FlashForward: Season 1 Episode 22 - Future Shock

Well, Future Dwellers, that's it!  That's all we're getting.  The show that had so much potential ends  with some pretty good closure but with a future wide open of possibilities.  The episode itself, I'll admit, was very contrived to get them in the right situations at the right time.  But, seeing the little changes that happened here and there were pretty interesting.  And the setup for next season was just enough to keep us intrigued of what they could do!  Unfortunately, we will never see that come to fruition.  Oh well, we tried right?  It won't stop me from doing a tiny bit of a dive into this episode for old time's sake.  So let's do it! 

Future Shock continued right where the last episode left off.  It was the majority of April 29th and everyone was about as far as they could be from fulfilling their FlashForward visions.  But as we inched closer in this episode, everyone was where they were supposed to be.  And the 2 people that didn't have visions were together witnessing the start of the next round!  So let's dive right back into where we were!

Disclaimer: I apologize, ever since the LOST finale I have been having technical difficulties with posting pictures to my blogs.  I apologize for not having any screenshots in this finale post!  

Bryce/Keiko/Nicole

When we last left off, Bryce was chasing after Keiko who was heading to the airport, and Nicole was feeling sorry for herself for not telling Bryce about knowing Keiko was in town.  We continue that story an hour and change from 10pm.

• I loved the scene between Bryce and the receptionist at the immigration center.  How she was reading a romance novel so Bryce talked about his flashforward of DESTINY in LOVE.  And then she ends up conning him out of 100 dollars because "she had it in her pocket in her flashforward."   That was a good time!  It may have been the biggest laugh this show ever had.  Certainly better than Mark calling everyone cupcake! 
• Bryce runs into Nicole outside after he gets a contact phone number for the infamous restaurant he is supposed to meet Keiko in.  Bryce breaks Nicole's heart and tells her that he loves this woman he never has met.  He is even wearing the clothes that he was wearing in his flashforward without even thinking about it.  Crazy.  
• Nicole lets him go and then heads off into the night, worried that some man is going to drown her. Ahhh she does get run off the road (or she was driving on the wrong side or something) but she swerves right into a body of water and begins to drown!  But instead of being drowned by someone, she is SAVED by someone!  The man?  I think his name was Ed or something?  He had a flash that he saved her but he thought he may have been too late.  I'm sure this would have been a love interest for Nicole in season 2.  Too bad we won't be seeing anymore! 

• Then there was Keiko.  Keiko's mom gets MVP of the night for having a change of heart at the airport and helping Keiko get away.  She smacks one of the cops or security people with her bag and Keiko runs off.   Yes, contrived...but who cares.  I laughed!  
• Bryce had to fight to get inside the restaurant that was having a private party for Flash Day.  But the waitress recognized Bryce as Keiko's man.  How?  I have no idea!  And then Keiko gets out of a cab with 7 minutes until 10pm and runs to the restaurant, getting there just in time and finding Bryce.  Ahhh FATE, crazy when it works out, right? 

Aaron and Tracy

So, things were looking pretty bleak for this story.  Aaron, Tracy and Khamir were all where they were supposed to be in their FlashForward, but Tracy appeared to be dead.  Yeah, but this is TV!  Of course Khamir decided to check for a pulse 5 minutes later and there still was one!  Tracy is saved and Aaron's Flash comes true just like it's supposed to.  YAWN

Simon, Demetri and Janis

Okay, so we continue onward to NLAP with this unlikely trio.  Apparently the key to everything will be Simon's phone.  They get close to a security guard and some how activate his phone and they can get through all of the crazy security doors.

• Meanwhile, Janis is having some pregnancy issues and collapses.  Well of course!  She needs to be at a hospital by 10pm!  And she is.  An ambulance takes her and the doctor there was waiting for her since they saw each other in the FlashForward.  Long story short, Janis finds out that the baby IS okay during those 2 fateful minutes.  But there is a difference.  It's a boy, not a girl!  Ahhh the future is unwritten, just like Doc Brown told us in the cheesiest scene of the Back to the Future Trilogy! 
• Meanwhile Simon and Demetri carry onward to the main computer room or whatever.  Simon hands over the QED ring to earn Demetri's trust.  The 2 men that did not have flash forwards are now working together to prevent the next blackout.  Yep, no success on that one.  They go right through 10:00 and the computer activates remotely and begins to fire up the accelerator at the time that Mark figures out (we'll get there).    Simon and Demetri both decide to not wear the ring as they want to see their futures.  So much potential there!  But alas, we will never see it. \

Olivia/Charlie, Lloyd/Dylan

This may have been the most contrived of all of them.  Olivia and Charlie were on the beach trying to be as far away as possible from making the vision come true.  Lloyd and Dylan find them there because of their respective security detail.  Lloyd convinces Olivia to come back for the betterment of the world. 

• They get back the house.  Dylan is craving that crazy cookie that he gets in his flash.  
• Lloyd decides to keep his shirt on this time, but they are eventually summoned to the bedroom.  Why?  Because DYLAN wrote the formula on the mirror!  (Congrats to Crackpot Jack of the Jay and Jack podcast.  Very impressive)  
• But now Lloyd needs to figure it out.  And of course this triggers Olivia to not fight her fateful night and she wants to kiss Lloyd!  Definitely a stretch but whatever!  At least it was different enough that she didn't go as far with it as they had in their FLASH.   Not sure if they had prior to this night or not though.  We've just seen a lot of smooches! 
• Anyway, Simon sends the text because he knows he is supposed to.  It is some inside joke of a formula that used to be Lloyd's email signature or something like that.  But this triggers something for Lloyd and then he calls Mark and somehow figures out that the next blackout is going to be in April of 2010.  Well considering it's the 29th, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out it's going to be in the next 26 hours!  (but Mark still has to move some rope around in in a time bombed building to pinpoint the exact time!  But we'll get there)
• Meanwhile...10:00 comes and goes and Olivia moves Charle away from the door when Vogel announces that Mark is dead.  Of course, it was also a figure of speech and not a confirmation.  He was just assuming Mark would be dead because he ran into a building ready to blow.  

Mark, Stan and FBI Situation

So Mark was still in prison lockup for a drunken brawl.  Wedeck bails the man out.  I guess he was going to take him home or something, but instead they get a call to the FBI HQ with a bomb threat.  Stan tells Mark to sit in car and talk to Aaron on the phone.  He does for a second but then sees Hellinger and has to get out and talk to him. 

• Hellinger says that the building is a dead end, but Mark is not listening.  Hellinger gives the nod to his men dressed as SWAT guys and they put their plan into motion. 
• Mark sees Vogel on the way in and sends him to the Benford house to watch over his family.  (Ahh everything conveniently tying together!) 
• Mark then heads in.  (meanwhile the SWAT guys kill the real SWAT guys and then put on their crazy masks and we see they are the 3 Starred tattooed guys. 
• The crazy gunfight then begins!  Wedeck and Vreede move into the building to get Mark or protect Mark.  
• Mark is in his office and sober.  He's right where he's supposed to be, but he is ready.  He gets the fateful call from Lloyd, but instead of all the 8 ball talk they get right to business.  Mark finds Gabriel's journal and starts putting the strings where they are supposed to be and identifies 10:14pm as the next blackout.  CONVENIENT ONCE AGAIN!    
• Then the masked men come in and all hell breaks loose.  Of course, Mark is ready to take them all on and we see a pretty crazy gun fight.  Mark getting the upper hand each time.  It was cool, I'm not gonna lie!  
• Stan and Vreede are doing some gunfighting of their own.  And Stan ends up in the bathroom!  YAY!  He goes into his fateful stall and ends up shooting the guy that comes in after him.  NICE.  
• Mark then sees there are very few minutes left until 10:14.  He calls Wedeck and they're able to get a global alert out to minimize casualties.  Mark also gets a call off to Olivia and tells her to keep Charlie safe and that he loves them both.  He fully expects to die.   He kills the last man after him with a "WHAT DID YOU SEE" lame line  (Kate's "I saved you a bullet" line was so much better on LOST!!  But duhhh so was the show!).   Then Mark runs out the window towards a helicopter and the next blackout happens! 

FlashForward Part 2

Well, is there even any sense in speculating on any of this?  We saw various visions and they were all pretty tough to place.  We saw shots all around the globe of people collapsed again.  And in the forward flashes we see 2 dates.  One is in 2011 and one is in 2015.  Did they see visions for all of this?   The biggest thing we catch is a glimpse of an older Charlie (we think) that is excited because "they found him"    While they are blacked out, that crazy BAD LADY that recruited Janis has one of the QED rings on and takes Janis away.   We also see the FBI building blow up and we have no idea where Mark is.  

Does Mark disappear from his family for 5 years?  Is that who the HIM was?  Was that even Charlie in the flash or was it someone Charlie saw in 2011?  It definitely was left pretty vague, but there were tons of possibilities looking at a nearby date and another date further into the future.   But alas, we'll never know where they would have went with it because ABC decided to make THIS episode....

THE END!!! 

And that's all they wrote folks, LITERALLY!  I apologize if it seemed like my heart wasn't in these last couple of recaps.  It really wasn't!  I really did enjoy the show.  Even if it never matched up to the impossible expectations it had to capture the entire LOST crowd, it was still a great thriller of a show and had so much future potential.  But, maybe it was meant to be.  If you try TOO hard to recapture the magic of LOST, chances are it's not going to work.  It just kind of has to happen.  I enjoyed FlashForward for a show on its own, not because of its attempt to be like LOST.  But, not many shared our feelings for it.  

There will be another show one day that will capture our imaginations.  It won't be LOST, but it will be something.  And I might just be there to talk about it.  I thank you all for joining me on this little experiment.  There possibly will be experiments in the future.  So be sure to follow me on Twitter or keep up with any posts I make here or on my other blogs about any future plans.  Maybe I'll create some consolidated Blog site so that you don't have to look for my stuff in different places.  I just need a good NAME for the site!  But that's another story.  Seriously, thank you very much.  I'm glad I wasn't the only one that gave this one a shot.  But, with that said, it's time to say goodbye.

Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll catch you after the next blackout!  

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FlashForward Season 1 Episode 21 - Countdown

Hello Future Dwellers!  Welcome to a recap of the show that has already ended in our minds.  2 Episodes remain to recap, yet I wonder where my motivation is to write about it and you all wonder what the motivation is to read on!   It's tough folks.  The show was getting really good and it was taken away from us.  But, from interviews I have read with the cast it sounds like it will end in a pretty satisfying place.  Tonight's episode was pretty solid!  It actually ended up being a big tease since it was just THE BEGINNING of FlashForward Day!  But I love the fact that at the end of the hour it is awesome how it appears like some characters are straying from the FlashForwards they have seen.  Well, there are a couple that seem to be enroute to their destinies too.   Since I had a long night tonight (that LOST Simulcast event was AWESOME btw) and since this show is a dying breed, I thought I'd do something a little different with this recap.  And my guess is it will be brief.

Remember how we started this blog back in the season premiere?  We introduced the characters and talked about their FlashForwards a little bit.  Since we watched what all of the characters are up to tonight, I thought we'd do the same.  Who is moving towards the FlashForward, who is moving away?  Here we go!

Bryce/Keiko/Nicole

• You know I totally forgot that Nicole was supposed to drown?  But now that she withheld the information from Bryce about Keiko, it KIND OF makes sense that she would feel she deserves it as she mentioned.   I say "kind of" because I don't think withholding information about a girl someone has never actually met who is in a detention center is grounds for deserving to be drowned to death.  But whatever.  That's the route this thing is going.   Nicole finally broke the news to new boyfriend Bryce that she knew about Keiko being in Los Angeles and where she is. 
• Meanwhile Keiko has been freed by her mother and is on strict orders to be flown straight back to Japan.  And Bryce is hot on her tail (last we see he's in the detention center).   Keiko wants to be at that Sushi place at 10pm.  My guess is that she'll make it there somehow.  But who on earth would drown Nicole?  The only potential candidate (there's my LOST reference) would be the head of that SANCTUARY group.  I mean, Bryce will be busy so even in a p.o.'d rage, it couldn't be him.  But come on, Bryce wouldn't drown her!   Perhaps though, Bryce will realize what leaving Nicole unattended would mean and he'll run back to save her?  Maybe we'll see maybe we won't! 

Demetri/Janis/Simon

• Okay, so Demetri is going to go to Hawaii to get married but he needs to tell Zoey everything first about sleeping with Janis.  Yeaaaah....that didn't go over too well  (btw...kudos to Mark for the 15 song CD of "Island's in the Stream".   Joseph Fiennes may have actually started selling his role in this episode.  MOSTLY)    Anyway, Zoey goes to Hawaii without Demetri. 
• So where does Demetri go?  Right to JANIS's place.  But who is there?  SIMON!  Simon needs to go to NLAP and he wants to get revenge on his people.  I'll admit it, I forget exactly what he said he needed to do there but it was of the utmost importance.  Demetri was definitely not on board at first, but then he changed his tune because he finally started seeing his buddy Janis for who she was again (not the CIA Traitor).    We almost saw a flicker of a love interest brewing even if Janis doesn't have much interest in that sort of thing.  But, of course, it doesn't matter since the show ends next week!   
• We did see Janis having some pregnancy pains and we know she supposedly is getting an ultrasound done at 10pm on April 29th.  It's only like 3 hours away!   
• The cool thing with this story is, we have no idea what Demetri or Simon should be doing since neither of them had FlashForwards.   So, we'll see where that goes!

Aaron and Tracey

• The one person who really believed his FlashForward would come true and still wanted it to come true, it isn't looking too good for Aaron right now.  It actually would appear that Tracey has died which is totally not what Aaron saw.  He saw Khamir save her.  So, that would be interesting if he thought Tracey was dead before the Flash, then when he had her back alive...by pursuing his FlashForward, he ended up getting her killed.  Very interesting. 
• It sounds like they were doing some experimentation in that town that Tracey saw destroyed.   Did they say that she was AWAKE during the Global Blackout or during an Experiment PRIOR to the Global blackout?   Again, I didn't take notes and the show is ending next week so I'm not too concerned!  

Stanford Wedeck

• No Bladder or Bowel issues as of yet. 

Olivia/Charlie  Lloyd/Dylan

• Olivia is very concerned for Charlie who is afraid her dad is going to die this day.  She brought Charlie to see Dad, and then Mark/Charlie had a great scene.  This is the first and probably only time that I felt tears coming on while watching this show!  I mean, they really start pulling out the big guns and now it's all over! 
• Anyway, at the end we see Olivia and Charlie going far from the Benford house...away from both Mark and Lloyd.  She doesn't want to be part of any accurate vision of the future.  Things can change in 3 hours I guess. 
• Lloyd is definitely not happy about this because he just had a breakthrough with his formula for the QED.  Turns out that Dylan is supposed to help with the formula (if anyone listens to Jay and Jack's podcast for FlashForward...they're more known for their LOST one, Jack had a crackpot theory a few weeks ago that Dylan would be the one that wrote the formula on the mirror.  NICE, he finally gets one right! WEll...maybe)   Gabriel had told Lloyd that "you both work on the formula" or something like that.   Lloyd put it all together and feels that he needs to be in that house.  Certain events NEED to happen.  Well, we'll see what happens! 

Mark Benford

• Mark goes from very calm at the beginning of the day, to fulfilling everything that is supposed to happen to him.   Hellinger sets him on his path of destruction.  He puts a map of various versions of the future and how they all end up with Mark dying.   
• Mark gets all excited about this Tacionic Wipe.  Couldn't even tell you what that is, couldn't even tell you if I care.  But he does send some FBI agents to a Tacionic Data center and they all get killed.  This inevitably sends him back into the interrogation room (after a visit from Charlie), and then Hellinger gets to him by telling him Charlie will be better of when he's dead.  OUCH.   Even if he told me I was going to, I'd still beat the crap out of him.  Come on, he's handcuffed!  I could take him! 
• Anyway, this leads to a downward spiral where Wedeck kicks him out of the building (probably why he'd be sneaking in drunk later).  Then he's walking down the street during the big D-Day party!   And what do you know, a guy trying to quit drinking gives Mark the almighty flask!   Mark laughs it up and starts drinking away.  Almost admitting defeat to fate!  
• He ends up in a bar talking to some dude that seems to remember Mark from HIS FlashForward.  This makes no sense considering Mark is not supposed to be in a bar at 10pm.  Unless maybe being "LOADED OKAY??" actually makes you see a different version of the future than everyone else?  Maybe Mark never goes back to the FBI office?  Yeah, good theory, but I've already seen previews for next week!   Maybe the crazy drunk guy is one of the 3 starred men?  Naaaa  Maybe he was just a crazy drunk guy! 
• Anyway, Mark got all annoyed and started hitting on the guy and then everyone in the bar starts taking shots at Mark.   And then Mark ends up in a holding cell at the police station.  Hmmm, how's he going to get out of this one? 

The Kangaroo

• Yeah...good luck getting an answer to that one! 

And that's where we are folks!  I'm told some twisty turny stuff will be coming our way.  It'll be interesting to see how big of a cliffhanger it is left on or if it will end pretty well.  It sounds as if they knew the show might not get renewed so they wrote the finale with that in mind, but there still could be loose ends in case it WAS renewed.  And that, is all we really have to go with.  I'm still looking forward to the finale next Thursday.  Naturally, I'm looking more forward to the LOST finale this Sunday!  It's going to be EPIC!   But, I was really hoping we'd have FlashForward to keep us talking into the future.  I guess it just wasn't meant to be.  But, please keep in touch with anything in the future I end up doing!  For now, I'd just recommend following me on twitter or signing up for updates on my current blogs (check the right hand side of this blog or the other ones).   We still have one more recap to get to next week and I definitely will do it!  So I hope you enjoyed my ramblings as always and I'll see you next week! 

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FlashForward Season 1 Episode 20 - The Negotiation

Hello Future Dwellers!  We are drawing near on the end of the first season of FlashForward, possibly the end of the series as well (no word on renewal).   (UPDATE:  I'm halfway through writing the blog and I just read that FlashForward has been cancelled!  Nooooooooooo!!!  Oh well, I may as well finish writing this!)  In my opinion, we got another intense episode leading ever so close to April 29th, D DAY, Flash Day whatever you want to call it.  Looks like next week will be the big day and lots of interesting stuff happened on the EVE of that big day!  (And it'll be very interesting to see what they have planned for the season finale, since it will be "AFTER" this momentous day)   No sense in drawing out my opening, let's just get right into things!

Not much to theorize on in this episode, there were just some decent story lines and plot movement getting the pieces into place for the big event next week.   We had Aaron's rescue mission in Afghanistan, Simon on the run, Janis's double agent dealings, Demetri's pondering over course correction and the advancement of the MOSAIC Investigation plot with Gabriel meeting Mark.  Time to dive in!

Aaron's Rescue Mission / Jericho

Afghanistan

So last we saw of Aaron he had just met up with Khamir who he remembered from his flash forward.  They have tracked down Jericho to the Helmand Province.   

• Aaron snapped his pictures of the Jericho operation and uploaded them to Stan.   Stan acknowledged that this is an illegal operation and thanked Aaron for his hard work.  And as much as Wedeck tried to stop Aaron from going in, there was no stopping him.

• Aaron noticed Tracy was being dragged out of a tent and taken somewhere else.   He knew it was time to move.  
• We next visit them at night where Aaron has a night-vision scope on his sniper and takes the men with Tracy down.  Nice!   Tracy is not in good shape though. 
• Aaron is convinced that they need to be back in Khandahar because that is what he saw in his flash.  He knew that Khamir would save her.   So they all protested and said it was too dangerous, but they went anyway. 
• When they arrived at the location, he recognized it from his flash.  It's all coming true!  Do we think some twist of fate will happen here to change Aaron's vision or is the fact that he has been working so hard to make his flash a reality enough to late FATE have its way?  We should find out soon enough! 

Stan takes down The President

Meanwhile, we remember that Stan was helping Aaron out on this operation with orders from Vice President Clemente.  Apparently, the President was involved somehow in this illegal operation with Jericho and Stan called him on it.  So, it turns out that Stan will have a direct impact on Clemente stepping in as President on April 29th.  I thought it would be for the affair and illegitimate child that the President had outside of wedlock. I guess not!   

Simon on the Run

Last we saw of Simon, he knew he was being outed as Suspect Zero after saving Annabelle.  He took the QED device and ran.  

• We catch up with him at a bar trying to learn his new cover name.  He's all set up with an alias of David Walker, with a passport and everything.  
• But EVIL LITA (last seen recruiting Janis to the Bad Guy organization) stopped in to tempt Simon with an offer.  Simon found it impossible to resist and had a little "taste" of the messenger girl.  

• Apparently it was all a scheme to keep him in one place while the BIG GUY...the BIG BAD came to talk to Simon in person.  Apparently, the message Simon sent by killing Dental Flosso was received. 
• So who is the BIG BAD?   This guy Hellinger.  We saw him a couple episodes back preparing for the Blackout with Dyson Frost and Alda Herzog.  We didn't really have an idea at the time that he was the big henchman.   And, I'm not too sure I'm impressed.  He seems like some kind of #2 guy or something.  But what do I know? 

• Apparently, Hellinger was behind paying for Simon's education, getting him the job at NLAP and protecting him.  
• Hellinger tries to get Simon to work for them and tells him that he has nothing to live for.  Now that the whole world has seen the face of the man walking around during the blackout, he cannot go anywhere.  They will let him see his family and they dangled his sister Annabelle in front of him.   
• Simon wasn't biting, he knows that he is the only one that can "calibrate the accelerator" and cause the next blackout, so they can't kill him.   He tells them that they will receive his response soon enough and he just walks out. 
• Later on, we see Simon in a sewer retrieving the QED ring which he had clearly hidden.   What's his next move?  It's anyone's guess! 

MOSAIC Crew Advancements

Stan's Speech/New Developments

Stan started off April 28th with talking to his entire FBI team.  Tomorrow is D Day.   The building may come under attack but "WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN!"  It was very Bill Pullman in Independence Day (Yeah, I know...corny movie looking back...but sometimes this show has corny dialogue, so....)  FBI plans to be open for business and he tries to instill confidence in everyone that they will get through this.  He handed out everyone's assignments and we move on.

The big issue of the moment?  Finding Simon Campos.  And what  do you know?  Footage has been leaked to the TV networks of Suspect Zero during the time of the flash.  It was different footage than the FBI had.   It was clearly the bad guys, and they are outing him NOW, the day before 4/29.   Why?  Well, we found out they're trying to bribe him into working for them.

Gabriel DeBriefing


So Gabriel, as he has seen in various flash forwards, has been brought to the FBI and is seen investigating Mark's board.  He is noticing things that are in different places.  Obviously, he talks all over the place so let's give some of the highlights.

• Mark is introduced to Gabriel and sees that Olivia has been helping him.  Apparently, he will not do anything with her there, so Mark and Olivia are forced to be near each other.  Mark is genuinely happy that she does have to stay. 
• Mark is introduced to Gabriel's book that has his MOSAIC board in there.  
• Gabriel refers to Olivia as Olivia Simcoe which disturbs Mark, obviously.  We'll get to that in a second. 
• On a sidenote: Olivia and Mark have a moment to talk away from Gabriel.  Mark talks about having security detail set up at the house but they'll stay out of view as to not upset Charlie.   Hmm, so is that why Vogel ends up being there at 10pm?  Olivia is not thrilled to be talking about all of these details and there is a hint of the fact that she wishes they moved to Denver when she proposed it.  
• Gabriel was brought into a conference room to look at pictures of people that have come up in the investigation.  So Kent, the man Dyson shot was at Raven River.  We knew that.  But we also found out that Nhadra was there too!  This would probably explain why she knew the details of Demetri's death that was supposed to happen on 3/15.   
• They tried to ask Gabriel when the next blackout would be, but he said only Dyson Frost would know that.  
• The funniest part of the show was when Gabriel recalled the other guy whose picture he drew.  He was the BIG GUY.  What was his name?   "I told you his name.  It's BIG GUY!"   I cracked up at that one.   Good times.  We see the sketch and it is indeed Hellinger.  

• They run a facial recognition scan on Hellinger.  I don't think they got the results of that one before they bumped into him later though! 

NOTE: It was right about here where I read that the show was cancelled, so if you see me lack focus or details in the following sections, you'll know why! 

Demetri and Course Correction

So Zoey is trying to get Demetri to drop everything for April 29th and take a flight to Hawaii or something.  But Demetri, knowing that he escaped death, wants to be here for his friends on 4/29.  Of course, fate may have other plans for Demetri!

• When he walked into the briefing room where Gabriel was, Gabe flipped out!  He told Demetri that he was supposed to be dead and NEEDS to be dead for things to progress the way they are supposed to.   Yikes. 
• This gets in Demetri's head but Mark tries to advise him not to look into it.  He doesn't believe that the future is trying to will itself to happen.  Well, he says that, but the whole OLIVIA SIMCOE thing had him thinking differently. 

Janis Double Agenting

• It is confirmed!  Demetri is the one that impregnated Janis!  I guess looking back, maybe it wasn't supposed to be such a mystery.  But they should have just come out and said it!  Anyway, he wants to help out.   Janis, whose life is just messed up with working for the enemy and the CIA and everything, told Demetri to just be happy with Zoey.   Of course, she didn't spill all of those beans to him just yet.  
• Janis meets with Vogel at a Bar and tells him that the Bad Guys want her to kill Mark.  He pretty much tells her that she needs to do it.  Of course, he remembers in his flash that he delivers the news that Mark is dead.   She also needs to deliver something big, which Vogel suggests she does as well. 
• She meets with her contact (forget her name and don't care now because the show is cancelled!)  and she also tells Janis that she is hanging by a thread.  No more excuses she needs to kill Mark!  Janis said she needs to wait for the right opportunity.  Anyway, she tells them about Gabriel and how she can deliver him.   Contact lady was happy with this.

Moving Gabriel Trickery


So they are planning to move Gabriel to the safehouse and Mark needs to break the news that Olivia can't come to him.

• Gabriel tells Mark how he sees loose ends on his board.   Mark knows the feeling.   He asks Gabriel about her calling Olivia "Olivia Simcoe" and if that is how it all turns out.   Gabriel says that is what he has seen.   He asks of Olivia will be safe....and Gabriel tells him she would.   Mark seems to be reluctantly content with this information.   Poor guy.  Just trying to do the right thing!  How will it turn out?  Who cares?  We'll never see 12/10/2016 so what's the point?   (am I bitter?  You bet I am!) 
• Loved Gabriel in the bulletproof vest.  "I'm Bulletproof!!"  
• Janis makes the call to rat out the van.  
• But Mark, using his mind reading skills that he does so well, was one step ahead of her and dressed up as Gabriel for the trip!  They pulled a fast one on the bad guys that tried to catch them and turned the tables!   We ended up raiding Hellinger's HQ with computers full of data and everything.  Simon Campos's info was up on screen but Hellinger was able to get to that and delete all of the files.  But in the midst of the shootout, Mark captures Hellinger.  So, this will be their next lead.  

Janis Caught


Like I said, Mark was smart and read into Janis's actions for the past few weeks.  When she ratted out Marcie, he started getting suspicious of Janis and then some of the comments she made when they were planning the Gabriel move, tipped him off further.   Janis came clean that she is CIA and that Vogel recruited her after graduation from the FBI training.   Mark wasn't too thrilled with her, obviously.   Janis told him that they wanted her to kill him.  She did what she had to do.   So, she's all of a sudden off the hook?   Eh who knows?

But she does come clean to Demetri later on.  Demetri wasn't too thrilled with her either, but he knows that he is involved now.  They're all connected.  Him, Her, Zoey, the baby.  It's one big happy mess of a family!   And he walks away.  

Final Scenes


We see Demetri at the Inn where Gabriel is staying.  He asks Gabriel if he was in any of the futures that he saw.  Gabriel told Demetri that he died in all of them.  He said that it's not possible to change the future.  It always ends in the same place.  Lloyd and Olivia and everyone are ending up where they're supposed to be.  Demetri thinks this makes sense.  Hmmm, is he going to be the next to sacrifice himself?   Eh, maybe he knows the show won't get renewed so he'll take a bullet for Mark!

We next see Janis in her bedroom but she is not alone.  Simon has her held at gunpoint.  He tells her to RELAX and that he needs her help!!

To Be Continued for 2 more Weeks! 

So that's it for this week folks!   Definitely lost my blogging mojo halfway through there, but I'm sure you all understand why.  It's all for a lost cause now!  But, at least I can say I recapped an entire series of something!  (since I started LOST in season 2....ooh there's my LOST reference!)    If anyone has any suggestions of what my next blogging venture should be, I'm all ears!  I won't necessarily accept the challenge but I'd like to see what you guys think.   It's going to be hard to latch on to the next LOST.   We won't know what show that would be until after it happens.  I thought this one was our best chance at a good discussion show, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be.  Anyway, continue to follow me on Twitter (check the end credits below), and I'll keep everyone updated when I figure out my next move!  

As for next week, I mentioned before that I'm going to a LOST-related event.  With that Series Finale approaching 5/23, I'm giving it my 100% attention.  I will do my best to get the recap up for the next episode as soon as possible, but I can't make any promises.  Just be patient.  But, I totally understand if you wouldn't want to read about a cancelled show anyway!  

Anyway, that's all I have for now.  Thanks for tuning in each week and giving this a shot!  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week at some point!  

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FlashForward: Season 1 Episode 19 - Course Correction

Hello fellow Future Dwellers and potential Course Correctioners and welcome back to another Flashforward Recap!  So, this episode managed to take any hope that we might have gained in recent episodes and threw a nice little twist on top of it!  Of course, it's yet another INTERESTING twist in a series of very interesting twists.  Things are progressing along nicely towards the series finale.  We have reached 1 week prior to April 29th so it will be interesting to see if that will be the final date we see this season or if we'll move right past it.   Jury is still out on whether this show will be renewed so get your friends and family to watch!  Even if you must hold them against their will!  The show definitely has more life in it and we need to give it a chance to see what they can pull off.

Enough of my soapbox though, let's get into the recap.  Lots of interesting stuff in this one.  There was Demetri going off with their British counterpart Fiona Banks to investigate a murder with some interesting circumstances around it.  There was Simon's cover about to be blown my a curious Mark Benford as he faced with saving his sister.   There was the ever growing relationship of Lloyd and Olivia (still having a hard time buying how easily she's falling into this!).  And then the saga of Bryce, Nicole and Keiko continues!  Obviously, we'll start with the smaller stories first and then move on to the main course!

Bryce and His Ladies

Throughout this episode, we see Nicole and Bryce continuing their flirtation with crossing the friendship line.   Bryce is getting chemo treatment and Nicole was upset for him not telling her.  She doesn't feel obligated, she wants to be there for him.   

• A couple scenes later Bryce finds out that his experimental cancer treatment is working and the cancer is going into remission!  Nice.  He feels like he has a new lease on life. 
• Meanwhile, Nicole is called into duty to go to an immigration center to give some flu shots.   Who was in her pile of files?   None other than Keiko!  

• What comes after is the classic "I have news/Me too!" scene.   But Bryce, not letting Nicole talk first moves in for the big KISS.  And this time he means it.  He's cured and he's tired of waiting for something to happen.   He wants to be with her!   We all saw this coming, but come on...it's still enjoyable to watch it play out as Nicole looks over Bryce's shoulder at Keiko's file.   And she decides to not say anything for now.   It's anyone's guess how this one is going to play out, but I have to think we will see that scene on April 29th where Keiko walks into the restaurant and sees Bryce.   Maybe Nicole will still met her and make it happen?   Maybe Bryce will take Nicole to that restaurant since she wanted sushi and then Keiko will walk in (a slight variation on his flash forward?)    Eh, we can just let this one play out!  

• Oh, and I haven't mentioned in the blog but it came up in the comments a couple episodes ago.   That dude that Keiko was working for with the tattoos and stuff (the one that got busted for the illegal immigrants and all of that).   He was the same guy that was on the bus that helped out Dylan getting to the Benford house on Halloween!  I checked out the pictures and everything.  Same dude!   Just thought I'd bring it up but can't take credit for discovering it!  Commenter: Andy got that one.  Good stuff. 

Backstory of the Week

This week we were treated to visiting NLAP first hand and 2 days prior to the blackout (and the day OF the blackout as well).  We really didn't learn anything new here but it played into scenes later in the episode.  And it gave us a first-hand look at what triggered the blackout.  

• Lloyd and Simon were celebrating their achievement and looking forward to "recreating the Big Bang" in 2 days.   Simon got a call from his mother saying that his father died.   We learned previously that his father was killed by the FLOSSO goons.  

• Simon goes to Toronto and the experiment stays on schedule without him.   Dr. Myhill is present with Lloyd for the big event plus some news journalist Angie something. (I'd look it up but I don't think it'll be very important.  Maybe it will turn out to be EXTREMELY important, but I'm not counting on it!)  
• Anyway, the clock countdowns to October 6th 11am...and the accelerator starts....we see how big this accelerator is and then we watch a pulse take over the globe and everyone then collapse...we see many many flash forwards and then we see the news journalist woman hit a desk with her head and never wake up from her blackout.    

Lloyd and Olivia Encounters

Lloyd on the News!

We moved into the present day with Lloyd doing an interview on some big news station.  Everyone was watching the big event: Mark and Demetri, Simon, Olivia all in different places.   Lloyd was discussing the idea of the flash forwards being possible futures with some flexibility. 

• We confirm that it is 1 week from 4/29.  
• Lloyd talks about how them seeing their futures could CHANGE the future.   But then he talks about how the future fights back.  Small things may change along the way, but some kind of force may push things to a certain future.  (kind of makes us think of the Garden of Forking Paths, right?   
• The theme for most of the episode revolves around people who are living past their expected death dates.   Lloyd calls these people statistical anomalies.  And the concept of course correction comes up.  
• And then who shows up on the interview but Celia!  The woman that Al Gough saved by jumping off of the FBI building earlier in the season.  She was supposed to be hit by a car and Al would've been involved in some way.  Now, Celia is a statistical anomaly herself! She thanks the Gough family and is extremely grateful for what Al did for her.  

• Then Lloyd takes to the phone lines.  Someone calls in and asks about Flashes maybe causing Brain Damage.   Lloyd just declines this, but later on he admits that he has no idea. 
• But the biggest lie he told was that it was IMPOSSIBLE that there could be another blackout.   Mark supported this comment because they could not cause panic for the entire world. 

Lloyd and Olivia

We see various scenes of Lloyd and Olivia bonding.  Lloyd is complaining about his interview and how he didn't expect the questions he got.  And he couldn't believe that he lied.  Olivia defends the Brain damage one, but then goes into more detail with it later on.  

• It turns out that Gabriel is in the hospital and Olivia has Bryce checking him out.    Lloyd and Dylan come to the hospital as Lloyd needs "occupational therapy" and he was hoping to see her there.   Anyway, Gabriel sees the 2 of them together and goes on one of his "Lloyd and Olivia sitting in a tree" rants.  And talks about how he knew they should be together.   Olivia promises to explain later.  Olivia insists to Gabriel that she is not "together" with Lloyd and that it's complicated.  

• Then Vreede shows up needs to question Gabriel.  But first he gives him a sandwich.  Vreede had to ask Gabriel about a sketch he found with his belongings.  It was Mark's wall!  Then we see one of Gabriel's flashes where he was looking at everything on the wall and analyzing it, memorizing it.  He had an FBI visitor pass on at the time.  So it would seem that he will be visiting there soon enough.  But before then he had to panic because he didn't like pickles and lettuce...but I cracked up when he calmed down and looked at the tomato and said "I like tomatoes"  Good times! 

• Later at Lloyd's place, Olivia is there showing him some brain scans of Gabriel's head who has had 100s of flash forwards.  No brain damage.  And then he shows some brain scans of other people that looked exactly the same as Gabriel's.    
• Lloyd asks about Gabriel and how he thinks they are meant to be together.  And then Olivia has a barftastic phrase "well I know how I felt in my flash forward"  she smiles and then they kiss.   Oh boy.  I'm sorry, but she was fighting this so hard forever and now she's just letting it happen!?  I know it had to happen by the end of the season, but it's almost like she wanted it to happen!   It would seem like this whole scenario is playing out exactly like it did in the flash.  But will Mark turn to drinking on April 29th?  

• There's a knock on the door......I think we knew who it was.  I ask again...will Mark turn to drinking on 4/29?   TO BE CONTINUED below. 

Course Correction

Murder Investigation

Demetri was called to the scene by LAPD to a crime scene.  Fiona Banks is there from England.  Why?  She's investigating something flash forward related.

• Apparently, this Andrew guy was supposed to die on March 2nd to a drug allergy.  But he survived.  Long story short, the man was poisoned and killed the same way he was supposed to die on March 2nd.  It would seem that somebody from the BLUE HAND group has turned into an executioner and knocking off any survivors that "weren't supposed to survive."   If anyone watched the "PREVIOUSLY ON FLASHFORWARD" clips, I think we all probably figured out who this probably was.  
• Demetri and Fiona head to Fairfax High School where Jeff Slingerland teaches.  He was the leader guy of that Blue hand cult.  He claimed to be upset that this Andy guy died but then spoke of the Universe balancing itself out.  Life is energy.  One life ends, another begins.  Very FINAL DESTINATION-LIKE (and for my one reference to LOST for the week - they spoke of Course Correction on the show too and had some Final Destination-like scenes)  

• Demetri tells Slingerland to watch his back.  Slingerland then makes a comment that maybe he shouldn't go on TV and announce it to the world.  I'm sure some people made the connection here right away.   Of course, FlashForward doesn't just leave the clues there, they have the feed them to us with flashbacks to moments that happened 20 minutes earlier in the show!  
• Dem and Fiona go to the Coffee Shop (the same place the poisoned coffee came from) and talked to a guy there that remembered a lot of details about Regular Andy and his geeky friend with a horseshoe ring.   And he remembered their conversation and how horseshoe ring guy made a big deal about surviving.  Yes, of course it's Slingerland.  And then Demetri put it together that he was going after Celia who announced on TV that she survived!  Whoops.  He learned this when Slingerland fled his class (after teaching them that Free Will is a Lie) and he left a message for Demetri that the Universe always pushes back.   
• We next see Slingerland with his sights on a walking Celia, he speeds up his car and says "Welcome to your future" but no, Demetri slams a car into Slingerland's Car before he gets there!    And then just when they think Slingerland failed, he says "Not Yet."  We see Celia trying to run away and she ends up running right into Fiona's car as she was in pursuit of Slingerland!  WHAAAAT?!?!   She still gets hit accidentally by a car.  And it just happens to be by the person who was supposed to be with Al on April 29th.  WEIRD, RIGHT? 

• Slingerland tells Demetri that it wasn't him, it's the universe.   He was supposed to die of an aneurysm but it seems Demetri killed him.  Really?  He seemed fine and just collapsed as he was running from Demetri.  Maybe he was bleeding internally from the accident?  Maybe he was just not playing a dying man too well?  Eh whatever, he died but not before he tells Demetri "See you soon sport."

• Yikes, so just when we think Demetri is off the hook, now he has to worry about course correction?  Was it just a bunch of coincidences?   Celia running into Fiona's car?  Slingerland dying?  Or is Demetri doomed?  If Lloyd is right about the future trying to make itself happen, his days could still be numbered.  Could he still get shot?

Later at the FBI HQ

Fiona is a wreck.  She remembers the conversation she had with Al about the bird that was going to hit their window.  He said to put tape there.  Fiona talked about how the bird would just hit another window ....course correction.   Well Celia just got hit by another car.   Fiona got the call, Celia's injuries are extensive and she does not have a good chance of survival.   Fiona is convinced she is now going to get that call on April 29th and find out that Celia is gone.  (just like Al got the call)    She believes in the Course Correction.   Do you? 

Operation Save Annabelle

Simon's Task

Simon is heading somewhere in his limo and passes over a bridge where he just happens to see his sister Annabelle crying and standing on the ledge.   The limo stops and Simon runs towards her. 

• There are several laser sights on her face and she tells him that they'll kill her if he doesn't comply. They want the ring back in 12 hours or she's done.   Simon checks out the license plate, refuses to leave for a little bit but then he's on his way. 

• He has some tech wizard dude at the FBI (who got lots of screen time this week) to run some plates.   He offers him a bribe for his silence (turns out to be a weekend at the Bunny Ranch.  ahhh those Tech Guys!)    The computer wiz ratted Simon out to Mark anyway.  

• Mark catches Simon in his lie and becomes extremely suspicious of him.   The whole MOSAIC investigation is in jeopardy because of him.   Simon refuses to spill on how much he knows and just that he wants to get his sister back.  

• Mark ends up talking his distrust in Simon over with Wedeck.  Stan says that they need Simon so they're going to get Annabelle.  
• Mark and his Boy Wizard run the plates and trace where the van was heading.  It went into a zone with no camera views and then it could come out anywhere in an 8 block radius.    Gotta love how Mark resorts to old scool SWEEPS since the computer will take too long to figure it out.   Also gotta love how he does this 8 block sweep by himself!  
• Simon wants to go with Mark to which Mark refuses.  Mark wants to get his sister back and then have a "sitdown" with Simon about what's been going on.  
• We see Simon try to log onto the FBI systems and he is denied access.  He knows the jig is up and we see him staring at the ring.  

Lloyd and Simon

• Not much here except that Lloyd is trying to save the world and Simon is distracted.  He revealed to Lloyd that his sister was kidnapped a few days after the blackout.   He left out the part where he was being used against his will by the Flosso crew for a majority of his life! 
• Later on (after we saw Simon staring at that ring) Lloyd and Simon have a conversation in the parking garage.  Simon apologizes for his behavior and for not telling him about Annabelle.  He thanked Lloyd for everything he had ever done for him with his career.   He mentions that Lloyd is the only friend he has and then he suspiciously says he has to be somewhere.  Lloyd thought the whole thing was a bit strange. 

Mark's Sweep

• Mark covered a 5 block radius and has 3 left.  But the 6th one is the charm as there apparently was some crazy van that hit an electrical box on its way into a warehouse.  Mark brings a swat team in only to open a van with Annabelle in it and nothing else.  

• Mark calls Simon and delivers the news.  He talks briefly to Annabelle on the phone and is assured she was safe.  He tells her he loves her and goodbye.   And then he tells Mark goodbye.  We see him grab his bags and leave his cushy apartment.   Where did he go?   Did he hand over the ring?   
• Because we definitely know that he took it as Mark and Stan discovered!   Really, they take away his computer access but leave the Ring out in plain sight?   Come on....he's a hobbit!  He is drawn to rings! 

Suspect Zero Uncovered

Back at Lloyd's House

• There was that knock on the door we were discussing, yep...it was Mark.  He was there for other reasons but he caught Lloyd and Olivia there with 2 glasses of wine and the guiltiest look one woman could ever have on her face!   

• Mark is shocked but then gets right to business saying he needs to talk to Lloyd.  Olivia says she was just leaving.  Lloyd's cover?  "Thank you for the scans."   Olivia promises to call Mark.   Yikes....that'll be one interesting conversation!   I think we all kind of suspected that if these flashes came true that Mark might be driven to drinking by allowing these flashes to come true at the expense of his marriage.   Will it still happen?   We'll see soon enough! 
• In the meantime, Mark tells Lloyd that Simon is gone and he took the ring.   Mark gets to asking Lloyd if on the day of the blackout, if anything seemed strange. 
• He recalled 2 days before the blackout when Simon got off the phone with his mother, Lloyd offered to reschedule the experiment.  But Simon was ADAMANT about the experiment happening at 11am on October 6th.   Hmmmm REALLY?  Then why was Simon so shocked to be in Detroit on 10/6 at the equivalent time for that timezone?   He certainly didn't seem like he knew all of this was going to happen!   Was Flosso telling him that they needed that experiment to happen that day, but Simon didn't know the repercussions? 
• In any case, he brings this up to Mark.   Why would he miss this big monumental moment?  Of their dreams coming to fruition with their experiment.   Mark asked Lloyd if Simon is capable of engineering a global blackout.  He said that Simon is capable of anything and always has a plan.    
• I'm not getting it, it certainly seemed like Simon was a pawn in all of this, why wouldn't he just come clean to the FBI?   Unless we're being told that maybe he wasn't a pawn at all? 

FBI HQ

• Okay, seriously?  They're just comparing the height of Suspect Zero to Simon now?   We did that way back in October when we first learned the height of Suspect Zero!  Dominic Monaghan's IMDB page was getting tons of hits after that episode!   
• Anyway, they started investigating Simon being in Toronto on the day of the blackout.  But then Mark looked into the airlines and how there was some emergency maintenance landing in Detroit from Toronto prior to the blackout.  Plane was grounded for a couple hours and then went back to Toronto.   So now Mark and crew are up to speed with what we already knew.  Simon was Suspect Zero and he kept this information from them the whole time! 

Mark talks to Annabelle

• Annabelle explains to Mark that she did not see any faces of the men who held her captive.  They all wore weird masks (clearly the same masked men that come after Mark on April 29th)  
• Mark wanted to know if Annabelle overheard anything.  She was reluctant to talk for awhile, but Mark promised nothing bad will happen to Simon.   And then she said it.   "They said he's going to cause another blackout."  DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNN

TO BE CONTINUED

So that's it!  Another solid episode leading towards the finale.  I think I liked last week's better, but the plot developments in this one were necessary.  And the introduction of the Course Correction concept is an interesting one, if not a very novel idea!   I still like where the story is going.  I'm still interested to see how April 29th is going to go down.  And I'm still on board for a 2nd season.  The question still remains, is ABC?   Time will tell!

That's all I got for this one folks.  Feel free to share what you thought of this episode, and what you think of the show in the comments below!  Just a heads up, I will get you recaps next week (May 13th) and the finale (May 27th) episodes on time, but the May 20th episode might be a little late.  I have some LOST-related things to attend to that night with that legendary epic finale scheduled to air on Sunday the 23rd.   I will get the post up as soon as possible, but don't be surprised if I don't get to it until the weekend!  I'll try my best.   Hopefully, you can all find it in your hearts to forgive me!

Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I will see you next week!

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