FlashForward 1-11 “Revelation Zero – Part One”
Mark takes a lot of pictures on his bulletin board, so he can obsess over it while he’s suspended. On his way out, Dom asks him for a beer, and Mark is just surprised to see he’s there. He’s watching video of Lloyd’s abduction, and just then Olivia and Janis find him. You know, just in time for Mark to see the part of the video where Olivia and Lloyd hug for a little too long. Douche Chill….
Stanford yells at Janis, Demetri, Vreede, and a woman who they probably call “Temp Mark” about their lack of results. They’re introduced to CIA Agent Vogel (from Hong Kong), who’s now a part of the task force.
Cut to a basement where Lloyd is handcuffed to some pipes. A guy in a suit brings him some Gatorade and removes the cuff. He says Lloyd can leave if he just answers his questions. If not, he’ll find out what hell really is.
Gil Bellows continues addressing a small group of listeners. He talks about how hard it is to know the future, and then we see an old woman in a bathrobe and angel wings setting fire to a Bible. No, I am not kidding. Hey, she’s Nicole’s crazy mother! And the fact that Nicole is running around in her underwear is almost making me forget how much her character on Mad Men infuriates me. Almost. Nicole puts out the fire, and leave the house, passing her sister on the way in. Their relationship seems strained.
At the Benford house, Olivia is alarmed to see Mark obsessing over his makeshift bulletin board. She tries to explain what he saw on the tape, and they talk about their burgeoning marital problems for the billionth time in eleven episodes. Olivia talks about just up and leaving LA – everything bad they’ve seen happens to them there after all.
The Mosaic Task Force listens to 911 calls, trying to get info on the kidnapping. Vogel mostly just talks about how much they suck at their jobs. Dude, Stanford’s already got that covered. Dom offers to try and crack the security on Lloyd’s laptop, and I’m not sure why they think that will help.
Mark goes to see his therapist, who takes him for a walk. He tells her things we already know about his Flash, but she thinks that he saw something else, something he might not be conscious of. He says he can’t remember part of his Flash, what with the drinking and all. She says they’re going to recover that memory, and he’s not getting back to work until he does. A creepy dude lurks with a sign that says how many days remain until “D-Day”. The great part is that he keeps crossing off the number. What, like he’s going to make a new sign every day?
Dom and Janis arrive at Lloyd’s house, and he asks that Janis bring him a beer while he hacks the computer. He’s kind of a dick about it, frankly. In the kitchen, she encounters two guys wearing the creepy masks from Mark’s Flash. Oh, damn! After the commercial, we pick up later, with Demetri and Vogel helping her off the floor. They tell her that Dom is gone. Then we’re back to the creepy basement, where Dom rolls painfully down the stairs. Well, at least he found Lloyd!
Olivia argues with a hospital administrator – she’s trying to get Dylan a room. She says his condition is worse, and they need him for observation. The guy finally consents, but he’s not happy about it.
Demetri and Vogel hit a train yard – they have a lead that the kidnap ambulance is there. They snipe at each other, and Demetri actually takes a swing. Vogel knocks him down easily, but then they notice a cloud of flies buzzing around a boxcar – there are at least two dead bodies inside.
In the hospital, Nicole sees somebody through a window, and she thinks he looks like the guy who’s choking her in her Flash. She tries to chase him down but loses track. She talks to Bryce and Olivia about it, and then a nurse gives her a flyer for a place called “Sanctuary”. That’s where Gil Bellows is speaking, and so we return. We see his Flash, where he’s standing in front of a cheering crowd.
Back to the creepy basement where magician Ricky Jay leads a bunch of big dudes down the stairs. He talks about how he has emphysema, which he contracted through years of smoking, and he actually goes on to say that “only villains smoke”. He blows a cinder into Dom’s eye, and then says “You may call me Flosso. And I’m the villain.” That is either cheesy as hell or completely awesome, and I actually can’t decide.
“Imagine a basket the size of Montana,” says Ricky Jay. Damn, that’s a basket full of cattle, unsafe driving, and my relatives, who contribute to both the cattle and the unsafe driving. No, the basket is full of money, and that’s what Ricky Jay is getting paid to ask these next few questions.
He wants to know how many electron-volts were generated by their experiment. Llody doesn’t know. Dom tries to answer, but gets punched. He was at his father’s funeral on the day of the experiment, which we did not know. Lloyd was there, and Lloyd’s the guy who has to answer. Lloyd thinks they’re trying to manufacture another blackout. Ricky Jay says they didn’t cause it with their experiment – they only amplified it. Hey, that’s a big reveal!
In the trainyard, the CSI guys go through the bodies. There are no wounds, so they assume they were poisoned. They find a case for a phone, which presumably belonged to one of the EMT’s. OK, so those bodies were the guys who were supposed to be in the ambulance. Vogel thinks the phone might still be in the ambulance, so they can triangulate its position.
Mark’s therapist, who has a collection of Mighty Muggs on her windowsill (including Boba Fett and Wolverine), gets ready to inject the recovering alcoholic with a drug to help him recover his memories. Meanwhile, we see Dom talking about his Flash, where he chokes a dude to death. We see that he’s explaining it to Lloyd and that the bad guys have left the basement.
We learn more about Lloyd’s Flash – it began with him getting a text message from Dom, whose thumbs were busy crushing a trachea at the time. Also, it looks like there is a mathematical formula written in red on Olivia’s bedroom mirror. That seems more strange to me than it does to Lloyd. Anyway, Dom thinks it’s weird that their futures don’t mesh, but Lloyd says they’re only possible futures. As they talk, Lloyd writes “Help Us” (in blood!) on a piece of paper and pushes it through the basement window, but a gust of wind carries it away.
Mark starts to relax under the sedative – we see Lloyd’s “Help Us” note on his bulletin board, as well as something referencing “Red Panda Resources”. The phone rings in his Flash, which we didn’t know before. He picks up the phone with a “What?” and then says “I just wish he was standing behind the eight-ball when I came crashing through” (Though he might have said “she” instead of “he”. He’s slurring a little.) and then, “Go to hell, Lloyd.” Wait, what? This doesn’t match up with Lloyd’s Flash! Unless Lloyd is withholding information. Mark wakes up, shocked.
The bad guys return to the basement. Ricky Jay found their note, and he is not amused. He resumes with the questions, and Lloyd resumes not answering. Two of the toughs pick up Dom and drag him away. “Let the wild rumpus begin”, says Ricky Jay, as a screaming Dom disappears into the shadows.
Olivia checks on Dylan, who saved her a cookie from his dinner. And, scene.
Mark calls Aaron from his car, which is parked outside of the generically named “Cocktail Lounge”. We see another piece from his Flash, a painting of a multi-headed dragon. Presumably a Hydra. Man, are they bringing the Dharma Initiative into this now? Aaron comes out to see him and climbs into the car. Mark tells him about unlocking his Flash, and we see that Lloyd asks “Have you been drinking?”, which is what inspires the “Go to hell, Lloyd.”, and then out of sequence we hear Lloyd say that Mark has every right to hate him, which brings the eight-ball comment, which could be “he was”, “she was”, or “you were”. It’s really hard to make out. And then Lloyd talks about something that he’s really close to cracking. Mark says “Close is not good enough – D. Gibbons told me about…” and Lloyd responds “The man you call D. Gibbons lied to you”. Mark says that if they can’t stop it, there’s going to be another Blackout. Whoa!
The next morning, Mark is in Stanford’s office, sharing what he’s remembered. Stanford doesn’t know why Lloyd hasn’t shared this information, since he should presumably remember the conversation, too. Stanford is working to get Mark reinstated, but until then, he should work the new clues. Quietly.
At home, Charle pins a crayon drawing of a sunflower to Mark’s board, and says that if he’s working on a puzzle, he should start with the corners and fill it in.
Gil Bellows continues to talk to his group, and we see Nicole in the audience. His message is rather openly religious in nature, but Nicole asks about their responsibility to God – don’t they owe Him obedience? She doesn’t agree that the Blackout was a gift, and that rather they were a wake-up call. Gil Bellows finally introduces himself as Timothy, so I can stop calling him Gil Bellows. Timothy cuts the conversation short, but invites her to coffee to talk.
Mark has made a list of his new information – the “Help Us” written on a cheese steak menu, the 7-headed monster, the blueprints, and the Red Panda. He’s crossed out all of them except the Red Panda, and he’s arrived at their building. A woman leads him through the building, explaining what they do. They seem to do humanitarian work, though they were formed in 1998, and thus weren’t in Somalia in 1991. Mark asks if he can come along on one of their trips, and he’s told that most of the people in their organization have records, and will want nothing to do with Coppy McCopperson.
Nicole and Bryce arrive at the coffee house – she’s brought him along to keep an eye on her, and weirdly asks if he can get his change in pennies. With Bryce at the counter, she sits in a booth with Timothy. He asks what upset her, and she tells him about her Flash, and she says that at she died during her Flash. He suggests that maybe she was being baptized, and maybe she just fainted. That might be a stretch, bro. He says “Every day, God puts something good in your life”, which prompts Nicole to look over at Bryce who’s scooping up pennies.
As Timothy talks, we see a line of cars with leaflets under the wipers – they’re for “The Crown Cheese Steak”, which is the menu that “Help Us” was written on. They don’t have any information, but Mark notices a sign that says “New Location”. They moved after their old location burnt down during the Blackout.
At the old location, Ricky Jay keeps asking Lloyd about the experiment. The goons put Dom’s finger in a cigar cutter, and there’s a slicing sound. Ewww!
That’s the first hour – I’ll be back tomorrow with the second half of “Revelation Zero”, which should bring more surprising revelations. Welcome back, guys!
