FlashForward’s eighth episode brought us a counter-point to Gough’s game changing. The idea that the FlashForward Visions (FFVs) have their own momentum that must be overcome is reinforced. Mark and Olivia fight against that momentum at every turn. Aaron has his faith in the FFVs restored via Tracy’s unexpected return. Simon and Lloyd raise the stakes with a poker game. And we are briefly introduced to the ‘three star’ group.
The episode opens with a dense montage of our players. We see in quick succession Celia receiving Gough’s letter and the media picking up the story with a fervor. Aaron amazed but contently watching Tracy sleep. Demetri contemplating the board. Mark and Olivia enjoying a much needed respite at a hotel. Nicole looking ponderously out at the ocean and then at the hospital taking a, more important than it seems now (I’m sure), flier – “SANCTUARY – There is a New Way” emblazoned with a wheel within a blue flame. Bryce continuing to fixate on, who I like to call, Ms.’Believe’. Lloyd entertaining his son, Dylan, with a card trick. And Janis being warmly welcomed back to the FBI.
Lloyd shows signs of a growing connection and regard for a still hospitalized Dylan. Resisting and worrying about leaving him when Simon arrives to confront him about an email Lloyd sent, to the rest of their still mysterious group, pleading for a public confession. Simon thinking it’s an absurd idea, expresses his skepticism over their responsibility regarding the Global Blackout (GBO). While Lloyd is convinced that their experiment, whatever it was, caused the 20 million deaths attributed to the GBO. Simon tries to rein-in a determined Lloyd by threatening to create havoc for him. When Lloyd passes on that option, Simon then suggests they could settle the matter in a “more civilized manner”…good ol’ Texas Hold ‘Em. This sets the table for a rather heady discussion.
Mark and Olivia take some time to themselves, hold up in a hotel room, with Mark giving Olivia the lingerie she, unfortunately, recalls wearing in her FFV. But their getaway is interrupted by a phone call from Noh about a break in the investigation of a masked man in Mark’s FFV, the man with the three star tattoo.
At the hospital we see Nicole putting on a happy face and trying to comfort Olivia, but Nicole is still dogged by her vision. “Everything is back to being up to us again” she trills, but her heart doesn’t seem to be in it. Bryce questions Olivia’s apprehension around Lloyd. He gets not an answer but a confirmation of his observation with Olivia stiffing at Lloyd’s approach and her abrupt withdraw. Apparently Simon can read a medical chart properly, one more to add to his growing list of capabilities. Simon also confirms his status as a lecher with a god-complex, via a few off-color comments about Olivia and the mere mortals that surround him.
Janis tries to quit, questioning if after Gough’s death her getting shot was not a sign that her FFV is not to be. Wedeck tells her “we can’t take what we saw for granted” any more, Gough’s death proved that. This reassures Janis and she heads back to work. Upon arriving at the field office Mark is briefed on Ingrid Alvarez’s cell phone video of Neil Parofsky’s murder at the hands of the tattooed man. Parofsky was recently fired from his position as Chief Engineer at Micro-Circadian Electronics in El Segundo on suspicion of corporate espionage. His body was staged as though he were a robbery victim, but Alvarez’s video showed that the men that killed Parofsky had done so only after forcefully taking a case from him, in what seemed an arranged meeting. Before the team is able to reach Ingrid word of her video somehow makes it’s way to the killers and her roommate, Blanco, was mistakenly executed in her stead. The FBI then places Ingrid into protective custody.
Tracy is haunted by her ambush in Afghanistan, waking she says every morning to that nightmare. Aaron’s prior military service as well as his involvement as an AA sponsor serve him well in reaching her and helping Tracy open up about what happened. She tells of a long-range recon mission one week prior to the ambush. As she watched, Jericho, a private military contractor, slaughtered an entire village, women and children included, for no apparent reason. A week later, she and Mike had been reassigned to roadblock duty in the foothills. A local vehicle, which contained what looked like “hajjis” to Tracy, broke through the checkpoint luring Tracy’s team into the ambush sprung by Jericho. The reassignment and ambush has Tracy convinced that the military is complicit in Jericho’s war-crimes or at least a cover-up. Aaron is sworn to secrecy by Tracy, but the news is too much for Aaron to deal with alone and he calls Mark. Aaron tells him that Tracy is still alive and that Jericho is responsible for her current situation. Recounting how the DNA testings happened (body parts everywhere) he drops a great line “I know it sounds like something out of a Baldacci novel…”
Back at the Benford’s, shaken by the sheer improbability of Tracy coming back into Aaron’s life, Mark questions just how much must be done to change what they saw in their FFVs. He and Olivia have a discussion about that effort, during which we are shown that Olivia has thrown out her gift. “We can change things Mark. We just have to decide how badly we want to. How far we are willing to go to make it happen. But I say that there is nothing, nothing, that we shouldn’t be willing to do for one another.” This resolves Mark to make a risky ploy.
Tracy is highly agitated to learn that Aaron told Mark about her return. Aaron reassures her by recounting the FFV he had with her in it. While doing so he seems to remember more of his vision. He now recalls stepping outside to meet a man with a scar on his chin whom tells Aaron “The account has been verified.” Then Aaron handing him a package with unknown contents. Tracy recognizes the man as Kamir, a field medic, that took care of and “put [Tracy] back together” while in Afghanistan. Tracy says she left Afghanistan as a way to protect Kamir from Jericho using him as a means to get to her. Aaron calms Tracy with his nearly religious belief in the FFVs. It should be noted at this point, we’ve never seen, nor has Tracy ever indicated, that she herself had a vision of the future, let alone that matches Aaron’s…
During Simon and Lloyd’s poker game, an off-camera player asks if anyone had heard of the ‘Inevitability Index’, a scheme to bet on the future. Simon scoffs at this “It’s a scam.… To sells us on the idea that the odds of the future happening could be “calculated”. It’s all rubbish.” This gets a rise out of Lloyd. I believe this goes to the heart of why Lloyd feels guilt for the GBO and Simon does not (well that and Simon starting to look a bit like a sociopath). Lloyd and Simon then engage in a debate on fate and free will. With Simon arguing that “fate is fate” and that there is no such thing as free will by referencing “simple” quantum suicide theory. Lloyd calls him on this by accusing him of using intellectual argument to defend his appalling behavior. Simon flatly states there is no luck and his ego is showing when he states “This game is pointless, I’ve already won. The futures already happened. Fighting it is futile.” Lloyd proves Simon’s logic flawed, if you can ‘change the game’, by winning. Lloyd gloats that there are somethings that even he won’t leave to chance and let’s Simon in on his trick, leaving Simon seething.
Knowing that there must be a mole at work in the FBI, Wedeck, Noh, Janis and Mark decide to use it as an opportunity to draw the tattooed man in to a trap by openly releasing Alvarez as bait. While awaiting their quarry, Noh tells Mark that he’s finally told Zoey about his lack of an FFV, with her suggesting that he quit the FBI to reduce is risks. Mark asks if he’s considering it. Demetri brushes the idea off with a bit of fatalism of his own “Who knows? I quit, I get hit by a bus, right? Isn’t that my luck?” and laughs it off with a sarcastic comment about becoming a barrista. Meanwhile inside the pet store, Ingrid relates her FFV to Janis. She saw herself with blond hair working at the Bronx Zoo. Being convinced in the surety of her vision she even tried selling the store. But the combination of Gough’s death and being unable to find a buyer makes her ridicule herself for believing in something so unlikely. Her and Hawk’s conversation is interrupted by a noise that alarms Janis. As she investigates it’s source, the power is cut and she calls for Mark and Demetri. They rush the building and begin to clear the store as Janis secures Ingrid in the back room. Mark and Demetri confront the man with the three star tattoo and as he turns toward them Mark shoots him dead. After the botched ambush, Alvarez tells Janis that even her, most improbable, FFV seems on it’s way to fruition after being placed in the federal witness protection program. Later that night we see Janis looking up some info on sperm donation, telling Wedeck that she is now following her gut, signaling her resumed faith in her vision. Here we also see the first enhanced images of Suspect Zero and he seems to be wearing a ring during his GBO stroll.
Though suspicious of Mark’s story, Noh backs his official report of the encounter. He questions Mark’s motives in shooting the tattooed man. Demetri confesses to having had a similar urge after Mark had wondered if the tattooed man was responsible for Demetri’s (future) murder. Mark asks Noh if he really thinks he would go that far. So far as to commit, essentially, a preemptive murder. Later that night at home with Olivia, Mark confesses to doing just that. He explains to her that he ‘took his shot’, quite literally, at changing their shared future. He believes that he has nullified the tattooed man’s threat.
Mark’s belief is put to the lie in the very next scene. We watch as a military transport truck arrives, on a stormy night, at an abandoned factory or warehouse. In what looks to be an exchange, a man with a three star tattoo in the transport hands another tattooed man the case obtained from Parofsky, while another pair of men with the tattoos carry four large rugged cases to the truck (seems Mark has a lot of shooting to do). We follow the Parofsky case inside to a lone man waiting at a table. He opens the case to reveal six seemingly ordinary signet rings with the ? (alpha) glyph inscribed on their bevel. “There were supposed to be seven” he admonishes. As he closes the case, seemingly satisfied with the almost complete delivery, he quizzes the messenger. “After the first atom bomb test, you know what a college of Oppenheimer said?” A blank look from the tattooed man. The receiver of the rings answers his own question. “‘What a foul and awesome display.’ He then added. ‘Now we are all sons of bitches.’” The man in black then promptly guns down the courier.
