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FlashForward Season 1 Episode 20

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AIRED: May 20, 2010

6.7

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Episode Summary

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While Mark interrogates Hellinger about the next Blackout, Janis and Simon secretly approach Demetri and ask for his help in stopping the coming event. Meanwhile, Aaron discovers why Jericho wants Tracy dead, and Nicole must make a fateful decision in her relationship with Bryce.

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Fan Episode Reviews (4)

Shaping up really well for the finale!

10

By amazing_race, Oct 27, 2011

This was yet another exciting episode of 'FlashForward', and I think this has set it up really nicely for the grande gfinale! I thought the interesting developments within this one were amazing, and I can't wait to see how everything will be resolved within the finale!

Demetri and Nicole both revealed their huge secrest, and that was really interesting to see. The storyline between Janis, Simon and Demetri was also interesting!

Their definitely were some great moments within ethis episode. I can't wait for the finale, and this is certainly ean episode that I would highly recommend!

Keep it up FlashForward, and I wish this show would continue into another season!moreless
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Overall, this episode was full of disappointments, but it seemed intentional.

5.0

By Shreela, Oct 27, 2011

It seems the writers wanted every storyline in this episode to end in disappointment or tragedy. Simon Campos (Dominic Monaghan) was the only character I remember that got what they wanted. Also, I was a bit unnerved by the majority of the US population's response about the pending blackout -- I would have stayed home, not been out partying like New Years Eve or Mardi Gras!

I did enjoy the autistic Davenport boy rearranging his father's complex formulas though, and of course it most likely will lead to some kind of breakthrough.

I hope the next episode won't be such a downer!moreless
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Unfortunately, there's a reason this show's being canceled. People don't know when to shut up and when dealing with the total unknown, not taking advice, even in passing, seems unproductive.

6.0

By Knightshade03, Jan 29, 2011

"You're going to lose control, attack me, then loose everything." He tells you that right off the bat but it doesn't stop Mark. He's handed a flash and doesn't throw it away. Dem had no reason to tell Zoe but did anyway. Zoe believed in them, Dem believed he was dead, each acted accordingly. Considering the EXTRAORDINARY circumstances, not sure the reactions were exactly appropriate. It's not like he said, "I though I was going to die so I screwed every woman I could find." And Janice is a lesbian so it's not like there's some affair going on.

I was pissed that the daughter died, that seemed uncalled for given the circumstances, however, it seemed to be a disappointing day all the way around. At least Mark's in jail, his wife is doing something totally different, the lovers are trying to get together and Simon's seeking revenge.

Next week is the season/series finale. I hope things wrap up neatly. This show seemed to have a lot of potential but in the end fell flat. I'll miss it but I'm afraid I won't mourn it's passing.moreless
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The penultimate episode of Flashfoward tells the story of what really happens on April 29th before the events of the global premonitions.

7.0

By ollyhume, Jun 18, 2010

The penultimate episode of Flashfoward tells the story of what really happens on April 29th before the events of the global premonitions. The individual stories of the central characters are addressed and while some people are nudged along predetermined paths, others are find themselves in situations contrary to their fate prophesied.

Countdown opens with Charlie (Mark and Olivia's daughter) waking after a bad dream. This acts as a literal wake-up call as to what day it is. April 29th is the date of the moments witnessed be nearly every person on the planet.

"Today's the day... Today's the day Daddy's gonna die".

Woah… what? That was a little 'Children of the Korn', did that usually adorably little girl, actually just say that? Well that's one way to set the scene I guess. Unfortunately, contrary to that creepy intro, the episode takes quite a while to find traction and the first half actually drags quite a bit. Some generic interactions between certain characters are shown, such as Nicole bringing Bryce cupcakes, or Mark consoling his daughter; all the while with a countdown appearing after every commercial break (I don't have the commercials so it just seemed to randomly appear every now and then). These scenes did help to remind us of what we are building up to, but there weren't enough recognisable situations that connected to the events we witnessed in the pilot. The first twenty minutes definitely felt a bit like it was stuck in first gear, which was strange considering there is now less than an hour remaining in the show's short life.

Some stories did need to be told, such as Simon Campos recruiting Janice and eventually Demetri, to help him try to avert a second global blackout. Simon and Janice are the most exciting characters to watch; they have been all season. Most of this can be attributed to great acting, but as the series has developed, they have consistently kept the audience guessing. Now, they have both reached a point of rejecting their respective puppet masters and have decided that their best chance is to throw the rule book out of the window and go it alone (albeit together). I should point out however, that there is one massive problem in continuity here. Simon Campos was never aware that Janice was really CIA, he only ever knew her as a second mole for the evil organisation. In reality she would have been the very last person he would have wanted to contact.

The story of Demetri's confession about sleeping with a lesbian was mildly interesting and Zoey's reaction was believable, but I still didn't feel like it added anything other than a reason for him to stay at ground zero. But the most shocking part of the episode is who turns out to provoke the most intrigue. Aaron Stark and his daughter finally came up with the goods! Not in the way I was expecting, with a John McClain style action sequence, but by finallyconnecting their plot line with the events surrounding the blackout. If you can remember, Stark's daughter Tracy had witnessed what she assumed to be the massacre of an entire village. This had then led her to being hunted by the perpetrators; a group called Jericho. Well, it turns out that this was actually another experiment, like the one in Somalia, and Jericho were actually interested in the fact that she had been utterly uneffected by the mini blackout [cue Twilight music]. This actually managed to get a goose bumps moment from me. Unfortunately, it only lasted until I began to realise that if she had only witnessed a blackout, then how exactlty did she know it was Jericho and why did they originally just try to kill her?

Anyway, we wont pick at that loose thread anymore. The second half of the episode does improve somewhat, with certain blocks falling into place, laying the foundation for what was seen in the original Flashforwards. Nicole eventually tells Bryce where Keiko is and Mark is handed a hip-flask by a random passer-by (if this ever happens to you do not, whatever you do, drink it! You will wake up in some guy's basement with your underwear round your ankles.) But as much as some people seem unable to avoid their fate, others find themselves in uncharted territory. Aaron Stark's premonition seems impossible now, after tonight's events and of course Demetri is still alive and kicking. This lead to an interesting contrast between what is determined and what comes down to free-will. However, it still hasn't really been developed enough for it to be thought provoking and philosophically speaking, it doesn't really make sense to portray it in a '6 of one and half a dozen of the other' kind of way.

What Countdown seemed to be trying to say in unfortunately uncertain terms, is that things need to occur in specific places in time for disaster to be averted. This is highlighted by Lloyd Simcoe's autistic son, as he tries to sort his father's papers into piles (please note, that he is not a savant that is recognising an actual mathematical pattern, but simply an autistic boy who wants to have the numbers together). Simcoe has an epiphany on hearing his son's words and realises that he must be with Olivia at 10 O'clock to be able to understand the equation he is trying to decipher. The big boss man (skinny, young white guy) also hammered this point home repeatedly, as did Dyson Frost. The architects of the conspiracy all seem to be trying to gain flashes of the future so that they can avoid some kind of cataclysmic event. It may very well be, that the mystery organisation is actually trying to save humanity, whilst the Mosaic investigation merely impedes their work.

Overall

Unfortunately, this is all something a second season would have addressed and this penultimate episode now becomes somewhat obsolete, creating more questions than answers. Due to this, I find myself quite disappointed by the events of a day that has been built over for twenty episodes. Obviously we have not reached the exact time of the Flashforward, but I would have hoped to see more of the paths begin to connect and slot into place.

In an episode titled Countdown, you would expect to eventually reach the moment we are counting down to, but we never do. The ending just fizzles out and I had to check the time code to see if it had actually finished or not. The final episodes had already shot before it's cancellation was made official, so it is a bit unfair to expect a complete conclusion to the entire story, but it is worrying to have so much to fit into next weeks forty minute finale.

Here's my Flashforward prediction (tautology?) Bryce will be with Keiko in the sushi restaurant, Simon Campos will inadvertently cause a second global blackout and the episode will end with Mark Benford bleeding out after being shot by the masked men; proceeded by a flurry of images as the world experiences its second, and our final Flashforward.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Joseph Fiennes	Mark Benford
John Cho	Demetri Noh
Jack Davenport	Lloyd Simcoe
Zachary Knighton	Bryce Varley
Peyton List	Nicole Kirby
Dominic Monaghan	Simon Campos

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Yuko Takeuchi	Keiko Arahida	Guest Star
Neil Jackson	Lucas Hellinger	Guest Star
Hira Ambrosino	Yuuka Arahida	Guest Star
Genevieve Cortese Padalecki	Tracy Stark	Recurring Role
Michael Ealy	Marshall Vogel	Recurring Role
Gabrielle Union	Zoey Andata	Recurring Role

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Episode Photos

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Joseph Fiennes of Flash Forward in the e...

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Joseph Fiennes of Flash Forward in the e...

© 2010 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
Joseph Fiennes and Courtney B. Vance of ...

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (2)
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- The last part of the episode clearly takes place at night, but the final shot of the scene where Mark starts a fight at a bar is of a clock that shows the time as 6:50. On April 29 in Los Angeles it would not be dark, or even getting dark yet, at 6:50. In reality, sunset was at 8:12 p.m on April 29, 2010.
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- Episode's title image: A desk calendar page dated Thursday, April 29, 2010.
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QUOTES (4)
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- Mark: Do you love (Zoey)?
  Demetri: Come on.
  Mark: Do you want to marry her?
  Demetri: Hell, yes.
  Mark: So what's stopping you? You know, even with the way everything went down... even though I lost her... marrying Olivia was the best thing I ever did. Don't be afraid, especially on a day like this.
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- Mark: Here.
  Demetri: What the hell is this?
  Mark: That, my friend, is 15 covers of Islands in the Stream. There's My Morning Jacket, Feist, The Constantines, some band from Croatia...
  Demetri: When the hell did you make this?
  Mark: Yeah, I don't get much sleep.
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- Hellinger: I've seen today more times than I can remember. And a lot of those days started with me sitting right here with you. May I?
  Mark: This? (gives him notepad)
  Hellinger: Please. Thank you. There are so many possibilities--different paths this day could take. I have seen so many different versions of this moment... and the next one and the next one. But in every version of the future I saw... I saw this. In this room, you will lose control. And then you'll lose everything. You're going to attack me, Mark. You're going to attack me because you realize you will never get the answers to your questions. And then, at the end of it all, you'll be killed in your office.
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- Mark: I need to ask you to do something for me. Something really, really hard. Don't be afraid. I mean, it's okay to be afraid, it is. But that's just what happens at first. After that, you have to tell yourself something--"My daddy loves me, and everything will be okay, no matter what."
  Charlie: "My daddy loves me."
  Mark: So much.
  Charlie: "And everything will be okay, no matter what."
  Mark: It's not easy, 'cause things can be scary, bigger than us. But we can fight it. That's what I do. I tell myself, "Charlie loves me, and everything will be okay no matter what."
  Charlie: You do?
  Mark: I do. I tell myself that, and it makes me strong. It makes me brave. 'cause when I say that... you're always with me.
  Charlie: And when I say it?
  Mark: I'm always with you. Always. I love you so much, baby girl. I love you with everything I've got.
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NOTES (2)
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- Music: More Than Life (Whitley)
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- International Airdates:
  Canada: May 20, 2010 on ATV
  UK: May 24, 2010 on FIVE
  Finland: June 3, 2010 on Nelonen
  Czech Republic: June 7, 2010 on AXN
  Australia: June 17, 2010 on Channel Seven/7HD
  Sweden: June 19, 2010 on TV400
  Norway: July 22, 2010 on TV2
  India: November 10, 2010 on Zee Cafe
  Slovakia: April 3, 2011 on JOJ
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ALLUSIONS (0)
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