Overall Rating: 7.5
Fast-paced, genuinely entertaining action coupled with some mixed messages that leave me a bit concerned for the show's future.
Spoilers after the cut.
Plot Synopsis:
After the long hiatus, we've all been waiting to see what next shoe would fall. The two-part opener to season 1.5 introduces a potentially dangerous abuse of hope - a man whose life was miraculously spared on the day of the blackout and who saw himself as a stage presence in a religious revival in his FlashForward tells his story. Later in the episode, Nicole spots someone in the hospital who looks vaguely like the man murdering her in her vision and runs him down, only to discover that it is not who she thinks. Terrified once again, she complains to Bryce that she can't keep living her life looking over her shoulder and he recommends a new support group called Sanctuary led by this window washer and self-appointed religious icon. It has all the feeling of a cult, and I have a strong suspicion that Nicole's involvement in this cult will eventually lead to her downfall. When she later attends a Sanctuary meeting, she immediately latches onto the philosophical problem with his rhetoric. He talks about God's role in our lives, but the conversation with God is not a two-way street in his world view. He thinks God expects nothing of us - this is immediately displeasing to Nicole and she confronts him about it. Then he turns into a creepy stalker type and asks her out, but she doesn't notice the creepiness.
Meanwhile, Olivia, still deeply shaken by Lloyd Simco's abduction (and greatly impressed by his willingness to give himself up to save her), wants to run from her feelings for Lloyd and from Mark's involvement in MOSAIC. To save her marriage, she wants to change the future by getting out of LA and making a new life elsewhere. Mark can't bare to tear himself away from the case despite being decommissioned pending psychiatric treatment for stress. He grabs pictures of everything in the MOSAIC room and his office - he even sneaks a peak at the security footage of Lloyd's abduction and catches Olivia's goodbye hug. He can't just leave, no matter how impressed he might be with Olivia's dedication to his marriage - he's just too involved now. Yet, he doesn't like the idea of getting therapeutic medication to recover parts of his FlashForward that he can't access due to his drunken stupor. Eventually, he gives in and decides to go ahead with the memory retrieval session, saying his reticence was due to fears about his impending future. The memory he recovers makes very little sense. While staring at the MOSAIC board, he is going to get a phone from Lloyd Simco! We later discover that Lloyd was on the task force...working with Mark on something called "the QED" - and that the blackout may be repeated if they don't solve the case in time.
The investigation itself now centers on Lloyd. He's been abducted by a group that we later discover believes it was responsible for the blackout and believes that Lloyd's experimental research merely amplified the effect. The same group catches the FBI task force at Lloyd's home and kidnaps Lloyd's partner Simon Campos. They're led by a man calling himself Flassa who seems to enjoy labeling himself a villain and they want information so that they can duplicate the FlashForward experience and gain control of the future. Lloyd refuses to cooperate. The rest of the FBI task force regroups and searches the rail yard where the paramedics that were supposed to get Dylan Simco were murdered and replaced and here, we get a major confrontation between Noh and newly appointed task leader Agent Vogel (who interfered with their attempts to get information in Hong Kong, thus making himself an enemy of Noh). Vogel arrogantly squawks that if he wants to stay alive, he needs a better partner than Mark Benford or his fiance is going to be walking on the beach getting married to someone else and this causes a bit of fisticuffs, but also recovers the bodies of the EMTs and a lead on a cell phone that might help locate their ambulance.
In Captivity, Lloyd attempts to signal for help, but his message slips form his hand and blows away in the wind. His captors begin torturing the pair for information but he stands firm in his refusal to cooperate. When they threaten to chop off one of Simon's fingers, Lloyd considers caving in to their demands. Meanwhile, Lloyd's son is essentially under the one on one care of Olivia. She's developing a deeper and deeper attachment to Dylan. Other elements of Mark's vision are coming forward now. He remembers seening a card on the MOSAIC board that says "Red Panda Resources"...he tracks down this group and interviews a staff member about what they do. They claim to be a humanitarian aid foundation specializing in micro-investments to help local communities around the world. Sensing an opportunity, he asks to join a humanitarian team to get access to Somalia so he can look around, but the group refuses, saying many of its' employees have criminal records and won't tolerate FBI involvement.
In the second hour, things really begin to heat up on two fronts. Nicole meets with creepy cult leader guy (that will be his name from now on...perhaps CCLG for short) and he tries to put a positive spin on her FlashForward, suggesting that maybe she was being baptized, which seems very ludicrous to me. He tells her how she interprets her vision is up to her (after he does some interpreting...yeah...real nice), and uses the classic trust-building technique of a con-artist...the old "but hey, I'm just some loser...you don't have to listen to me..." line is a well known cult-to-sucker slogan. Meanwhile, Mark remembers the "HELP US!" sign was an ad for a cheese steak restaurant and heads to its current location. After a fruitless round of questions, he realizes their location changed. He asks for directions to the old, burned down site where he thinks someone may be being held.
Nicole's mother, it turns out, has completely lost her faith. She was already schizophrenic before the FlashForwards but her faith was helping...now she's burning Bibles and building a huge monument to her daughter out of pennies. Bryce wants to hang out with Nicole and get to know her better, so he helps her acquire some pennies for her mother and goes into their home to meet her. The scene that follows is actually kind of sweet, as Bryce and Nicole dance to a very old tune at her mother's request. Bryce also gets further involved with Nicole by approaching CCLG and demanding that he leave her alone. He knows this guy is a snake-oil salesman and wants to protect Nicole (awww). CCLG insists that he's just receiving a gift from God and spreading that gift of love to as many people as possible. Ugh.
Meanwhile, the task force thinks it has a lead on Lloyd Simco, but when they track the ambulance to an abandoned restaurant, they find it rigged to explode. Lloyd, meanwhile, tells his captors the magnitude of his experiment under threat of the death of his son, and it's becoming increasingly clear that although we were led to want to hate Simon (for good reason), he may have been on the right team at the time of the FlashForwards - killing someone from this group of future-hijackers in an attempt to save the world from this impending disaster. Mark, however, tracks the correct abandoned restaurant and, recalling a line from his FlashForward, smashes his car into the window thereof. After some seriously awesome bad-assery by Mark and Simon (!), the kidnappers are all gunned down wiht the exception of Flassa (d'oh!). While Mark is questioning Lloyd, Simon is placed in an ambulance, and, SURPRISE!...Flassa is inside! We receive a revelation (oh...that's where the title came from!...LOL) that Simon was in fact...suspect zero! Just when I was starting to think he was a jerk, but an innocent jerk, Simon is now implicated as having been involved in INTENTIONALLY causing the blackout.
But wait...there's more! Simon really was at his father's funeral (hence why Flassa needed to divert suspicion away from him by torturing Lloyd instead of Simon)...Flassa then arranged to have him flown to Detroit for the ballgame, put on the distinctive ring that will link him to the crime, and walk into the nearest tunnel while the world was still blacked out but the cameras were rolling. There, he met Flassa...he really was just a scapegoat (granted...a scapegoat who bears significant guilt for having assisted in the experiments that led to the blackout. Displeased with being held by the FBI for questioning, Simon engineers an escape plan by faking anaphylaxis. Janis, however, catches up to him in Toronto and makes to escort him (at multiple gunpoint) back to the US. He begs her to let him stay to help track down his runaway sister, but Janis thinks there's more to it than that...a chance for information may be lost if they drag him back to LA. Weddeck clears her to play out her hunch and tail him through Toronto. She literally puts a leash on him and he goes back to his home to meet with family. It's a clever rouse, however. While pretending to take a shower, he covers his tracking device with tinfoil, blocking the signal, and skedaddles. He goes off in search of an old associate named Philip, obviously looking for private information, but Janis tracks him down here too!
Philip, it turns out, is Simon's old college professor. THey discuss how a particle wake field experiment might have caused the FlashForwards and Simon begs Philip to help him construct a device to protect the people from another FlashForward. Philip insists it can't be done. We here suspect that Philip is one of the bad guys, but time will tell. What we DO know is that Simon's "Uncle Teddy" (invited by his family) is DEFINITELY one of the bad guys. It's Flassa...and he's brought some wine for a lovely family dinner. And now...the big revelations keep coming...naturally, since Simon was awake during the FlashForwards, he can't have had one...his murder story was a lie...and it gets worse. Flassa arranged to have his father killed to create the alibi they needed to protect Simon from the backlash for long enough to keep the world guessing while they perfected the FlashForward technology. All of this, Simon remembers, while the man responsible for his father's death is sharing a cheerful meal with the rest of his family. WOW! It turns out, the murder happened in Detroit (revenge!)...and there's another one coming. Flassa threatens Simon's sister and in repsonse, Simon murders him too - making it look like natural causes (death by Emphysema).
Writing: 7.5
On the plus side, the plot is certainly moving forward at a crisp pace and they're not having much trouble keeping me guessing (the number of times I said "Holy CRAP!" is a good indicator of how well they're doing on this front...in this two parter, that number was eight...LOL). There were also several fantastic action-sequence moments...I'm still a guy and I still enjoy a good action flick just for the "YEAH!" factor. Simon saying "here's a tip...next time, cut off the trigger finger!" before blowing one of his captors' heads off...was just plain awesome. I have a feeling he's gonna get lots of sweet lines like that...because he had two others. "Now I've got my murder story!" and "Your lungs can't take the strain...starving your heart and brain of oxygen...the bruises on your chest...just my futile attempt at CPR." What the heck is this...I'm being made to LIKE...Simon??? Good show, writers!
On the minus side, the pace was actually a bit TOO frenetic for my taste. I don't think enough time was spent on certain aspects of the multiple threads being weaved through this sweeping plot. I'd have liked to see more of the developing relationship between Bryce and Nicole, Olivia and Dylan, and Noh and Vogel. They did a good job covering all the bases with Simon and Lloyd (both whom now appear to be unwilling pawns in a massive global conspiracy), but, while they tried to keep moving forward in other areas of the show, they didn't stay focused enough. What was with Aaron showing up at the bar to stop Mark from drinking? How did he know and why is he back to being Mark's sponsor (apparently, since he's doing all of the usual duties of a sponsor). We didn't get any insight there. That's just a minor example. This was a two-hour action-movie-style series relaunch, so the writers' hands were probably a bit tied.
Acting: 9.0
Dominic Monaghan (Simon) really shines in this episode. Walking the line between genuinely unlikable pile of slime (especially with the ladies...*shudder*) and desperate pawn clawing at every possible exit from his nightmarish global prison can't have been easy to pull off. This is turning into a great science fiction story and Simon's character needs to be at the center of it...there's too much to work with here to ignore. CCLG was also very impressive for a guest star...he had that perfect likable yet somehow disturbing heir of sleaze about him...made my skin crawl every time he spoke...I'd credit the actor by name, but I can't find who played the man. The cast regulars all put in solid performances, especially Christine Woods (Janice). It's too bad she's playing a lesbian on the show, because aside from that, her awesome job performance and witty retorts with Simon made her super hot! LOL
Message: 6.0
One thing that concerns me, though. Two things actually, but they're a bit related. When the show started, there was a huge potential for it to make a strong positive statement against determinism and reclaim something positive from the experience of the shifting of global conscience forward in time. I think the writers may be getting a little off track now. The Sanctuary Cult could go either way for me. On the one hand, they're clearly painting this guy's cult as a potentially dangerous negative, which any good Christian would agree with regarding his message (no human responsibility to God? no two-way communication with Jesus? the merging of free will and fate? these are all dangerous perversions of Christian morality). I fear, however, that we haven't seen a GOOD representation of religion yet. The minister Nicole talked to early in the series was overwhelmed and didn't apparently care much about Nicole. We've had religiously motivated panic and rioting post-blackout, and now this cult. Where are the major religious institutions? Shouldn't they be playing a much bigger role in this story? And alongside that, you've got a purely scientific explanation for the FlashForwards themselves, and we still haven't taken a strong enough stand for my liking regarding the futures observed in those visions being POSSIBLE, not final. I am taking a wait and see approach at this point. The canvas that will be the message in this show is only partially covered, but I'm not liking the overall direction. We shall see.
No Highlights as I have no easy way to go back and forth and record lines, especially not for a two-part episode and with my limited time availability.
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