By Sobell
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance sums up the theme of tonight's episode with: "World's changed. All of us are making decisions based on what will happen, not what could. It makes us do things we wouldn't ordinarily do." Such as release Nazis from prison and welcome them to the U.S. as citizens. Yes, this week's primary plot involves Mark and a Nazi, since the Nazi is name-checking Mark in his flashforward.
I sort of feel that introducing Nazis to a TV show is like the network equivalent of invoking Godwin's Law, but at least it gives us this priceless exchange:
FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance: You want to fly to Germany to talk to a Nazi?
Mark Benford: Former Nazi.
FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance: Well, that just makes me feel so much better.
And so Mark gets to fly to Germany to talk to a former Nazi, because Rudolph Geyer has helpful information about the flashforward. But Geyer won't talk unless he's returned to America and all charges are dropped. Mark agonizes over this for exactly one scene, then agrees to a deal with Geyer wherein the genocidal octogenarian gives some easily-verified information now, and spills all once a pardon's on the table. After Geyer puckishly outs Janis, he name-drops the Kabbalah and points out that its Hebrew letters and some numerology razzle-dazzle equals 137 seconds. This does not impress Mark, so Geyer talks about his flashforward: he's being repatriated to America, he was making small talk with a customs agent named Jerome Murphy, and he says that he's coming "home" to America because "I have a murder to thank for it."
Heeey… guess who heard that he's getting murdered with three shots to the chest! Demetri, who got this tidbit from Shoreh Aghdashloo before she had to hang up. But he lies like a rug to his fiancée, as her flashforward evidently consisted of her waltzing down a Hawaiian beach to meet her intended in her wedding ceremony.
Anyway, once Mark confirms Geyer's flashforward with Jerome Murphy's, he's pretty much committed to giving a Nazi a full pardon and a "Welcome to America!" button. And after he does, Geyer's exciting new information: he saw a bunch of dead crows in the prison courtyard. Janis speaks for us all with, "What the hell does this have to do with the Kabbalah and 137 seconds?" And Geyer reminds us all why Nazis are evil when he chortles, "Nothing! I have no idea why the blackout lasted 137 seconds." Mark somehow seems shocked that a Nazi might have been deceptive. On the plus side: this crow thing might turn out to be a lead.
And he continues playing a little fast-and-loose with the law, helping Aaron get an order to exhume what were allegedly his daughter's remains. He had been hoping the remains in Traci's grave weren't hers, but alas, testing shows they were.
The show ends, fittingly enough, with FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance giving a truly awesome eulogy for eight fallen agents. And with a bunch of crows falling dead around a mysterious tower in Somalia.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!The episode begins with Demetri having his conversation with Agent Shoreh Aghdashloo, per the show conventions of endlessly repeating all that has gone before. We re-establish that he's going to be murdered on March 15, 2010, and learn that Demetri will die courtesy of three shots to the chest. Agent Aghdashloo says, "My hope is by telling you what I know, you will be able to prevent your murder from happening." You and me both, lady. She hangs up, and Demetri's left to flip out alone in a parking garage.
We then cut to an aged man with a cane taking his morning constitutional to a barbed-wire fence. He makes small talk with the guard who's pacing him on the other side, and we learn that Herr Geyer's flashforward consisted of "something that will release me from this hateful place." As the camera zooms back, the soundtrack music sounds uncomfortably like the background music on Prison Break -- it's okay if you don't recognize it -- and we get a caption telling us that Herr Geyer's incarcerated at Quale prison in Munich, Germany.
Several thousand miles to the west, Charlie is watching some dreadful morning cartoon that stars a pop-eyed girl and Squirrelio, and she's eating breakfast. Mark is watching her anxiously, but that's pretty much his default state these days. In the background, Olivia is still trying to raise the babysitter Nicole, who's surely off in the desert eating honey and locusts as she continues her God-sent-the-flashforwards-to-punish-me-for-bonking-on-my-boss's-couch trip. Anyway, Mark volunteers to pick up Charlie after school and take her to work. "We're sifting through blackout intel from Interpol and such. I'll welcome the distraction." Why make Charlie a distraction? Put her to work, I say. Children love pattern-matching games.
Aaron comes over right at that moment, and Mark lies about why Aaron's there -- why bother getting into the habit of telling Olivia the truth? -- and drags Aaron into his home office. Aaron points out, "If you want to prevent the future and save your marriage, the first step isn't keeping secrets from your wife." Alas, as is so often the case on TV, Aaron's words of sanity are completely overlooked. It turns out Aaron's here because Mark feels like talking about Charlie's flashforward -- again, a conversation he should perhaps be having with his good lady wife -- and then Mark flashes to his flashforward again (drink!). Aaron cuts through the bullshit with "You think whoever you're investigating will come after Charlie?" Well, sort of. Mark worries, "What if this whole investigation circles back on me?" Aaron says, "Father to father? I'll tell you what I'd do. If someone's out to hurt your family, the best thing to do is to catch them before they can. The world's changed. Maybe the rules need to change a little too. If it were up to me, I'd do whatever I had to do." Mark embraces this advice, since he so clearly doesn't need to talk to anyone at work who's ever dealt with the messy interstices between personal and professional obligations.