It Happened Last Night

'FlashForward': Demetri Noh or Dyson Frost

By Josh Lasser

   |  

April 22, 2010 11:13 PM ET

flashforward-john-cho-chair-320.jpgWhen we last left Demetri Noh on "FlashForward," he had been kidnapped by Dyson Frost. Demetri was oh-so-close to his promised moment of death, and this was to be the week when we learned if Demetri was in fact going to kick the bucket on March 15. Not only were we promised an answer, we got one (people, this is a recap, we're going to talk about what went down).

Demetri was, we learned, in a room, tied to a chair with a gun pointing at him. Said gun was hooked up to a pretty sweet machine that kept making like it was going to shoot poor Demetri if he moved too much or the counter ran down to zero. Behind him was Frost's "garden of forking paths" (because Frost is literate and knows Jorge Luis Borges). It depicted all the various futures Frost's life could take, including branches from the events of March 15 which usually left Frost or Demetri dead.

Plot-wise it was all a pretty basic setup - the FBI had to find Demetri before the clock ran down to zero or Frost completely flipped and opted to just off the poor guy. The Feds knew their part and were on the case, questioning Charlie about her meeting with Frost. The upshot of that talk was that Frost handed Charlie a picture ("Oedipus and the Sphinx" by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres) with some instructions on the back for Mark.

Despite any earlier parental fear, the FBI actually treated Charlie really well, it was Olivia who went nuts after the meeting. She suggested that Charlie didn't need to talk to a therapist. It was a statement she completely negated when, 10 seconds later, Olivia said that Charlie was scared and thought Mark was going to die. Call me kooky, but if your little daughter meeting a stranger leads to her talking to the FBI and being completely terrified that her father is going to die it probably means she ought to talk to psychologist or psychiatrist or therapist or someone in the field of mental health.

Frost's game with the Feds first sent Mark to Union Station. Once there, he called Mark and told the agent that he wanted to come in and had parted ways with the other baddies. I'm not sure I buy that, and don't know if Mark did either, but Mark kept going on Frost's little "Die Hard with a Vengeance" quest. What choice did he really have? Frost said he was going to kill Demetri if Mark didn't do as he said. Plus, Mark did get the upper hand on Frost when they finally did meet... well, he did for a little while, then Frost got shot and died (apparently).

Mark wasn't without options at that point though - he grabbed Frost's rental car and used the GPS to locate Demetri (he was on a street named Ingres, you know, like the Oedipus picture). Long story short, Mark found Demetri and worked out the Dr. Seuss reference Frost had given Charlie so Mark could move the gun. He saved Demetri's life but then didn't photograph the forking path pic before removing Demetri from the chair and the pic was washed away. The only thing Mark remembered from it was that December 12, 2016 is, apparently, the end. Again, you can't really blame Mark for not photographing the drawing, making sure his friend was out of the line of fire should the gun go off again was more important.

I don't even know that you can blame Zoey for her doings here as she was the one who freed Alda and it was Alda who shot Frost. Frost may have copped to where Demetri was, but maybe not, and Alda did tell Zoey what building Demetri was in. Alda, it seems will be playing a role down the line as she apparently is working for the blackout causing baddies (it is it awfully fortuitous that Mark and Demetri were tracking her right before the blackout, isn't it?), but who know what role as she seems like a hired gun.

Now, I've complained a lot about the things that don't make sense on the series to this point, and while I'll say that I don't like losing Frost, I thought they did a great job with ratcheting up the tension surrounding Demetri's life. All around, I'm calling it a good episode, but the poll is going to ask you for your opinion.

Quick flashes:

  • I like Dr. Seuss too, but my favorite is The Lorax.
  • The domino setup was pretty sweet.
  • According to Frost, once you see the future it's more likely to happen, it "gains weight."
  • So Olivia met this Gabriel guy who knows something about something with the flashes. That'll come into play later... like next week.

The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - we're so happy for Demetri.



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Just don't let Gabriel hook up with Alda or it will be the end of the world!

I'll be sad to see the series go away in May. I would be surprised if ABC renews it, because I just don't see that in my flashforward.

It was a good episode and pretty exciting to watch.

I think the show has gotten a really bad rap because it started off with a bang and then kinda meandered around aimlessly with characters doing a LOT of stupid and boring stuff.

The other HUGE problem is that the writers keep killing off the interesting and entertaining bad guys.

First it was Simon (Dominic Monaghan) strangling the Ted Flosso character (played by Ricky Jay). Now they kill off (I presume he's dead) Dyson Frost, who had been the only truly fascinating bad guy the show has created in 17 episodes!

If there is no one big bad guy identified, just a group of faceless nameless individuals, then how are we supposed to get interested?

PS - Excellent recap Josh!

There are more British actors on this show that some UK programmes! James Callis joins the Britpack this week, playing another eccentric. I always loved him on BSG.
The Demetri Saw-type trap was ok, but terribly original. In someways, I'd have liked them to kill him off at the end eg in a car crash or other pointless way, just to add a bit of can't-escape-fate irony!
OK episode, but not particularly original and we didn't learn a great deal.

While I like Demetri, I was kind of hoping the writers would have the guts to go through with his death.

I saw James Callis's name in the credits, but apparently he doesn't pop up until next week?

My fav Seuss story is "Thidwick, the Big-Hearted Moose."

A few quick thoughts:

(1) Everyone seemed awfully quick to declare March 15 "over" in what looked to be the mid-afternoon.

(2) Once again, this looks like a show that badly mismanages its characters. Janice was kind of iinteresting before she was revealed to be a mole. Dyson Frost was definitely interesting, so of course he must die. Olivia seems to have gone off the deep end in the last couple of episodes. The show is handling the mythology reasonably well. But it's bungling the characters.

(3) "The end" is in 2016. Did the producers really sketch out a seven-season plan? Pretty audacious if if they did.

I'm sticking around until the finale, and I'll be disappointed when the show is gone. But it's never really fulfilled its potential.

I'm still trying to figure out the Greek lady's connection with Dimitri and why she would have been looking at the gun's serial numbers in her flashforward. It's things like that which have me mumbling "oh c'mon, gimme a break!"

@Billiam -- James Callis WAS in this episode. He played Gabriel, the one who spoke with Olivia.

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