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Thursday, April 29, 2010

FlashForward 1.18: Triple Forks

Another superb FlashForward tonight - episode 1.18 - which makes at least two in a row.   And we had two important stories unfold tonight in crucial ways:

1.  The truth about Janis:  I had trouble believing she was a bad guy, a spy for the late Flosso group, for whatever nefarious purposes.   But that's what she told Simon, and it sure looked that way for most of tonight, as we see Janis recruited by Annabeth Gish (Eileen Caffee from Brotherhood) and reporting to her tough handler at a tropical fish store.  Janis even tries to steal a crucial document from Mark's wall. But-  It turns out Janis is not a double agent (an FBI agent working for some mysterious, evil group) but a triple agent!   Vogel recruited her before she was recruited by Annabeth.   And Vogel's mission for Janis was to allow herself to be recruited to spy on the FBI by whatever evil organization!   Nice twist!

I'm still not clear, though, who gunned her down in Washington.   Flosso's group had no reason - based on what we saw tonight, they still thought they had Janis in their control.   Maybe someone in the group had a flashforward which showed the truth about Janis?

Meanwhile, this other crucial, surprising story played out tonight:

2. Gabriel and Olivia: We first saw Gabriel last week.  Tonight he shows up at Olivia's door, with knowledge of her future - not from the general flashforward date - and convictions about what should be and should have been in Olivia's life.   His knowledge of just a little bit into the future, when Olivia could have been killed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time at a car crash on a corner, not only turns out to be accurate, but saves Olivia's life.  Had Gabriel not delayed Olivia with his visit to her home, she would have been on that corner.   Gabriel's other knowledge is also relevant:  he's seen Lloyd as Olivia's true love throughout her life.   The relationship began when Olivia was a student a Harvard - which she decided not to be, in our reality.   Gabriel knows about this "fork" in the road of history because he has had multiple, individual flashfowards.   Turns out that Frost was running a center for savants with photographic memories, and sending them on little individual flashforwards (much like Bell and the children which included another Olivia, in Fringe).

The import of Gabriel's visions seems to be that she has been on the wrong track ever since not going to Harvard.  Further, she needs to make a course correction right now, lest things get much worse.

Good, deep, tantalizing stuff indeed, as FlashForward proceeds...


7-min podcast review of FlashForward


See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost ... 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability ... 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures ... 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House ... Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5 ... Across the Universe in FlashForward 1.6 ... FlashForward 1.7: The Future Can Be ... FlashForward 1.8: The Nightie as a Grain of Sand ... FlashForward 1.9: Shelter from the Storm ... Olivia Benford at Harvard in Flashforward 1.10 ... Flashforward 1.12 Parts 1 and 2 ... FlashForward 1.13: Aaron's Daughter, Mark's Gun, and Magpies ... FlashForward 1.14:  Somalia, LA, Fate Irresistible and Resistible ... FlashForward 1.15: Who's That Lady? ... FlashForward 1.16: Mark's Gun and Demetri's Wedding ... FlashForward 1.17: Mark, Demetri, and Hari Seldon

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2 comments:

TheLooper said...

Yes, a very good episode. I caught the Fringe parallel as well. I never believed Janis was a double agent just for Simon's group. That just didn't seem her style and Thursday's episode confirmed this. Thank goodness, because I like her.

Anxious to see how her final edict from the pet store lady plays out. Too bad the season didn't end on the actual April 29th date in reality, but oh well. It started September 24th, depicting events for October 6th anyway, so no biggie. Just curious to see the resolution to the season...should be awesome.

Paul Levinson said...

Yeah, FlashForward could have had the April 29 finale, had ABC not stuck it on hiatus in February.

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