GIMME SOME TRUTH

I have to tell you that I'm really hoping this show can deliver what it has promised. So far I have not been disappointed, but I've lowered my expectations. Flashforward is not LOST and despite the hype that it was going to grab our imaginations in the same way as LOST has, we need to let go of our favorite castaway mysteries and embrace what we have been gifted. Admittedly, I am not spending as much time trying to delve into the mysteries as I do with LOST. I am, however, truly enjoying Flashforward.



Gimme Some Truth is a song written by John Lennon in either the late 60's early 70's about governmental corruption. This was our first clue that we might see some hint of governmental conspiracy and boy were we ever given a treat! Practically every federal agency is investigating the GBO and each one has a different idea as to the cause, from possible airborne psychogenic substances to aliens to the CIA's assurances that it was China. Am I the only one who found the exchange between the CIA director and Senator Clemente as laughable as the guy who claimed Aliens caused the GBO?



I'm not going to do a chronological recap today, and you'll see why later. First let's deal with Olivia and the fact that she is not only feeling the stress of her own flash, but that of her husband's as well. She overhears Aaron talking to Mark on the phone and telling him to go to a meeting. Just a friendly reminder, he tells her, but also reminds her of trust. She needs to trust the strength of her marriage and, ultimately her husband. Time will tell if she can let go of her fear and hold on to that trust.



Which brings us to Janice and the revelation that she is gay. It really wasn't a surprise since she neither confirmed nor denied it in 137 Sekunden when Geyer confronted her about the ring on her left thumb. Janice sure can kick butt though. She's still one of my favorite characters. We meet Maya, Janice's current lover. It isn't clear if their relationship began after the GBO, or before the event, but Maya checks Janice's MOSAIC profile and uses it to push Janice for a more committed relationship, which backfires and has Janice breaking off the relationship, but not before Maya gives her a talking clock.



Gough, Janice and another FBI employee are working on the information hacked from the CIA, during which they find the appearance of five pylons being built in Somalia over a period of five months just prior to the event in Ganwar. They let Mark, Dimitri and Vdeek know about it, and continue their search.



We start with crashing cars, grenade launchers and big booms, then rewind to 39 hours earlier, where Mark, Vdeek, Dimitri and Wedeck are in Washington DC to testify at the newest witch hunt trials and beg for funding. I found it downright intimidating that they had to not only give statements but subject themselves to a lie detector test. Are those things even admissible, let alone reliable?



Stan Wedeck is friends with the President and some very powerful and influential people in DC, most likely relationships forged during his time in DC years earlier. It is abundantly clear that he hates the city and is not pleased to be back. Obviously he left under bad terms six years earlier and it's left a foul aftertaste that he can't get rid of. The President is slick and apologetic to Stan. Later he offers Stan the job of Director of Homeland Security and tells Stan to think about it.



Very quickly we learn that Senator Clemente has an axe to grind and her main target is Stan Wedeck. There's very bad blood between them and she was only waiting for his body to go floating by on it's way down the river. This is when my 13 year old daughter called her a very bad name and I realized that perhaps I need to spend some time working with her on her vocabulary. We learn that Wedeck worked for President Segovia during his campaign several years earleir. We also learn that Clemente may have been running against Segovia for either the Presidency or the candidacy. Either way, she lost and blames Wedeck for that loss.



Clemente drills Wedeck, and then pounds Mark into near oblivion. I was put off by her pit bull demeanor, and found it difficult to accept the way she was going after Stan and his team. Really, she only mocked the CIA for their China theory and I didn't see a report on "their" lie detector tests sitting on the table.


Wedeck has not always been a good person and has done some things in the past that he is not proud of. We see that clearly. He does, however, stand by his actions and refuses to back down. I think he is trying to be the man he was before his stint in Washington jaded him, and we see this when he turns his back on the job offer and instead blackmails his friend to get the funding he needs. His faith is so solid in their investigation, that he is willing to put his career and life on the line.



Speaking of putting one's career on the line, I can't imagine how devastated Stan was when Mark finally confessed that he was drunk during his flash. Stan had taken a leap of faith, and despite getting concrete results, he realizes that he just may have blackmailed his friend, and the President, for nothing more than a drunken haze. In the end, I feel that his faith and trust will be justified. Mark and Stan work through their differences and agree that no-one else will know.



Which brings us back to the start point of Gimme Some Truth. The four agents are heading home, and Mark is talking to Janice on the phone when the coordinated attacks occur. The big black SUV crashes into the car, backs up, the doors open and someone opens up a can of whup on our agents. Thankfully they just barely manage to escape the car before the explosion and come out guns blazing, chasing their would be assassins from the parking lot. I really loved the cover of Dylan's Rolling Stone playing during this scene, considering Vdeek and Dimitri were singing it earlier in the karaoke bar.



Olivia receives an anonymous text message telling her that Mark was drunk in his vision. Only two people know the details of Mark's vision. I'm going to let you speculate as to who spilled the beans about Mark's little omission.



At the same time, Janice is heading home when she is attacked. At first she takes on two guys and really kicks some bad boy rear like no other. Unfortunately she is shot and falls to the ground, remembering her own flash and likely realizing it may never happen, but not before getting off a shot of her own and taking down one of her attackers. The little alarm clock was poignant as it tracked her blood into circles on the pavement, telling her to wake up.



QUESTIONS:



Why the constant references to all things Chinese? First the "Chinese fire drill", then the CIA's obsession with China being at the root of the GBO, and then the attackers were largely Asian.



Was that guy administering the lie detector test serious when he asked Mark if he recognized the masked men invading his office? Am I the only one watching who wanted to slap the guy upside the head and call him dodo?



What more has Stan done in the name of his friend's Presidential campaign that Clemente can drag through the mud? He had to have done far more than pay off an ex-mistress to disappear for Clemente to be that angry at him.



Karaoke? Really? People still do that? Really?



If Sagovia is President in his vision, and Clemente is President in her vision, who's vision is true? And what has happened? Does that mean that some visions are "wishful thinking"?



If Janice survives (I think she will) will she re-evaluate her life and start that family? And wouldn't it be a smart move to have Maya bear the child considering Janice's line of work?



Who ordered the hit on the LA FBI field office agents? It has to be someone powerful and knowledgeable of where these people would be at that point in the day. Clemente? President Sagovia? A really pissed off Maya?



What else has Stan done to help his friend win the Presidency? Why did the President make him leave DC so long ago and what happened that caused him to despise the city.



Now that Sagovia has chosen Clemente as VP, do you think he should order a knife and bullet proof suit just to be on the safe side? Maybe employ the occasional human shield?



Will the mistress take off to Puerto Rico now?



Is it possible that the government knows exactly what caused the GBO and how it happened, but they (meaning the CIA) are not saying. Could it be possible that the government may have had an active hand in the cause?

QUOTABLE QUOTES!

"Did you recognize the men? - Lie Detector Dude
"I did mention they were wearing masks, right?" - Mark

"That's just Congress masturbating to the sound of it's own voice" - Sagovia

"Is Oprah building a school?" - Dimitri
"..be quiet, the grown ups are talking." - Janice

"If you sit by the river long enough, you will see the bodies of your enemies float by...Are you ready to float, Wedeck?" - Clemente

"If my fifth grade teacher could see me now. She always said I'd end up either dead or in jail." - Vdeek
"There's time, my friend, there's still time." - Dimitri

"Wake up. It's time to get up. Wake up." - alarm clock

A LITTLE SOMETHING TO CONSIDER

In reference to my earlier question regarding both Sagovia and Clemente having visions of being President at the same time. Something to remember, though, is that we have not yet seen Clemente's vision, so we have to take her at her word (if that's possible)

In his vision we see President Segovia awakened by a Secret Service dude, who calls him President and tells him that something has happened.

It is my understanding that former presidents are addressed as "President" even after their terms are up and they have moved out of public office. It can be possible that both visions were true, but from different points of view.

The crows have popped up again, and I think we can't dismiss them too quickly. It is said that crows have extremely high intelligence (greater than Clemente's Senate Intelligence Committee?) and are a harbinger of the health of our environment.

Now that we saw a carload of nasty dudes open fire on a carload of FBI agents in a parking garage, the prospect of two armed men entering an FBI office seems that much more possible, doesn't it? Just asking.

Next week's episode is called Scary Monsters And Super Creeps. How appropriate considering it will air just two days before Halloween.

Nichole! Who knows?

Just a couple of quick polls ahead of tonight's episode. The above picture is of the man "drowning" Nichole. Now, check out the facial features of the priest pictured below. What do you think?

Below is a shot of the mystery woman who will apparently change Bryce's life for the better. There are many speculations regarding her identity. I think it's Nichole. Who do you think it is?

Either leave a comment below, or answer my Facebook poll.

The Black Swan

I want to summarize the whole "Black Swan" idea, first of all, because it is important and we see several examples of the theory in play during this episode.

Basically, until the late 17th Century, people believed that Swans were only white. This is because they had never seen a Swan of any other colour. Then along comes this black swan. Apparently it shook the then scientific world to it's knees. Until then, a black swan didn't exist. It did, but based on past observances, and the fact that no one had seen one before, it wasn't even considered a possibility.

So, when there is a high impact event so huge that it is beyond our human understanding, something we have been unable to plan for, it is called a 'black swan event.' There are no indications from the past to predict the event of the future.

And we all rely so heavily on our logical reasoning, our ability to use inductive reasoning to predict future events based on facts of past events) that we sometimes fail to prepare for the unexpected.

Which explains why no one but Mark was so interested in the event of 1991 in Somalia. It was so unreal, and only one small black swan, that not even the boss, Stan, could grasp the possibility that Somalia could be the key that unlocks the mystery of the GBO. But more on the Black Swan events later.

I knew immediately that we were looking at a flashback to the instant of the GBO (okay, they did point us in that direction with the obligatory 14 Days Ago title page). I giggled at the music. Was that Bjork singing? I think so and it was so funny as people started to drop. Another example of the chaos that the GBO caused. Here we have a lovely serene day at the park. A homeless dude looking for lunch in the trash bin. Some grown man walking with a green balloon. Cyclists getting their exercise. Couples walking along the waterside.

And then they all fall down, planes in the sky crash into each other and a bus speeds perilously close to the couple napping by the water on it's way into the lake.

At the end of the 137 seconds, we see two people in the bus, about to die if they don't get out. The man is unbelievably calm as he helps the woman kick out the window and swim to the surface.

Cut to the present and that same man is sitting on a hospital bed telling them where he was when the GBO occurred. Olivia is surprised that Ned Ned (yeah, I don't get it either but I'm going to let it roll) didn't come to the hospital immediately. He calmly tells her that he didn't NEED the hospital then. At Bryce's prompting, Ned tells them of his flash.

He's in a dance club, he's wearing leather pants, he's confident and by the way, his skin is black. I probably wasn't the only one thinking; "Yeah, riiiiight". But this episode is called the Black Swan for a reason, and I promise, we will get to it. If you haven't already.

Zoey and Dimitri meet for breakfast at a quiet coffee house and Zoey gently reminds him that he hasn't charged Alda Hertzog with anything yet and he can't keep her locked up without charges for much longer. She tells him he is almost out of time for holding her without charges.

I loved that Mark was playing with his daughter and almost spit my International Delights Cinnamon Coffee across the room when he was pretending to pretend to have a British accent! And the Eggbert reference was a hilarious shout out to Joseph Feinnes' amazing performances in many Shakespeare plays.

Nichole shares a quiet breakfast with Aaron Stark and we learn that Tracy had once been Nichole's babysitter. We also learn that Aaron suggested Nichole as a babysitter for Charlie. While Nichole doesn't tell him of her vision, Aaron tries to ease her troubled mind.

Olivia and Bryce are discussing the problem of Ned. This is where we begin to see a clear example of the Black Swan Theory. Olivia is obsessed with not allowing her vision to happen that she is becoming consumed by it, which in turn, affects how she sees and deals with her patients. She fails to expect the unexpected. Bryce has accepted his vision and is using it to help guide him in his present day decisions.

Ned is very ill. He is bleeding internally and needs surgery. Bryce, however, does a little research on pigment diseases and causes of pigment discolouration. He attempts to tell Olivia of his findings, but she is so rooted in her need to avoid the future that she misses the obvious and insists on operating.

Mark, Stan and Al Gough are discussing the Somalia incident in 1991. Mark and Al can't get any information from the CIA regarding the blackout in Somalia, so Stand tells them they have to move on. Mark and Al discuss a hacker they'd busted a while back. Yup, I too think they will use this hacker to get into the CIA database, most illegally of course, to get the information they need. I think Somalia may be part of the key that unlocks the mystery of the GBO.

Dimitri is interrogating Alda Hertzog, the blond terrorist they were chasing when the GBO occurred. It is through Alda that the Black Swan Theory is explained. Since I've already summarized it earlier, I'm not going to go into it again. Needless to say, this has got to be one of my favorite scenes. We see Dimitri's rapid wit.

Alda admits to very little, but tells Dimitri that she's just a pawn in the game and that it is her associates that they really want. Okay, I just loved Dimitri's rapid response! "Honey, your associates died on the day of the blackout. They're super dead." Ha ha ha ha. I was laughing so hard at that line I missed her response...the second time I watched it. She redirects Dimitri to a restaurant in Indio California and reminds him that he is running out of time.

Dimitri has a chip on his shoulder that's the size of a giant grandfather clock and it's about chime nice and loud in his ear!

He convinces Stan that they need to follow up on Alda's lead, reminding them that they all had cases before the GBO. Stan agrees and sends Mark and Dimitri to the restaurant in Indio to investigate. Once there they realize that they may have been given a bum steer, until the manager hollers to the cook to get the FBI guys some burgers, which is when the fun begins.

The cook takes off like a shot and, of course, Mark and Dimitri give chase through a trailer park, no less. Mark finally tackles him and they search him. He's carrying a case full of high grade weed and is arrested. Mark and Dimitri fight, and finally Dimitri tells his partner about the mysterious phone call and his supposed murder. Again, Mark tries to reassure his partner by telling him that just because someone says it's going to happen, it doesn't need to come true.

Yay, Nichole is back and this makes not just Charlie happy, but her parents as well. Her vision was very troubling to her and after seeing it, I can understand why. She saw her own murder by drowning. And the guy who is drowning her looks familiar, but I just can't put a name to his face...yet. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Nichole visits the priest of her church, which she doesn't attend as regularly as her sister, Paige. She fears that she is being punished in the future for something she hasn't yet done and wants to counter that by becoming more involved with her church. What priest would turn down help, even in the hardest of times when everyone is seeking redemption by volunteering?

Bryce continues his research on pigment colour change and realizes that Ned exhibits all the symptoms of Addison's Disease. His calm demeanor in the face of danger indicate a lack of adrenalin. The internal bleeding not stopping. Pigment change. Olivia doesn't want to hear it (can we say unable to prepare for the unexpected) and preps for surgery, during which Ned crashes, and she realizes that Bryce was right. She administers hydrocortizone and brings Ned back to the land of the living.

As Ned was crashing I had the most unbelievable thought and shared it with my daughter. What if Ned dies on the table and his organs are donated. What if one of those organs went to a black guy, who, on April 29th was in a club celebrating his recovery? My daughter almost wet herself laughing at the thought.

Lloyd Simcoe finally faces facts and goes to his ex-wife's house to find out more about his son. It's sad walk through the house as he sees photos of his family, the calendar on the fridge with all of Dylan's appointments, his toys, his books. Lloyd spots a book about magic and takes it.

He uses the magic to reach his son, who then, finally calls him daddy. We also get to see Lloyd's vision. He is in a room that is unfamiliar to him, he sees his son's toys on the floor and there is a woman, but that is all. He doesn't see the woman because as his head turns, he wakes up.

Mark asks Al to find the hacker. He's ready to find out what's going on and it appears that he's not above breaking the law to do it. He thinks the CIA has information that they need.

Nichole and Mark talk about her vision and she spills it all. Since she saw her killer's face, Mark promises to send over a police artist to help her create a composite sketch. He will help her, he promises.

The very last scene we see it the one I've been waiting for and anticipating for weeks now. It did not disappoint me.

Lloyd Simcoe is at the hospital and growing more comfortable being with his son. His cell phone rings. It's Simon. Simon wants him back at the lab working. I couldn't quite make out exactly what he said, but it appears that whatever Loyd and Simon are doing either caused the GBO, or they are trying to avoid another one from happening. Either way, it looks like Lloyd knows more than he's letting on, or maybe what he realizes.

Simon is played by Dominic Monahan! Oh Boy, I think, this is going to get interesting.

WHAT I SAW (or noticed):

The dude with the green balloon must have been trying to re-enact a scene from his childhood. How many grown men do you see walking around holding a balloon?

I have feared that Olivia's determination to avoid her vision would endanger her patients, and finally we got to see it. Both Dylan, whom she transferred to Physiotherapy with an infection, and Ned both nearly paid an ultimate price for her obstinacy.

There's something not quite right about that priest, and what the heck is he thinking just giving a girl who is deeply troubled the brush off and, to ease her rejection, a T-shirt? I don't like this guy. I need to see another view of him, because my first thought was that it was him drowning Nichole.

Six passports for Alda Hertzog? The lady reminds me of Ben from Lost. Do all evil people speak a gazillion foreign languages?

Speaking of LOST, a friend of mine pointed out how Ned's calm demeanor was so Ben Linus like. Thanks, Yaba, I caught that and felt shivers run up my spine. Do you think he was told to play it that way? Great catch Yaba.

Alda Hertzog knows more than she's is letting on, but not enough to warrant them keeping her locked up.

As Mark is talking to Alda and she is talking about the Black Swan Theory, he remembers the kangaroo hopping down the street on the day of the GBO, then we see the kangaroo in Dylan's bedroom.

QUOTES:

This episode was full of them!

"Whatever we saw, we saw it for a reason"

"All I can hear is the clock ticking. Everyday! What do I do?"

"You get some help. You get past the fear and then you fight!"

I was expecting this:

"Just take the battery out of the clock, you dummy"

"You're wasting your energy on trying to find what or who caused the blackout. The more important question is why"

"If you tell me where this light went, I'll tell you where it came from"

"It's time I got out of the dark"

"The future saved me"

screencaps courtesy of SeanyB at flashforwardbog.net

Let me know what you saw. Did I miss something? Is there something that you think is important?

What are your expectations for Simon? Were you as excited as I was to see him?

What does he have in store for us?

137 SEKUNDEN

137 Sekunden will probably not be ranked in my top ten of favorite episodes when all is said and done. That does not mean, however, that it wasn't a good episode. If you are not a fan of FF by now, chances are, you will not become one. Flashforward is a procedural in that the main story and characters will develop over time with clues and questions being presented and answered slowly. The nice thing about FF is that they deal with one "stranger's" vision each episode that adds to the clues on Marks board.

In order to keep from being confused I'm going to record my thoughts on a linear basis, as it happened, so to speak, because much of tonight's episode ties together.

The episode begins by showing us that the babysitter is still awol, and Olivia and Mark are deciding who's able to collect Charlie from school. Mark volunteers as he answers the door. It's Aaron Stark, and Mark lied to Olivia why he's there. In Mark's home office, he tells Aaron about Charlie's knowledge of D. Gibbons and expresses his fear and worry. Aaron advises him to ensure Charlie is protected at all times if he thinks she could be in danger.

Dimitri tries to get information from the mysterious female caller, who tells him that he will be shot three times in the chest. When he tries to trace the call, he finds that she has taken steps to remain anonymous by routing the call through several locations at the same time.

Mark and Janice and a co-worker are sifting through files submitted to the FBI from around the world and find an interesting tidbit about Rudolf Geyer, who has requested a meeting specifically with Mark. They are about to discount it when Mark sees a photo of Geyer. He remembers it from his vision and thinks he should follow up, convincing Stan Wedeck to allow him and Janice to go to Germany.

Rudolf Geyer is a prisoner, serving time for Nazi war crimes, after eluding capture for several decades and even living in the United States. He thinks he knows what caused the GBO.

Dimitri's fiancee, Zoey, is finally able to leave Seattle, flying home to LA with the president of the airline. That man was rather nervous, don't you think? And did you notice? They were the practically the only two on the plane! That's some consumer confidence happening right there.

Olivia shares lunch with Felicia Wedeck, Stan's wife. Felicia tells her about her vision of putting a little boy to bed, who calls her Mommy. While they don't have children at home, and the boy is a stranger to her, she has to believe that she will be that child's mother if he needs her.

In Germany, Mark an Janice meet with Rudolf Geyer and his attorney. It is clear the Geyer wants something in return for his information. He wants to be released and be allowed to return to the US. Despite the objections from both Janice and the prison Warden, Mark agrees under the condition that Geyer provide trustworthy information.

At first Geyer spouts various symbolisms, asking Janice if she's homosexual because she wears a ring on her left thumb. He talks about how Kaballah says that everything has hidden meanings, and tries to explain Hebrew letters' number designations. Mark cuts him off an demands something that can be corroborated.

Geyer tells Mark of his vision. He is returning to the US and speaks to a customs official named Jerome Murphy, whom he tells he has a murder to thank for his return home. The grin Geyer wears in his vision is creepy and I immediately recall "everything has a hidden meaning". But I'm not ready to put two and two together. More on that later.

Dimitri is sent to find Jerome Murphy, who corroborates the vision. He also reveals that it was his vision that inspired him to apply to become a customs official. Right now he's sitting in his living room in his underwear. That makes two men we've seen in their underwear! I'm not sure I can take another. Anyway, as Dimitri is leaving he trips over a bong, but doesn't bust Jerome and thus, allowing the future to happen.

Zoey and Dimitri share an intimate reunion, where she tells him of their wedding on the beach in Hawaii. Dimitri lies and tells her that he saw the same thing, so they decide to set their wedding date to April 28th, 2010.

Aaron Stark visits his ex-wife (I thought she was dead, oops) and tries to convince her to sign an affidavit that requests Tracy's remains be exhumed and more DNA testing be performed. Kate freaks and tosses him out of the bar. Aaron calls Mark for a favor, and despite the illegality of it, Mark agrees to help. Dimitri delivers the court order for the exhumation.

Now that Mark is assured that Geyer's information is corroborated and trustworthy, he promised the old Nazi his freedom, much to the vocal objections from Janice and the warden. Geyer then tells them what happened after his vision and the many dead crows in the courtyard of the prison. He explains that he doesn't know how many crows died worldwide in the event, then slides a book about birds across the table.

THE SLY GEEZER SCAMMED THEM!

Or so it would seem.

The agents and families attend a delayed memorial service for the agents who died during the GBO. Felicia Wedeck is there and she spots the boy in her vision, sitting in the front row with what appears to be a Muslim woman. The boy's name is Attaf.

At the after party Dimitri makes a toast to their absent friends and comments how these memorials must be happening all over the world, which inspires Mark. He and Janice return to the office to check on possible reports of massive crow deaths, which is when they stumble upon an event that occurred in Ganwar, Somalia in 1991. The also discover an interesting fact: Just after the crows fell from the sky dead, all the humans in the area experienced a blackout!

IT HAS HAPPENED BEFORE!

The final scene shows a flashback, of sorts, as a boy herds his goats and a massive flock of crows fall out of the sky, The boy runs up a hill and stands beside a tower. The sky has turned yellow. Coming from the top of the tower there appears to be smoke or some sort of steam.

OBSERVATIONS and QUESTIONS:

At first when Geyer mentioned that a murder had helped him return to be released and return to the US, I thought he might have some sort of clue that might solve or avoid Dimitiri's murder. Hey, Ruddy was a Nazi and was serving time for crimes too horrible to contemplate, right? But then I remembered my visit to the Tower of London, and the tour guide telling us that a flock of crows or ravens is referred to as a murder. It wasn't an actual murder of a human being, but a murder of crows that helped secure Geyer's release.

The Benfords must have more than one phone line into their home. Is it so unusual for Aaron to visit his friend that Olivia would comment on it?

When we see the overhead view of SeaTac airport and then learn that Zoey's plane is about to take off, was I the only one who wondered how the aircraft was going to take off with that plane plunked in the middle of the tarmac? (see above picture) What does the plane do, speed up, hop over the broken fuselage then continue down the runway and lift off?

When the DNA tests come back and it is certain that the remains belong to Tracy, Did Aaron re inter her remains before going to see his ex-wife? Speaking of Tracy's remains, Aaron said that she weighed only 35lbs upon her repatriation. It's a long shot, but do you think Tracy may have lost a leg in the explosion and someone took her and saved her life? All the marines found was her leg? Made ya think about that, didn't I?

If Tracy really is dead, does that mean that many of the flashes could be false?

Mark seems to be getting really good at telling Olivia lies or omitting critical information. He hasn't told her about Charlie's vision and his fear for her safety? I'm no expert andmy status as a single mom might preclude me here, but I'd think that two parents working to keep their kid safe is way better than a paranoid one and a clueless one.

Felicia was dressed in scrubs, so I'm assuming she works in the medical profession.

Was the blackout event in Ganwar Somalia in 1991 a test leading up to the GBO? If it was man made, who's responsible? Does Rudolf Geyer know?

Initially I thought the tower was used to signal the call to prayer. Somalia is a Muslim country. What's was that smokey substance being emitted from the tower?

If Demitri is killed on March 15th, who is Zoey marrying on that beach in Hawaii? Ghosts of boyfriends past?

Is Geyer is connected to who caused the GBO? Could he possibly have helped to create the GBO with research while eluding capture?

How does Felicia come to be the little boys mother? Where is his mother?

Where is the babysitter and why hasn't she called?

Could Janice be Jewish? Her animosity toward Geyer was barely concealed, and she does have the tattoo of three circles on her arm. Could her family have escaped the Nazi's, gone into hiding and, as a private memorial, all descendants get that tattoo to remind them of where they came from?

Could Janice be homosexual, which would explain her surprise at being pregnant. (I'm not thinking this one, but I thought I'd slip it in).

And finally;

WHEN DO WE SEE DOM?

I'll add my favorite quotes either tonight or tomorrow, after watching again. If you have any, let me know.

Screencaps courtesy of The ODI

Aaron Stark - A Character Study

At first I looked upon Aaron Stark as a supporting character. It appeared that he was there to be Mark Benford's sounding board, the man who helps to keep the recovering alcoholic on the straight and narrow. A quiet, soft spoken man who dispenses bits of wisdom here and there, usually at the moment when Mark would need them most. He was Mark's Jiminy Cricket.

Quickly I came to realize the error of my ways. Aaron Stark could well be the voice of reason in a world that has been shaken to its very foundations by a force no one yet understands. In a time where confusion and uncertainty is the norm, despite every one's efforts to at least appear normal, I have a feeling that Aaron will be the man to put it all into proper perspective.

Our Mr. Stark is a lineman, so I'm assuming he knows a awful lot about electricity. A widower, he lost his daughter Tracy two years prior to the GBO and has not been able to come to terms with the deaths of the women in his life. Having fallen into the abyss of alcoholism, Aaron is now sober and struggling to remain that way. His belief that sobriety is the only way has helped his friend Mark join the AA program, Aaron as his sponsor.

Aaron's FF provides the conflict for his character. As far as he knows, his daughter is dead. Her minimal remains having been identified by DNA, Aaron has struggled to accept the loss of his daughter. Just as he's ready to let go of the denial, he gets a snippet of his future that tells him his daughter is not only alive, but in need of his help.

Hence the conflict. How does one reconcile the supposed proven fact that someone they love is gone to the vision that tells them that their grief may have premature and unnecessary? In short, Aaron has gone from stoic acceptance to cautious hope. I'm left to wonder where and how he will find his daughter, because I'm sure he will not let the vision rest at the back of his mind for too long. At some point very soon I expect Aaron Stark to leave LA in order to go find his daughter, battling the nagging doubt that his was a vision of error along the way. I see a future of both hope and heartache for Aaron Stark.

I only hope he doesn't lose his anchor and drift away.

NOTABLE QUOTES: So far

"You're afraid your future will happen. I'm afraid mine won't."

"Look at these people. Everyone of them is dealing with the same thing we are; the future. The only difference is, most of them don't have a support group to them cope with what they saw. Maybe it was good. Maybe it was bad. Maybe it was inexplicable.

The point is, it happened to everyone, every single human on the planet. I saw my daughter alive. Explain that! You can walk up to any of these strangers and ask, "What did you see?", and they'd know exactly what you were talking about. When in the history of the world has that ever happened?

We're all profits now"

And, one of my favorites:

"Even if this future stuff is real, maybe it's a blessing in disguise......Ghost of Christmas future crap...."

Kind of says it all, doesn't it?

He could be my favorite of all the charaters.

WHITE TO PLAY - Or It's Your Move Bobby Fisher

Once again, I am not going to write a complete recap of the episode.

I'd like to cover Charlie's revelations first, though, as I think that her vision will connect Dylan's, Olivia's and Mark's visions and validate some points for their futures.

As White To Play began and I saw the children laying on the ground, unconscious, I thought we were seeing Charlie's vision. But alas, it was only a more updated version of Ring Around The Rosie. In the post GBO version the children fall down, mimicking the GBO and then jump up and ask each other what they saw. The fact that Charlie doesn't take part in the game is telling. After all, from what we have seen and heard, Charlie had one of the more ominous visions that we know of. It is at this point we get confirmation that neither Olivia nor Mark saw their own daughter in their visions, which is downright terrifying to think about.

I want to quickly touch on the symbolism of the children singing Ring Around The Rosie first of all. It is a nursery rhyme that was commonly chanted during the Plague and was designed to teach the illiterate and uneducated about the spread of the killer disease. It could be nothing, but my first thought was that we were seeing the rapid spread of "Flashforwarditis" as humanity comes to terms with what they saw.

Charlie recognizes Dylan while at the hospital with her mother. Her panic and concern are very real and painful to watch. This validates, to Olivia, what she herself saw in her own vision and connects the man on her couch to the boy in the hospital bed. Later, Charlie reveals that there was also a man in her vision and that he is a very bad man. His name is D. Gibbons, the man her father is hunting.

This leads me to suspect that this D. Gibbons has possibly kidnapped the children and could he be using them as a means to force either Mark or Lloyd Simcoe to do something? We will find out, I'm sure, in the coming months.

The FBI is our next stop on this milk run of facts and things are getting interesting here. Many people didn't believe that Stan Wedeck was telling the truth about being in a meeting when he described his vision last week. I need to rewatch because I am confused by what I saw. I know that both his present (the time of the flash) and his future involved the porcelain throne, it's afterward that confuses me. Was it in his flash that he performs CPR on the agent who drowned in the urinal, or after he awoke from the flash? I'm thinking the later, but I'm not sure.


We meet the Assistant Director of Homeland Security, who arrives to find out why a field office took it upon themselves to actually investigate something. How assuming of them to spend millions of dollars collecting and comparing visions in an effort to figure out what caused the GBO! Her tune quickly changes as they reveal Shadow Man in the ballpark in Detroit. Now, like all governmental processes, you know who is going to take credit for this don't you?

Didi Gibbons arrives at the FBI, six cupcakes in hand. It was unclear if she was brought in or came of her own volition, but I'm going with a voluntary action here. If she were brought in would she have grabbed a six pack of cupcakes? I doubt it. But her story was interesting and led to some rather interesting facts.

Basically Didi Gibbons' vision shows her on the phone arguing with the credit card company about a charge to her account that she did not make. Happens all the time, right? I know it's happened to me. The charge was in Pigeon, Utah and Didi has never been to Pigeon Utah. What was interesting was her argument that the FBI, specifically Mark Benford and Dimitri Noh, had already dealt with this problem.

This leads Mark and Dimitri to check on Pigeon, Utah and find that a bus ticket was purchased using a credit card. In Pigeon they meet Sheriff Keegan, who had had the bus depot staked out for the arrival of D. Gibbons. Just when Dimitri has Mark convinced it's a wild goose chase, mark notices the doll manufacturing company and questions it. Sheriff Keegan's explanation that it's bankrupt and empty, plus Mark's memory of the burned doll's head, prompts them to break in. It's not so empty after all as they watch a shadow cross the office above several times.

Was I the only one who thought the dolls hanging was way too creepy? I literally shuddered at the sight. And I gasped when the little red light went on as Mark stepped on the pressure pad. It's rigged, I thought.

What we see in the office is startling. Several computers immersed in what looks to be water. A chess game on a computer screen. It's the aftermath that provides Mark with the chess piece and the photos of the burned doll. However, D. Gibbons, escapes through what looks to be a dumbwaiter shaft just before the place explodes.

Later we learn that the computers were used to hack into numerous systems around the world, even the FBI's own Mosaic site. The FBI conclude that someone else is investigating the GBO, but for what purpose we've yet to learn.

Dimitri is still an enigma to me, but certain things are becoming clear very slowly. Like Charlie, I think Dimitri will be a key to help unlock the mystery of the GBO. He and Janis have a quiet moment where they talk about their futures and she convinces Dimitri to add his flash to the Mosaic along with her. Maybe someone out there will have an answer for them both.

It's a bit shocking when Dimitri gets the call. A woman named Nhadra Udaya (?) tells him that she was reading in the bureau news that he had been murdered on 10 March, 2010! Man that sucks for Dimmitri. So, the question for him is, does he work toward changing that future or will what he does cause the murder? Can he change what appears to be his fate?

Which beings us to what the man in the doll factory muttered just before he set the place to blazes.

He who foresees calamities, suffers them twice fold.

It's a quote by Bishop Porteous (I googled it) and it's pretty self explanatory, isn't it?
However, I have a thought. Bear with me. I carry a spare tire on the back of my Jeep. In the winter I carry booster cables, a small tool box and a first aid kit. I also carry chocolate bars and a few candles. It's called preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best in any situation. Just because we prepare for the worst does not mean it is going to happen. Hey, that sounds just like what Mark said to Olivia! I've driven may thousands of kilometres without a flat tire and rarely needed to pull out, and use, the first aid kit. But is doesn't hurt to be forewarned and forearmed than completely helpless should a situation arise, right?


THINGS I NOTICED:

• The FBI traced cell phone activity and found that the cell phone they took from the doll factory called the man in the ball park 30 seconds into the GBO.
• Since the military is patrolling and guarding certain areas of LA, we can assume that all large cities are under Martial Law
• Olivia is adamant that she will not allow her flash to come true and is doing everything she can to avoid Lloyd Simcoe
• Dylan took news of his mother's death much better than his father did. A bit too accepting, if you ask me
• There is obviously a conspiracy afoot with the revelation that more than one person was awake during the GBO. I think the GBO was a test run for something bigger.

A FEW QUESTIONS:

1. Why didn't Olivia and Mark see their daughter in their visions? Are they so caught up in their own futures that they forget their daughter?
2. Will Dylan's vision of the future include Charlie and the bad D. Gibbons?
3. Does Stan Wedeck wonder why both his future and his present (during the flash) involves the porcelain throne?
4. In light of the phone call telling him of his pending death, does Dimitri end his engagement? Will he seek solace with Janis, thus making her pregnant?
5. Will Didi Gibbins keep bringing cupcakes to the FBI?
6. Does the FBI allow all it's visitors to see sensitive materials. I saw the way Didi's eyes quickly scanned what was on the computer screen at Janice's desk. Never trust muffin men and cupcake ladies.
7. By burning the bracelet his daughter had made for him, has Mark already changed the future?
8. Why didn't Lloyd recognize Olivia if they are lovers in the future, or did he just stare at the fireplace for 2 minutes and 17 seconds? Talk about dull. Even Stan's flash was more exciting.
9. Who is Nhadra Udaya and where was she calling from?
10. Where has the babysitter disappeared to?
11. Will the circuit judge forgive the FBI for the death of his daughter-in-law? She didn't have a flash either and now she's dead.
12. When will we see Dominic Monahan?

On the thought of Dominic Monahan. His character's name is Simon and I don't think he'll be a very good person. I think also we will see him with Lloyd Simcoe. Not sure why I have that feeling, but I thought I'd get it out there.

I have some thoughts on Aaron Stark. He seems to be the character of reason and I'd like to do him justice, so I'm going to do a separate post on his role in this episode. It will likely be up tomorrow or Saturday.

What were your thoughts? What did you see?