'FlashForward': Let the wild rumpus begin

Heading into this two-part episode it felt like "FlashForward" had been off the air for an incredibly long period of time. Thank goodness it was a really solid episode -- lots of questions, lots of reveals, lots going on. Oh, it wasn't perfect, but it was really quite good.

Can we all admit that Wedeck wasn't wrong with his first question to Mark at the start of the episode? What was Mark thinking pulling the gun? What was he thinking being out of the country when he was told not to go? Mark may not have started drinking yet, but he's certainly been making other horrifically bad judgment calls. I'll be fair and not include his photographing the Mosaic wall as a bad call -- I have no problem whatsoever with Mark conducting an investigation or researching anything, but he needs to do some serious thinking, not acting.

Put another way, the man has a gross problem with logic. For instance, in his flash he said to Lloyd that unless they stopped it from happening there was going to be another flash. He then told Wedeck that there definitely would be another flash. Those are two very different statements, but I'm not sure that Mark understood that. I know that he's an FBI agent, but his ability to reason seems... limited.

Mark's therapist suggested that he had a God complex. She totally nailed that, didn't she? That's exactly how he has always acted; he's the center of everything and he is because he saw himself that way in the future. And that, dear reader, is why I like Vogel joining the Mosaic investigation -- he's not afraid to tell the rest of the group just how dumb they are acting. I don't necessarily like Vogel as a human being, but he's a great reality check for them.

Simon joining the team also seems like a good thing -- maybe not for the Feds, but certainly for the show. Dominic Monaghan makes such a good dark character (and I pray they don't turn him into an out-and-out good guy),. There was no way that he was trying to get into Lloyd's computer just because he wanted to help figure out where Simcoe was. I don't know what his real motivation was, but Simon is not motivated by altruism.

The FBI did a good job over there at Lloyd's, letting Simon get kidnapped. There were three good guys and two bad, but the bad guys got the drop on the good. That's about par for the course for Mosaic, isn't it? If only Vogel had been there, maybe the masks wouldn't have left with Simon.

The big questions at the start of the episode, though, wasn't what was going on with Mark or anything about Simon joining the team, but where Lloyd was and who had taken him. I'd suggest that why he was taken was the real question, but we know why -- because he helped create the flashforward. Actually, we were told by his interrogator, Uncle Teddy, that he didn't create it, that he only "amplified" it, but the point stands.

As for that interrogation, I love that Simon lost a finger during it. It couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow. Uncle Teddy is that much better a villain for taking the finger even though Simon was working for him Also good from that portion of the show: that Uncle Teddy was in the ambulance after the rescue and revealed that Simon was the guy in the stadium awake during the flash. That was definitely an early suspicion, but it was nice to have it confirmed, and it was nice to see Simon kill his father's killer ... or at least his father's suspected killer.

Speaking of dumb FBI agents (okay, so that was a few paragraphs back, but it's never really far away on this show), why would Janis have believed that Simon was allergic to Penicillin? If Simon actually was allergic, wouldn't he be checking the bottle of any prescription or wouldn't it have come up at some point, you know, like when Olivia said "and I'm going to prescribe you some antibiotics"? While we didn't see anything like that said by Olivia, it must have occurred. At least Janis caught up to Simon in Toronto; if she hadn't I may have lost all faith in the team.

Fine, you're right, she wasn't all that bright in Toronto either, letting him escape from the bathroom. But, why wasn't she outside when Simon took out Uncle Teddy? Why would she ever have let that man out of her sight ever, ever again, and what does Simon think he's going to do with his dead professor now? It's not like Janis is going to let him drive off into the woods for a few hours to bury the guy. Is Simon going to say that his dear uncle had a heart attack upon noticing the dead man in his trunk? I don't know. Ricky Jay was a great villain (even if he wasn't the lead bad guy), I wouldn't have removed him from the story so quickly.

On a totally different track, what do we think about Nicole and Gil Bellows' window-washer/preacher man? His character I like. I'm not sure I believe that he's on the up and up, but I like that he's building some sort of ministry based on the flashes, a ministry that he saw in the flash. I think Bryce may be right that the preacher man is selling something, but for now, that doesn't matter to me.

Quick Flashes:

• What did Ricky Jay say to call him in the basement, Flosso? Sounds more like a superhero in a comic book that you'd get a dentist's office.
• Let the wild rumpus begin. Who doesn't love Maurice Sendak?
• Tofurkey soy cheesesteak. That's disgusting. Really, hugely, massively disgusting.
• That whole wall only had pennies from 1989 on it? That's impressive.
• Surely ankle trackers can't be beaten with aluminum foil. That seems moronic. And, I don't for a second believe that Simon went to the prof. solely in order to save humanity. He always has another plan.

The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - no tofurkey here.

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