Overall Rating: 6.3
When I saw that it was March 12th in the canon time line (3 days before Demitri's predicted death), I knew the writers were going to be bastards and make it a cliffhanger. Many interesting things happen, but the show feels like it was slapped together to prepare the plot for next week.
Plot Synopsis:
Olivia and Lloyd: Charlie Benford and Dylan Simcoe (who bonded while Dylan was in the hospital under Olivia's care) arrange a play date without the knowledge of their parents. When Olivia sees how well Lloyd handles a playground boo boo and gets Charlie to cooperate while her mother cleans up a bloody lip, she is impressed. She later shows up at Lloyd's home in LA, auspiciously to say thank you for his help, and the two wind up succumbing to their innate attraction and kissing, despite Olivia's rather unconvincing attempts to stop it before it begins. Later, while at Charlie's school carnival helping out, Olivia loses track of her daughter and gets a phone call from Mark warning that Demitri has gone missing and she should keep an eye on Charlie. Unfortunately, Dyson Frost finds her before Olivia can!
Mark, Demitri, Janis and the Busted Lead: The feds get a tip that a local homeless man was murdered by a man possibly matching Dyson Frost's description using Mark Benford's missing handgun. Their interrogation of Marcie (the known mole) isn't going well enough to provide any real information on the blackout or on Demitri's looming date with three bullets, so the powers that be decide to move her to a secure facility in Maryland, leaving the task force with just this one flimsy trail to follow. They track a car matching the very vague description of the one used to escape the murder at the homeless shelter to a police pursuit in downtown LA and the man inside has ducked into a mall and taken hostages. Demitri takes some spectacular risks to apprehend a guy who seems quite obviously to be a lone nutcase (arguing that the blackout was caused by cell phone use and that it was salespeople who were to blame) out of desperation. He shoots the suspect in the shoulder, only to realize that the gun is not the one that will kill him in three days. Mark takes the opportunity in the aftermath to encourage Demitri to take a long vacation with his fiance and get out of the line of fire. Reluctantly, Demitri agrees and arranges a next-day wedding in LA and a trip to Hawaii. Dyson Frost - likely tipped off by Janis that Demitri was about to get out of the way (all of a sudden, scenes between Janis and others on the task force that would seem sweet and beautiful now feel like a knife being twisted into my gut!) - has other ideas. He surprises Demitri in his home before the wedding and kidnaps him before heading off to the carnival to steal Charlie.
Jericho and V.P. Superbitch: When Weddeck is called to a meeting on Air Force Two with the new Vice President (we met her before in the fifth episode of the season in Washington D.C. and she tried to shut down the MOSAIC investigation, then used Weddeck's ties with President Segovia to get herself in as V.P.), she twists his arm into conducting an investigation into Jericho. In her FlashForward, she - as president - is investigation Jericho for its role in starting a major diplomatic incident that may be linked to Segovia's demise. She wants Weddeck to look into it - not just because Jericho poses a threat to national security, but because they're linked to her future in the White House. Weddeck talks to Mark about his earlier probe into Jericho and Mark gives him the name of his friend (Aaron Stark). With a little sleuthing, Weddeck tracks him down and offers him the chance to conduct his investigation into Jericho off the record but with full FBI support. Aaron gladly accepts this chance - offering to get film footage of Jericho and of his daughter telling the whole story about what she saw two years ago and send it back to LA. He says (with a high awesomeness factor) - "In my FlashForward, I was with my daughter in Afghanistan and she was alive. God help anyone who stands between me and her."
Writing: 7.0
Although a number of interesting things happen in this episode, and it moves by with FF's characteristic brisk and enjoyable pace, I think it lacks an appreciable WOW factor. For being so close to Demitri's death, I was expecting more intensity than what I got. The dialogue was kind of mushy this week as well...I didn't feel the Olivia/Lloyd hook-up was written very convincingly (if the key to a woman's heart is as simple as helping fix her child's bloody lip, then you women are too easy), and I was deeply unimpressed by the crazy guy red herring plot. It was badly telegraphed (as soon as you got one look at him in the department store, you knew this was not the guy we wanted...and then you spent the next fifteen minutes wondering why Demitri was taking insane risks to catch him when any idiot can see he's not in on the big conspiracy). And the worst problem with this script is that there lacks any sort of cohesive theme. It's not a BADLY written show, but I prefer that each hour of television - even in a running multiple-thread arc like FlashForward - stand alone on writing merit, with a theme-driven grouping of plots that make evenything feel connected. This week's episode was the lazier "all the plot points we need to get out of the way before we play out March 15th" script construction. Why, for instance, they felt the need to write in the flashback scenes between Zoey and Demitri, is beyond me. They were interesting to watch, but there was no actual need for them in the episode.
On the other hand, I can't be too hard on the writers - their use of Janis is now so uncomfortable and effective that I literally felt queasy when she was talking to Demitri as he was exiting his impromptu bachelor party. I've been rooting pretty hard for Janis all along, and then they turn her painfully into a bad guy but she keeps having the same kinds of interactions with the task force that made me like her in the past...UGH! That's good television, folks. There's just one nagging problem. Why the heck hasn't Simon come forward and pointed the finger at Janis? Even if he can't prove she's a mole, the mere suspicion of her involvement might keep her out of sensitive situations like Marcie's interrogation.
Acting: 8.0
Sonya Walger gets a minor "fail" for her attempts to convince us of her motivation for breaking her marriage vows rather abruptly (partially due to bad writing, but still) but the big raspberry award goes to Jack Davenport. I've never seen a seduction attempt look so cold and disgusting. Blech.
The good news, though, is that Christine Woods deserves an Emmy for the work she's doing in her supporting role and O'Byrne, Vance, Fiennes and Cho were all outstanding this week. Fiennes' flashback speech about why you become an FBI agent actually brought a little mist to my eyes mostly due to how well it was delivered, and Cho played a whole host of emotions very well in particular.
Message: 4.0
Lloyd Simcoe is a tool...I sincerely hope he pays some karmic penalty for being a selfish home-wrecking bastard. It doesn't look like that's going to happen - it looks like Mark Benford is going to pay the ultimate price for the demands of his job - but in my head, I am enjoying images of Lloyd having his penis cut off. Olivia is no better this week. Her weak-ass resistance has turned me against her - and I was with my co-author previously that fan reaction was unnecessarily negative in the past. Our kids get along well and you're good at fixing boo boos...let's f***! *headSLAMdesk*
Otherwise, the show is weak on thematic delivery as I mentioned before so there's not much to say about the message.
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