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Having just sliced off a bit of Simon's finger, Ricky Jay threatens to stalk Dylan until Lloyd spills details of the experiment. Lloyd semi-talks, and Ricky Jay tasks a few of his less charismatic goons with killing off the now-superfluous physicists, but Lloyd is saved, thanks to Mark's recall of his collage and an intuitive leap as to where the two men are being held.
The narrative arc of the night belongs to Simon: After Mark's dramatic rescue, Simon is loaded into an ambulance where... eeee! Villain Ricky Jay is waiting! (I will freely admit, this made me jump in surprise the first time I saw this.) And it turns out that Simon's working with Ricky Jay, and that whole I-chopped-your-finger-off thing was just a bit of misdirection to fool Lloyd into thinking Simon was as innocent as he. We find out that Simon was the haunting figure in the footage from the Detroit stadium.
We also find out that Simon was a busy boy the day of the blackout: he attended his father's funeral in Toronto at 7-something in the morning, then got abducted to Detroit, where he was ordered to watch baseball, eat popcorn and accessorize with one of those alpha rings. Honestly, except for the abduction part, it sounds like a pretty awesome way to spend an afternoon. Anyway, we learn those rings were engineered to block whatever caused the blackout, and that Simon is lying about his flashforward.
After Simon's treated at the hospital, he fakes a fit of anaphylactic shock to escape from Janis, thereby making her score in successful Simon-wrangling incidents 0-for-2 (it was on her watch that he was taken in the beginning of the episode, during a debate over whether or not she was Simon’s beer wench), and he takes off for Toronto. However, Janis manages to track him down there (1-2), and accedes to his plea for an overnight in the fair city, because she has a hunch he's up to no good. Oh, you think?
Simon takes Janis to the family home, whereupon he promptly eludes her surveillance (1-3) so that he might hang out with his friend Philip -- erstwhile professor and eccentric physics genius -- and beg him for help in preventing another flashforward. Janis tracks him down again (2-3) and marches him back to the homefront.
And then! OH MY GOSH! We find out that Ricky Jay also masquerades as a friend of Simon's family, "Uncle Teddy." There is a dinner with Simon's family, "Uncle Teddy" and Janis, and it is tense, in part because "Uncle Teddy" was responsible for ordering the death of the Campos paterfamilias. (Simon's flashforward, it turns out, is actually the memory of him killing his dad's assassin on October 6.) And, as it turns out, "Uncle Teddy" is also responsible for kidnapping Simon's sister so he can use her as leverage against Simon. This -- combined with "Uncle Teddy's" hostess gift of Philip's body in the trunk of a car -- pushes Simon to the edge and he kills Ricky Jay. Which is too bad, because Ricky Jay was really entertaining and because he probably could have been useful in leading Simon to Annabel's abductors.
The episode ends with Simon vowing revenge against whomever was employing Ricky Jay, as that party is not only responsible for the global carnage, they've also got his sister.
Watch this episode here, and discuss it in our forums. Then see what we think the cast should do if the show gets cancelled!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!The episode begins with Bryce following Nicole into the coffee shop where she's going to meet the Reverend Nutbar. He's going to lurk in the background just in case Nicole needs rescuing. Nicole asks if Bryce can get his change in pennies, then heads over to talk to the Reverend Nutbar.
He asks, "Why don't you tell me what upset you earlier?" Nicole recounts her flashforward -- she's being drowned -- and Reverend Nutbar says thoughtfully, "People ask me all the time to interpret what they saw, and I can't. Ultimately, interpretation is your responsibility." Then he reinterprets the flashforward anyway -- to paraphrase, Nicole's not drowning but waving! -- but I'm really more interested in pointing out that the Reverend Nutbar has taken all the creamers on the table and made a little pyramid of them. Then he's reinforced his barrier with an outer wall of salt and pepper shakers, plus the sugar holder. This subconscious arrangement is completely fascinating to me. What could it presage? Anyway, Reverend Nutbar has a moment of self-awareness with "I'm just a super-religious weirdo dude, and you don't have to believe anything I say. But everyday, God puts something good in your life. Embrace it." Nicole looks over at Bryce, who is diligently scooping pennies into his satchel per her request. This show is so subtle.
Then the Reverend Nutbar VO's "the challenge that we face is recognizing that the answers to our most burning questions may be right in front of us." This is so we can see Mark coming out to his car and seeing a flyer for the Crown Cheese Steak. He flashes back to the point on his collage where there's the same flyer with "HELP US" written on it, and promptly heads across the street to talk to the manager. We learn that this shiny new location has just opened up, and that it will soon close again if its manager insists on pushing the tofurkey cheese steak like it's not an abomination against all that processed food stands for. [Why don't you want vegetarians to have cheesesteak? - Zach] Anyhoodle, the point to this scene is for Mark to get the old location of the Crown Cheese Steak.
Night has fallen and Bryce has taken Nicole home. They're having a theological debate, with Bryce firmly on the side of "Most religions are a kind of club to keep some of the people and some of the people out." It's not often one sees institutionalized belief systems being likened to the Star-bellied Sneetches. Nicole rebuts, "If it makes you feel better about your life, what difference does it make?" And it's not often you see an institutionalized belief system being defended with "It's all about me, anyway." Truly, FlashForward is breaking new ground in how we discuss religion through the lens of popular culture.
Anyway, Nicole tries to keep Bryce from coming inside with a hesitant warning about how her mom's a real character even when the brain meds are working. Bryce unleashes a force field of moist-eyed compassion, and that gets the door open.
We see Nicole's mom working on a giant wall mural of pennies, and then we see a really sweet scene: Bryce dumps out his pennies, to Mom's delight, and as she soberly tells him she's been struck by lightning six times (Nicole shakes her head no), Bryce respectfully asks if he can help with the mural. He is not at all fazed by the task of gluing currency to the wall to a lady wearing angel wings and eight document clips in her hair, and Mom keeps on chattering -- she only uses 1989 pennies, because the wall is a tribute to Nicole. This is news to the mural's honoree. There is only a bit of meta-commentary as Mom says, "If you want to know about God, what some people call coincidence is really God at work." I myself think it's a coincidence that Bryce and Nicole are both more interesting when they're together, so let's take that as a divine sign that they need to quit monkeying around and get together. Something like peace reigns among the three people as they sort and glue the pennies, all while shaking their booties to some not-bad blues. [What I'm wondering is what she does with the other 98% of pennies she gets that aren't 1989 pennies, seeing as how Nicole had no idea. Is the backyard ankle-deep in them? - Z]
Speaking of people who really should have the blues, after Lloyd gets a light beatdown from some of the B-string goon squad, Ricky Jay sits down and whips out a few photos of Lloyd's loved ones as extra incentive for Lloyd to talk. "We've had your family under surveillance for quite some time," he concludes ominously.
Vogel and Demetri are now ostensibly on their way to liberate Lloyd and Simon. Demetri tells Janis over the phone that "We tracked the ambulance to a restaurant that's been abandoned since the blackout. Infrared's catching four guys inside." No mention as to whether it's the Crown Cheese Steak, but the FBI's heading over with plenty of backup.
Back to Lloyd. Ricky Jay says, "If you care about your son, you will want to consider your response very carefully. How many electron volts were generated? CERN can generate up to 500 tera-electron volts. Am I in the ballpark?" Lloyd groans that Ricky Jay is thinking too small. The villain scoffs, "You generated more than a quadrillion electron volts? What about tachyonic dark matter? Did you find it?" Is it wrong to love the evil Ricky Jay more because he's got some physics-fu? Lloyd groans that they came close. Now that he's got his answer, Ricky Jay orders that the beta goons dispatch the two physicists.
Meanwhile, approximately eight dozen armed law enforcement types and their attendant klieg lights, SWAT teams and other accoutrements of extreme force have shown up at the alleged location of the victims. They are proven to be mistaken, explosively.
In the aftermath, Agent Vogel comes swaggering over to Demetri and explains that the bomb inside the ambulance was keyed to the frequency that law-enforcement radios use; therefore, when the FBI came rolling it, it triggered the explosion. Demetri drily notes that these are not your usual kidnappers. Vogel says, "They're sending a clear message: Don't go where you're not invited." Well, you ought to be able to translate that message in any medium in which it's delivered, Vogel. Demetri mumbles that this is the third time someone's chosen to Say It With Fires -- first, there was Utah, then, there was Washington D.C., and now Los Angeles. Vogel finally says something useful with, "It occurs to me that if Mark saw them in his vision, they saw him, too. Beginning on October 6, they knew that you and Mark were at the center of this thing. How they plan on using that knowledge is what we need to be thinking about." [But if they'd seen Mark, who was hiding, wouldn't they have shot him? Maybe they had an image in their heads of the guy they were looking for, but what if they didn't know who they were going to find? It's an assumption, is what I'm saying. - Z]
Over in the B-plot, Bryce is waiting outside Sanctuary HQ for the Reverend Nutbar to exit, the better to have his "Please do not brainwash my not-girlfriend" talk with the man. The reverend beams the placid smile of the lobotomized and says he's all about delivering the message that "everyone's purpose is to give and receive love. My job is to give that message to as many people as possible." And it dovetails nicely with his flashforward of himself at a podium, addressing a U2-concert-sized crowd with a screamy little homily about a God who sounds like a cross between a Santa Claus and Marianne Williamson. Reverend Nutbar winningly adds, "No one ever got hurt getting a little more love into their life." Bryce does not rebut, "You're right, because nobody ever loves someone who's unworthy of their affections, and nobody ever gets abused or killed in the name of love."
Meanwhile, Mark's headed over to the old Crown Cheese Steak and decides to drive through it. Note: the place has no drive-through window, so Mark more or less creates his own. Right before Mark presses the accelerator, he flashes to his conversation with Lloyd:
Mark: Go to hell, Lloyd
Lloyd:: I know you hate me, but --
Mark: Listen, I don't hate you. I just wish you were standing behind the eight-ball when I came crashing through.
And that is how Mark knew exactly where to aim the car: He found a graffiti'd 8-ball on the door and hit the gas. His timing is fortuitous, as it derails the B-squad goons from killing either Lloyd or Simon. Mark manages to survive a shootout -- including a move where he kicks his way through the driver's window to beat up a goon -- and saves the day. And all the noise keeps anyone from noticing that Simon has managed to pursue one of the goons and killed him in retaliation for losing a bit of his pinky finger.
Mark and Lloyd then have a sit-down, and Lloyd shows him the old flyer he'd written "HELP US" on, asking, "How the hell did you find us?" Mark tells him, "You called me. We were talking together on the phone in our flashforwards. Now, it's time for you to tell me everything." Poor Lloyd -- he's already been through the "we have ways to make you talk" routine once, and now he's got Agent Bambi glaring at him across a table.
Outside, Simon's being loaded into an ambulance. He's all strapped to a gurney and secured inside when the camera pulls back and -- EEEEE! It's RICKY JAY! Has he the power of teleportation? BAMF! Simon strains to get at his foe, but alas, is strapped in place. Ricky Jay gives Simon a "bitch, please" look and says, "Well. That didn't go exactly as planned, did it?" Simon grits, "I'd give you the finger, but I'm running out of ones to spare." Ricky Jay rolls his eyes all Oh, go cry to Frodo about losing a finger and shrugs, "I improvised. I had to. We weren't getting results, and we needed to direct suspicion away from you. I think we've accomplished that for tonight, if nothing else." Simon says he's done being Ricky Jay's bitch, and Ricky Jay whips out his phone to remind Simon that he is personally sitting on footage of Simon as Suspect Zero. "As of this moment, the world thinks you and Simcoe accidentally caused this blackout. What happens if they find out you were awake while it happened?" he asks. We zip back to footage of Simon watching all of Comerica Park fall asleep around him.
Flashback time! It's the morning of the flashforward -- 7:30 in the morning, Toronto time, to be precise -- and Simon is attending his father's funeral. We see him being unusually solicitous toward someone; this must be his little sister Annabelle. As Simon gets into his car, the driver takes him to a place not-the-funeral-home; he's been pressed into going to the Detroit game. There are worse places to be.
We see Simon walking toward his seat as a voice on the phone instructs him, "You don't get to ask questions. You've been part of this since you were 13. We've given you a lot of leeway. In fact, we haven't asked much of you over the years. Truth be told, you've had it kind of easy. So now, we want you to do exactly as we say." The camera pans out and we see the D. Gibbons figure on the other end of the line, clichéd chessboard set up in front of his bank of computer monitors. Per instructions, Simon goes to his seat, settles in, begins eating popcorn from the tub in front of him, and finds a ring box. Worst. Mystery. Proposal. Ever. Anyway, he puts on the ring with its alpha insignia, per D. Gibbons' instructions. And then, the world falls asleep.
Simon looks around, then gets up as his phone rings. D. Gibbons tells him to walk into the nearest tunnel -- thus creating the surveillace footage the FBI's been studying -- and BAMF! It's Ricky Jay. He and Simon obviously have prior acquaintance, and Simon numbly follows him to an interior tunnel.
Then we move to the present day, where Olivia is trying to treat Simon and he is trying to throw her off with lascivious talk. Sorry, Simon, but Olivia's heart beats for only one physics genius, and Lloyd got there first. She hands over his prescription with instructions to finish the whole thing, and Simon dry-swallows a few pills without incident as Janis watches from the doorway. Janis then takes him out of the hospital and oh, there is sparring, but zzzzz... Simon is now under federal protection and custody. "From now on, we own you," Janis says. Sadly, she does not add, "Now go get me a beer."
Back at FBI digs, Lloyd -- sporting a dirty face and immaculate shirt and sports coat -- asks if he's under arrest. Mark snaps, "I don't know. Have you broken any laws?" Coveting thy agent's wife isn't really a law so much as it is a commandment, so... no. Nice try, Mark. The camera pulls back, and we see that Wedeck, Demetri and Vogel are watching the conversation. Wedeck points out that Mark did find the physicists, but Vogel says, "He's a loose cannon!" Demetri mentally checks off "B-5" on his "law enforcement cliché bingo" card. Wedeck points out, "Loose cannon or not, Mark managed to do what the rest of us couldn't. On his own." Vogel has no answering cliché.
Back to the talky-talk: Mark wants to know why Lloyd has not mentioned this second-blackout possibility before. Lloyd shrugs and Mark's all, "How about you tell the truth?" Lloyd shoot back, "How about this: 20 million people died, possibly precipitated by something I did. I have a vision in which a drunk man tells me, 'Another blackout is coming.' No further information, no context, no substantiation. Now, you tell me: Under the circumstances, what do you expect me to do?" Mark's all, "Contact the authorities?" and Lloyd snorts, "What, like you did? Why didn't you tell your colleagues there was going to be another blackout?" Ooh, burn. Mark can only lamely deflect with the "Why are we talking about me?" feint. He really wants to find out what Lloyd's flashforward is about, but Lloyd is not exactly in the mood to chat. Mark leaves with a promise of detaining Lloyd for as long as possible.
Back at the hospital, Simon eludes Janis's vigilance by faking an anaphylactic reaction to his antibiotics. She is the wrong person to be minding him; this is the second time he's been disappeared on her watch. I nominate Demetri for the job, as he seems to have the necessary bitch, please glare that keeps Simon in check. Also, it will liberate him from Vogel's tiresome company.
Simon's now touched down at YYZ, and guess who's waiting for him at the gate? No, not Geddy Lee. It's Janis, who had an off-screen streak of job-related competence and managed to track Simon down. Simon persuades Janis to give him 24 hours in Toronto; she accedes only because she has a hunch that Simon's up to shady business and she wants to keep an eye on him while he skulks, lurks and obfuscates. Then she wreaks revenge on Simon by making him take off his pants while she fastens a tracking bracelet on him.
And now, we meet the Campos family. Mom is a pip, and his older brothers are delightful. Janis tactfully deflects the "Are you his secretary?" query, and quietly picks up the "Have you seen this missing child?" flyer of Annabelle. We find out that she disappeared only a few days after the funeral, leaving a note to the effect that there was too much sadness at home. Mother Campos is quite huggy and affectionate with Simon, and mentions that he comes home every month to look for Annabelle. Janis asks, "Were you close?" and Simon gets a pained and furtive expression before saying, "Yeah. She's only 15." Then he heads up to take a shower. Bafflingly, Janis does not manufacture an excuse to go upstairs and keep an eye on the physics genius who can build time-warping hardware; she'd rather put her faith in a standard-issue ankle bracelet.
Oh, wait -- she has. Janis is poking around Simon's childhood bedroom -- kept the way the young Simon had it, which is touching and/or creepy, depending on how you feel about parents enshrining their children's youth -- and she notices his collection of geodes. Mother Campos tells a charming anecdote about how they're not just a pretty rock collection; they were the ballast young Simon used to fill a lunch box and bash in the brains of the boys who were tormenting him. She lovingly concludes, "Simon's always been a bit of an alien in this family, but there's one thing he gets from me, one trait that definitely tells me he's my son. That boy never lets anyone push him around. He always gets even."
And Simon has escaped again. Janis! What the hell?
Anyway, he's off to a quaint houseboat where his old friend and physics mentor Philip now lives with his cat Samantha. Simon charms his way into the house with a first pressing of Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark is the night, cold is the ground" and some specialty sardines for the cat, and he has an urgent conversation with Philip. Janis shows up to ruin the fun right when Simon and Philip are reciting the "St. Crispin's Day" speech from Henry V, but Simon insists, "We have to find a way to anchor consciousness in the here and now. We have to protect ourselves from the effects of another blackout." In other words: There is going to be a second flashforward, and Simon needs to figure out how to thwart it.
When they get back to the house, Janis is making dinner with Mother Campos -- who is sad that poor Janis doesn't have a boyfriend -- and the doorbell rings. Simon goes to get the door, and Mother Campos twinkles to Janis, "It's a surprise -- their uncle Teddy." Simon heads for the door, opens it, and BAMF! It's Ricky Jay. He's even got a hostess gift of flowers for Mother Campos. And then Ricky Jay (a.k.a. "Uncle Teddy") steps forward, embraces Simon and says, "When I heard you were kidnapped, I was so worried." He does not add "that my plan would not work out." But he doesn't have to. Simon closes the door with a look that suggests his project is going to be learning how to kill people with the power of his mind.
In addition to the lovely bouquet, Uncle Teddy's also brought a rare côte du Rhone wine for dinner. I sort of want an Uncle Teddy. My family's big -- the odds that I'm the one getting kidnapped for physics secrets would be pretty small, and think of all the wine and roses we'd get in return. Anyway, the tension between Simon and Teddy does not go unnoticed by Janis, and she makes the kind of small talk that helps us viewers understand that Uncle Teddy identified Simon's genius at an early age, moved the Campos family to Canada to give Simon sufficient opportunity to nurture his intellect, and bamboozled the rest of the family into regarding him as a benevolent relative. He tells Janis, "I never took time to have kids of my own. They're such blessings." Janis asks, "Do you regret it?" "Nah. I've got these guys. I could never repay what they've given me -- school plays, hockey games, birthday parties. Everything I've learned about family, I've learned at this table," he says, beaming at the assembled Camposes. Janis mentally reminds herself to call the clinic Bryce recommended. Because, as we've established earlier, this show is subtle. Simon calls BS on Uncle Teddy, who smoothly ripostes, "Pay no attention. Red wine makes him mean. His father was like that, too." I see Uncle Teddy also learned the fine art of aiming directly at your relatives' sore spots while sitting around the Campos table. Simon snaps, "You have no right to --"
To what? We flash back to Comerica park, and Simon's getting the 411 from Ricky Jay: "You were brought here to witness an experiment that will change humanity for all time -- an experiment that could not have been conducted without you." Simon points out that "Everything I've worked on in the past year has been at --" "At [the fancy physics lab]. An experiment that occurred exactly one minute and 47 seconds ago," Ricky Jay says. Simon asks, "What have you done?" Ricky Jay answers very matter-of-factly: "Probably killed millions of people. We expect backlash against those ultimately found responsible. What a coincidence that your father passed away just when we needed to create an alibi for you. Some kind of hunting accident, I presume." Cut to Simon's face as that genius-level IQ realizes exactly why and how his father died. Before he takes off, Ricky Jay advises that Simon make up a good flashforward story and stick to it. Fortunately for Simon, Ricky Jay's driver lets it slip that he was the one who killed Father Campos. Well, it's fortunate in that Simon's able to come up with that vivid story about how it feels to strangle someone thanks to the furious and immediate revenge he takes upon his father's murderer.
Back in the present, the phone rings. Mother Campos picks up, and it's Annabelle. As assorted Camposes scamper to the phone, Janis walks into another room, flips on her cell and orders a trace on the call. And Ricky Jay says quietly, "Simon, that phone call's not for you." He hands over his phone: it shows footage of Annabelle reading her message as someone points a gun at her head. Simon asks, "Why are you doing this?" Ricky Jay replies, "You've been accepting our help for 20 years. Surely you didn't think that came without a price?" Simon protests, "You asked me to give you data, to tell you when we were running the experiment, that's all. Killing my father, taking Annabelle -- that was never part of the deal." Ah, but it is -- "The deal is whatever we say it is, and right now, we need you to cooperate. Annabelle is just insurance. Let's go for a little walk, shall we?"
That little walk takes them to the trunk of Ricky Jay's car where, lo and behold, he's got Philip's recently-killed body stashed. (Awww, that's too bad. I like a man who demands others pay fealty to his cat.) Ricky Jay points out, "It doesn't matter [that you know what caused the blackout]. What matters is that you continue to do what you're told. This is your last warning. Cross us again, and we'll start shipping Annabelle back to you piece by piece."
Simon turns around and says coldly, "No. I'm calling your bluff. You need me, otherwise I wouldn't be alive right now." He pushes Ricky Jay back so the other man falls on the ground, then drops down beside him and presses his hands right over Ricky Jay's heart. "I want to talk to the man pulling the strings," he hisses as he bears down. "That's not going to happen," Ricky Jay gasps. Ah, but Simon thinks it will, because "I'm sending them a message, and the message is you. I'm cutting out the middleman." Thanks to Ricky Jay's emphysema, it's really easy to muck with how much oxygen-rich blood is getting to where it needs to be -- all it takes is a few chest compressions that can easily be explained as attempts to do CPR later, and wham! Cardiac arrest. He stands up and kicks the body with, "This is for my father, you fake son of a bitch. I never get pushed around. And I always get even."
Well. You can rock D. Gibbons to sleep with that one tonight. I look forward to seeing how the showdown between two morally-flexible geniuses will turn out.
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