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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.
Meanwhile, it appears that it does Seattle Tacoma International Airport no good to be right down the road from Boeing, as its runways are littered with lots of planes that won't ever be repaired. (Somewhere, there's a retired Boeing exec getting an earful from the board about the folly of all those layoffs.) Aaaand we zoom to the empty first-class section of an airplane, where the lovely Zoey is texting Demetri about her pending plane ride. She has a brief conversation with one other passenger in business class, and that's how we learn that surprisingly, people are wary of getting on planes after a widespread airplane-go-crash phenomenon, so all the airline executives are flying around all day to convince people it's safe. Well, I suppose it beats testifying before Congress as to why none of their planes had working autopilots.
Back in the Los Angeles FBI office, Demetri is looking good for someone who left the office only a few hours before. He strolls on over to Al Gough (we met him in the pilot) and asks him to back-trace the call he got earlier that morning, the better to find the cell sites the call was routed through. Al asks what priority this has, and Demetri tersely answers, "Nuclear."
Mark wanders into his office, where his colleagues are pining for "the good old days when law enforcement agents didn't share their intel with each other." Fun fact learned during this scene: the Kingdom of Tonga has an intelligence agency, and it blames phytoplankton blooms for the flashforwards. Janis is unimpressed: "I'll see your 'boring' and raise you an 'insane.' The flashforwards were caused by a toxic gas that was released from deep within the earth as a result of crustal rifting." That is the most hauntingly suggestive geological sentence I have ever heard. Then Agent Not Introduced Formally Yet sets this week's plot into motion with a briefing from Germany: "There's a former Nazi --"
And we interrupt your recap-in-progress so I can complain. Why does it have to be the Nazis? The Third Reich committed terrible crimes, but don't fool yourself into thinking they're the world's final word in genocidal regimes. Plenty of countries have committed brutal mass, ethnically-motivated murders -- in our lifetimes even! There's Pol Pot's Cambodia, the Guatemalan civil war, Burundi (1962 and 1993), the Iraqi Kurds, East Timor, Rwanda, the Bosnians in Srebrenica ... I could go on. You're telling me that in all that list, there's not a single person who could be a stand-in for "unrepentant evildoer?"
ANYWAY. "There's a former Nazi -- a Rudolf Geyer -- who's claiming to know why the blackouts lasted exactly 137 sekunden. Sekunden -- that's German for seconds." Mark flashes back to his flashforward again (drink!) and that's how we get a picture of Geyer. Sure enough, the aged Nazi stars as a poster boy in Mark's wall collage. Mark wants to follow up, and Janis drawls, "Based on what -- your Spidey sense?" Would that were the case -- it would give FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance the push into J. Jonah Jameson territory we all deserve to see. But, no. Instead, Geyer's report mentions Mark by name. Even Janis looks impressed by this.
Hooray! It's FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance! We see a shot of his desk -- a photo of him and his lovely wife (as played by Gina Torres) -- and then a shot of the great man himself as he asks, "Let me see if I got this right. We got agents working 24/7 to identify the two guys who were awake during the blackout. This week alone, I've got to figure out how to eulogize eight dead agents. And you want to fly to Germany to talk to a Nazi?" Mark abashedly replies, "Well, a former Nazi." FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance immediately snaps, "Well, that just makes me feel so much better." (HA. I love him.) Mark pleads that Geyer requested him specifically -- not that he's had social dealings with Nazis in the past, he emphasizes -- and he won't explain why the blackout lasted 137 seconds unless Mark's there in person. This is going to go really well. If it's one thing the Nazis were known for, it's their code of absolute honesty, right? FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance gives Mark some static over how there seems to be a lack of progress on the Suspect Zero and D. Gibbons front, but we all know that Mark's going to be in lovely Munich before the commercial break.
We cut to LAX, where Demetri is waiting for Zoey. He's in his suit (sans tie) and holding a giant bouquet, 'cause he's just that kind of classy guy. Zoey comes cantering toward him, and we get a very sweet reunion. Well, sweet right up to the moment that Zoey asks, "Can I tell you now? What I saw in my flashforward?" Demetri stalls and Zoey says, "It's not like we didn't see the same thing." Demetri doubts that, but rather than bring down what had started off as a very promising reunion, he simply points out that a) he is available for the afternoon, and b) he has thoughtfully booked a hotel suite nearby. Zoey doesn't need to be asked twice.
Aaron heads into a bar -- it looks like a fake saloon with swinging doors -- and in a nice casting coup, the bartender is played by none other than Kim Dickens, formerly a habitue of a genuine fuckin' saloon on Deadwood. Here, she's playing "Kate," Aaron's former wife and current alcoholic. Aaron shares his flashfoward with Kate (drink!) and we are reminded that his daughter appears to be alive, if wounded, somewhere in Afghanistan. Kate shares her depressing flashforward -- she's still tending bar and hanging with the daytime drunks -- and the upshot of this scene is that Aaron needs Kate's permission to exhume his daughter's body. He's not going to get it.
So we now know Demetri's a tiger in the sack, if the wildly rumpled hotel-room bed and Zoey's "That's the second time I've blacked out this week" are anything to go by. Zoey kills the afterglow with "Now can I tell you what I saw?" We see her flashforward: She's barefoot, in a long white dress, walking down Hamoa Beach in Hawai'i. There are three figures waiting for her at the very end of the beach, but they're too tiny for us to see who they are. Zoey burbles, "It was so peaceful -- the wind and the waves. Everything was perfect." Demetri prods, "And you saw me there?" Zoey says she did. She asks if Demetri saw her, and he lies like a rug about his flashforward. Zoey points out, "You realize that's going to be our wedding day, don't you?" Demetri hedges, "With all that's happened, I'm not sure we should commit to a date --" "We already have," Zoey points out. And best of all, thanks to the flashforwards, there's no need to send out save-the-date cards!
In rainy Munich: Mark and Janis get out of a generic sedan, meet one Stefan Krieger and head into Quale prison. Naturally, it is a dark and stormy night. Oh, to have a castle nearby to serve as a lightning rod for an ominous thunderclap!
As Mark and Janis head inside, Stefan reminds them, "You are here as guests of the [Bundesnachrichtendienst]. As such, you have no authority and will proceed with the proper decorum. Agreed?" Janis demonstrates her company manners by remarking, "There are a lot of ghosts here. Isn't this where Sophie Scholl and the rest of the White Rose Nazi resistance group were executed?" Stefan raises an eyebrow and dryly points out, "If I'm not mistaken, your country eradicated its indigenous Indian population and practiced institutionalized slavery for over 250 years." Mark jumps in with "We also gave the world Britney Spears." Actual joke or admission of further American crimes against global humanity? You be the judge.
Immediately prior to meeting the old Nazi, Stefan warns them, "Rudolf Geyer may present himself as a frail, forgetful old man. But I should remind you that he managed to elude capture for more than half a century, spending at least 20 of those years within your U.S. borders. He is an unrepentant murderer. His entire existence has been based on dissemblance and falsehood. Never forget that."
After an introduction like that, the usual social niceties pale. So Geyer gets to the point: "I've been looking forward to meeting you, Herr Benford. For quite some time." Mark just looks at him. Because, really, what's he going to say? "Thanks! Me too."
Mark wants to know what Geyer saw, but the old man reminds him that he spent time in the U.S. and "I learned you can't get something for nothing." Stefan says they anticipated that, and offers him the BND's deal: "Upon verification of your information, you will transferred to a minimum security facility." Geyer remarks, " [Very nice]. But I had more than a gesture in mind. I want to return to America, and all charges against me are dropped." Mark's not having it, and Geyer's attack lawyer says he won't let the crafty old codger breathe word one of his flashforward until there is some kind of deal in place. Geyer's delighted. Grinning, he says, "I believe we have what's called 'a game of chicken.' Who do you think will blink first?" Oh, Mark, for sure. He's trying to look all fierce but honestly, if the U.S. wanted to send in a glaring champion, they'd have sprung for FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance to join Janis and Mark.
Outside the interrogation room, Janis valiantly attempts to derail Mark's train of thought by pointing out that Geyer is a lying Nazi who lies, and is also a Nazi. It is like talking to Squirrelio. She points out, "Mark, this is full pardon or nothing -- and that's exactly what Geyer's going to give us." Mark denies it, since he had his vision of his big collage of clues and Geyer's featured on it. Janis is like, "Meanwhile, in the present, the only thing we know right now is how much we don't know. Mark, you're talking about letting a mass murderer go free in exchange for potentially nothing." Mark rebuts that the several billion people currently wondering what in the hell happened to them don't exactly constitute "nothing." Janis is too jetlagged to point out the obvious argumentum ad populum, and when Mark appeals, "The guy makes me sick, but he's 86 years old. He's on his way out," she does not snap, "Leave the conjunction effects at home." So Mark blithely continues, "As much as I'd like to personally help him on his way, I have to ask if the ends don't justify the means here." Janis finally scores one with "They never do, Mark." Oh! Oh! She's on a roll! She points out that Geyer's age is irrelevant, and that there's no statute of limitations on pure evil. She concludes, "Geyer deserves his punishment, and his victims deserve him getting his punishment, and you can't take that away from them on a hope." Mark looks at her all, Oh, yes, I can! I am a lead on this show, lady!
Back in the states, Olivia's having lunch with Mrs. FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance, whom I am going to just call "Felicia," because a) that is the character's name, and b) "Mrs. FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance" is entirely too much nickname for any one human being. Both women are carping about their workaholic husbands, and Felicia dolefully notes that since FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance became an assistant director, he apparently feels the need to work twice as hard as everybody else in the bureau. That's because he's twice as awesome. Felicia continues, "He's pulled two all-nighters in a row trying to write the eulogy for this memorial service. Like if he found just the right words, he could bring these agents back to life." Olivia rebuts, "Mark's convinced that what he saw in his flashforward is somehow going to save us all." And that lets the ladies segue into their respective flashforwards. We see Olivia's (drink!) and she demurs, "Nothing important. What did you see?" Felicia's happy to dish: She was in her college-aged son Jason's room, only it was outfitted for a smaller boy. Felicia continues, "He was about eight or nine years old, and I was putting him to bed." We see him say, "Goodnight, Mom," and she replies, "Good night, Attaf," and kisses his forehead. Felicia's never seen this kid before but "I don't know how, but in the six months, this little boy's going to come into my life and I'm going to be his mom. I refuse to believe these visions are random. There is a purpose, I know it." We cut to Olivia who is surely wondering what the purpose of a shirtless Lloyd sitting on her couch could possibly be.
We zip back to Munich, where Geyer's lawyer suggests a compromise: "An offer of proof -- you verify certain aspects of my client's flashforward, pardon him, and then he will give you the remainder of what he knows." Mark's game. He asks, "The 137 seconds. Why?"
Geyer breaks out the full crazy we all knew was lurking within: "In my time at Treblinka, I obviously came into contact with many Jews. I also came to learn about certain aspects of their beliefs, their culture --" "Is this going somewhere?" Janis asks. Geyer continues, "Tell me, Miss Hawk. Why do you wear a ring on your left thumb? In some Eastern European countries where homosexuality is illegal, a ring on a woman's left thumb is considered an indication of her proclivities." Mark is like, "I was totally unaware that Janis's sexual orientation had anything to do with the duration of the blackout. The point? Get to it, please." Geyer works his way around: "I am merely referencing a certain kind of code. I will now make a reference to another kind of code. Have you heard of Kaballah? In [this form of Jewish mysticism], everything has a hidden meaning." And then Geyer pulls a fast one using the Hebrew characters for "Kaballah" and some numerology mumbo-jumbo to basically point out what amounts to a big, dumb coincidence: if you add up the sum total of the Hebrew letters that spell Kaballah, you arrive at 137.
Mark is not amused by this revelation. Geyer insists, "I have information that will prove crucial to your investigation, and I know it because in my flashforward, I was being repatriated to the United States, and I had bought my freedom with the second piece of information." We then get Geyer's flashforward: He's in an American airport, clearing through Immigration. The man processing his documents had the nametag "Jerome Murphy." And in the flashforward, Geyer remarks that it's disappointing that Agent Benford isn't here to welcome him home, and when Jerome makes dorky small talk, Geyer shuts that right down with, "I'm returning home, actually. And I have one murder to thank for it."
Back in the present, the "m" word grabs everyone's attention, but Geyer and his lawyer refuse to elaborate further on "their offer of proof." They coolly tell the FBI to locate Jerome Murphy, compare Jerome's flashforward to Geyer's, and if they match up, make good on the pardon. Stefan snaps, "Are you enjoying watching us jump through hoops? I hope you are. Because you're never leaving this prison, Geyer." Geyer insists that he'll leave: "It is a future that has already happened." I sincerely hope Stefan has a black-ops department he has access to, plus a healthy scientific curiosity about what happens if you eliminate someone prior to them fulfilling their flashforward. (Also: why has this not happened yet? You'd think that some moron would have seen a flashforward where they were stuck with their same ol' spouse/coworker/cellmate and decided to change the future courtesy of a little impulsive homicide. And then everyone could think themselves into knots trying to rationalize whether or not we've reintroduced randomness into the future. Get on it, writers!)
Outside the interrogation room, Stefan is rightly incredulous that Mark is going to run with this. Mark's all "The future! My vision! Blah blah blah!" and Janis rolls her eyes in embarrassment while Stefan points out that if Geyer's free in six months, it could be due to Mark's credulity and not, say, Geyer's innate honesty. Aaron calls just then, and Mark picks up because why would he care about international roaming charges when it's the U.S. taxpayers picking up the tab?
Anyway, Aaron wants a favor. Can Mark maybe find a crafty way to circumvent federal law so that Aaron can get Tracy's remains exhumed and tested against the DNA samples the military has on file. He adds, "I'll listen to any 'This isn't a good idea' speeches you've got to give if you can swear you wouldn't do the exact same thing for Charlie." Mark asks, "Leaving aside the illegality, have you thought about what'll happen if the results come back positive and the person in that grave is Tracy?" Aaron has not, because he is so firm in his faith regarding his flashforward.
Cut to Demetri, back in the office post-romp, agreeing to do Mark's dirty work with "I'll call when I've got the warrant." This word catches the attention of FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance, but Demetri deflects it. Then the two of them natter about J. Murphy until we find out that he's not a current customs agent, but rather an applicant.
And then Demetri's at a small, rundown bungalow in one of those anonymous neighborhoods that sprawls away from the 405, too far inland to be at all pleasant or scenic. K.C. and the Sunshine band is playing -- drowning out Demetri's knock, really -- and when Demetri goes around back, he beholds Jerome gettin' down in his tighty whities. I always feel so sorry for actors who have to play these roles. They're probably all, "
I studied at Julliard! My Lear made people weep with its finely-calibrated balance of hubris and pathos! [thud of pants hitting floor] Okay, this'll get the vultures at Sallie Mae off my back for the month. Shall I shake my booty in a clockwise motion, or can I improvise?"
Demetri introduces himself to Jerome, whose embarrassment over being caught carrying on like a toddler on a YouTube video is quickly overcome by his jubilation in learning that his application apparently goes through and he get to be a customs official. Demetri then tells Jerome to focus, whips out a photo of Geyer and asks, "I need you to tell me if you saw the same thing in your flashforward as this guy claims he saw in his." Jerome proceeds to corroborate the story even though -- bless his heart -- he doesn't know what that word means: "I know that dude! I was working in an airport. It felt good, you know? Badge, uniform ... it gave me purpose, you know?" We see him having the interaction with a sinister-looking Geyer. Jerome concludes that he woke up from the blackout and applied the very day. As Demetri leaves, he kicks over Jerome's bong. Jerome stammers that he can explain it. "That's okay. I know what a bong is," Demetri says. (Oh, John Cho has the best "I am seething inside from the indignities that have been visited upon me" demeanor.) Jerome pleads, "Look, um, home slice? If I get tagged for this, that's it for me. They won't hire me with a drug bust on my record." "It does seem unlikely, yeah," Demetri says. Jerome implores, "I was doing it! I saw myself doing that job, I saw myself wearing that uniform, and it wouldn't have happened if you bust me. I mean, it won't happen if you bust me. What I'm saying here is, it's up to you whether or not my future happens." O, HOW RELEVANT TO THE MAN WHO BEGAN THIS EPISODE WITH A PHONE CALL PRODDING HIM TO PROACTIVELY CHANGE HIS FUTURE. Gosh, can you see a theme emerging? Or is it too subtle?
Back in Germany, Mark and Janis repair to a restaurant. She is admirably restraining herself from eating all the breadsticks, preferring to take her carbs in what looks like highball form. She asks Mark, "Buy you a drink?" He demurs. Janis toasts him with "To moral relativism." Mark non-apologizes with, "I'm sorry this is bothering you so much," and Janis sees his non-apology and raises him an unvoiced "Fuck you!" with "Oh, I'm sorry this isn't bothering you at all." She tells him to own his actions and not hide behind the badge, concluding, "There have to be limits, Mark. There have to be people that we won't deal or flip, and I'm sorry, but if we can't even draw that line at a Nazi, I just don't even know what we're doing any more." It looks like you're making a deal with a Nazi is what you're doing. There are no lines -- at least, not if they get in the way of an episode where we find out how cuckoo for flashforwardpuffs Mark truly is. Mark argues, "Have you ever taken a leap of faith? I'm pushing this because I have faith that seeing Geyer's picture in my flashforward means his information will be important to us." Janis puts no stock in flashforwards and asks how she can be sure of something that may not even be real. Mark sums up the issue with "You've got a problem, because that's what faith is." Whether or not faith can be called unambiguously good is not addressed.
And right then the phone rings. After one terse conversation with FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance -- who is not too pleased about liberating the Nazis from prison -- Mark asks, "You sure?" FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance sums up the episode theme with, "Hell, no. But something tells me I better get used to that particular feeling. We all better. World's changed. Some of us -- all of us -- are making decisions now based on what will happen, not what could happen. It makes us do things we wouldn't ordinarily do. You'd thinking knowing the future would make us less concerned about it, but just the opposite has happened. The future's what all of us are living for now. It's what we're living by." (So there's a high-fiber diet in the FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance household now? Just asking.)
As FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance is imparting these thematic sentiments, we see Demetri handing over the paperwork necessary for exhuming Tracy's body.
Another late night at the office, another late night where Demetri isn't home. I could see it before when Zoey was stranded in Seattle, but now? Telecommute, my man. Anyway, it provides us with a scene where Al comes over and says that the tech department couldn't do much to trace the signal; whomever placed the call was canny enough to bounce the signal in a way where it seemed to be bouncing through two different sites as once.
Back in Munich, Stefan is fuh-reaking out, as he can't believe both his government and the U.S. government could be so feckless as to let a Nazi walk free on the strength of one shared flashforward and a promise of more information. Benford fixes Geyer with a look and commands, "Start talking." Geyer does: "I blacked out, as we all did. The flashforward happened as I described it. And I woke up. I went to my window, and I saw the city burning in the distance. And on the ground, in the courtyard outside, I saw crows. They were dead. The ground was littered with them." Mark realizes he's been outfoxed by an octogenerian and grinds out, "A murder of crows?" Janis asks, "What the hell does this have to do with the Kaballah and 137 seconds?" Geyer merrily replies, "Nothing, fraulein. I have no idea why the blackout lasted as long as it did." He laughs as Mark basically sums up, "It was all crap? The Kaballah? The birds?" Well, not so much with the crows -- those are real. "In my vision, I knew I'd be freed because of what I told you about the crows dying. It could be helpful in your investigation. How helpful it will be, we'll just have to see," Geyer says. Honestly, the U.S. standards for letting people out of jail are insanely lax. The courts are going to be flooded with detainee petitions and Gitmo's going to get turned into a SuperTarget if this sort of thing gets out.
As the Smashing Pumpkin's "To Sheila" plays, Mark comes home and catches his wife asleep in bed with the lights still on. He kisses her hello and good night, and she pops awake with, "Hey, you look horrendous." "Glad I accomplished something with this trip," he replies wryly. (I like Mark's sense of humor.) After briefly discussing the idea of how tough it is to "live in the now," Olivia decides they could maybe try living in the now with some marital calisthenics. Good for them!
The day, Aaron's back in Kate's bar. The bartender who's there tells the just-arrived Kate that Aaron hasn't had anything to drink, but he's been "thinkin' about it hard." Kate heads over and sits to him with "I can't be too sure since I had a few yesterday, but I thought I was pretty particular about not wanting to see you again." Aaron brokenly tells her he figured she'd make an exception for good news: she was right, as DNA testing proved the remains in Tracy's grave are apparently Tracy's. Aaron apologizes: "I'm sorry I went behind your back. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you." As Jeff Buckley's "Lover, You Should Have Come Over" starts up, Kate folds Aaron in her arms, and he cries into her shoulder.
Then we go to the FBI memorial that FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance has been working on. The all-nighters apparently worked, because he gives the following speech: "There are no words for this -- none that mean half a damn, anyway. The people we love are gone, and they're not coming back. And we'll miss them. But things are going to get better. The sun's going to rise on a new day. I know it doesn't feel like it will, but that dawn is coming. There's hope. One of the agents here repeated something that a friend had mentioned to him. And he said, 'We're all prophets now.' You know, I can't think of a prophet worth a damn that didn't suffer. And I also can't think of a prophet that God didn't love."
While this montage is going on, we see Felicia clapping eyes on the boy she'll eventually claim as her new son; the child is sitting in the front with a woman in a headscarf (suggesting she's Muslim). Demetri and Mark are both looking thoughtful. Janis looks like she's still really pissed about what happened in Germany. Who can blame her?
Later, everyone's in a bar and M
ark raises his (presumably non-alcoholic) drink to "absent friends." Everyone drinks to it. These folks are a lot more restrained at their wake than any other cop show I've seen, but then again, I'm comparing this to The Wire, which had premium-cable latitude for crazy shenanigans. Demetri, Al and FBI Boss Dude Courtney B. Vance have a depressing conversation about how many memorial speeches have probably been given in the past few days, and the phrase "they're probably happening all over the world" triggers something for Mark. He grabs Janis and heads back to the office.
Meanwhile, Zoey comes up behind Demetri and purrs, "I'm a raindrop and I'm falling for you." She alleges that this is how Demetri tried to pick her up when they first met. Honestly, I had figured he simply pointed to himself, said, "Fabulous, no?" and just waited for her to nod. Demetri corrects the record: he had told her she owed him a drink after shredding his ass on the witness stand. Zoey concurs: "I did shred your ass, but I left all the good parts." And then Demetri decides that what the hell, why don't they get married on April 29, 2010. If he's around, that is. He doesn't add that part.
In the office, Janis and Mark are looking up worldwide crow populations for the last year, via the Audubon Society's comprehensive and worldwide database. Wait -- we're talking about the same Audobon Society that depends on the Great Backyard Bird Count for field data? The same Audobon Society that notes here of North American birds, "No single scientist or team of scientists could hope to keep track of the complicated patterns of movement of so many species over an entire continent." Okay, putting all that aside and assuming that we're dealing with a world in which flashforwards happen and nature groups can run massive, worldwide, realtime population databases on any species of animal on the planet ... let's look at the bird-population chart on the screen, which apparently runs THROUGH DECEMBER 2009. I had thought that maybe, the future dots indicated population projections, but no -- they're the numbers for those months. Whomever was responsible in the prop department for this computer graphic really biffed the X-axis -- they should not have done month-by-month, but day-by-day and therefore displayed a dramatic drop, with no bounceback in the subsequent week.
Anyway, if you can suspend your disbelief (try an industrial-strength cable) and irritation over a craptacular graph, you'll get the point to this scene which is that the world's seen a massive Corvus corax die-off. Be prepared to see many more scarecrows standing in unemployment lines. Janis says, "Mark -- and I say this with love -- who gives a damn?" Mark does, because if there were any other crow die-offs in the past, that might indicate events like the one they all just lived through. Sure enough, Janis finds one in the Ganwar region of Somalia, back in 1991. What's more, the last time it happened, residents in the area reported "mass loss of unconsciousness." Mark sums up this finding with, "Janis, we've been so worried the blackout might happen again, we haven't stopped to ask ourselves what happened before?"
Meanwhile, in the Ganwar region of Somalia, high on the hills is a lonely goatherd. There's no yo-de-lay-he-yo-de-lay-he-yo-de-lay-he-hoo'ing for him, however, because he is distracted by all these crows converging on one specific area, then plunging to the ground in fragile bundles of feathery death. The boy runs over the hill and sees a village of low-slung clay buildings ... and rising from the middle of it is a slender smokestack that appears to be giving off undulating arcs of vapor. Even the music tells us we must be alarmed by this ... and since this episode is over, we must stay that way until week.
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