FlashForward Forums

Please discuss here the episode 'The Gift', airing next Thursday November 5th.

Do not discuss other episodes here.

Thanks!

I liked Al! Ahh...

I was wondering if someone would try to change the future. I always thought it would be Demetri.

At least we know the future can be changed here.

Kat

A wonderful episode that has the courage to dramatize philosophy instead of crude action. The theme is how everybody reacts to fate: the Blue Hand people give in to fatalism, while ironically Gough kills himself to THWART fate. Dmitri and Aaron both find themselves with two inconsistent courses of events: somebody is both dead and alive (which, in turn, fits in with the Schrodinger's Cat reference in the previous episode).

Question: before the episode was even broadcast, TVCOM was showing 18 bogus votes giving a low score in the 5.0 - 6.0. Are thos bogus votes still there poisoning the calculations? Somebody at TVCOM really needs to look into this, because otherwise their rating system will lose all credibility. Or maybe they should reset the votes to 0 once the episode finishes, and start the real count.

Aaron: The guy who tells him that his daughter died because he watched her die. What an idiot!!! You didn't even take her pulse!!! Her pulse could have been weak idiot! But woah! She showed up!!!!!

The FBI agent who killed himself: Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Great epsiode! Very interesting with the ghost club. I am glad Dimitri finally told his fiance his fate.

After the horrible episode last week, I'm so glad that they came back with this episode. This episode succeeded where the last one failed, by pushing the story forward. It wasn't forced, and stuck on one (er... five ) character(s) story, but it had actual substance, and had a nice twist at the end which really shakes things up. So now it's no longer "look, all the pieces are falling into place, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it, so we shouldn't even try," and instead becomes "we can do something about it, and the question is, will we have the strength and will to do so?" The episode wasn't perfect, and did have a few parts that I didn't care for, but overall, I thought it was probably the best so far.

miss_wierd already mentioned one thing that I wanted to mention, which is the fact that the guy who said that Aaron's daughter is dead didn't check the body. I mean, I can understand in that specific situation, with those guys still out there, why he didn't run away, but not so much why he was so certain that she really was dead. The only thing I can think of is that the intesnity of the situation messed with his mind so that he filled in some missing pieces which weren't accurate, but still, seems kind of silly when you see the scene play out like that.

Also, it was interesting to see Callum Kieth Rennie on there, knowing him from Battlestar Galactica. As always happens with characters I know from other shows, I couldn't help thinking of him as Leoben. However, it isn't just the actor that made me think of him that way. Seriously, it's pretty obvious that he was type-cast, but oddly enough, it wasn't a bad thing this time. He did a great job as Leoben, and he did a great job with this character. The only thing I was missing from him in this episode was his great interactions with Starbuck. But maybe if 24 fans are lucky, they'll be able to see some of that magic when they both appear for the next season of that show (if their characters share scenes together), but I digress...

edit: Also, I was just thinking about it, and I like how when they go to the blue hand club, they both hint at the end, with him being willing to risk his life in Russian Roulette, and also playing up the assumption that the future can't be change. And that also leads me back to why I liked the ending. On top of establishing the theme of the episode, it also changes the predictability of the show. Whenever a character is in a dangerous situation, and they had a flash forward, they obviously weren't going to die, because they had the flash forward, and same with other non-life or death elements.

I find this ep superb. I knew that someone eventually will push it through and commit suicide, but i was rather fealing that it'll be the other guy (boss). Never see it coming for Al. I hope the writers just don't take deadly road and miracly bring him back from the dead... That would ruin the show for me.

I also hope that the daughter (from the last scene) isn't only her father's imagination, because he got wasted. I mean, he is a sponsor, so he could've been an alcoholic back in the day, right?

Hmm, is this series going to end up with multiple universes or has the cat just changed its mind.

Either way this series is moving at a faster pace than before, lets hope it stays that way and doesn't get lost.

Very interesting turn of events. All season we've been assuming that the flashforwards were showing THE future. The one and only. Now we're seeing that may not be the case. So if Gough's future is changed, then with the domino effect you could argue that everyone else's has been changed as well. At this point, I wonder if his suicide invalidates ALL of the other flashforwards.

I have to admit, I thought they were going to have him somehow survive the fall. Maybe he broke every bone in his body, but I was expecting him to miraculously heal up by the time of the flashforward. I think it would have been pretty cheap if that happened, although it would have solidified everyone's prior notion that the future is written in stone and nothing can be done to change any of it.

I have troubles with the pocket knife that the guy gave back to the father. In the flashback we saw of the event, we see him slowly walking towards a dismembered body, and then he gets shot at, and he runs away. It is, according to him, the last time he saw the girl.

So, where does the knife come from? She kept it in her room somewhere? It is a possibility, but surely such a small item with such an importance to the girl would be kept on her body, not?

The flashback also mentions her saying 'back up, back up, those are Jericho'. Now, can someone shed some light on this? Apart from a biblical reference, are they some kind of outsourced military currently serving in a war somewhere? Or are they mentioned in flashforward somewhere else ?

I also absolutely loved the episode and actually it was my favorite so far along with the pilot. It raised new questions, dealt with a huge issue (can the flash forwards be changed?) and showed a ton of character development in the process. This is how they NEED to do the episodes. Watching how everyone was dealing with the suicide at the end was huge. You could see Mark just wanting to hug his wife because now he has hope that the future won't come to pass. Same for Demetri, he has some hope now. It should really open things up for the characters.

Also, I have to say I love Aaron's character. He seems like such a good, down to earth person and the actor does a great job with him. When he saw his daughter at the end though I was shocked. I don't think it's her at all though. I think he's either starting to breakdown and go crazy or there's something more supernatural at work here. Going to be interesting to see where his plot goes.

The whole suicide scene was huge and done amazing well. I saw it coming a mile away but still loved how they presented it. I'd have rather Janis died but I'm glad something was done to shake up the show. Interesting to see Simon have a necklace that said 'Annabelle'. Wonder who she is? He looked remorseful or sad in some way about it so I hope we see more about his character soon.

Really fantastic episode and it renewed my interest all the more in the show (though I wasn't near giving up on it yet).