FF: "Countdown"

*Editor's Note: As we prepare for the Lost finale, I have decided to postpone the Fringe finale recap until sometime next week. Thank you!

Well, today is the day. April 29, 2010. The day the world flashforwarded to. So what's going to happen? Will all the flashforwards come true? None of them? Only a few? Flashforward, which has officially been cancelled, has danced around this all season, err, series. Now we will finally see.

Mark began talking to suspect Lucas Hellinger about the flashforwards, but recieved some starling news: in every future he saw, Mark died. And if the man isn't released, he will die.

Previous 123 The tachyon constant is a theoretical number/particle that appears in something Hellinger drew as well as the blueprints left by Dyson Frost. There’s a company called Tachyon Offsite Information Systems that warehouses data. Mark wants to storm the building, but Wedeck and Vogel worry it’s a trap. They’re right. Mark demands answers from Hellinger, who knows exactly how to push his buttons. Hellinger says over and over that Mark is going to die today and that Charlie will be better off without him. This sends Mark into a rage, and he beats up the dude. Wedeck sends him out of the FBI uilding after that.


Meanwhile, Zoe is excited that Demitri has decided to come with her to Hawaii. But Demitri, feeling guilty and overburdened, tells Zoe that he got Janis pregnant in Somalia. Zoe is mad and needs time to process things. She's going to Hawaii, but without her fiance. Ouch.

Bryce and Nicole have finally begun their relationship and are planning to spend Flashforward Day together. That is, until Nicole decides to tell the truth as well. She discovered that the woman in his flashforward, Kieko, is in a detention center. She didn't want to tell him because she was afraid he would choose the Asian over her. But Bryce still wants to see her anyway. Will he be able to see her? She and her mom have an 11:00 flight back home.

In Afghanistan, the Arab doctor tried to save Tracy's life as Aaron looked on. But he wasn't able to. In the room where Aaron's flashforward revealed that his daughter was alive, it appears that it won't come true.

Simon wants Janis to get him access to the mainframe of the linear accelerator. When Demetri shows up at her front door, Janis wants him to pretend that he never came by. That’s not gonna happen. At first he wants to take the fugitive scientist in, but then Dem realizes it may be best to help Janis and Simon complete their mission.

Lloyd thinks he may be on the verge of a breakthrough in his research. He desperately wants to be with Olivia. He believes certain conditions must be met today. Olivia needs to be at her house with him at 10 p.m., but she is driving somewhere else with Charlie. As Lloyd and Dylan stand outside the Benford home, Olivia tells him via cell phone that she will not be with him in that house tonight.

Mark spends the rest of the day walking around as Flashforward day celebrations occur. A man who gave up drinking approaches mark and gives him a flask. And with that, Mark gives up his sobriety and everything he worked so hard to achieve. The temptation was too much. Mark continues drinking at a bar, and gets into a fight. He ends up in jail. So will he end up at the FBI building?

Where is this all going? And with the news that Flashforward has been cancelled, will the show end properly?

V: "Red Sky"

As one of the first TV finales of the year, V went of in... an unusal way. I enjoyed the finale, but I was expecting something a bit more... cliffhanger-y. The finale was great, but the end was wierd. Let's recap.

A lot was going down during the finale. Anna's army of soldier were preparing to hatch from their eggs. Val was in labor aboard the ship. And Fifth Column on land and in air were planning a massive retaliation. Oh, and Anna and Lisa invitesd Erica and Tyler over for dinner. All these paths would cross.

Ryan was enraged when he found out Anna had Val. But she promised to deliever the baby safely and return her to him. The labor was intense, but both the mother and baby survived. However, Anna had other plans. She kept the baby, and has Val killed. She claims that the doctors did everything they could, but couldn't save the mother. Ryan is hurt, but Anna manages to pull him into her bliss and convinces him otherwise. She then shows him his child. As he holds it, the baby (what the hell is it?) wraps its tail around Ryan's thumb. Odd...

On the ground, Marcus (Anna's right-hand goon) approaches Hobbes to work for him and infiltrate the Fifth Column. He threatens him with some photo... to be revealed next season. Damn you hiatus!

Erica's invitation to dinner is a great opportunity to kill destroy all those egss she learned about. Joshua will create a diverision to allow her to get into the chamber and destroy them. Joshua then aks Lisa for help, which she refuses. Father Jack uses Chad Decker to deliver a message to the medical bay aboard the mothership. Joshua refuses the message knowing that Chad can’t be trusted. But when his partner Samuel sends a message to other Fifth Column members, they are both exposed as traitors in a trap set by Anna. Joshua is held captive in a blue energy chamber and tries to convince Chad to help him. Chad doesn't believe him. That is, until he witnesses V testing on humans. I think that's enough to make any one convinced that the Vs are bad.

After finding out Joshua has been captured, Lisa gives Erica a blue energy egg to destroy the eggs. She says that she will help create a diversion, allowing Erica to destroy them. She frees Joshua, who refers to Lisa as his "Queen".

Erica sneaks into the room and destroys the eggs. An enormous explosion occurs, but she is able to escape. Erica then runs and catches up with Joshua. He convinces her that the only way she will not be tracked back to the eggs is if she kills him. She is reluctant to do so, but doesn't have a choice. She shoots and kills him.

Anna approaches Erica and lies to her, saying that a human stole a V uniform and was the culprit. Erica once again promises to destroy Fifth Coulmn. But that doesn't comfort Anna after discovering what happened with her eggs. When she finds out only 12 are left, she screams in agony. She has no idea what's come over her. But Marcus does. He says that it is her first human emotion.

Sometime later, members of the Fifth Column gather at Father Jack's church. Against wishes from the pastor, the constantly-conflicted Father Jack Landry finally speaks from his heart to his congregation by denouncing the Visitors as false prophets. Many parishioners walk out during his heartfelt homily, but some stay. Jack asks others to stand with him in this war for their souls. Erica is the first to rise. Hobbes stands, too. Also on his feet in the back of the church is Chad Decker. Jack says, “Let V no longer stand for Visitor. Let V stand for victory.”

Meanwhile, Anna wants revenge. And in an act of vengence, we see the V armada near the Earth. They are able to be undetected by Earth technology. The sky quickly turns to red for some unkown reason. Aboard the ship, Marcus revives Joshua? Why? Maybe for more info on Fifth Column. Anyway, as people of Earth wander outside, similarly to how they acted in the Pilot, they are shocked at what they see.

So, is this the start of the war?

FF: "Better Angels"

Last night's episode was the best episode of FlashForward. The show has had its ups and downs, but last night featured heavy action, some interesting characters, and a mysterious plot.

Janis, Simon, Demetri, and Vogel finally got to Somalia to investiagte those odd towers that were believed to cause a blackout in the tonw in 1991. There, they come across a mysterious man named Abdi. he attacks their group posing as the relief organization "Red Panda", killing many in the group. Throughout the episode, his backstory comes into play, and proves to be intrigual to the plot.

Abdi was just a boy when foriegn men came to his village to build those towers. One day, he was out of the village, and came back to find everyone "dead". He even saw a black camel, the omen of death. He ran awaym and never came back. This turned him into the man he is today.

In Abdi's flashforward, he saw himself starting a war in the country, taking Lincoln's inagural adress about better angels. Janis thinks he is mistaken, and shows him the Mosaic website. Other Somalians saw him wearing his mother's necklace, giving the speech. But it was not about starting a war. It was about keeping unity and peace. Abdi truly believes in destiny, and Janis shows him it's his destiny to stop the war, not start it.

Abdi then agrees to help the group, and takes them to the tower. Inside, Simon explains that he made up plans for the tower, but in 1992. Somehow, someone must have stolen them. How? TBD. Later, they find a video D. Gibbons made. He was interviewing the people in the village about what they saw. Their conciousness was shifted two weeks into the future. They also discover a linear accelerator. Simon believes that this was a test for the global blackout.

But that's not the scary part. In that room, there are many skeletons. And one is wearing a necklace. It's Abdi's mother, and he becomes enraged. He balmes Simon, and is about to kill him, but Vogel shoots Abdi first. Apparently, those visions will not come true.

That night, Janis and Demetri talk. It looks like Janis' time to get pregnant is up. Demetri says that he would get her pregnant because he will most likely not be around in a few months, so it would not matter to Zoe. But it would be nice if her baby was. Did they have sex, even though Janis is gay? I guess we will find out.

Afterwards, Demetri visits Simon in the tower. Simon is rewatching the tape, but something appears at the end of the tape. It's D. Gibbons. He says, “Hello, Demetri. My name is Dyson Frost and I am recording this message in 1991. Got your attention, didn’t I?”. My reaction: WTF???

Meanwhile, back in LA, Olivia finally learns what was in Charlie's vision. Charlie was hanging with Dylan, and outside was looking outside the window. There, she saw Vogel talking on a phone to someone, saying "Mark Benford is dead". Olivia really wants to move so none of this will happen. But Mark does not. He wants his Mosaic Investigation to continue. This makes Olvia believe that this is how they will drift apart.

Unfortunately, the ratings for FlashForward are not doing so well. It is my hope that FlahsForward will be given a second chance next season. Will it? We'll have to wait and see.

Lost: Season 1

On September 24, 2004, all our lives were changed when Oceanic Flight 815 disappeared in mid-flight over the Pacific Ocean. And TV would forever be changed.

Season 1 to date continues to be my personal favorite of all the seasons. The characterization during the season is some of the best work I've seen done in any TV show, movie, or book. And through the ingenious use of flashbacks scattered throughout the epsiodes, we not only see how ans why each character was on that fateful plane, but what burdens and demons they are carrying. It's a story of survival- a gripping tale that really makes the viewers think.

Within the first epsiode, we are intorduced to all the survivors that will play pivitol roles over the course of the season, and the series. Specifically, three people: Dr. Jack Shephard, the leader, Kate Austin, the fugitive wanted for murder, and Charlie Pace, the former rockstar and current drug addict. Within the course of the season, we would come to aknowledge Locke as another major character. He has a special connection with the Island. Before the crash he was crippled- after the crash he could walk.

Locke is not the only one who faces demons on the Island.
Jack has daddy issuses, and was bringing his dead alcoholic father home to bury him.
Kate killed a man and was being transported by to The States by a federal marshal.
Charlie was a drug addict.
Sayid was a communications officer and also tortured people, but let the love of his life live.
Locke also has daddy issuses, as his father coned him out of a kidney.
Hurley won the lottery, and the Numbers he used brought bad luck.
Sawyer's mom was conned, and when his dad found out, he killed her and himself. Sawyer hunts for the man who caused this, and kills the wrong suspect.
Michael was bringing his son Walt and his dog, Vincent home, who he hadn't scene in years.
Jin and Sun were suffering marriage problems. Sun learned english and was going to leaver her husband, who secretly worked for Sun's father doing terrible things.
Claire was pregnant. She was preparing to give the baby away.
Boone and his stepsister Shannon shared an odd relationship. They were traveling to the US together.

Throughout the season, it is revealed that all the characters have met briefly in the past. They are all connected to each other somehow.

In the Pilot, a strange creature is revealed to live on the Island. It is our first dose of the mythology and as the season progresses, the mythology becomes more involved with the show. A mysterious hatch is discovered, and Locke becomes "obsessed" with opening it. He has become quite the Man of Faith, and believes everyone was brought to the Island for a purpose.

The Island is also revealed to be a place where other people reside. Danielle Rousseau was with a scientific team who crashed during a storm while searching for The Black Rock, a ship that somehow crashed in the middle of the Island. A sickness killed the rest of her group, and her daughter Alex is taken by "The Others", a group of hostile natives who live on the Island. Though they are never seen, Danielle claims that the Others are coming to steal "the boy"- Aaron, who Claire gave birth to on the Island.

But alas, she was wrong. The Others came for Walt, who left with Sawyer, Jin, and Michael on the raft. A bearded man took him and destroyed the raft.

Meanwhile, the Hatch is finally opened. But it would be several months before we were able to see what was in it.

Season 1 still continues to defy TV. A great combination of characterization, drama, humor, themes, mythology, and more.

Though Season 2 was not as good, it was still excellent.

FF: 1.6- Scary Monsters and Super Creeps

*Editor's Note: I hope my schedule will be better now. Also, I will try adding some images all my posts, making the page a bit more interesting. Enjoy!

Well, my prediction was right about Janis. After she was rushed to the hospital, she seemed to stablize, but there were some complications involving her uterus making the chances of her carrying a child slim at best. But, her vision showed her being pregnant. It appears we found a vision that won't come true. Which might be good news for Mark and Olivia. But we'll get back to that a little later.

An investigation is now underway as to who caused the attacks in LA and DC. n the mourge, a mysterious blue hand is uncovered in one of the Asian atackers. "Blue hand" was also one of the clues on Mark's board. And now Demeteri, the person who doesn't believe in the flashforwards, wants to follow it. In the flashforward, the Blue Hand was also related to Baltimore. Well, there's a Baltimore Street close by. Why not start there?

Oh, did I mention it was Halloween? I love when TV shows do Halloween episodes, it's always fun. So, they head there and find another body with a blue hand. His name was Rutherford, the same case Al would be investigating in his flashforward. Hmm....

During this time, Mark and Aaron take Charlie trick or treating and see that mysterious kangaroo again. He also sees several people in masks, masks similar to what the people were wearing in his flashforward. Turns out they were merely some kids doing some tricking on Halloween.

Meanwhile, Lloyd's son Dylan walked out of the hospital, got onto a bus, and went to Olivia's house after his father told him they were going to live together. He comes into the house past the babysitter saying "It's my house, too" because in his flashforward, Charlie was telling him it was his house, too. The babysitter notify's Mark, and he comes home. Lloyd also arrives to get his son, and realizes this was the house in his vision. Olivia also comes, and he realizes she was the woman in his vision.

Mark tells him to get lost and never come back. Mark also admits to Olivia that he was drinking in his vision, and their trust is broken further. Could these visions be causing the demise of their marriage?

Throughout the show, we meet Physicist Simon who is on a train to LA. He meets a woman, seduces her with a theory about the blackout, and has sex with her. Afterwards, he sits in a srtrange sex pose telling her he saw himself strangling a man in his flashforward. After he arrives in LA, he jumps out of the back seat of Lloyd's car, scaring Llyod (and my brother, lol) and says the have to talk. Lloyd responds "Our experiment killed 2o million people. What is there to talk about". So, they caused the blackout?!?!

Like I say in every episode, FlashForward keeps getting better and better.

I'd also like to take this time to inform you that I will begin doing V updates on Wednesday. Stay tuned...

FF: 1.4- Black Swan

*Editor's Note: Remember the promise I made to keep the posts on time? You can thank the PSAT for making me deviate from the plan. Expect FlashForward today, with Fringe either today or tomorrow. Then we'll take a look at Monk's latest case on Sun.


Yet another really great episode. And yet another surprise twist at the end.

Remember that terrorist suspect we met in the pilot? Well, she was back, and was finally being interrogated by Demetri for what she may or may not have done. Though she said she didn't have anything to do with the Blackout, she gave info on a restaurant. They go to the restaurant and the cook runs out of the place. But, it's revealed that he was a drug seller, and not involved with the blackout.

After the little wild goose chase, Mark decided to take a crack at interrogating the suspect. She doesn't give him any info, only a metaphor about Swans. This must be important; the episode's title was called "Black Swan".

In the hospital, Olivia and Bryce (the docotor who was going to commit suicide on the day of the Blackout) dealt with a patient who was feeling sick. But he wasn't worried about the surgery. He wasn't even worried on the day of the Blackout when he was in the bus crash. He told the doctors that in his flashforward he saw himself partying as a black man. Say what?

It turns out he had Addison's disease, which is a hormonal imbalance which is making calming hormones instead of adrenaline. It will also cause hims pigmintation darker. Bryce finds this out, and urges Olivia not to operate because he will die on the table. She doesn't listen because she doesn't want the flashforward to be true. But it turns out it will be true, and it saves the patient's life.

Speaking of flashforwards, this week we find out that Charlie's babysitter saw herslef being drowned. Mysterious, very mysterious. We also saw that Lloyd heard Olivia in his flashforward, and was in the same exact situation as Olivia's flashforward.

Back to the FBI, Mark wants one of his fellow agents to hack into the CIA database to search for info on the Somali Blackout back in 1991. This sounds illegal, no?

A surprise appearance by your favorite dead rockstar and mine made the final scene of the show. That's right, Dominic Monaghan was on as Simon. And he looks like a bad guy who caused the blackouts, with the help of Lloyd. Maybe next week more of our questions will be answered.

FF: 1.3- "137 Sekunden"

*Editor's Note: Due to the hospitalization of a family memember, I missed the FlashForward, Fringe, and Monk columns. Today, the FlashForward and Fringe Columns will be today, and Monk will be tomorrow with General Hospital.

When everyone saw the title, I think everyone had the same question: What the hell is a "Sekunden"? And why are there 137 of them? That question was answered fairly quickly.

"Sekunden" is German for "seconds". And everyone knows that the blackout lasted 2 minutes and 17 seconds, or 137 seconds. A former Nazi, Rudolf Geyer who was in prison said he knew why the blackouts occured and why it lasted 137 sekunden. And he wanted to see Mark. And this man was in Mark's vision. It obviosuly must mean something, right?

When Mark goes to Germany to meet him, Geyer says he will only give out his information if he is safely returned to the US and given a pardon. First, he gives info about the 137 seconds. In Hebrew, each letter represents a number. He spells out Kabbalah, which is a Hebrew tradition in which everything has a hidden meaning. And what do the numbers add up to? 137. He them promises to reveal his second set of info after he is garunteed release. But he knows he will be freed. Why? Because he saw this in his vision.

After confirming this, Geyer is released and tells them something mysterious: after the blackout, all the crows outside his window were dead. And he was freed because he told them about the crows. Geyer also admits that he has no idea why the blackout lasted 137 seconds. This guy played them and Mark knows it.

Meanwhile, Demetri is nervous after that mysterious call he recieved telling him that he will be murdered on March 15, 2010. And whoever made that call travled their tracks- the call is untraceable. He doesn't have a heart to tell his fiance, Zoey,who was finally able to return from Seatle. But she has news for him: she saw them getting married in her vision, and he was there. To comfort her, he tells her he saw the same thing, even though he didn't. So what does this mean?

Mark's friend Aarron also may have seen his daughter alive. But on further investigation, it's proved that she is really dead. What?

Finally, research is done on the death of the crows. Apparently, crows died all over the world. The FBI agents then look for patterns of crow deaths. In the Ganwar region of Somalia, all crows died on the same day in October of 1991. The inhabitants of the region claim to have suffered a mass loss of consciousness. We see this occur, and a young boy sees this huge tower. What is it?

It seems like we keep being bombarded with questions. FlashForward keeps getting better each week!

FF 1.2: "White To Play"

Last night's episode was at a much better pace. It was just as interesting, mysterious, and awesome as last week's episode. I love this show!

Some of the intersting aspects about this show revolve around what each person saw in their Flashforward. Olivia met Dylan's dad, (played by none other then Commodore Norrington!!!) Loyd. Mark also was wearing the bracelet Charlie gave him. The same bracelet as in his flashforward. Is Mark encouraging the future to happen? So many questions.

We also have Demetri, who did not have a flashforward. During an investigation in an old wearhouse, he finds asherrif who also did not have a flashforward. Everything is ok, until the sherrif dies in a wierd explosion in the factory caused by some unknown person for an unknown reason. Could this mean that she didn't have a vision because she would die, and Demetri's theory is correct?

Also coming to light is info about Suspect Zero, the man (we're assuming it is a man) who was seen walking around while the rest of the world's population blacked out. Or was he the only one? In a series of incredible and harrowing revealations, we find out that the nice cupcake lady, DiDi Gibbons, who Mark saw on his large bulletin board in his flashforward, placed a phone call to Suspect Zero 30 seconds into the blackout.

In the final scene of the show, Mark was talking to Olivia about the flashforwards. As he does this, we see Charlie's bracelet burning in the flames. Could this mean that people can change their future? Are the flashforwards a gift? Are they set in stone? Can they be changed? After this scene, Mark talks to Charlie about her flashforward. We already know she probably saw Dylan in her flashforward, but she also gave a stern warning: "D. Gibbons is a bad man".

So many questions.