TVSquad

(S01E04) Any time we can go back and look at the blackout itself, I'm interested. But the use of an idyllic park scene and Björk's "It's Oh So Quiet" created an almost peaceful panorama -- until a bus drove into the lake, nearly missing someone lying nearby. Throughout the entire opening sequence, though, the scenes of serenity and death melded flawlessly with the song.

It was a great opening reminder of the event that put the entire series into motion, as well as an introduction to Ned. Ned is Dr. Benford's patient this week, who helps her come to terms with her own feelings about the flashforwards. He's also the calmest and most collected guy you could ever meet. But there's a reason for that.

What might be the most important thing for some people still on the fence about this show, Dominic Monaghan (Lost) finally showed up this week. As expected, he's going to be playing a pretty damned important role in the series. His introduction created a relationship with one of our main characters that I absolutely didn't see coming.

I know he didn't show up until the very end, but he called Lloyd Simcoe and basically established that both of them were involved with whatever happened during the blackout. So suddenly, Olivia's vision of her being in a relationship with this guy took on a whole new meaning. It's no longer just about the dissolution of her marriage with Mark, it's about everything that's going on.

Oh, I like that. I like that a lot.

Nicole also returned this week. She's the babysitter for the Benfords who had a vision of drowning. I couldn't make out the face that was drowning her, but I'm pretty sure it was not Monaghan's character. Nevertheless, with the revelations about Olivia's visions and their significance now to the overall plot, I am now suspicious of any vision that gets that much air time. Who is this guy, why is he drowning her, and why does she feel she deserves it?

A lot of the episode was about both Olivia and Demetri coming to terms with their flashforwards and learning how to deal with them healthily so they can get on with their lives. Demetri finally told Mark about the phone call he received forecasting his death on the Ides of March, 2010. Of course, he had to punch his partner in the face first. I love that that's how tough guys communicate on television and we all just accept it. Are there really guys out there who do this?

As for Olivia, her fear of her own flashforward pushed her to the point of wanting to violently reject all of them. She took it so far as to dismiss Bryce's diagnosis of Addison's Disease for their patient, Ned. Bryce put it together from a combination of Ned's complete calmness in the face of the blackout, his surgery and everything else, and Ned's vision that he would be a cool and confident black man by April 29, 2010. Black being the operative word there, as Ned is as white as Olivia and Bryce when we see him.

Luckily, she balked and accepted the correct diagnosis in time to save Ned's life. Do you think Ned was concerned that he almost died on the table? Nah, cool as a cucumber. He will be like Shaft!

So what we mostly did tonight was establish that these flashforwards are real and that everyone needs to accept them to move forward in their lives. I still think there's more to this sudden life change in Bryce from suicidal to happiness guru, but for the most part everyone seems to be on the same page right now. Think positively and work toward preventing the bad from the vision, like Demetri's supposed suicide, and take it a day at a time.

Only now we have Dominic Monaghan calling Lloyd. So was that Monaghan in Detroit at Tiger Stadium? Plus, Lloyd had a vision. He admitted it to Bryce and it matched up perfectly with Olivia's vision. Could he have faked that? I suspect that despite blacking out, he's still somehow involved in whatever happened.

Bringing in Monaghan now definitely ups the game, as it puts a face on the mystery. That'll keep us coming back to see what we can piece together ourselves from his appearances, perhaps faster than Benford's team can.

[To help put the pieces together, you can catch clips and full episodes of FlashForward on SlashControl.]