'FlashForward': April 29th arrives

This week's "FlashForward" found poor Charlie waking up at 3:23 in the morning knowing that her dad was going to die that day. Oh yes, April 29 is upon us and while the time the blackout occurs won't come until next week, things are moving quickly now.

The thing that struck me most about this penultimate episode is that almost everyone on the show seemed to take very specific, very concrete actions to help push them to the moments they saw in the flash (whether or not they'll get there is a different story). Demetri allowed himself to be convinced by Mark to go to Hawaii. Lloyd called Olivia and told her that he really wanted to be with her that evening. Mark started drinking.

I think it's an interesting psychological study (and one clearly beyond the scope of a television show) - do humans act in a certain way because they've been told they will or because they want to. Lloyd definitely seemed to want to be with Olivia that night because they were together in the blackout. Mark, although he'd clearly had a hard day, probably could have avoided that first sip and was definitely heading down a road because he'd been told he would.

Hellinger, in his conversation with Mark early on in the episode, told Mark that no matter how many times Hellinger had seen the 29th, it always had Mark attacking him in the interrogation room and always ended up with Mark being killed in his office. I think it would have been easy to stop Mark from being killed in his office. Technology being what it is, surely Mark could have worked from home that day (or, failing that, Starbucks - they have WiFi). If Mark left the FBI office and, no matter what, didn't go back, he couldn't be killed in his office (surely they have interns who could go play fetch if he needed something).

Mark wanted to leave the office, Mark asked Wedeck to let him follow one of Hellinger's clues (idiotic in its own way because Mark was following one of the paths Hellinger laid out, a path that led to Mark's death). But, Wedeck denied Mark, forcing him to stay at the office. That's right, Wedeck forced Mark to stay in the building in which Mark was to be killed.

Yes, there was some gunfire at the place Mark wanted to go visit, but Mark was still heading down Hellinger's primrose path. And still, Mark stayed at the office, right where he was going to eventually be murdered.

Fine, eventually Mark did leave, Wedeck finally forced him to go after Mark beat up Hellinger. Even Wedeck though didn't realize that he was doing Mark a favor, Wedeck said something about not caring what day it is. Wedeck should have been booting Mark out of the office because of what day it was, not in spite of it.

Of course, once he left the office, Mark did the dumbest thing he possibly could have in that situation - he started drinking (he was handed a flask by a guy on the street and saw it as a sign). He may have tried to avert his death a little by getting himself thrown in jail for a bar fight, but I think that even he knows that the police hold FBI agents for drunken fights for longer than it takes to ID them as agents.

As for Demetri this week, he didn't end up boarding the plane to go to Hawaii. Instead, he told Zoey he slept with Janis and so Zoey uninvited him. Consequently, Demetri took Janis and Simon to break into the linear accelerator lab.

Olivia was the one who acted the smartest tonight - she took Charlie and left town. She wasn't going to hang around to be with Lloyd. That relationship can still progress even if Olivia isn't there for one night. And, maybe, just maybe, if Olivia breaks the chain of events maybe Mark can live no matter how foolishly he acts. Still, I wouldn't put odds on Olivia not returning home before the end of the night.

Quick flashes:

• Hellinger admitted to causing the blackout. Nice of him to fess up. He also referred to Mark's board as a scrapbook of Mark's failures. I couldn't have said it better myself. Although I don't know that Charlie will be better off with Mark gone.
• Janis overexerted herself today and is about to have baby issues requiring her to have an incredibly late at night OB appointment.
• Jericho was in fact involved in the global blackout. You didn't see that one coming, did you?
• Nicole copped to lying about Keiko. Now she has something to feel guilty about so that she can feel like she deserves to die.

The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - no fate but what we make of it.

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