Vogel. They figure out that this has to be the work of the mole. Everyone keeps getting tipped off or dead. Mark makes an analogy to blast fishing and watching all the fish go to the top of the water. "It was ugly, but it worked" (cheesy!!) Vogel "Game on! Don't forget who your friends are." (major cheesy!) But Benford tops the cheese with "What's unacceptable is one of them is my enemy." Oh my, who is writing this stuff?
Don't worry though, Dental Flosso still takes the cake with "My name is Flosso and I am a villain." Ouch
- So, everyone important in the FBI assembles in the board room: Janis, Vreede, Wedeck, Demetri, This boy, That boy, RPG Guy, Marcie, Simon and a few others
- I can honestly say I do not remember ever seeing Marcie on this show but it turns out she has been in several episodes! Now that I think about it, she was probably one of those minor players in scenes like Al Gough was.
- Stan, Janis and Demetri are visibly annoyed. We think this is going to be the start of the rift between Mark and Demetri. But Mark quickly puts an end to that. Mark tells Demetri that he doesn't think he's the mole, but he needs everyone else to think he's questioning all of them.
- Of course, they did find out that Mark's office was bugged. the "M" key on his keyboard was a audio sensitive transmitter. I didn't understand why Vogel singing would disrupt it though. Just a good excuse to hear his awful voice? I dunno.
- We do find out that Seth McFarland (Family Guy) is an FBI agent. (apparently he was in the first episode as well. Go Figure!) He was afraid of these mole investigators finding out about his Role Playing Game habit at work. Warlocks of Avalon eh? Invisibility Capes too? Neat!
- Janis tries to provide an alibi for where she has been when she was missing work. Only 8 visits were to fertility clinics. She said that ever since she was shot she has been looking into other people. Marcie apparently has a half brother who is very sick and there was an anonymous payment of $50,000 to pay for his bills. They let Janis go but Vogel and Mark still have some trust issues.
- Demetri thought she resolved the Marcie story by finding out that she did report her half brother's sickness. Mark gets frustrated and has a semi-heart to heart with Demetri about splitting up with Olivia temporarily. "I'm okay. No, I'm not. No....No" Seriously, who is writing this stuff!?
- Then, crazy "see things out of nowhere" Mark comes back into play as she sees Marcie's coffee habits. While investigating various surveillance video clips they notice that Marcie only put sugar in the coffee on milestone events when they got leads. Somalia and the DC trip (Janis's shooting), Pigeon Utah. They look up right at Marcie and she knows she has been made.
- Marcie turns into the ultimate evil girl and goes on a shooting spree..shooting poor RPG guy and then a ton of other people. Just when we thing she is going to get away on the back of a motorcycle, Janis comes out of nowhere and shoots the driver into the water and then she and Marcie get in a nice fist fight. Good times! Janis gets the bad guy! YES!! Mark tells her she was right and she earns his trust.
- Stan talks later with Mark about wanting to be let in on the Mole Investigation. He knew that Demetri was told and that Stan was manipulated for the greater good. He refers to it as a Queen Sacrifice. Mark wanted to know how Wedeck knew about that term. hmmmmmm We have been speculating on if Stan would end up being the mole. Could he be another one involved still? Could he have been tapping into Mark's conversations? Time will tell.
- Meanwhile Dyson Frost calls Mark back and said that now that their mole problem is fixed, he looks forward to meeting. He'll be in touch. It seems like Mark and Dyson may develop some kind of bond which could lead to the phone call where Lloyd is trying to convince Mark that he is a liar!
Janis and Simon
Man, I thought I was getting close to calling the baby-daddy again! Simon starts flirting with Janis again. Janis says that she is not his type. And she starts talking about Dental Flosso's autopsy. She said the CPR could have caused the death. "You murdered him to send a message. Message received." woaaa what? Turns out there were 2 moles in the FBI in case one was caught. Talk about a QUEEN SACRIFICE! Simon knew that no one would suspect it was her. Then Janis said "That would be the point wouldn't it?"
TO BE CONTINUED!!!!
It just doesn't add up! Janis seemed to be a pretty straight shooting FBI Agent. (well, not straight when it comes to women) We have seen some of her home life, her desire to have that baby didn't seem to be all for show. There was no one watching her at the fertility clinic or on her date with the girl from the OC. Is she playing Simon? Why would she even tell Simon? Does she know that he'll keep quiet because of something she has on him? Lots of questions, including "why is the actress already signed up for a comedy on a competing network next season?" I would say this is a spoiler alert, but the reps said that she'll only take the job if FlashForward is not renewed for a 2nd season. So it's all pretty vague! So consider me confused, but the episode was pretty solid once again. The concept of the show and the details we are learning are still really intriguing. I think they still need to work on some executing of it though and please...better dialogue! Still keeping my fingers crossed for a 2nd season! Tell all of your friends to watch the remainder of the weeks. Things look to be heating up as we draw closer and closer to March 15th and then April 29th!
With that, I bid adieu. Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week!
ENDING CREDITS
Pictures courtesy of ABC and my iMAC!
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