FlashForward - 137 Sekunden, S01E03

Agents Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and Janis Hawk (Christine Woods) traveled to Germany where a Nazi (Curt Lowens) claimed to have answers as to why the blackout lasted exactly 137 seconds. He refuses to give them any information without the promise that he will be fully pardoned for the atrocities he committed during World War II. And here is the big moral question, which Janis puts to Mark, appalled that he is considering the issue: When do we stop giving pardons to criminals to catch people more dangerous than they are?

In today's society, just try to free a Nazi for any reason. Millions of people died in concentration camps and we have all been raised not only to condemn those actions, but also to hate the perpetrators. It doesn't matter that the few who are still alive are old and aren't going to live much longer, as Janis so aptly put it, there is no expiry date on evil.

But in the universe of FlashForward, hundreds of millions of people died as a result of the blackout, and billions more are in danger. If we forgive a drug dealer to catch a mob boss, can we pardon a Nazi to catch the enemy of the Earth? Apparently, it is the same. And examining the issue, we now have a better understanding of how those hurt by that particular drug dealer feel about him being freed to save all those threatened by the mob boss.

The worst part is that the information the Nazi ended up giving was seemingly pointless. Many crows were dead outside his window when he awoke from his blackout. How useful is that? And finally Mark thinks about it, and he and Janis discover that this is not the first time a blackout has occurred. It's simply the first time it affected people globally. I can only hope the Nazi's information will be very important, otherwise, it is hard to swallow his release, even though it is fictitious.

Before I ask the questions FlashForward generated this week, I must mention the appearances of Gina Torres* as the Wedeck's wife and of Genevieve Cortese* as Tracy Stark.

Now for the questions.

1. If Demetri (John Cho) is killed on March 15th, who is his fiancee marrying in her vision on April 29th?

2. Why didn't Demetri arrest the future customs officer because of his bong? It would have been interesting to see if he would have still become an officer, or whether it was indeed possible to change the future.

3. Why are the crows affected? Are any other animals?

4. Why are the schools open? After such great devastation, you'd think that governments, as well as institutions and businesses, would be running slightly differently...at least for a while.