FlashForward 1-7 “The Gift”
At the Benfords, Olivia says she’ll be covering the ER so she might be late, and she and Mark just have this unbelievable tension that’s making me queasy. We then see Demetri, Mark, and Al in an elevator, while Demetri and Mark talk about how crappy they feel all the time. This turns in to Al accusing Demetri of cheating at video games, and Demetri responds, “What you call cheating, I call finding a way to change the game.” They head to the morgue, where the Blue Hands are laying out on their slabs. The mortician says it appears that they’re dead by self-inflicted gunshot wounds. But somebody laid them out and covered them in sheets before they were found. One of them is Ian Rutherford, the man whose dossier Al is looking through in his Flash.
Meanwhile, Aaron arrives at work, and is told there’s a man waiting for him, a guy who says he served with Aaron’s daughter, Tracy. Sure enough, the young man has a message from Tracy – a pocketknife that he’d promised to give to her father if something happened to her. We then see some of Aaron’s Flash. Tracy is alive, but looks sick. She’s lying in bed, and Aaron passes her that same knife, saying she needs it more than he does. Aaron’s reaction is to joyfully hug the guy.
MI-6 Agent Fiona Banks, who you remember from ER arrives at the FBI and meets Al again for the first time. She fills them in on Ian Rutherford, and says she came to help because she knew she’s supposed to help on the case, per her Flash. Demetri checked all three of the dead bodies on Mosaic, and they were all “ghosts”. That’s what they’re calling people who didn’t have visions. Ghosts use the Blue Hand website to link up with one another, and they have meetings around the world. Stanford calls it a “death club”, and wants to shut them down. There’s a meeting in LA tonight, hosted by Dr. Maurice Raynaud.
Fiona and Al go over their information, and she says she doesn’t remember anything from the dossier. She just remembers the bird hitting the window and Al leaving to take a call. She’s haunted by the bird – she wanted to end its pain, but there was nothing she could do. She asks what the phone call was about, and Al answers that it was his attorney. We see a tortured Al telling the phone “I killed her”.
Demetri arrives home to find that Zoey is hella mad, and he has no idea why. He totally forgot to go to the printers for the invitations. She wonders why Demetri’s acting so weird and off-putting and generally kind of sucking as a boyfriend. So he says he’ll be honest, but rather than mentioning his ghosthood, he responds “The more you jump down my throat, the less I want to be here”, and storms out.
At the hospital, Nicole is doing volunteer work for Olivia, while Bryce says a whole lot of medical things that make no sense to me whatsoever. Olivia passes Nicole off on Bryce so she can get actual work done. An angry Japanese lady starts yelling at a nurse in Japanese, and Nicole is able to translate. Bryce is intrigued.
Our boys are getting ready to hit the Blue Hand party. They bust on each other’s outfits, which is totally warranted. Al is wearing a cardigan and a tie, Demetri is wearing a Fonzie jacket, and Mark is wearing a “Police” t-shirt. Sure, it’s the band, but he is going undercover by wearing a t-shirt that says “POLICE” in big letters. Mark is not good at this. Ha! They find the building, and Mark knocks. A creepy dude opens the door and stares, then stamps their hands. Oh my God. Mark is trying to do a Boston accent. Because he’s undercover!
A guy who looks like the way I picture William S. Burroughs comes into greet them. One of them has to play Russian Roulette before they can be admitted. Without a pause, Al puts the gun to his head and pulls the trigger. He got an empty chamber, but damn… Of course, he had a Flash, so he reasonably expected to survive. Still, I wouldn’t have been quite so quick.
The Blue Hand party is taking place inside a warehouse space, there are flashing lights and music, and it’s dingy and seems to be made of several sub-parties. Mark asks a scantily-clad girl where they can find Raynaud, and she explains that “the Raynaud changes at each gathering, but you’ll know him when you see him”. That is almost completely not helpful. Mark picks up a matchbook which he remembers from the bulletin board in his flash. The girl tells Al he can do anything he wants – “No limits, no fear”. As if to prove the point, we hear the growling of a wild animal from another room.
Lloyd pops into Olivia’s office, because he is unfamiliar with basic societal niceties. She doesn’t think they should talk, but he sticks around to thank her for saving Dylan. He says he doesn’t want to ruin her life, and assures her that nothing will happen. Olivia keeps trying to kick him out, but he keeps talking about how he won’t come between her and Mark.
Bryce asks Nicole about her ability to speak Japanese, and shows her a drawing he made of the girl in his Flash. There’s a Japanese character behind her, but it’s incomplete. Nicole fleshes it out and tells him it means “believe”. Which, you know, might be just a little too precious.
Mike, the guy who knows Tracy from the Army, finds Aaron at a gas station. He feels bad that Aaron was so happy, because Aaron doesn’t have all the facts. See, Mike was in Tracy’s Humvee when they were escorting Tony Stark and got attacked. A couple of guys (who look American and are identified by Tracy as “Jericho”), launch a rocket right at them and Tracy doesn’t get clear. Mike says that he saw her die.
In the Blue Hand, Mark and the guys stumble across a torture room. Car batteries hooked to nipples, ice cold water, stocks – this is a weird party. Demetri gets it – he says they don’t have anything to lose. Suddenly, there’s a shrill, repetitive ringing, and the party goers chant Raynaud’s name. A man in black enters, with both hands painted blue. A girl explains that the blue hands represent the surrender to the inevitable. Raynaud loads one bullet into a revolver, and that’s when the FBI guys charge and knock him to the ground. A whole SWAT team storms in and the Blue Hand party is officially shut down.
They bring him to the interrogation room and run through Raynaud’s bio. His name is actually Jeff, and I’m not even going to try and spell his hilariously convoluted last name. Jeff quotes Nietzsche, which sort of tells you everything you need to know about him. He says that he and the other Raynauds troll Mosaic to find the ghosts. Demetri presents him with a picture of the guy who shot Janice. Jeff ain’t talking, because “the script for this conversation is already written”. Al asks him what happens if April 29 comes and goes, and he’s still alive. Jeff just answers “You can run, and you can hide. But you can’t escape what’s coming.”
After, Al invites Fiona Banks over to his place for some “dirty rice”, which he claims is not a Cajun dish and not a sex position. She turns him down, citing jet lag. Al also has some thoughts on the bird in their flash – if she covers the window, the bird might not fly into it. She thinks it’ll just crash into a different window, but he thinks it’s worth a shot.
Mark and Demetri update the bulletin board in the situation room, while Demetri mopes about knowing the date of his own murder. Mark tells him he that he can fight it, and he doesn’t have to give up. But Demetri says it’s all happening, and there’s no way to escape what’s coming.
At home, Mark, Olivia, and Charlie are watching that crazy animated series again. Is this supposed to be significant? Or is this like a tie-in to some Internet content? Or is it cheaper than licensing actual programming to appear on TV’s in the background? (I understand the opening of Dealbreakers is available cheap if they want to switch things up.) Olivia decides to go to bed, and tells Charlie she can stay up for five minutes. You know what? I probably didn’t need to recap that scene.
Al mixes up a batch of dirty rice at home, and we see more of his Flash – he’s on the phone and openly weeping. Demetri comes home with a present for Zoey, who blows him off. He tells her that he loves her, and he’s been kind of a dick. Those aren’t the words he uses, but they probably should have been. He says he needs to tell her about his Flash Forward, and he admits that he didn’t see anything, and he’s going to be dead. He doesn’t want to be like the Blue Hands and just wait to die. Zoey insists that she knows what she saw, and he doesn’t need to give up hope. She says they have conflicting visions and can choose what one to believe in. Oh, man. This is not going to end well.
Aaron’s at work? Maybe? It’s a place with lockers, at any rate. He’s invited Mike to come see him. Aaron says that he’s been in limbo ever since his vision, but Mike’s story of Tracy’s death has finally given him closure. He can seek peace now, and he wants to pay Mike back. He hands him an range work vest and tells he got him a job. Aaron really appreciates him.
Bryce is showing Nicole his apartment, where he’s drawn multiple pictures of the Japanese woman from his vision. Dude, if she stops by, she’s going to think you’re a crazy stalker. Nicole says he needs to go to Japan to find her. Or, you know, chill out since at this point, you know that you’ll find her on or before April 29. Unless something happens in the last ten minutes of this episode to throw all of the Flash Forwards into doubt, but what are the odds of that happening?
Al’s at work. He leaves an envelope on Demetri’s desk. Then he passes Mark and Demetri in the hall – they exchange pleasantries, but he has someplace to be. Demetri stops by his desk, picks up the envelope, and heads to a meeting where Stanford and Fiona are discussing Raynaud. Inside the envelope is a smaller envelope labeled “For Celia”, and a note – “Demetri – there is always a way out.”
Demetri starts to read the letter in the envelope, and we see Al walk down the hall as we listen to Mark talk about why they can’t crack Raynaud. We see more of Al’s Flash – on the phone, the caller tells him that “They took her off life support an hour ago”. He asks about “her children” and is told they’ll be placed in foster care. Al: “Those two boys are orphans, because of me?”, and the caller assures him that Celia’s death was an accident. Al says it was his fault – he killed her. Demetri cuts off Mark after reading the letter, and then we see Al standing on the edge of the roof.
Demetri and the rest run to the roof. They tell Al that they can find Celia and protect her. Al says “If I’m not here, that means we can change things… It doesn’t have to play out that way… I found a way to change the game.” And with that, he pitches forward and falls to the ground.
The medics are there, but it’s too late. Al is dead. Demetri reads the letter again, and this time we have some context for what we heard at the beginning of the episode. And this time, we hear the rest of the letter. “Your situation is not as hopeless as you think. Our paths were meant to cross. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know when. But things have changed now. It’s no longer going to unfold as I have feared. My gift to you, is release from that dread, from the feeling that you’re no longer in control. We will never meet. I will never know you. So live your life. Live every day, and know that the future is unwritten. Make the most of it.” This is so well-done, and it’s just heart-wrenching.
As Demetri reads, we see a montage of images – Mark and Olivia embrace. Demetri and Zoey share a happy moment. Fiona puts tape over the window that the bird’s going to hit. Al, as he said, changed the game. The futures that they dread don’t have to happen. We also see Simon, playing with a baby bracelet that says ‘Annabelle’.
Finally, Aaron returns home. He is stunned to see Tracey sitting at the kitchen table alive and well.
That was such a good episode. I don’t even want to speculate about the implications of changing the Flash Forwards, and just let it resonate for a bit.
See you next week, for another episode that aired back in November!
