Overall: 8.2
Congratulations, writers! I now want to re-watch the last fourteen episodes just to make sure that the new wrinkle in this episode makes sense. That's the sign of an effective twist.
Plot Synopsis:
The Mole(s): At the beginning of the episode, Demetri, Mark, and Wedeck watch the message from Dyson Frost. In the message, Frost reveals that he has experienced hundreds of flashforwards, and all of them seem to confirm that he will die on March 15, 2010 - the day of Demetri's murder. Frost closes the message by stating that the next move is Mark's. Wedeck orders Mark to find Frost "yesterday."
Mark, knowing that Frost has an affinity for chess, decides to look at chess club records and discovers that a D. Gibbons defeated a man named Ian McKinnon in a tournament years back. Embedded within the moves of said tournament match, Mark finds a code that reveals a phone number. Mark calls the number and gets a pre-recorded message from Frost: "Well done."
Mark and Demetri head out to San Francisco to track down McKinnon, but when they arrive, they discover that McKinnon has been murdered. At this point, Mark decides enough is enough and enlists Vogel to help him find the leak in the FBI's LA branch. The following day, a whole team of CIA agents descends on the LA office. All of the LA agents (and Simon) are herded into a conference room while Vogel's men take the office apart looking for recording devices. Eventually, Mark and Vogel find a bug in Mark's keyboard.
One by one, the LA agents are questioned. Demetri is rather put out when he is called in first, but Mark assures him that he only wants the others to think he's suspecting everyone. Next to be questioned is Janis. Janis believes her getting shot should put her above suspicion, but Mark observes that she has been absent from work far more than usual lately. Janis points out that she's been going to the fertility clinic, but Mark states that her fertility clinic appointments don't account for all of her absences. Janis finally reveals that she has been investigating some people on her own; in particular, she has her sights trained on an agent named Marcie, who recently received a very large deposit in her bank account.
Marcie's background information seems to check out fine, but Mark and Demetri watch her on surveillance tapes anyway. On the tapes, they see Marcie putting sugar in her coffee and conclude - based on the fact that Marcie does not normally take sugar in her coffee and the fact that the times she has used sugar correspond exactly to the times of the leaks - that this is Marcie's prearranged signal to her handlers. Mark and Demetri look at Marcie, and Marcie, realizing that she has been discovered, hauls off and starts shooting up the office. Ultimately, it is Janis who subdues Marcie and takes her into custody. Later, Frost calls Mark: "I look forward to meeting you," he says.
But lest you think all is now well, the writers then proceed to throw us one of those OMGWTFBBQPolarBear! moments at us. At the end of the episode, Simon walks Janis to her car. Janis remarks offhand that she took a look at the autopsy report for Simon's uncle Teddy and found the force with which Simon performed his "CPR" rather suspicious. "You murdered him to send a message," she says. Then she adds, "Message received." The penny drops for Simon. "I should have known," he says, and he concludes that Janis is a second mole. OMGWTFBBQPolarBear!
Meanwhile...
The State of the Benfords: Is not rosy. Mark has moved out of the house, as he is unwilling to give up the Mosaic investigation. Still concerned about his family's safety, however, he sends a fellow agent out to keep an eye on Olivia and Charlie. Or so it seems, at any rate. I don't trust this show anymore.
Lloyd: Figures out, with the help of Olivia, that the equation he saw in his flashforward was for a Quantum Entanglement Device. Apparently, in Lloyd's possible future, he is working on a way to prevent another blackout.
And Bryce and Keiko: Pass each other like ships in the night. Nicole takes Bryce out for dinner to distract him from his cancer treatment, and Bryce, caught up in the moment, kisses Nicole. After a moment of awkwardness, they decide not to enter the sushi restaurant in Little Tokyo - which is too bad, because at that very moment, Keiko is in the restaurant sharing sake with her new employer, a car mechanic. The following day, Keiko is arrested in an illegal immigration sting.
Writing: 9.5
The way the writers have developed their main characters really plays hell with our preconceptions, and I love it. We have, for example, Simon, who is a slimy little git - but also, it seems, a victim of Frost's schemes and an important ally for our hero. And then we have Janis - a character for whom the writers have been building up a deposit of audience sympathy -- and a character who, it turns out, works for the wrong side. Props to the writers for keeping things unpredictable!
Meanwhile, I feel really bad for the Benfords - and yes, that includes Olivia. Contrary to what seems to be the prevailing opinion out there, I believe Olivia does have a right to ask Mark to leave it all behind to safeguard their family. When you start a family, you implicitly agree to make some sacrifices for the sake of it. At the same time, I appreciate Mark's devotion to all the save-the-world stuff (even though I'm skeptical that the investigation would in fact fall apart without him at the steering wheel). Bottom line, what I see here is two well-intentioned people trying to do what they think is best and, tragically, failing to come to accord.
Acting: 8.0
Everyone does a pretty good job here, but I think this week's real winner is Christine Woods, who manages to really creep me out with that final evil smile.
Message: 7.0
No theme really stands out in this episode, which, for the most part, focuses on Mark's no-holds-barred search for the mole, but it's nice to once again receive confirmation that the flashforwards only represent a possible future among many possible futures and that their fulfillment depends on our choices.
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