Wednesday, April 7, 2010

FlashForward - Better Angels, S01E14

Although one important development took place back home for our characters, the focus of this episode was on the events and discoveries of Somalia. A bit exciting, definitely attention grabbing, but possible including a mistake?

Mark (Joseph Fiennes) and Olivia (Sonya Walger) discovered both why their daughter would not speak about her flashforward and what started their separation. The little girl had heard a man, whom we learnt was Marshall Vogel (Michael Ealy), telling another agent that Mark was dead. No wonder the little girl was scared. Olivia, wanting to protect her child, her husband, and her family, again pushed the idea that they could simply pick up and leave. When Mark finally refused, she determined that that was likely what would lead to their break up.

The thing is, I don't understand Olivia. Mark doesn't want to leave, can't leave, because he is the centre of something he considers important. He would be far more likely to start drinking again if he ran like a coward. She is the one putting the wedge between them by deciding that his determination to see things through, something she must once have loved about him, means that he wants to see the end of their marriage. She is making the choice to say there is a rift where one does not have to be

Meanwhile in Somalia, a whole lot of people were dying. Pretty much anyone who went with them who wasn't a lead character was riddled with bullets. It was lovely. What was also lovely was learning that this weekend was Janis (Christine Woods)'s window to get pregnant. Since she is gay, and they ended up in a very violent and dangerous part of the world, despite the nature of the show, I was certain she was going to get raped. There was a part of me that knew FlashForward was NOT going to go there, but the possibility of it happening if the situation were real was too poignant.

Luckily, Janis saved herself and the remaining members of the team, Vogel, Demetri (John Cho), and Simon (Dominic Monaghan) by revealing the meaning of the flashforward of the warlord who was holding them prisoner. He was supposed to bring peace to his land. And here is where the mistake happened - This man, who had had a flashforward, was killed to prevent him from killing Simon. And while Simon did not actually have a flashforward, he did send a text message to someone during theirs, and they did not react because it was from beyond the grave.

The question is, what was supposed to happen, if neither man was supposed to die, but somehow, in circumstances which I find hard to imagine could have played out any other way, the choice was either the life of one or the other. Perhaps it means that now that some of the flashforwards have begun changing, they all will. Perhaps Gough, who is not supposed to have died, went on that mission and things went differently?

In the end, two exciting things happened. 1. Janis (probably) conceived her baby, using Demetri as a sperm donor in what was the most nonsexual and friendly offer of the use of a man's sperm ever. 2. D. Gibbons has a message for Demetri which is dated 1981.

Makes me very excited about the upcoming episodes. How about you?

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