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Remember how Aaron had a daughter who came back from the dead and is hiding out from evil Jericho security at Aaron’s place? Well, Tracy's "friend" Mike reappears with a story about how Tracy called him, and Aaron's all, "Yeah, she's crashing at my place!" thereby leading Mike, who is actually not Tracy's friend, right to his quarry. Well done, father of the year. Tracy is then packed in a shipping box and FedEx'd to Kandahar. Aaron comes home to an empty house, correctly deduces that Mike's the reason Tracy's been kidnapped, and goes after Mike. He is surprisingly good at issuing beatdowns, and after getting some preliminary information from Mike, he takes his fight to the head of Jericho, wrecks a child’s birthday, and learns where Tracy's been shipped. The moral here is to never, ever mess with someone who can cut off your utilities.
Zoey comes clean to Demetri regarding her flashforward -- she's now up on Korean funeral customs -- and he tells her things'll be fine because he's filed the paperwork to destroy the gun. "We're getting married. There's no getting out of it," he says. I sort of don't understand why those two don't just elope now as a sort of "Free will rulz!" gesture to the universe, then throw a big party in April. Zoey then goes to harangue Mark about possible scenarios in which he'd kill Demetri, but for all her vaunted skills as a litigator, she's unable to get him to spin the tale of when and how he'd like to kill Demetri. And then Zoey hands a FOIA to Wedeck -- she wants to review all the Mosaic-related files, because she wants to find the smoking gun (as it were) that will point to Demetri's pending death. Demetri fumes over this, but what really makes him lose his cool is when Zoey makes a deal to represent Alda Herzog in exchange for whatever information the Teutonic terrorist has regarding Demetri's death. They have the world's quickest fight, but Demetri's plan to offer his destroyed gun as a make-up offering goes south -- the gun is missing.
Mark tries to recreate his pending April 29 phone call with Lloyd. The relevant details: Lloyd had been writing a fancy formula on Mark and Olivia's bedroom mirror in lipstick, and he knows "D. Gibbons" as someone named Dyson Frost, a physicist who steals intellectual property and was voted "Most Likely To Embrace Dr. Doom As A Role Model." Mark seizes on this to solicit Lloyd's vow of cooperation, especially since both men are all about preventing another flashforward and they suspect Dyson Frost will be all about causing one. Mark then takes his information about Dyson Frost to Wedeck and Vogel and what do you know, Vogel ships Janis and Demetri off to Somalia to check out the weird goings-on there.
This is going to mess up Janis's plans, as she spent most of the episode preparing for the round of insemination that will, in theory, make her great with child. (Although she's pretty awesome already.)
Want more? The full recap starts right below!So here's what we learn in the first few minutes of the episode: Fifteen years back, Aaron did a stretch in the pokey, he was on the verge of making parole, one of the guards made lascivious comments about then-adolescent Tracy, Aaron then proved that, like Chuck Norris, he could subdue heavily-armed men with only his righteous fury and his bare fists. The episode doesn't show this, but I'm guessing Aaron's chances at parole were severely diminished after that episode.
We then transition to "Lathan's" in present Los Angeles. It's a bar, and Aaron's found Tracy drinking there. He finally pries her off the barstool with "Let me ask you one question before you shut me out again. If you're so scared these Jericho guys are after you, and I found you by walking into the closest bar ... do you really think this is a smart move here?" Even drunk, Tracy can see the logic in what Aaron's saying.
Across town, Zoey is getting the details on Demetri's pending murder. She is none too happy to learn that Mark is a prime suspect in said murder-to-be, and Demetri pleads with her not to get "all lawyer-y on me," pointing out that Mark risked both his career and his life to try and find out the details of Demetri's murder-to-be, because Benford's just that swell. Zoey, however, is still hung up on her flashforward -- hell hath no fury like a bride who has to repurpose her dress for a Korean funeral -- and Demetri tells her to chillax, as he's filed the paperwork to have the gun destroyed and it is presumably tucked away in an FBI evidence locker awaiting its fate. This is not reassuring Zoey like it should.
And now, Plotlines That Can Be Distilled Into One Paragraph: Did you all know that Janis was pregnant in her flashforward? She was! And according to the timing, she has to get pregnant WEEK to make that flashforward come true. Janis has a discussion at the fertility clinic that basically comes down to her saying, "Baby! BABY! BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBY!" and then she has a discussion with Demetri that basically comes down to her saying, "Baby! BABY! BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBY!" and then the FBI blows a hole in Project Baby BABY BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBY by sending her off to Somalia to investigate the phenomena that may be linked to prior blackout experiments. So help me, if the episode has Janis knocking back a few to bolster her resolve, then propositioning one of her male colleagues so she can keep to her conception timetable, I am going to break up with this show.
We then head out to stately Benford Manor, early morning. Zoey's come to pay Mark a social call, if by "social call," you mean "attempting to get him to confess to ways in which he might kill Demetri." Mark, however, has been filleted by the best Congressional examiners, so he easily deflects Zoey with "Look, no matter how crazy things get, I'd never hurt Demetri." Zoey asks, "But what if Demetri's got a gun to your head, he's about to pull the trigger -- to save your own life, do you shoot him?" And what if Mark has a mako shark gnawing on his leg and the only known mako shark repellent is Korean brain matter? Or how about if Mark is kidnapped by evil gnomes, brainwashed into sympathizing with them, then forced to fight when Demetri kicks over the gnomes' mushroom headquarters to free his friend? Or what if Demetri discovers that what he thought was sushi is really the egg casing for a parasitic alien host that will eat its way out of his stomach, then enslave the human race? We can make up hypotheticals all day. Mark shuts down the speculation with, "I know you love Demetri, but I think you may want to reel it in there, Zoey." Undeterred, Zoey moves on to blaming Mark: "The question becomes, what could you possibly do that Demetri wanted you dead? Do you have some deep, dark secret worth killing over? What am I missing here, Mark?" He tartly suggests, "Here's a theory: Someone at the Bureau's been leaking a lot of information, putting us in danger. Now, I don't think Demetri's the guy, but if he was --" Zoey makes a dismissive noise and Mark twists the knife by giving her the Full Bambi look and saying, "I thought we were playing Outrageous Accusations." And I thought we were playing, "Two people who knew Al Gough also know he killed himself, therefore proving that the flashforwards show only a possible future, not the only future, and that free will can still alter any projected outcome." I mean, COME ON. Al's death affected the flashforwards of at least four people (himself, Agent Fiona Banks, the lawyer to whom he was talking, and the kid of the woman he killed), therefore nullifying their flashforwarded futures. Ergo, these visions are not reliable future indicators. Why are any of these people still taking the "OH MY GOD, IF A SPARROW FLAPS ITS WINGS, IT SIGNALS A DESTINY FORETOLD" approach to any of this? Anyway, Zoey invites Mark to go to hell, then takes off. As delightful as seeing Mark on the receiving end of that was, it's weirdly unsatisfying because I'm sympathetic to him. Damn you, Zoey.
We flash back to two years ago, and the quietly devastating scene where Aaron learns of Tracy's death from the two Marines assigned to that terrible honor. Man, I dislike the Aaron-and-Tracy plotline with the white-hot fire of a thousand burning suns, but I have to give mad, mad plaudits to Bryan F. O'Byrne for the layered fury, grief and loneliness he depicts in this scene.
In the present: Aaron's making Tracy grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches for breakfast, which makes him one of the most awesome dads ever, because yum. He tells her, "Best thing in the world for a hangover." (I will respectfully disagree: Chinese food is awesome on those gruesome mornings -- or afternoons -- after.) Tracy says, "I always thought you made it because I liked it," and Aaron says, "Two birds, one stone." Okay: heh. The point to this scene is not to remind us of the long and fraught father/daughter relationship, but to introduce the name James Erskine. He's a resident of the greater Los Angeles area and the head of Jericho. My, how geographically convenient to this plot! We also find out that Tracy's friend Khamir is indirectly responsible for her being in Los Angeles: per their flashforwards, he conceived of the idea that it was Tracy's destiny to bring Aaron to Afghanistan, so off she went on a humanitarian-aid plane back to the States to set the wheels of destiny in motion. (Because, apparently, the only person who ever looked at a flashforward and said, "This is bullshit. I'm not doing this" ... was Al Gough.)
Mark then decides to make his day a little more frustrating by bringing Lloyd into the office and interrogating him on the phone call the two of them will presumably share on April 29. Mark has a sketch of the man they call D. Gibbons -- uncannily accurate, as these things go -- but Lloyd claims not to know D. Gibbons. Mark is not buying this: After all, D. Gibbons will be name-checked as a liar in their upcoming phone call. Mark says, "I don't have time to play pissy Brit with you" -- especially since he's really playing Petulant American instead -- and takes Lloyd back to his place under the theory that seeing the Benford marital bower will prod Lloyd's recall.
In another part of the office, Zoey has just swung by. She greets Demetri sweetly and hands over lunch. Wedeck looks frankly skeptical of this move, but goes to mooch some free food. (I love him.) Zoey says, "Don't worry, Stan, I brought you something even more delicious." It's a Freedom of Information request on everything related to the Mosaic project. Nummers! Demetri is really taken aback by this; Wedeck just looks nostalgic for the days of a presidential administration that regarded "human rights" as a collection of funny syllables and considered the answer to a problem like Zoey to be "rendition." Demetri is appalled. He and Zoey promptly launch into one of those clenched-teeth-and-calm-voice arguments couples try to have when they want to fight in public without causing a scene
. Wedeck, however, cuts straight through the bull: "Is this about Mark's gun? Please tell me that's not what's going on here." It is, but Zoey cites public interest, and she's totally willing to drag the entire investigation into the courts and the public record -- thereby rendering all of the Mosaic investigation completely useless -- if it means that Demetri lives and she gets her damn wedding. Wedeck knows when he's up against prenuptial insanity and grits that "Agent Noh will make the files available to you." And he will probably deliver each one with a searing death glare, but hey, Zoey wouldn't be marrying him if she weren't already immune to his glower.
And now, the scene that caused me to smack my forehead. We're at the San Pedro docks and Tracy's alleged "friend" Mike spins some yarn at Aaron regarding a silent phone call he got for his birthday. He concludes, "It's Tracy. She's alive, isn't she?" Aaron is unable to conceal his elation, then says, "She's at my house right now. Can you believe that? It's coming true." Oh, Aaron.
Lloyd has refrained from making any comments about how weird it is to be in the Benford house, and he walks upstairs to the bedroom with Mark. As they enter the room, Lloyd asks, "This doesn't bother you?" It so obviously does bother Mark, but he commands, "Start from the beginning." Lloyd uncomfortably begins narrating, and we see him getting up from the bed (he had been shirtless), answering his phone because he had gotten a text message from Simon ("It was a formula, or part of a formula") and we see for the first time that the full-length bedroom mirror is covered in a mathematical formula, written in lipstick. Lloyd says, "I had a sense there was a woman in the room, but I swear, I had no idea it was Olivia."
In the narrated flashback, Lloyd then excuses himself to make a phone call. He dryly notes that Mark did not take well to inquiries about his drinking, and Mark asks about "cracking the Q.E.D." It does not mean "quod erat demonstratum," but might refer to the name of whatever formula Lloyd and Simon would be working on in the field of quantum electrodynamics.
Later that evening, Demetri is still dropping off files -- each with a glare, natch -- and he huffs to Zoey, "I told you to drop this." She absently corrects him, "You told me to trust you." As it turns out, she's found something in Alda Hertzog's deposition that she thinks might be useful. Demetri repeats, "Drop it." Zoey justifies her actions with "What if it were me?" He replies tightly, "Digging is digging. But serving my boss with paper, trying to smear my partner -- that is way over the line." Zoey huffs, "I'm going to do whatever I can to prevent your murder." And possibly drive Demetri into a relationship time-out in the process?
Back at Aaron's place, we see how his big mouth has gotten Tracy in trouble: she's kidnapped and bundled into an appliance box by two thugs. And those guys look like they're not Amazon Prime members, so the postage on the Tracy package is going to be ridiculously expensive. And when Aaron comes in, the pot of pasta water has burned down to flames, the fire alarm is going off, and Tracy's nowhere to be found. He figures out what's happened after only a few minutes of running around the house. And going by the murderous look on Aaron's face, the rest of this episode is not going to go well for Mike-the-pretend-friend.
Still in the middle of recreating Lloyd's flashforward. Remember: It is night now. Those flashforward are approximately 137 seconds long. Therefore, ace investigator Benford has managed a 1:158 ratio in terms of "seconds of actual flashforward: seconds of talking about flashforward." We're back to shirtless Lloyd talking physics equations -- surely the pinup ideal of some left-brainers somewhere -- and Mark telling him to hurry on account of there being another blackout. Then Lloyd pops a beer and chills on the couch. The last thing he remembers is hearing, "Hey, honey," but he didn't see who it was. Mark asks why Lloyd was so adamant about calling D. Gibbons a liar. There's some back-and-forth and we find out that Lloyd actually does know D. Gibbons. Shocker!
It is now the morning(?) or something -- look, it's light out, and since Aaron discovered Tracy's abduction when it was dark and it's now light and he's over at Mike's place, it's reasonable to assume it's the day, unless the flashforward has also mucked about with the Earth's orbit and our days are now only 12 hours long, and wow, I just got distracted by trying to set the scene when really, the point is that Aaron has hunted down Mike at his house, Mike is trying to skip down ("My dad got me a job closer to home. It's all about family, right") and Aaron is having none of it. He tells Mike he'd like to buy him a burger before they take off.
The minute they're in the car, the heavens open up and it's pouring. Aaron makes small talk with, "Do you know I went to prison? Two and a half years. Got into a bar fight, hit a guy a little too hard." So we're talking manslaughter? You can practically see the thought bubble over Mike's head and it reads "Shit! This guy knows his shanks and shivs!" Aaron ominously goes on as to how prison makes you a very capable individual. And this is the scene where we find out that Aaron is, in fact, capable of whupping the hide of a man approximately half his age, then breaking his arm in a way that ensures it'll never heal right. He should be giving lessons to Mark and Demetri, given how both men drop like sacks of potatoes when they're in hand-to-hand combat.
Back to Lloyd and Mark, still nightfall, and I can only assume Olivia's working a 36-hour shift or something because she has not come home all, "Hey, honey! Does pizza -- whoa, this is awkward. I will just call Dominoes. And get it for pickup." Anyway, Lloyd says that D. Gibbons is the former Dyson Frost, and I realize the name is probably an homage to quantum-field theoretician Freeman Dyson but I am immediately reminded of the exacting silver fox who's devoted his life to making frighteningly effective vacuum cleaners. ANYWAY. The scoop on Dyson Frost is that he's a big old intellectual property thief (he stole Lloyd's work and passed it off as his own) who appears to have faked his death and assumed the identity of D. Gibbons. Mark asks if perhaps Lloyd is the one who gave young Charlie the idea that "D. Gibbons is a bad man," but no. And since Charlie won't talk about her flashforward, they have no idea where that came from. To deflect away from the talk about his daughter, Mark changes the topic to Lloyd's abduction. He asks, "They torture you for 72 hours" (note: it was 48 in the closed captioning) "cut off your friend's finger, and they never told you why, made any demands, threatened you in any way?" Lloyd said he was never threatened, but Dylan was, so "I gave them everything -- energy levels, equipment settings, monitoring parameters." Mark asks, "Could they use any of it to cause another blackout?" Short answer: Does sweeps happen every May? Mark realizes, "This guy, Dyson Frost, he's the key. We find him, we can stop this thing from happening again." And this is how both men agree to team up and stop the hated D. Frost/D. Gibbons.
The day, Mark is briefing Wedeck on what happened with Lloyd, and he reveals that Dyson Frost wrote the seminal paper on something called "the mirror test." Wedeck performs his expositional duties by asking, "What the hell is a mirror test?" Vogel, who is sitting by, silent, also looks intrigued. Mark explains, "It's a test that determines recognition of consciousness among species." And the animals that pass it include us, elephants and crows. (Tangent: What about gray parrots? They're really brainy. Or, say, cetaceans? Excuse me while I disappear into the Black Hole of Google for the hours checking this out ...) Mark connects the dots for Vogel and Wedeck: the Somalia incident back in the 1990s involved a massive die off
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of crows, they have proven consciousness via the mirror test, there's that mysterious structure there ... he implores, "I spoke to a team leader at Red Panda. They fly in and out of all there all the time safely." Wedeck replies with, "Bird-watching in Somalia? How am I going to sell that to Washington?" Vogel then voices one of my guiding life philosophies: "You don't. It's better to ask forgiveness than permission." Mark is all, I could be persuaded to like you, now that you're giving me what I want.
We then see a swanky SoCal manse and get Aaron leaving a message on Mark's voicemail: "Some pretty deep stuff has gone down and I need you to run a background check on that guy James Erskine, the head of Jericho. Get back to me as soon as you can. Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it." Not that I don't doubt Aaron's general line of inquiry, but has it not occurred to him that a) the Bureau will probably keep records of whatever inquiries their agents run, and b) if Jericho is truly some all-seeing evil megacorp, they'll have someone already monitoring federal databases for any inquiries that are relevant to them, so c) Aaron may be endangering Mark or alerting Jericho that he's out there?
Anyway, we have a new scene to set: fake Lloyd Wright exterior, tons of DWR furniture and blank spaces in the interior. We immediately know James Erskine is no good because nearly all TV and movie villains tend to gravitate toward midcentury modern design. Aaaand then the power goes out. Because Aaron's just turned it off. Never, ever mess with a man who's fluent in infrastructure. He will cut off your utilities and end your cushy 21st-century life. Aaron then introduces himself to Erskine as a DWP flunkie, trots out a story about power surges and thereby gets access to the property.
And now Zoey's met Alda. Alda tries to get in digs about sending condolence cards, but Zoey keeps her cool. She's been going over Alda's transcripts, and she suspects Alda knows more than she told the FBI. "I think what you do know is somehow related to Demetri's death." Alda contemptuously asks, "And you think I'd give up that information to you because I'm a believer in true love?" No -- she'll do it because she's a believer in predestination and, as Zoey points out, her flashforward does not show her in prison, so she's probably going to cut the deal. Guess who's now representing Alda against the Feds?
We cut to Aaron breaking the news to Erskine that "I'm not here to fix your power. I'm here to get my daughter back." Erskine, unsurprisingly, does not immediately quake in his boots. But once Aaron leaves, Erskine does whip out a phone and tell someone on the other end that someone needs to get rid of Aaron.
At the FBI office, Vogel is breaking the news to Mark that he does not get to go to Somalia. "And it isn't because you're irrational, erratic and frequently stupid," he adds consolingly. No, it's because even Mark's perceived antagonists must assuage his ego: "You're essential. I don't like you, but I need you. Janis, Demetri ... if they don't make it back, it's a tragedy. But if you don't, it's a catastrophe. The truth is, Mark, this entire investigation hinges on what's in your head, and I'm here to make sure you don't lose it before April 29." Mark protests, "In Hong Kong, you said Mosaic was bigger than me." Vogel sits on the edge of Mark's desk and says cheerily, "I lied. I'm CIA. I do that." (And that is the moment when I began to like Vogel.)
Since Aaron had tapped Erskine's phone, not only does he know that he's about to be taken out, he knows that Jericho needs Tracy alive and they have her in Kandahar. And when the call comes in to Mike to take Aaron out, Aaron heads to the back of his truck (ringing cellphone in hand) and grips Mike's throat as he says, "They're calling you to kill me, Mike. Too bad you've got places to be."
Vogel left Mark's office telling Mark that he really didn't care if Janis and Demetri trusted him; he only cared that they did what he said. And in this scene, we find out what Vogel wants Janis and Demetri to do. Step One: Impersonate Red Panda mission workers. Step Two: Access the remaining satellite tower from the 1994 experiment/anomaly and see what's so darn special about it. Janis points out that impersonating relief workers violates a lot of treaties, and asks, "Do we want to go down that road?" Vogel replies, "This is CIA jurisdiction. It's my ball to call." Simon materializes out of nowhere -- still filthy from last week's misadventures, by the by -- and asks, "Great! When do we leave?" That answer is classified, but I'm thinking the answer is "Sometime around 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, April 1, 2010." Simon basically talks his way into the expedition, but Vogel seems very amused by this. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Or an unholy alliance that will leave the FBI office a smoking ruin, with Wedeck standing in the middle of it asking, "What in the hell just happened?" Or both! Why should it be an either-or, huh?
Cut to Zoey breaking the news that she's repping Alda Herzog. Demetri is not exactly thrilled by this news and shares his feelings at the top of his lungs. But Zoey admits she's scared, which is why she's doing this, and that diffuses his temper. He grabs his jacket and tells Zoey to come on -- there's something he's got to take care of.
Cut to a darkened garage, and Aaron calling Mark one more time: "Just calling to let you know things have escalated a bit with Tracy's 'friends.' But it's okay. I'm good. Things are happening just the way they're supposed to." By the way, Aaron was evidently "supposed" to strip Mike and leave him hanging, head-down, in the Erskines' clear glass walk-in fridge. Which his little daughter sees first, thereby having the kind of formative experience that will lead her to forever associate buttercream frosting with S&M imagery and her dad. (You make the call as to whether this leads to an unorthodox yet fulfilling life of sugary adventures with the Gimp or years of intensive therapy.) Aaron concludes his phone call with, "I'm going to be going off the grid for a while. If you need me ... sorry. These people went too far, and I'm not going to lay down. It's my time to make a move. I'm in this thing all the way to the end. So long, buddy." Aaron stares at Tracy's knife, briefly recalls seeing his daughter again in his flashforward, then drives off for parts unknown.
It turns out Demetri's going to destroy Mark's weapon in front of Zoey, the better to ensure her peace of mind, and it's all love and laughter until the property clerk comes out and says heavily, "It's gone. The box is here, the slip is here ... but it's gone." Dun-dun-DUN! Who in the FBI is working with the alpha group to make flashforwards come to pass? (My money's on Vreede. It's always the quiet, unprepossessing ones.) Who took the gun? We'll find out -- or not -- week.
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