…is equal to the love you take

If I had to pick a defining moment where I felt with some assurance that FlashForward has potential to be really good, it was with episode 8 of Season One, ‘Playing Cards With Coyote.’ (cont. after videos)

FlashForward / Quick Cut 11-12 RECAP

Lloyd wants to go public about what caused the blackout, while Aaron learns the truth about his daughter.

Birds Moment 11-12 – FlashForward

Mark, Demetri and Janis work hard to protect Ingrid.

Flush Moment 11-12 – FlashForward

Lloyd and Simon try to settle things with a game of poker, although Lloyd has a trick up his sleeve.

This episode came on the heels of what had been the best episode so far IMO (S1xE7), the blue hand club with the marvelous Callum Keith Rennie playing a pivotal role & it’s mystery essentially solved, Al’s realization that one can change the future with him choosing to take his own life rather than a mother of 2 who, in Al’s flashforward, he accidentally killed. The shocking revelation that Tracy is not only alive but she’s in her Dad’s living room was among some of the high points.

One might not have been surprised then if this episode, S1xE8, gave the audience a breather, or to be more blunt, had a degree of filler. It did not.

Lloyd (Jack Davenport) and Simon (Dominic Monaghan), both men of science, are at an impasse about telling the truth about the flashforward. Lloyd, obviously feeling great remorse, implores Simon that ‘they’ must tell the truth of the flashforward–that ‘they’ caused it. I use ‘they’ in quotes because in the screen caps which I’ll have up shortly, we see clearly that Lloyd has “cc’ed” an email to others who presumably were also involved in the flashforward.

Was the flashforward a science experiment gone wrong or gone right? Or neither? Hard to say but that, along with some strong characters developing, smart guest-casting choices, mysteries being solved in a timely manner (though inevitably withp others popping up), the flashforwards seeming to be on the path to coming true, as well as the truth of the flashforwards (Demetri finally telling the correct version of his flash forward to his fiance) draw the audience in and allow us to be part of the show. This is why I keep me coming back and hopefully, enough other folks that the show gets a fair amount of time to play out to a satisfying conclusion (whenever that may be).

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