FlashForward 1-5 “Gimme Some Truth”
Next, we get a montage of the Agents taking lie detector tests. Both Mark and Vreede say that they didn’t think anybody else was in the building. We get a shot of Vreede’s Flash – he’s leaving the FBI building, and punching out at a security door. Mark testifies that he saw two masked men with weapons.
Afterwards, he calls Aaron, who’s doing some repairs at Mark’s house. Olivia hears Aaron remind Mark that they have AA in Washington DC, and it might not be a bad idea to hit a meeting. Demetri and Vreede exposit that the Senate is looking into the viability of the Mosaic Project and may cut their funding. We also learn that Stanford hates DC.
Stanford and a guy in a “Harvard” shirt shoot some hoops. Stanford calls him “Dave”, and that’s actually President Dave Segovia. Is it just me, or is it now jarring to see an older white guy as President? Like, it didn’t really seem weird when David Palmer was President on 24, long before Obama. Now, for some reason, an old white guy makes it feel like this series is set in the past. It’s confusing, but that’s probably my issue.
The President claims that “these hearings are Congress masturbating to the sound of their own voice”, which is funny and gross, and I can’t believe it made it on the air. Stanford emphasizes how much he needs the funding, and President Dave assures him there won’t be a problem, even though Clemente is chairing the hearings. Stanford freaks out a little at the name.
Meanwhile Janis is in Karate class. Karate? The Dane Cook of martial arts? I’m going to pretend it’s Tae Kwon Do, if only to increase the chances that I can pull of a reference to The Foot Fist Way. She’s kicking some dude around, and a female student seems really impressed. Afterwards, he asks Janis to a movie, but she says she already has plans, in a way that makes it clear she has absolutely no plans. Later, she comes to work, where Al gives her a flash drive containing 18 years of surveillance from Somalia. I guess she really does have plans now. (Hey, I just checked IMDB, and the instructor is billed as “Tae Kwon Do Instructor”. I was inadvertently right!)
In DC, our boys are sitting at a Presidential press conference. Oh man, I totally messed up. This is where we find out that Stanford’s buddy Dave is the President. Still, I’m not going to fix my goof. Frankly, this aired in, like, November. It’s not like I spoiled anything. Anyway, the President talks about the Senate hearings and national security. A reporter asks the President why he won’t talk about his Flash Forward. He says that like other world leaders, he’s not going to share that information. However, we get to see a few seconds of it. He’s in bed with his wife. A Secret Service agent and apologizes for waking him but “Something’s happened”.
Back at Mark’s house, Aaron is programming a new code into the security system. Olivia tells him that she’s worried about Mark, and asks Aaron if Mark’s having a hard time with not drinking. Aaron assures her it was a friendly reminder. Olivia talks about her Flash and how she wants to prevent it, but Mark’s investigation hinges on these things coming true. Which is interesting – professionally, he assumes the Flashes are accurate, personally, he tries to prevent them.
Stan’s in the Oval Office, asking the President what strings he can pull. He says that he regrets not bringing Stan into his Administration, and offers him a Cabinet position with Homeland Security. Stanford thinks Clemente will block his appointment, but he’ll think about it.
Hey, Janis is on a date! With the hot lady from her Tae Kwon Do class! Her date reveals that in her Flash, she has a wedding band on her finger. Janis changes the subject when asked about her Flash, what with the pregnancy and all. They kiss, and it’s kind of cool that it’s done almost offhandedly. It’s not meant to be a giant step forward or anything. Lesbians sometimes kiss one another, and sometimes that happens on TV. It’s not easy to have two hot actresses kiss without it being exploitative, but they did a good job here.
Back in DC, it’s time for the hearings. Sentaor Clemente is wearing some serious bitchface as she listens to theories about psychotropic pharmaceuticals, aliens, and China. That last guy claims that China’s Blackout fatalities were suspiciously low, but it happened at 2 in the morning in their time zone, so they were sleeping. Oh man, that guy’s supposed to be the Director of the CIA. Hee.
During a recess, Stanford calls his wife until Clemente interrupts. Stanford tells her she’s a sore loser, but she says that he’s the one who got put out to pasture. She asks how he can sleep at night, “knowing what you did with that woman”? She actually claims that if she could have proved what he did six years ago, she’s be the President right now. Holy smokes, we’ve got some dark backstory waiting for us. Awesomely, Stanford tells us that she wouldn’t have won a second term. Clemente says that in her vision, she saw herself as the President. Huh. Now, Secret Service still refers to former Presidents as “Mr. President”, so that doesn’t necessarily contradict President Dave’s vision.
This takes us to the hearings, where Stanford testifies as to how the Mosaic Collective works. He explains how the visions have generated significant leads, and one of the Senators was Mayor Royce on The Wire, so I don’t think I can trust him. Clemente says she wants to hear from Mark when the hearings reconvene tomorrow. Somehow, I think the fact that he’s drunk in his Flash is going to come up…
Janis makes eggs for her girlfriend in the morning – hey, her name is “Maya”. Also, she’s a chef. They make out some more, but Janis has to go to work. Maya asks Janis if she’ll see her later, and Janis promises that she will.
In front of Congress, Mark talks about how all the crows are dying. Hee. He’s like one of those people who calls Art Bell to talk about the bees. Clemente mockingly asks if he learned about the crows from his Flash, and Mark is trying not to mention that he learned it from the Nazi that he pardoned. He starts talking about his Flash, and Clemente is just not buying it – she wants to know how he knew his investigation was fruitful. And he’s all like “Well, guys were trying to kill me, so that’s something.” Man, Clemente hates him so much!
Janis checks in with Al and a thus-far unnamed analyst. She lets it slip that she had a date, and everybody’s all interested. She changes the subject by spotting giant towers in the satellite footage of Somalia that really have no damn reason to be there.
Back in DC, Clemente is putting the screws to Mark. She thinks it’s weird that his Flash is so fuzzy. Everybody else has clear memories, but he just has bits and pieces and hazy images. Mark basically says that there might be other people with murky Flashes, and she should just get off his jock. She calls his investigation a fraud, and then brings up that Nazi issue. Stanford finally just gets pissed off and walks out.
As the guys leave the hearing, Janis calls Mark and tells him to get to a computer – she shows him the crazy Somalian towers. Mark’s pretty excited about this update. Sometime after that, Stanford calls Janis and says he needs something right away.
We don’t know what that is, because when we next see Janis, she’s meeting Maya at an art opening. Maya asks Janis if she’s into dudes, too. See, she went on Mosaic and found out Janis’ pregnancy vision. I love that people Mosaic their romantic interests. That’s better than Googling, frankly. See, if anybody took a liking to me and went to Google, man, that’d be bad. Hundreds of hits that were nothing but me talking about Batman and celebrity ballroom dancing. And thus, a relationship dies before it could fully begin. But we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about Janis. Maya says it’s not a big deal that Janis is pregnant, but it totally is. Janis gets uncomfortable and leaves.
It’s late. Stanford shows up at a house where a woman lets him in. A small child in pajamas excitedly rushes toward him, and Stanford picks him up, calling him “My man”. Have you noticed the scenes in this episode are really short? This recap is just ridiculously choppy.
Later, Stanford and the President are drinking in the Oval Office. President Dave floats the job offer again, but instead Stanford hands him a photograph of the President and the woman from the previous scene, locked in an embrace. Stanford reminds the President that he was “the bagman who paid her a quarter of a million dollars to go away with the boy.” So Stanford’s scandal is that he cleaned up the President’s scandal? That’s kind of awesome. Turns out, he tracked her down through the Mosaic website. (I don’t know that I believe that – he and that kid seemed awfully comfortable. I think he actually kept in touch with the President’s mistress and illegitimate child.) Stanford says “Clemente’s going to cut off the funding unless you stop her. Stop her.” Hee. Of course, once Stanford’s gone, the President makes a call and says “there’s a problem I need you to take care of”.
Hey, this is the greatest scene ever. Mark, Demetri, and Vreede are at a karaoke bar. Vreede is on the mic, and he is absolutely rocking “Sister Christian”. It’s hilarious. Demetri is drinking heavily, and he joins Vreede on stage, and I want this scene to be my screensaver. Stanford shows up, and he and Mark yell at each other. Stanford storms out, just as the others switch to “Like a Rolling Stone”. They don’t even care that their friends are yelling at one another. Stanford wants to know why Mark can’t remember anything, and Mark finally yells out that he was drunk. Stanford has the best “Oh, poopie” look on his face right now. He put his career on the line, and now he finds out he pinned his future on drunken visions.
Back in the Benford house, Olivia is distracting me with her cleavage while she tries to activate the security system. Apparently, this is a task best accomplished while in underwear. She gets a text message from an unknown source which says “Mark was drinking in his Flash Forward”. And there’s no LOL, so you know they’re serious. At this point, only Aaron and now Stanford have that bit of information. Unless there’s somebody who saw Mark in their own Flash Forward, of course. She writes back “Who is this”, but she gets a “Message Failed – Number Blocked”. This is seriously the only time in my life I have ever been interested in text messages.
The next day, Mark assures Stanford that the images he remembers are very clear. Stanford is not exactly comforted by this. A news bulletin announces that the President has nominated Clemente to be the new Vice-President, after the old one died in the Blackout. That was one heck of a tradeoff!
Janis carries her groceries home and is irritated by a crying baby. Mark calls her to let her know that Mosaic has their funding. And then we loop back to the beginning of the episode when the Asian guys ram their car and blow it up with a grenade. Then, Janis is attacked by two more Asian guys. She snaps the neck of one, but another shoots her in the stomach before she manages to kill him too. In the parking garage, we see that our guys got clear of the car, and Mark, Demetri, Stanford, and Vreede are just unloading their weapons into their assailants, and the soundtrack is the Rolling Stones’ cover of “Like a Rolling Stone”, and it is fricking awesome. The one survivor drives way, while Demetri and Vreede keep pumping bullets into his SUV in slow motion. So that’s the coolest thing ever, but then we cut to Janis who is lying on the ground, bleeding out and thinking about her Flash.
Next: Dominic Monaghan tries to impress a girl, and Lloyd Simcoe visits the Benford house. Both are exactly as awkward as you’re assuming.
