FlashForward 1-13 “Blowback”
Janis takes prenatal vitamins as she looks at a calendar. They always do that on this show – a fifteen-second scene that’s worth noting because it advances a story incrementally, but there’s nothing important in the scene itself. It makes for choppy recapping.
Zoey shows up at Mark’s house. She yells at him, and Mark tells her to reel it in. She wants to know why Demetri would want him dead, because she’s sure Mark would only hurt him if Demetri tried to kill him first. Mark says somebody at the FBI is leaking info, and while he’s not saying it’s definitely Demetri…. And then he adds “I’m sorry, I thought we were playing ‘Outrageous Accusations’.” Ha! Zoey tells him to stick it and leaves.
Now it’s Two Years Ago. Aaron’s at home, watching a football game. A couple of uniformed Marines show up at his door, and he knows it means that Tracy is dead. He asks “when and how?”, and they tell him what we’ve already heard. He shuts the door and then collapses in tears.
In the Present, Aaron makes Tracy some hangover food, and asks her if she knows the name “James Erskine”, which I hope I’m spelling right. Mark found out that he’s the head of operations at a local Jericho office. Mark also checked out her CO, who was killed in a helicopter crash two days after Tracy’s supposed death. Interestingly, Jericho started looking for her after the Blackout. So somebody in her Flash must be involved in Jericho.
Mark interrogates Lloyd once again, and Lloyd’s just tired of it. Mark asks him about the phone call again. He shows Lloyd the sketch of D. Gibbons, and says that, based on their future phone call, Lloyd would seem to know him. Zoey shows up at the Bureau with lunch for Demetri, and she also gives Stanford a Freedom of Information request for all date related to Mosaic. Stanford tells her to go to a judge, but she thinks he might not to want to drag this into a public court. Finally, he tells her Demetri will make the files available. Yeah, this will help the investigation, Zoey. I’m glad they’re giving her more to do, but the last thing Stanford needs is somebody else pissing him off.
Mike, who you might remember as Tracy’s buddy from the Marines – the one Aaron helped with a job – shows up to talk to Aaron while he’s working. Seems he got a weird phone call from somebody who didn’t talk but didn’t hang up either, and he thinks it’s from Tracy. Aaron confirms that she’s alive and at his house, and that seems like a terrible idea, buddy.
Mark brings Lloyd to his home and tells Lloyd to walk him through his Flash. Yeah, this is going to be awkward. They start in the bedroom. Lloyd got up from bed, and saw that he had a text from Dom – it was a formula that was also written on the mirror in lipstick. Next, he dialed a number that turns out to be Mark’s. That gets us to the conversation we heard last week. They’re trying to work out what his reference to “the QED” meant, since you wouldn’t put a definite article in front of a Latin phrase. Lloyd works out that he was talking about the formula, and that sailed right over my head.
Janis has an appointment at a fertility clinic and she’s looking through baby pictures. Is that a catalog? Can they already tell what her baby would look like? Seriously, how are they putting pictures of babies next to each sperm donor? This is a weird clinic. Dr. Jane Parker thinks Janis is a bad candidate right now because of her injuries and says she should wait. Janis explains her Flash and that she wants the exact child she saw in her flash, which means she has to get pregnant now.
Demetri grumpily brings Zoey a big box of Mosaic files. He doesn’t want her involved in this and thinks she went over the line.
At the Stark house, Tracey’s in the kitchen, and them some people in biohazard suits come in and stick a syringe in her neck. They stuff her in a cardboard box, then strip off the suits so they look like movers. You know, I have to feel like Mike tipped them off. Right? Then there’s a long shot of the pot of water she left on the stove. Well, nothing’s going to happen if we keep looking at it. A watched pot never boils, after all.
Two Years Ago, Aaron drinks shot after shot while thinking about Tracy’s funeral. Then he trashes the room and collapses. In the present, he comes home to a small fire in the kitchen and an empty house. Aaron quickly comes to the same conclusion I did, and if more TV characters did that, they’d save themselves some time.
At the Benfords, Lloyd continues to walk Mark through his flashback. After he hung up the phone, he say on the couch. Mark wonders why Future Lloyd was so adamant on the subject of D. Gibbons, and Lloyd says he doesn’t know that name, but also blurts that he’s a liar. Good cover, bro.
Aaron tracks down Mike, who is suspiciously leaving town. Aaron offers to buy him a burger before he leaves. A burger made of ass-kicking, I bet! In the car, Aaron talks about prison, and how it changes a man. He makes it very clear that he’s going to let out the animal he keeps locked up. Mike pulls a knife on him, and Aaron dodges it WHILE DRIVING. They tumble out of the truck, and though Mike gets some shots in, Aaron beats the living holy crap out of him. Mike won’t talk – he says only that Aaron’s going to get them both killed. So Aaron snaps his left arm.
Demetri hangs out at Janis’ after work – he complains about Zoey, and she owns up to being at a fertility clinic. She reveals that they agreed to take her on as a client, and she has to conceive the baby next week to match with her Flash. Demetri gets kind of weird, because he hates when people take steps to ensure that their Flashes come true. Janis reminds him to get rid of the gun that’s fated to kill him.
Lloyd reveals that D. Gibbon’s real name is Dyson Frost. He attended one of his lectures, where Frost took credit for work Lloyd did but hadn’t published yet. Kind of like how he built those things Dom invented right before he invented them? Lloyd says he read his obituary, which is probably why he changed identities. He also confirms that he didn’t tell Charlie that “D. Gibbons is a bad man”, so that chilling line comes from someplace else. Mark thinks it’s suspicions that the people who kidnapped Lloyd didn’t make any threats, and then he realizes that they must have threatened Dylan. Lloyd’s afraid they’re going to try and cause another Blackout.
Mark presents his findings to Stanford and talks about something called a “mirror test”. It’s a test that determines “recognition of consciousness among species” and apparently works on crows. Crows! Mark uses this as proof that he needs to go to Somalia, and Stanford’s not sure he can get approval. Vogel suggests not trying – just go and then beg for forgiveness rather than asking permission. Seems like that got Mark in trouble last time, actually.
Aaron leaves Mark a voicemail asking him to check on the head of Jericho, and then we see that guy at a child’s birthday party. There’s a sudden power outage, because Water and Power guy Aaron shut it down. He then goes to the door and says they’re having some problems and he needs to see the main line. Jericho Guy yells at Mark, but gives him access to the house.
Zoey visits with the now-jailed Hot Terrorist from the pilot. They argue about the future, and Hot Terrorist gloats about Demetri’s impending death. Zoey offers to represent her in exchange for information, convincing her by asking “In your Flash Forward, were you in prison?”
Aaron leads the Jericho guy out behind the house and demands the return of Tracy. Jericho guy says that he’s never heard of Tracy and maybe Aaron should just pack it in. Aaron says he needs to be afraid of a guy with nothing left to lose.
Hey, it turns out that Vogel is going to Somalia without Mark. He says that it’s because they need Mark there, but also because he’s kind of a dick. That’s actually what he says, though with less swearing. Vogel says their whole investigation hinges on what’s in Mark’s head, and they have to keep him safe.
Jericho Guy calls a subordinate, and Aaron listens in through the tap he installed. Yep, he knows all about Tracy and admits that she “arrived in Kandahar this morning”. Further, he suggests that they “get rid of the father”. Then a phone in Aaron’s truck rings – he gets out and we see that he has Mike bound and gagged in the back. “They’re calling you to kill me, Mikey.”
Vogel presents the Somalia plan to Demetri and Janis, who are supposed to be accompanying him. One of the towers from the satellite photo is still standing, and they’re going to check it out undercover as Red Panda representatives. Dom shows up and asks when they leave. Vogel doesn’t want him along, and we also learn that Dom designed these towers when he was 13 years old. He says they need him on site because he understands them. Vogel finally agrees that he can come along, despite the risks. Janis looks thrilled to have to deal with him some more.
Zoey finds Demetri at work late that night and tells him it’s time to go home. He’s still mad about the whole Freedom of Information thing, and he is not less mad when he finds out that she’s representing Hot Terrorist. They finally hug, but he’s pissed and she’s desperate.
Aaron calls Mark again – he says things have escalated, but it’s OK. He says things are happening the way they’re supposed to, as he plays with the pocket knife from his Flash. There’s a cut to the home of Jericho Guy, where his daughter finds Mike, tied up and hanging upside down from the ceiling, “Happy Birthday” written on his bare chest. Back to Aaron, who says he’s going to be going off the grid for a while. He says it’s time to make his move.
Finally, Demetri heads to the evidence room to recover Mark’s gun. Problem is, it’s gone missing. The box is there, the paperwork is there, but the gun is gone.
So to recap, everybody is in trouble right now. Next week, Mark and Olivia try to figure out just what Charlie saw in her Flash. This could be rough…
