Lower Decks

Like last week, this episode of FlashForward focuses on some characters that we haven’t seen much of.  Unlike last week, however, the episode also keeps us up to date with the Mosaic investigation.  Because of this, it all seems to come together, and the result was an hour that I really enjoyed.

I complained a bit last night about suddenly thrusting us into an episode featuring characters that we don’t really know.  The same thing happens this week, including introducing two characters we’ve never seen before, and it all works.  I can’t tell you exactly why, but I imagine it comes from the idea that “what caused the blackouts?” is the question that I’m most interested in learning the answer to.  Meeting doctors and babysitters is nice, but they’re only in a supporting capacity to Mark (in my humble opinion, of course).  I want to know about Mosaic, and everything else is just background stuff at this point.

This episode focuses on Stanford Wedeck, a character whose name I haven’t even learned up until this point.  He’s the head of the Mosaic investigation with ties to the President of the United States, played by guest star Peter Coyote (of 4400 fame, among other things).  It turns out that Stanford has a lot of skeletons in his closet, and he’s also a bit more ruthless than we’ve been led to believe.

And he seems, by the end of the episode, to have found some enemies in the President and Senator Joyce Clemente.  Despite this, he pulls some cards out of his sleeve to get Mosaic funding in some very fiery Capitol Hill hearings.

And that’s the part of the episode that really interested me because that kind of stuff would go on.  People with wild theories about the blackouts, including aliens and China being behind them.  And it was nice to see Mark’s investigation thrown in with the crackpot stuff because, if you think about it, such a statement isn’t off base.

But what really made the episode work was an explanation that, I’ll admit, I didn’t really grasp until it was spelled out for me.  That Mark’s vision is choppy and disjointed because he was drunk at the time.

We saw him drinking, and we knew that the images were different than that of other people’s visions.  And, now that it’s out in the open, it’s the kind of thing that has the potential to grab viewers.  Because, up until this point, Mark’s visions are the primary piece of evidence in the investigation supported by the President himself.  If it ever came out that Mark was impaired at the time, it could mean the end of everyone’s careers.

And considering Clemente’s vision that she was president, that might be something that happens.  And, if you think about it, Mark’s drinking in the future could lead to…well…Mark’s drinking in the future.  Then there’s the question of who texted Olivia about Mark’s drinking, which is the kind of thing that could lead to the end of his marriage.

The whole attack on Mark’s team is something that will certainly be a big part of the rest of the season.  A team of Asian (Chinese?) assassins attacks the team in D.C. (they also attack Janis in L.A. but we’ll get to her in a bit), and everyone is able to get out alive.

A nice little character bit was present in the shootout, as Demitri spent most of the gun battle with a sort of confidence that the other characters didn’t show.  I’m not certain it was intentional, but it does fit with the character’s current attitude.  He knows that he’s going to die at some point, and that might give him an ironic sense of invincibility up until the date of his death.

So who attacked the team?  Is it the people behind the blackouts?  Was it the President, in that vague order he gave when Stanford left the Oval Office? 

The interesting thing about the attack itself is that those behind it don’t really believe in the certainty of the future.  Otherwise, what would be the point of the attack?  If Mark is alive in the future, why would you try to kill him?

So maybe this is some kind of third faction who simply thinks Mark knows too much.  I’m guessing it will all end up as some kind of red herring, but I could be wrong.

The rest of the episode deals with Janis, both at work and in her personal life.  At work, Janis is given satellite images of Somalia, and it’s discovered that some “pylons” were built in the months previous to the death of all the crows.  We saw one of these pylons/towers in the flashback to 1991, and it’s to be assumed that they’re involved in the original blackouts.

That being said, are there pylons all over the world?  Perhaps the original pylons were simply a test, and the worldwide blackout was the big event, using newer/better technology.

It is revealed, in Janis’ personal life, that she’s a lesbian.  It sheds a new light on her vision (where she’s getting a prenatal sonogram), but it gives her character a new angle.  She’s been lying to her coworkers, hiding her sexual orientation, and she’s recently begun a new relationship with a woman from her tae kwon do class.

It’s revealed that the woman (Maya) saw herself with a wedding ring in her flashforward, and Maya suggests that it could be their baby.  It all seems to work, but it begs the question of why Maya isn’t with the doctor if the two are together in six months.

And the episode ends with Janis getting shot, presumably in connection with the attack in D.C.  Interspersed in the images of her lying on the street are images of the future sonogram, which leads me to believe that the shooting will lead to the pregnancy.

That’s simply because I don’t believe the show is going to have a clear contradiction to the flashforwards this early.  If they’re ever going to show that, I’m guessing it will come at a later point in the series.

So I thought this episode was really interesting.  As long as they’re touching base with Mark’s investigation, I think the show is going to be really strong.  Every time they stray too far from it, like last week, I think it’s going to struggle.

According to the promo, next week’s episode will focus again on Lloyd and Olivia.  We’ll see which formula they decide to use.