(S01E02) I'm still trying to figure out what exactly is going to be happening at the Benford household the night of April 29, 2010. We got some more hints, but it's still not coming completely together. Particularly, I want to know what Charlie saw, but then I guess so does everyone at this point.I guess Lloyd and Dylan Simcoe are set to become important and significant members of the cast. We already know that it's Lloyd in Olivia's vision that she has feelings for. It explains some of what's going on there, but not everything.
Weirdly, I spent more time trying to wrap my brain around the logistics of that than I did the mystery of D. Gibbons. At least until that final conversation in the Benford household. Oh, and I have a new expression for when I'm being bad and eating things I shouldn't. "I'm going to go log these cupcakes into evidence."
I certainly wasn't expecting Wedeck to provide comic relief, but he followed up that cupcake line with the full explanation of his flashforward, as well as what he was doing in the present when it came upon him. Let me just say that if I were married to him, no amount of mouthwash would make it to where I could ever kiss him again.
We got some more clues as to the larger picture, including another flashforward, this time from a D. Gibbons, though not the one on Mark's wall of clues. But it was this one's credit card who'd been stolen by the D. Gibbons who is apparently complicit in the blackout. "And then there were two."
What made it more freaky was that Charlie knows of D. Gibbons, and that he's a bad man. But how can she know that? At the same time, how does she know Dylan so well, and how does Dylan know Olivia? What was happening in Dylan's and Charlie's flashforwards that gave him this much information?
As for Dylan's father, Lloyd, did he truly never see Olivia? There's a sequence of him in the bedroom on the phone with her behind him, and we know that the scene with her looking down on him is where the flashforward ends. It appears to end before he fully looks back at her. But I'm not sure what to trust.
Is there another solution to Demetri having seen nothing in his flashforward? Yes, we met someone who saw nothing, as well, and she died, but Demetri's fiance said she saw him in her vision. How can that be possible?
Clues upon clues; I'm going to have to start my own wall. I'll start by melting a doll. How creepy was that sequence. If that was D. Gibbons, then he has more issues going on than his involvement in the blackout. The Rube Goldbergs in the doll factory were so elaborate, he's been set up there for awhile.
I think it was a great idea setting the flashforward for April 29, 2010. With people so afraid that networks will pull the plug on their favorite shows, we only need ABC to hold out for one full season to at least get to this payoff. I think that will help keep people excited about the show and where it's going.
[Watch clips and episodes of FlashForward at SlashControl.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-02-2009 @ 3:23AM
evie said...
The fiance said she'd seen him? I missed that. And then how to account for Shohreh Aghdashloo saying she read a report that he was assassinated on March 15 (not a Thurs, I might add).
But then, the sponsor's daughter comes back to life, so who knows. It is odd to think the two young ones could so quickly and clearly pick up on names when others are having trouble even remembering faces or incidents.
I'm hooked. Could not be more hooked.
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10-02-2009 @ 4:57AM
mrkorb said...
I don't think the daughter ever died in the first place. Remember, the only details we've been given about her "death" was that the military could only bring something like 37lbs of her remains home. Easiest explanation is that maybe a bomb blew off her legs, which were the remains recovered by the army, and she was subsequently taken hostage, only to be discovered as a POW at a later time.
10-02-2009 @ 4:53AM
mrkorb said...
"Demetri's fiance said she saw him in her vision. How can that be possible?"
Simple. Demetri is blind and deaf in the future. Explains how he neither saw or heard anything in his flash forward. The report about his death that the woman claimed to have read could have been misinformation to protect him.
That, or the next Star Trek movie involves time travel and a surprise wedding for Sulu.
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10-02-2009 @ 10:43AM
Dorv said...
Did we see Demetri's fiance? Or was that a reference back to last week? I kinda missed that.
It might be relevant that Lloyd Simcoe is the main character in the book. However, I seriously doubt that the TV version is a world renowned physicist working at CERN. But its the only character name carried over that I've noticed so there must be some reason that they used it.
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10-02-2009 @ 1:41PM
Eirik said...
It hasn't yet happened "on the show", but in one of the previews from last week they showed Dimitri and his fiancee talking and she said the flashforward she had was of their wedding, and he was there. I suspect we'll see that soon, since she was said to be in Seattle when the blackout happened, so she's not likely back in LA yet.
10-02-2009 @ 11:44AM
Mr. Matt said...
My wife & I just finished re-watching season 4 last night, the "school" season (our favorite)... It only gets better with age. The subtitle parallels between the streets, the police, the politicians, and the schools has become even more visible. Even the second time around the tragic story arches of many of the characters (like my boy Bodie) are still powerful.
Jane, I hope you plan to continue with the next four seasons after you finish this one. It tells the story not just of the characters, but also of the city, Baltimore, which could be any city in today's America.
The Wire is the greatest television series ever made.
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10-02-2009 @ 1:44PM
MikeR said...
Hilarious
10-02-2009 @ 6:34PM
MK said...
And how is it relevant in this discussion? Are you LOST?
10-02-2009 @ 6:09PM
The1337 said...
The pilot was awesome, but the second episode was disappointing. It was high on the melodrama which was made worse by the mediocre acting. The dialogue is atrocious at times and seemed like Horatio from CSI: Miami suddenly controlled everyone. Nevertheless I want to see Flash Forward succeed; there is lots of potential. Full review of the episode.
http://th3tvobsessed.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-flashforward-season-1-episode-2.html
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10-02-2009 @ 6:44PM
Elanor Samuels said...
Was the second episode aired Thursday night in some parts of the country? ABC's website shows Flashforward airing Friday night and so does my cable station (I'm in California). Anyone know why the episode aired early?
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10-02-2009 @ 10:54PM
VP said...
The regular time for this show is Thursday at 8ET. The first couple of episodes they have also been airing a repeat at 8. It works out better for me because i watch survivor on Thursday so i can watch this show on Friday.
10-03-2009 @ 12:07AM
fritz said...
"As for Dylan's father, Lloyd, did he truly never see Olivia?"
I'm going to say that Lloyd didn't even have a flash, he was the main character in the book, so I think he may be a third to not have blacked out at all.
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10-03-2009 @ 12:27AM
Elanor Samuels said...
Sorry if this posts twice - my original post has not shown up yet. Thanks for the info, VP. My DVR didn't record this Thursday night, but did record it Friday. I'll have to check my DVR settings to see why it didn't record Thursday.
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10-03-2009 @ 10:41AM
mvdelaney77 said...
So, here's the thing... What type of time does this show deal with? Are we operating in a system where the past can be changed or where it cannot? And are we even really dealing with changing the past as much as changing a potential future?
It seems the show wants us to think the events can be averted, ie the bracelet being burned.
However, the reality of events suggests otherwise. Consider, this can't be the first loop if the Flashes were sent from the future (because in the Flashed future, there were previously flashes, obviously so... how else would they have been investigating the incident?).
Whatever the reason for someone or some thing to want to alter the course of future events, they likely have in that scenario.
The FlashForwards aren't of a future wherein the Flashes never happened and the natural course of events transpired. They are of a future where the Flashes had happened. Which suggests, they've already tried to solve this... they were trying to solve all this in the Flashes... and hadn't.
Anyone ever see the Star Trek:TNG episode Cause and Effect? In that episode the characters are stuck in a temporal causality loop wherein they constantly repeat the events leading up to what resets time... The same seems to be happening here. However, unlike that episode, we've come in here in the middle of the action, never seeing the precipitating event leading up to the restarting of the loop.
On the other hand, that presumes that these Flashes are a result of something or someone in the future trying to fix the past. But if the source of the Flashes was the present, and these are simply images of one possible future, and obviously a future where the current events have happened and interim events will, unless otherwise altered, also happen... Then this would be the first and only real iteration while the FlashForwards weren't exactly the reality of the future as much as a potential reality of the future...
But depending on which it is, it determines the nature of the show. If someone or some thing from the future is trying to change the past, then it hasn't worked... because the past is simply stuck in a repeating cycle at this point. If it's someone from the present, then the more they change, the more will be different on 4/29/10.
I'm leaning toward the notion that the events are caused in the present... because otherwise, it's somewhat pointless.
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10-03-2009 @ 11:33AM
DataDroid said...
I'm enjoying the show so far, but I'm spotting a lot of obvious plotholes, mostly under two categories:
1. Cell phone and security camera records. The L.A. FBI can't be the only people trying to figure out what's happened. The people monitoring the security cameras everywhere would almost certainly have nearly immediately checked the footage during the blackout. Same with cell phone companies; they'd certainly have done a quick check for activity during that time, and subsequently alerted news outlets. Furthermore, does the stadium seriously have only one security camera? I would think they'd have one at each and every entrance, including the one Suspect Zero went through.
2. Changing the future. Anyone who's seen any time-travel movie or show knows that the best way to change the future is to change even the little things. For instance, Mark could have put the bracelet on the *other* wrist, gotten a different office, had someone else write the yellow notes, put them in different places, gotten a new office, or any number of things to make the situation he saw less likely. His wife could get a transfer so that she won't come in contact with Lloyd. Any number of these things could be done to make the circumstances seen in the visions unlikely or impossible.
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10-04-2009 @ 2:20PM
al said...
I think seeing nothing probably doesn't mean you dead.
If it happened at 10pm Pacific, wouldn't all the east coast be asleep, therefore lots of people would see dreams or nothing.
I think you dream about 2 hours a night, for 5-10 mins each episode, so there is a lot of nothing.
Surely they should have seen a big lack of response from the east coast on the mosiac
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10-04-2009 @ 3:59PM
James said...
The blackout happened at 11 AM Pacific Time, not 10 PM.
10-04-2009 @ 11:37PM
Jason Hughes said...
Al is talking about the time of the visions. Those are 4/29/10 at 10pm pacific which would be 1am eastern. I've wondered about all the people who would be sleeping at that time as well since it would be midnight in my time zone. Hopefully the address theories at least about people were were asleep during the time of the vision.
10-06-2009 @ 1:03PM
minkey said...
but remember that olivia was sleeping when the flash forward happened and she obviously had a vision so the blank visions can't be people sleeping.