FlashForward has a high-concept premise and a season-long goal it feels unwise to reach beyond, where the protagonists progress the story by acting on obscure clues. Ring any bells? Yes, it shares DNA with Prison Break in terms of technique, so it feels only right that a refugee from that defunct show, Seth Hoffman, co-wrote this episode with a veteran director from the same stable, Bobby Roth, behind the camera.Following the inciting, climactic events of last week's two-pronged attack on our FBI agents by Chinese assailants, this episode doesn't follow through on the promise shown. Still, it thankfully didn't feel like a totally wasted hour because a handful of situations proved diverting. Janis (Christine Woods) was rushed to hospital with a gunshot wound, which she barely managed to survive, and after a relapse Olivia (Sonya Walger) is forced to take desperate measures that results in making it near-impossible for Janis to ever conceive children. Of course, this provides us with the paradox that Janis' flashforward showed her heavily pregnant and undergoing an ultrasound scan, so the show is again toying with the faith we've placed in these future visions. That's getting old now, but I don't see them settling on a definite answer until the last quarter of this season at the earliest.
The overarching investigation took a small step forward with Demetri (John Cho) noting a "blue hand" tattoo on one of the Chinese men who attacked them, which led him to follow similar symbols stuck to street signs around the city, eventually leading to a house containing dead bodies, one of which had a blue hand. Again, interesting in some respects, but knowing the mountain we're going to be climbing means I can't get too excited about what the investigation turns up until it starts paying off significantly, or a bigger picture starts to take shape. It's all just random names, symbols and phrases right now.
We also met the probable perpetrator of the blackout, self-proclaimed "genius quantum physicist" Simon (Dominic Monaghan), who's first seen flirting with a sexy woman* aboard a speeding night train -- feeding her cheesy lines that "explain" the reason behind the flashforward. Like the party game, everything Simon says should be approached with caution, I feel. It's too early to take anything he says at face value; he could be lying outright, or embellishing the truth to make himself look more important than he really is. But it's probably worth speculating on Simon's link to quantum physics and his explanation of the Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment...
Both pieces of information appear to offer a valid perspective on the science that may have caused the blackout. Schrödinger's Cat is a popular thought experiment where a hypothetical cat's death inside a sealed box from random poisoning can only be determined by opening the box and viewing the cat inside -- so, in one sense, the cat is both alive and dead inside the box until an observer looks to see. There's an interpretation of the problem by Hugh Everett where he suggests both states of the cat exist in separate parallel universes: one universe where the observer sees a dead cat, one where the cat is seen still alive. Applying some of this to FlashForward's premise, were the visions merely glimpses of an alternate universe's future -- meaning our universe will follow a very similar path, but events will alter in light of this foreknowledge? Anyway, I suggest you Google quantum physics if you have some time to spare and enjoy trying to decipher sci-fi shows in-between episodes.
There was also a very uncomfortable gathering at the Benford residence on Halloween night, as autistic Dylan Simcoe (Ryan Wynott) sneaked out of hospital and crossed town on a bus to walk in as if he's lived there for months. Of course, Dylan and Charlie Benford (Lennon Wynn) both know each other via their flashforwards, and Dylan feels at ease enough to treat the Benford house as his own home. We know that his father Lloyd (Jack Davenport) appeared in Olivia's vision as her new fancy man, so it seems clear that the Simcoe's will move in with Olivia next year. But none of this explains the level of comfortable trust between Dylan and Charlie, who have surely only "known" each other for 2 minutes 17 seconds, yet treat each other as siblings.
Is that just a lapse in FlashForward's logic, or were their visions more powerful somehow? There's also a disparity in that Charlie warned her dad about the mysterious "D. Gibbons" (supposedly a frightening man she knows from her flashforward), but there was no sign of any such person in the Dylan/Charlie vision. Is this another regrettable oversight from the writers, or is there more to discover about the exact nature of these flashforwards, or how certain people experience them? For instance, is it significant that Lloyd's autistic? Or that both are prepubescent?
Anyway, it was good to see the Olivia/Mark/Lloyd situation out in the open, after Lloyd tracked his son to the Benford's home and recognized the living room from his own future vision. Olivia also confronted Mark (Joseph Fiennes) about his alcoholism later, and he finally admitted he was drunk in his flashforward, so I'm glad all these secrets are exposed and can be tackled. Indeed, there was the vague sense that this episode heralded the end of FlashForward's initial arc, and we can now push on with the "blue hand" gang, the political facet introduced last week, and Simon's enigma. Speaking of the latter, the British physicist eventually arrived in L.A to speak with Lloyd, and Lloyd is still coming across as a genuinely regretful partner of Simon's. Have we been told what Lloyd's occupation is yet? If not, don't be surprised if it's physics related.It's still an awkward show in a great many ways, and initial excitement over the premise is beginning to wane now. The writers are between a rock and a hard place -- withhold information and audiences grow tired with the stalling, reveal too much and the core mystery is drained of its appeal.
2 November 2009
Five, 9pm
written by: Seth Hoffman & Quinton Peebles directed by: Bobby Roth starring: Joseph Fiennes (Agent Mark Benford), John Cho (Agent Demetri Noh), Brian F. O'Byrne (Aaron Stark), Courtney B. Vance (Agent Stanford Wedeck), Sonya Walger (Dr. Olivia Benford), Christine Woods (Janis Hawk), Dominic Monaghan (Simon), Lennon Wynn (Charlie Benford), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Debbie), James DiStefano (Ernesto), Jason Duplissea (Dad), Stacy Hall (Security Guard), Curtis Harris (Kid #2), Ashley Jones (Camille), Rachael Lee (Trick or Treat Neighbour), Jonathan Levit (Dewey), Vinicius Machado (Gang Member), William F. Nicol (Masked Figure), Will Poston (Bartender), Amy Rosoff (Marcie Turoff), Robbie Tucker (Kid #1), Ryan Wynott (Dylan Simcoe) & Lee Thompson Young (Agent Al Gough)
* You know the face? It's Ashley Jones, recently seen playing barmaid Daphne in True Blood's second season.
