Demetri (John Cho) has discovered the reason they found a building full of dead men with their hands painted blue hands; they were all part of a suicide pact, formed as part of a "death club" known as Blue Hand where its members are those who didn't have visions during the blackout and consequently believe themselves to be "walking ghosts". One such club is investigated by Benford (Joseph Fiennes), Demetri and Gough (Lee Thompson Young) after following instructions on the group's website, which proves to be a sordid place where hopeless people congregate to indulge sick, painful fantasies. Entrance is gained by playing Russian Roulette with a creepy doorman, where the successfully avoided bullet (stamped "NOT TODAY") becomes your ticket.*
It was certainly a striking, twisted idea, but not one I accepted as entirely plausible and logical. I mean, I don't quite understand why people would want to live their last six months (if death is indeed unavoidable) by having severe pain inflicted on them. If anything it should be the people who HAD visions that might want to start risking their lives, theoretically safe in the knowledge that they can't die because they saw themselves alive in April 2010. So, the idea felt very flawed to me, but at least FlashForward is starting to explore some of the less obvious effects that seeing, or not seeing, your future would have on society. More, please.
That notion of whether or not you can change the future also reared its head again, but this time we actually got a definitive answer to the question. Gough is growing steadily more anxious that Benford's evidence board is filling up as predicted, and now MI6 agent Fiona Banks (Alex Kingston) has flown in from London to help -- i.e. the woman he saw himself with during his vision, before taking a call that's later revealed to be confirmation that someone called Celia has died, orphaning two boys, and that he's responsible...
It all leads to quite an emotional moment when Gough decides to commit suicide by leaping off the FBI building's roof, to spare the life of this woman he hasn't even met yet. And, despite Demetri trying to reason with his colleague that the future can still be changed (which he's having a tough time believing himself), Gough ultimately process Dem right by jumping to his death. So we finally have an answer to a central question behind the show's premise: the visions everyone had aren't inflexible, so any terrible events predicted can be averted. Hence, Dem can perhaps avoid being murdered on 15 March, the Benford's marriage may still have a chance, Nicole (Peyton List) may not be drowned, and Janis has probably lost that baby after all.
There was a smattering of small subplots that were also quite enjoyable, as all revealed a fair amount of vision-related information, at the very least. Aaron (Brian F. O'Byrne) met an ex-soldier who served with his daughter Tracy in Iraq, but is saddened to later hear anecdotal evidence that there was no way his daughter could have survived the RPG attack on their vehicle. However, the final kick in the tale saw Aaron returning home to see his daughter alive and well in his front room! I have no idea what her explanation is going to be, but I hope it's in some way tied into the Mosaic investigation. We also saw the Benford's babysitter Nicole mingling with hospital intern Bryce (Zachary Knighton), who revealed his vision involved seeing a beautiful Japanese woman.
But this episode was really a focus on Gough, whose selfless act to save a stranger was handled incredibly well by the writers and director. Gough's voice-over reading of the note he left for Celia (who will assumedly still make her presence known to the FBI soon, in some way) was elegantly mixed to footage of Celia and her happy children. And now we know everyone's futures aren't set in stone, many of the characters can cast off their simmering depression and try to make a better life for themselves. We already catch sight of Mark embracing Olivia (Sonya Walger) with more emotion than he's shown recently (well, ever), and Fiona returned to her London office to lay tape across her window to prevent the pidgeon in her vision striking the glass.
Maybe the fact Dem's girlfriend Zoey (Gabrielle Union) had a conflicting vision is an important clue, too? Maybe naturally optimistic people see one possible timeline (a beautiful wedding in her case), and pessimists see another (a failed marriage, or just nothing)? Mind you, we've still never seen Dem in Zoey's vision as she claims, so it's still more likely she's just marrying someone else and doesn't realize it yet.
Overall, "The Gift" was definitely more the show I want FlashForward to me: strong ideas (if a little flawed, sadly) and stories fuelled by characters reactions to the troubling situation everyone's trying to make sense of. It wasn't enough to make me do a complete 180 on the show, as I still need to see some consistency before I start to relax my appraisals, but this was a much better episode than usual.
9 November 2009
Five, 9pm
written by: Lisa Zwerling & Ian B. Goldberg directed by: Nick Gomez 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), Dominic Monaghan (Simon), Lennon Wynn (Charlie Benford), Ryan Wynott (Dylan Simcoe), Lee Thompson Young (Agent Al Gough), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Debbie), Genevieve Cortese (Tracy), Clint Culp (Jack Barrow), Gigi De Leon (Nadine), Mark Famiglietti (Mike Willingham), Gary Johnson (James), Alex Kingston (Fiona Banks), Jonathan Levit (Martin Dewey), Dave B. Mitchell (Attorney), Myron Natwick (Romanchak), Callum Keith Rennie (Raynaud), Gabrielle Union (Zoey), Lennon Wynn (Charlie) & Kiyoko Yamaguchi (Suki)
* Incidentally, I've only just noticed that the opening titles sequence always ends with a brief flash of something significant from the following episode (this week, it was the "NOT TODAY" bullet), so watch out for those in future.
