Lloyd: "You're her."Mark: "Not yet."
Much of this episode was a great big tease. The opener hinted that we were going to find out Stuff about Simon, but all we got was a couple of brief scenes. And I kept thinking that Janis getting shot was going to prove or disprove that the flashforwards could be changed by making her incapable of getting pregnant, but all we got was an improbable. I don't have any ill will toward Janis as a character, but couldn't they have given us an hysterectomy?
The Mark and Olivia marriage drama has gotten circular. Paranoia about what they saw in the flashforward is driving Mark to drink and Olivia to obsess about Lloyd; she's blaming Mark for a wagon he hasn't fallen off yet, and he's blaming her for an affair she hasn't had yet. So far, I haven't thought there was a lot of chemistry between the two actors in this television marriage (maybe because I keep feeling like she's cheating on Desmond), but that big, awkward scene with Lloyd was actually really cool. And Lloyd was surprisingly likable and gentlemanly about the whole thing.
Lloyd doesn't seem to be a diabolical villain type. I wonder if he got involved with Simon for the sake of his son, Dylan? And hey, little Dylan managing to get to the Benford house alone, in Los Angeles, was a feat in itself; getting around this town on public transportation is massively confusing, even with the help of a kindly but scary-looking stranger. Apparently, little Charlie's mysterious flash was just a conversation with Dylan. Why did she know about the doll guy, then? I'm confused. Someone please enlighten me?
Simon is a quantum physicist genius who was killing someone in his flashforward. The victim didn't look familiar. Does Simon enjoy killing? Is it something he does a lot? He certainly didn't seem to feel guilty that "they" caused the deaths of twenty million people. Who are "they," and how did an "experiment" cause the blackout? Does that mean it wasn't deliberate, there wasn't an overarching diabolical plan? If so, then how come not everyone flashed forward?
A possible ending for this season Flashed into my mind while I was watching this episode. I've wondered how they can possibly give us a season two if everything is resolved on April 29. And then it occurred to me. What if on April 29th, at the moment the flash begins, everyone's consciousness flashes back to September at the end of the blackout? What if they have to keep reliving the same six months until they get it right?
Flashes:
— The action took place on Halloween, and all of the Halloween touches worked for me. I especially liked the guys in the transparent masks and the chase through the cemetery.
— The lovely lady that Simon picked up just played Daphne in the second season of True Blood. The lack of an over the top Southern accent threw me off at first.
— The Blue Hand. It's the Baltimore Tong. No, it's Baltimore Street in Silverlake.
— "Nothing's gonna change my world." Very nice. And it even related to the core premise of the series.
— Okay, what's with the kangaroo? Did it escape from the zoo and is it finding food to eat? Or is it just weird symbolism, like the black horse on Lost?
I'm having a really busy week and didn't watch this one a second time, so I might expand this review later. Please let me know if I missed something critical.
Two out of four blue hands,
Billie
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
You've got it exactly right. This was one big tease.
ReplyDeleteA slightly improbable one, too: Dominic Monaghan seems to have been on that train for a full 24 hours. Was he traveling from Alaska?
And speaking of teases, did anyone else think the 'blue hands' thing was an odd homage to Firefly? And was one of the random trick-or-treaters dressed up as the chicken mascot from Mr. Cluck's?
If you're right about the consciousness-loop, Billie, that makes the post-it note that Mark left for Olivia ('I hate you') at the beginning of the pilot take on a rather different meaning.
Seems to me that if they would have given us a definite answer about Janis that would defeat the point of the series. If the FF are proven not to be real then they are just like a possibility of the future, one the characters can disregard.
ReplyDeleteJust like we all do every day :).
Billie,
ReplyDeleteI liked your theory about repeating the six months over and over again (kind of a Groundhog half-year). I too am puzzled by what's to come on Arril 30, 2010. I think that is going to be tricky because they are liable to end up with some pissed off fans if they screw it up. And I am worried - ABC marketeers are promoting this weeks episode as a "The answers to your biggest questions". When they did that on Lost, the show went way south for about a year and a half. It is not nice to fool with the fan boys/girls expectations.
Peter, you made me LOL. I'm also a bit worried that FF is deliberately trying to recreate the story depth of Lost, when that's just not possible. FF needs to be its own self.
ReplyDelete