Episode Report Card Sobell: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Fickle Finger of Fate is Clearly the Middle One, Pointed Skyward
By Sobell | Season 1 | Episode 20 | Aired on 05.13.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Tomorrow is D-day -- the day we catch up to our flashforwards! But today in FlashForwardland, lots happens. Let's break it down by character.
Simon's plot: Lita -- the lady who recruited Janis -- makes Simon an offer he can't refuse: something that involves black lingerie and a tattoo that's very similar to one of Dyson Frost's favorite illustrations. Simon has a counter-offer: He wants to deal with the head of the vast cabal directly. And when he does, he uses his big brain to point out that they need him, and that there's nothing else they can threaten him with to get him to help them out. Of course, he's also been outed as Suspect Zero, so it's not like he has a plethora of options.
Demetri's plot: Zoey wants him to take off for Hawaii. Demetri's all, "Have you forgotten that I work for the FBI and have lots of obligations to my country's security?" Zoey's response is: "I will make you take the middle seat if you keep on giving me lip." And if Janis blowing him off (see below) isn't bad enough, Demetri also gets the full Gabriel experience, wherein the poor savant points at him and bellows, "He has to die to make everything all right." When Demetri tries to follow up with him later, Gabriel tells him that no matter what path he takes, he'll end up where he's supposed to be. That's cold comfort.
Gabriel's plot: Olivia brings him into the office to check out Mark's collage, and Gabriel informs Mark that a lot of it is wrong. He also calls Olivia "Olivia Simcoe," much to Mark's dismay. Anyway, because he is such an idiosyncratic character, it's necessary for Olivia to stick around for Gabriel's debriefing. This provides ample opportunity for Mark to stalk his wife around the office and catch her making eyes at Lloyd. In one of the most redeeming moments Mark has, he asks Gabriel if Olivia will be happy and safe with Lloyd, and when Gabriel tells him yes, Mark seems to understand what has to happen.
Janis's plot: She protests to Agent Vogel that she doesn't want to kill Mark, but he tells her that she really has no choice, or else she'll botch the whole double-agent thing and wreck his pending investigation. As part of her comprehensive burning-all-my-bridges plan, Janis also tells Demetri, "Hey, thanks for the sperm donation, but I plan on shutting you out of my kid's life." Then she goes to hang out with Carleen, and gives up Gabriel in order to stall on killing Mark and/or getting killed herself. Or does she? because when the baddies waylay the van Janis specified, it turns out that Mark is the decoy for Gabriel, and he gets the henchpeople to lead him to the big man in charge. And once Mark gets back, he confronts Janis over her shady work for the CIA, and she admits that she's got orders to kill him. Then she tries to come clean with Demetri about everything, but he is not exactly thrilled to be in on the secret. Her bad day comes to a close with Simon breaking into her house and holding a gun on her as his way of asking for help.
And finally: Aaron delivers the goods on Jericho to Wedeck, who lets the president know what he found. He also asks, "Have you ever asked your vice president what she saw?" The president blows him off with chilly politeness and Wedeck passes the photos on to the vice president. Also, Aaron finds Tracy and, thanks to the time difference between L.A. and Kandahar, it's already D-day where he is -- and his flashforward is coming up exactly as he foresaw.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!In an amusing twist on the usual opening, we go straight to the FBI office, where Wedeck tells his remaining live agents, "On October 6th, the planet blacked out for two minutes and 17 seconds, and the whole world saw the future." But wait! There's more! Wedeck continues, "Some of us were alarmed by what we saw. Others were elated, and rejoiced. Still others saw nothing at all. They were left confused, concerned and otherwise uncertain. But that uncertainty will soon be resolved. Tomorrow is D-Day -- the day we catch up to the flashforwards. Our future both as individuals and as a collective is upon us. This building may very well come under attack tomorrow night. But we will not back down. We are the FBI, and we are open for business." But only between the federally-mandated hours of 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., all federal holidays exempted, and good luck finding someone between Christmas and New Year's when everyone is burning off their mandatory leave days.
Anyway, everyone's on maximum alert, there are extra sniper teams in place, and Vogel looks frankly skeptical that any of this will mean jack and/or squat tomorrow. Fortunately, everyone else is too happily wrapped in the hypnotic effects of Wedeck's ringing exhortations to notice.
And once the U.S. government version of the St. Crispin's Day speech is delivered, Wedeck is on Mark like a Kardashian on the paparazzi, demanding updates on Simon (still missing). Oh, wait! Breaking news! A local TV station is broadcasting footage of Suspect Zero (Simon), except this security-camera footage is taken from a completely different angle. Wedeck wants to know where this footage came from; Mark counters that a better question might be, "Why now?"
Meanwhile, Simon's at a bar, practicing the phrase "My name is David Walker" over and over in an American accent. He's wearing a black fedora and eyeglasses in an effort to look like anyone other than Simon Campos. He underestimates how distinctive his face is. Anyway, who should slink into his bar booth but Lita, the woman who recruited Janis into the shadowy cabal of people bent on wrecking the planet's comprehensive spoiler policy. She grabs his glasses and purrs, "You have such a cute face, Simon. Don't hide it." Then some leaden badinage follows -- truly, the art of the double entendre, or even the single entendre, has deteriorated -- and it works because the two of them decamp to go drink in a different bar.
Then it's back to the FBI, where Demetri is striding purposefully around the building in a mid-morning cardio break and talking on the phone to the local news director in order to find out who leaked that Suspect Zero footage. As he heads to his individual pen in the cubicle farm, a grinning Zoey is waiting for him. You can practically smell the smoke as Demetri struggles to switch gears. "Is something going on?" Zoey inquires, apparently oblivious to the nature of special-agenting on TV, and Demetri is like, "I ... can't even have this conversation with you so let's pretend you didn't ask about work and skip ahead to 'What are you doing here?'" Zoey's there because she wants to ask Demetri a favor: "Take tomorrow off." Demetri looks at her all, "Woman, did you forget what tomorrow is? Did you forget what I do for a living?" Zoey argues that this is precisely why Demetri should take tomorrow off. Besides, the airfare to Hawaii is dirt-cheap, since people are afraid to fly on flashforward day. Zoey's all, "Let's go! Seize the day! Tomorrow belongs to me!" and Demetri delivers a reality check: "We can't just pretend I'm not connected to other people. You know what's supposed to happen to Mark, and there's Janis, and there's Wedeck --" Zoey cuts him off with "For once, baby, can this just be about you and me?" That is rich coming from the woman who commandeered an entire FBI bureau to prevent her fiancé's death. Zoey, I think there are probably cubicle drones listening in on this invented conflict who think their entire work life has been about you and Demetri. (Especially if any of those drones was responsible for writing the "Yeah, we're still on the lookout for Alda Hertzog" update.) Demetri actually rolls his eyes. Then Zoey whips out an old-fashioned airline ticket jacket with actual boarding passes -- so quaint! So much more photogenic than the wadded-up sheet of 8x11 paper most of us have thanks to the check-in-online thing! -- and pulls the "I'm going to be on this plane tomorrow, and I hope you are too" act, but her ultimatum is interrupted by duty calling (literally) on Demetri's phone. He stalks off to take the call and Zoey's left to stand there and wonder why she didn't maybe try persuading him at home, where there are far fewer distractions and far more opportunities to make your case while wearing some near-lethal lingerie.
In another part of the office, Wedeck is breaking the news to Mark that if he wants to talk to Gabriel McDow, he is going to have to put up with Olivia being there, as Olivia and Gabriel have some kind of connection. Wedeck tells Mark not to sit on any information regarding who's planning on attacking the office, then Mark heads in to find Gabriel critiquing the Mosaic Project collage he's got up on the wall. Mark comes in and tries to ease Gabriel away from the board, and Gabriel blurts, "You're Mark Benford and she's Olivia Simcoe, and I'm going to meet Stanford Wedeck and Janis Hawk when they walk through that door in about five minutes. Go back, go back to the drawing board --" Mark tries to get a word in edgewise, but it's tough. He eventually gets to ask Gabriel to look at his book, and when Gabriel shows Mark his rendering of the collage, Mark is very interested. "How did you draw this?" he asks. "With a pen," Gabriel immediately replies. In the background, Olivia snickers quietly. Gabriel continues muttering, and after Olivia composes herself, she says, "Gabriel was given multiple flashforwards, so he may have been here before." Gabriel corrects her with, "I was here." There's a poignant little digression about how Dyson Frost "told my mother he'd take care of me. He didn't say he'd take good care of me" and then Gabriel leans in and tells Mark confidentially, "I have a huge hippocampus. FYI." Mark turns to Olivia and says drily, "Thanks for bringing him in." "Glad I could help," she replies, completely missing the possibility that Mark was using sarcasm. When Olivia tries to leave so Mark can talk to Gabriel, there is a shouty meltdown on Gabriel's part, and Olivia finally realizes, "Maybe I should stay." "I think that's a good idea," Mark replies with an irritated attempt at a gentle smile. It's hard when your estranged wife is the Savant Whisperer.
Cut to some dive. Vogel is sitting at the bar drinking coffee, when Janis walks in and proceeds to melt down all over him. She wants out, the shadowy cabal has gone too far: "They want me to kill Mark." Vogel looks at her over the rim of his mug, clearly thinking, And this is an issue ... why? He finally tells her, "You can't say no." Janis is like, "I really don't think I can kill someone who's both an FBI agent and my friend," and Vogel calmly points out, "If you say no, they'll find someone else to kill him. And then they'll kill you. There is no coming in from the cold here, Agent Hawk. The only way out is to finish what we started." He then orders Janis to look at him so he can bat his eyes and tell her they're close. Janis frets, "They're getting antsy. And they're going to burn me if I don't give them something big." "Then give them something big," Vogel shrugs. He leaves the bar, presumably to give Janis her privacy as she sits and thinks about all the booze she can't have on account of her fetus.
And in the next scene, Janis is back at work and discovering what a drag it is when your sperm donor turns out to live past his murder-by date. Demetri tells her he wants to be part of what's going on with her pending Little Mole, and Janis replies, "You don't have to do anything now. She's my responsibility now and that's fine." Demetri protests that he doesn't want to walk away, and Janis all but tells him to put on his Reebok EasyTones and begin moving in the opposite direction. Demetri sits down in his office wondering why both his fiancée and the mother of his child have to be so difficult.
(And can I come out and admit that I was kind of hoping Janis hadn't taken Demetri up on his initial offer? Since it was sort of ambiguous in Somalia, and then during their conversation in the cab, I figured it could go either way -- either it was "About that night when it turns out that we were unable to commit to the deed ..." or "About that night when we created the next generation of FBI superagent ..." and I was kind of hoping Janis had somehow procured the necessary materiel from someone else in a sneaky way. Now I have to hope Zoey doesn't kill him when he breaks the news that he fathered Janis's child during his "I thought I was going to die" phase.)
On the other side of the office, Olivia and Mark have a very tense conversation about the security detail Mark's posting at the house the next day. Olivia blusters about how strange it all is, and I think what she means is, "It's really going to be awkward for you around the office when these guys report back that I'm conducting naked experiments in friction and velocity with one of the physics field's leading lights."