'FlashForward' goes mole hunting with Seth MacFarlane
At the opening of "FlashForward," we got a flashback to three years ago, a moment in time when Mark had just gotten shot. He promised Olivia at that point that he would always put his family before his job. Naturally, the first thing we saw him do in the present was leave his house with a packed bag so he could go live with Wedeck for a while.A little out of the blue no? To me that felt like the producers bowing to the inevitability of what Mark and Olivia saw in their flash, not a natural outgrowth of what we've seen this season. Olivia may have been perturbed with Mark for not wanting to pick up and move out of the state, but the jump from that to their getting separated is a large one. In fact, I'd say it's a huge one.
Now, some might argue that he was moving out to protect his family, especially as we saw some creepy guy following Olivia and Charlie at an amusement park. Sure, that guy turned out to be an agent working for Mark to protect his family, but clearly Mark thinks they're in danger and recognizes that his not being there doesn't really make them any safer. So I can't see that "safety" is the reason he moved out.
Some of the reasons for Mark's moving out have to do with Lloyd. But, is Olivia really going to hop into bed so quickly with Lloyd just because Mark moved out? Lloyd did, potentially, get himself one step closer to Olivia's bed by stopping at the hospital to talk to her and acting all sheepish and goofy (in my mind, Olivia goes for sheepish and goofy).
Apparently, Frost can actually see the future -- well, sort of, he's actually just flashed a lot. Not only that, but he timed moves in a series of chess matches years ago so as to leave a phone number in Morse Code for Benford. If he's doing that, isn't he light years ahead of them? How are they ever going to catch up?
Mark & Demetri took a trip to S.F. to chat with a guy who played chess with Frost once upon a time. The guy was dead. Mark felt like he was their best lead. I'm not sure why, they had no evidence that Frost ever talked with the guy after their chess matches back in the '80s. Let me ask you -- if their best lead is a guy who played "a few games of chess" 20-plus years ago, does their investigation stand any sort of chance? I think that whole diversion only occurred so as to bring back to the fore the mole investigation.
That makes it a pretty poor device, but at least the result was good - Vogel showed up with a bunch of folks, shoved the entire Mosaic Investigation (save Mark) into a conference room, and went mole hunting. What did we learn? That Seth MacFarlane's character, Agent Curdy, plays RPGs on his computer at work.
Oh! We also learned that the mole is Marcie. They worked that out because she only sometimes puts sugar in her coffee. Good bit of detecting that, plus it was awesome that Janis beat Marcie up good. If only Janis could have stopped Marcie before Curdy got shot. And for all you mole fans, not to fret, Janis is a mole too.
Quick flashes:
- Frost said in his tape recording that he, just like Demetri, often (as in "in many of his visions") dies on March 15.
- Bryce's girl from Japan, Keiko, has apparently been hanging out at "their" restaurant for a long time. He totally almost went into the place and saw her tonight, but he was too busy kissing Nicole. It's okay though, because Keiko was there drinking with her very friendly new boss.
- For those out there rooting for Keiko and Bryce to work out, the new boss may not be a huge problem as he and Keiko both got busted due to the employment of some illegal workers (like Keiko). Wait, that totally throws another obstacle between her and Bryce, doesn't it?
- The Mogwai reference was a bad one. Now if Keiko only wanted to eat after midnight...
- Janis knows Simon killed his uncle. I'm just saying.
The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - we sing to our keyboard regularly.
Follow Zap2it on Twitter for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.
I'm one of those rooting for Bryce & Nicole, so I was pretty thrilled when Bryce kissed her and even more thrilled (since Nicole seemed taken aback) when he called her later and said he wasn't sorry he did it (I think she thought he was doing it because he was lonely, because of not finding Keiko, but I don't think that is it at all).
Also, the guy playing Keiko's boss ... I think he was the same guy on the bus with Dylan when he went to Olivia's on Halloween because "it's my house too". Don't know if he is supposed to actually be the same character, but I am pretty sure its the same actor.
I thought Mark moved out because Olivia gave him an ultimatum, but I think she's just sick of trying to avoid her FF while Mark basically embraces his. I don't think MArk sent StrangerDanger. Somebody is watching Olivia; maybe it has to do with her knowledge of the QED formula/involvement w/both Lloyd and Mark. Hopefully they'll give her something to do because so far Walger has been wasted on this show.
The Bryce/Keiko/Nicole stuff is quite sweet, but it feels like they're off floating in a different show. They didn't interact with any of the characters at the center of the mystery/investigation. I wish we had spent longer with the FBI agents or even Lloyd getting more into the science behind things. Stuff at the bureau was a little bit '24' (Two moles!, Marcie's shooting spree, fight in fountain, etc) and the investigation is getting a little 'Lost'; both are intriguing. Agent Curdy was great.
Totally thought the mole was either Marcie or Janis; didn't expect it to be both, though I think Janis will end up being a triple agent or some further complication.
Mark is less stupid, and Fiennes whispers less, so that's a plus. Nice moves with the sugar and morse code, though I agree that the chess stuff was a bit contrived.
Poor Demetri. Hope he isn't completely doomed. Dyson Frost intrigues me; I don't think he's the big bad. I think it'll be somebody we haven't met.
seriously?
i'm sorry, but the whole figuring out the phone number in 10 seconds was ridiculous right up there with the deduction of sugar in the coffee means a signal to the handlers...
i like the show and all but some of this stuff is just plain ridiculous
Don't worry, Seth's character will live, the bullet just went in on the upper right side of his chest, pretty much like a shoulder shot. I'm sure he'll be ok.
ok, but a mole for who? I dont really get it, whats the point...
I didn't figure Janis as a mole, assuming it would be some random Mosaic agent we've only met a few times... which I guess it actually was with Marcie. That was a nice twist with the Janis character who wasn't really doing much except talking about having a baby all the time.
This show IS slowly improving with each episode... so this new showrunner has definitely made many improvements.
- Mark is not as whiny and annoying as he used to be. The writers are giving him decent material and Fiennes is delivering his lines with more authority and confidence, which is what you want with your lead actor and key character.
- There is now a clearly defined bad guy (Dyson Frost) who seems like a pretty interesting character.
- Agent Vogel is a very good addition to the show and the actor playing him is excellent.
- Dominic Monaghan (Simon) is just killing it in every scene he's in.
- The rest of the cast are stepping up as well (even Demetri is less gloom and doom) and there is more forward momentum with the investigation (last week the Frost character and this week the mole reveal).
- It appears the producers are intent on making at least one major reveal or discovery in each hour.
Yeah, there are still some weak areas (the Olivia Benford character, ugh), but it feels like the producers know what's broken are desperately trying to fix it.
If I had to make a side-by-side comparison between ABC's two big serialized new shows FF and V, I'd say FF is actually on the better track and could end up being a very entertaining series. Too bad it may not make it to a second season (a different time slot might help).
Lastly, if I were Bryce, I'd be busy kissing Nicole as well! That actress (Peyton List) is just gorgeous. I didn't even realize she's also on "Mad Men" playing Roger Sterling's young wife.
Who exactly is this mole (or moles) working for again? FF is desperate to be 24, along with the double and triple crossing moles. Tired plot device. I agree with Todd about the ridiculousness of the phone number/chess moves/morse code thing and Marcie's coffee gaff. Just silly and convoluted trying to be clever.
I like Bryce and Nicole together better than Keiko - who seemed to be hitting it off with her car chop shop guy.
Rather disappointed they had Janice be a baddie. I'm hoping it might be a triple cross too as she's one of the more likable characters. Still can't stand Joe Fiennes! Go back to Desmond Penny!!
I'm pretty bummed b/c Janis was my favorite character and although this might give her some nice material in the short term, it pretty much spells d-e-a-t-h for the character.
Don't know if it's true I had heard that there were some changes made during the hiatus (new showrunners?, writing)but whatever changes they might have made has made a big difference: as some have mentioned J Fiennes isn't so heavy with the angsty grimness and isn't as completely unlikable as he was before, and that DM is stealing the show as Simon, and Janis was second, and I was blown away with the mole reveal.... Very intriguing twist (that I wonder if was a new change as well) because it leaves all kinds of doubt if she in fact had a FF at all and in a way made all the backstory up to now uneccessary, but I will wait to see where they take this. As for the rmantic subplot, I'm gonna guess that Bryce/Keiko will realize that their search for each other is for true love, but just not to each other, but to Nicole/Emil(?) - I'm thinking that if the show gets a 2nd season, they will have to trim the cast down some in order to save on $$$ so that coud be one way to wrap a story up and get rid of some characters, although I'd personally hate to see Nicole go, she's hot!
Also, I really did like Seth MacFarlane providing some much needed subtle levity, and I hope that his character livbes so we can get some more from time to time