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?