'FlashForward': Wedeck blackmails the President
The way things currently stand on "FlashForward," the future seems pretty much written (at least who is alive and who is not come the end of April). Because of that, big explosions that may or may not kill our heroes at the start of an episode are kind of anti-climactic. Mark and the FBI guys may have had their car blown up before things got going tonight, but we all knew that they weren't in it.The explosion happened in DC as our heroes were there for a Senate hearing on who should be running the flashforward investigation. I really like that the show brought us to those investigations and had Mark work for his crazy Mosaic corkboard investigation. Clemente is obviously a horrible person, but her asking questions about Mark and the actions of the LA field office was exactly what she should have been doing. She may have known some of the answers she was going to get, but I think questions needed to be asked.
Plus, not all the answers were known in advance. For instance, Clemente asked the million dollar question - why did Mark think his investigation was going to amount to anything. His answer was that gunmen appeared during the vision "presumably" because of what the investigation accomplishes. How does he say that with a straight face (or, how do the writers write it with one)? I've complained about such things enough already during this show that I'll tell you that these scenes somewhat turned me around - Clemente was asking the right questions and I don't imagine that she will just accept any old answer (at least I don't think she would have as a lowly Senator, as a VP she may).
Perhaps the most interesting we learned tonight is that our good pal, Wedeck is friends with the President. That did prove that the show can still surprise us, just not with pretending that our agents got blown up. The President offered Wedeck that pretty swell promotion, wanting to make him the Director of Homeland Security, but I have to figure that after Wedeck blackmailed the President, the job came off the table.
Unquestionably the best scene of the night plot-wise (I did like the shoot-out at the end too) was at the karaoke bar. That moment with Wedeck and Mark where Mark copped to having been loaded during his flashforward was fantastic. There Wedeck was, he had put himself on the line, cashed in his chips with the President, blackmailed the leader of the free world, got the funding, and then learned that he stuck his neck out for his lead investigator who is going to be rip-roaring drunk come the end of April. That had to absolutely crush Wedeck. How safe is it to assume that Wedeck texted Olivia the info about Mark after that?
The dead Somalian crows came back again tonight. The fact that they keep coming back but not yet with any sort of huge information (tonight we learned that there are some towers in Somalia) means, to me, that those dead crows are going to be crucially important down the line.
Quick flashes:
- The President's flashforward apparently deals with some sort crisis.
- Olivia seems pretty convinced Mark is going to start drinking again, I wonder how that will affect her actions.
- What was that with Wedeck and the President - did Wedeck hide the President's illegitimate love child?
- If the President was President during his flash, does that mean Clemente was lying or that there are different futures that were seen?
- This should have bothered me before now, but where is Janis Hawk getting a sonogram? Surely there's no doctor who works that late at night. She's got to be abroad, right?
- Karaoke - never a good plan.
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One thing about the text. I don't think it could have been Wedeck because he said no one could know the truth about Mark's vision. My guess is on Aaron, because if he tells Olivia, that gives him hope that the visions won't change and that he'll see his daughter again.
"big explosions that may or may not kill our heroes at the start of an episode are kind of anti-climactic."
As well as a sign of a poorly written show. This show gets worse and worse every week.
"How does he say that with a straight face (or, how do the writers write it with one)?"
Re the writers: Money. Lots of it.
The whole Clemente thing was just a time-wasting diversion, the whole DC corruption thing we've seen a zillion times before. I thought this show was supposed to be something different and special?
"Plus, not all the answers were known in advance."
Yeah, my standards are pretty low with how I spend my time, so just so long as a couple of answers weren't known in advance that's good enough for me.
"Wedeck is friends with the President. That did prove that the show can still surprise us."
Yeah, and maybe next week someone else in the office will win the lottery!
"...did Wedeck hide the President's illegitimate love child?"
That's my inference as well. Again, the sort of thing we've seen before a zillion times (politicians are corrupt -- what a surprise!).
"This should have bothered me before now, but where is Janis Hawk getting a sonogram? Surely there's no doctor who works that late at night. She's got to be abroad, right?"
Excellent point! I hadn't thought of that either. (I suspect the writers haven't either.)
TYPO: "The President's flashforward apparently deals with some sort crisis."
I think you want an "of" between "sort" and "crisis".
It's tough for me to criticize the logic flaws in the show without reading the book. But I don't want to read the book until I've seen the whole first season. These adaptations create such a Catch-22.
I liked the epi, and i am liking this show more and more. I love how during the gunfight tonight, the characters could feel more emboldened because they know they didn't bite it at that time. I thought that is a cool phemonema of having a clue about your future.
Well, if we are being nit-picky: What's a "Director of Homeland Security"? There's a "Secretary of Homeland Security" since it's a Cabinet department and not an agency. AFAIK states have directors of Homeland Security, but they are appointed by a governor, not the president.
i figured Clemente was lying about her flash forward, but now i'm not so sure?
I suspect either the head of the LA FBI office or John Cho is the traitor/mole for the bad guys. If I had to pick between the two I'd say it's John Cho because we Asians rarely are good guys on TV. I bet during the blackout John Cho "saw nothing" because he wasn't blacked out. He flipped his car, got out and killed those 2 terrorist suspects. That's why when Mark came to - John Cho was nowhere around when he should have been in the seat next to him. He's lying to the Feds and spying for his co-conspirators. He texted Olivia that Mark is drinking. He was the one who set off the doll warning system in the factory in Pigeon Utah... do the math people.
Since the pilot I've been saying I'd like to see the OB/GYN office that's open at 10:00pm. (Those L.A. docs are pretty accommodating, right?) Maybe the reasoning is the chick giving the sonogram is involved with Janis, and able to do her the favor of an after hours check up. ??
Hopefully these writers will be able to tie up their loose ends come April 29, 2010. Surely you'd have to storyboard/vet the hell out of these visions during pre-production, eh? We'll see, I guess.
How come no one has mentioned the fact that the FBI agent is a lesbian which came as a shock to me!!!
did this fact already come out and I missed it?
And maybe her and her lover got married or something and she was inseminated?
*Yawn*
The show is definitely becoming more boring by the episode. Couldn't even get through it last night. Deleted the timer from my DVR. I have no idea how they could make a show about such an interesting concept so dull, but they managed to do it.