By Sobell
Al's death makes the news, as he's apparently the very first person in the whole wide world to think, Hey, if I off myself, I can throw one or more flashforwards into doubt. Some folks -- Mark among them -- are giddy with the idea that the future is, once again, a blank slate upon which to write their most hopeful projections. So he whisks Olivia off for a celebratory "Hurrah! We won't sink into alcoholism and adultery!" weekend, but it's cut short by a call from Demetri: the star-tattooed guy who is supposed to come after Mark on April 29 has surfaced, so maybe Mark wants to pursue this lead before it pursues him? Mark does. He leaves Olivia with a lovely parting gift -- the lingerie that she'll be wearing in her flashforward. Mark and Olivia later debate whether the visions are "that much more set in stone than [they] thought" or if they can change things. Olivia argues, "We can change things, Mark … we just have to decide how far we're willing to go to make it happen." In her case, she's willing to throw out the lingerie.
Mark, Janis and Lloyd chat with a witness, Ingrid Alvarez, who watched the star-armed guy and a pal kill a guy in the alley. She can't give too many details, and Mark gets the bright idea to use her as bait to grab the star-armed guy. Demetri's for it: "We catch these guys tonight, we can finally put a face on our enemy." So they set their trap in Ingrid's cockatiel emporium (I swear, I am not making this up), but unfortunately, their quarry ends up dead. Even more unfortunately, none of the FBI geniuses think that maybe, more than one person can have this type of tattoo. (We see this in the cliffhanger, where Ricky Jay is blithely dispatching another star-armed guy.)
Meanwhile, Lloyd is suffering pangs of conscience, as he believes his experiment caused the flashforward. Dr. Hobbit's not having that, and he proposes they settle their do-I-tell-or-not dispute via a game of poker. By the way, don't ever play poker with Dr. Hobbit, because he's a total trash-talking douche. It is eminently satisfying when Lloyd wins. (Even if he has to use his new sleight-of-hand skills to do it.)
Tracy, Aaron's daughter, is home, but she's suffering from recurring nightmares, and she's asking Aaron to keep her existence on the down-low. She finally explains what's got her so spooked: her Humvee was attacked by a Blackwater-esque private military contracting organization called Jericho, and the attack happened about a week after Tracy watched Jericho massacre an Afghani village. The Humvee attack left Tracy short one leg, yet she somehow managed to survive this alone in the desert and has been living "on the run," as she's concluded that she is safe from neither Jericho nor the military that insists on employing these thugs accountability-free.
And in plots that were entirely superfluous: Nicole is part of an exciting new cult devoted to the idea that Al Gough sacrificed himself so that free will could return to the land. Too bad that every other plot showed people hurtling toward their flashforwards.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see what other Shows We Think Should Flash Forward. And check back soon for the full recap!