FlashForward: “Scary Monsters and Super Creeps” Review

Perhaps the most riveting episode yet, “Scary Monsters and Super Creeps” did an outstanding job in engaging the audience without giving away too much of the story. And of course Dominic Monaghan may just yet deliver the show from the brink of obscurity. To be honest, I continue to watch “FlashForward” for two main reasons, one of them being Simon, played by Dominic Monaghan, and the other, finding out the actual cause of the “FlashForward”.

Right from the onset, Simon blatantly addresses the ultimate question of what caused the “FlashForward”, as if he was speaking right at the audience. While on the express train headed towards Los Angeles, Simon sparks a conversation with a woman. He goes on to explain that he is a famous quantum physicist and claims that he might know what caused the “FlashForward”. After some time of meaningless flattery and flirtation, Simon admits that in theory,  quantum physics may be responsible for the “FlashForward”, siting “quantum superpositions” and “Schrödinger’s cat” as some of the examples.

Next we find out that a secret organization “Blue Hand” is actually responsible for the attacks on the FBI agents, although their motifs aren’t completely clear. Dmitri follows the signs which are conveniently placed all over LA to a safe house. Whether or not the “Blue Hand” is somehow connected to Simon is yet to be discovered? What we do know however, is the fact that Lloyd Simcoe, the guy with the kid, is connected to Simon.

What We Know:

Here is what we know so far…

Simon is a quantum physicist who is somehow involved with what caused the “FlashForward”

Lloyd is also an academic who is Simon’s close acquaintance

Towers which may be linked with what caused the “flashforward” are built in Somalia

“Blue Hand” is somehow involved and are trying to stop the investigation

Lloyd told Simon that they are responsible for the death of 20 million people because of their experiment

Someone in the government is leaking information

Now connect the dots…

FlashForward: “Gimme Some Truth” Review

A somewhat pedestrian episode, “Gimme Some Truth” was an introduction to what may turn out to be a story tangled in complex interrelations. Rather than introduce new characters and plot structures, the show may follow a “closer-to-home” approach to storytelling. In other words, our conspirators and co-conspirators may be hiding in plain site.

I’m beginning to think the “flashforward” was somehow sponsored or manufactured by the government. It would make for an interesting story. Perhaps an unofficial, clandestine research organization, sponsored by the CIA, was tasked with creating a way to “peek into the future”. The Department of Homeland Security would be all over this. Can you imagine having the ability to prevent a terrorist attack six month into the future? Not a bad idea.

All they have to do is cause the “flashforward” and index or record the images on a database for some playback action. That way they can prevent something from happening in the future, similar to “Minority Report“.

For the most part, I found myself anxious to get to the end while watching this episode. The blatant tribadism and the often misplaced Sun Tzu aphorisms made this episode all the more unbearable to watch.

FlashForward: 137 Sekunden Review

137 Sekunden

Our senile “scientist” turned out to be a mass murderer by the name of Rudolf Geyer, a former Nazi who seems to have the answers to why birds in particular are effected by the blackouts. He claims that in his flashforward, he sees himself talking with a U.S. customs agent and telling him that “murder” has given him freedom, a clever pun since “murder” also means a group of crows.

Geyer tells Mark, the FBI agent, about the number 137 and its Kabbalistic implications. Mark seems frustrated with Geyer and pushes him to reveal more, at which point the Nazi tells him that when he awoke from the blackout, he noticed a dead “murder”, group of crows, in the court yard. Geyer tells Mark that this is all he knows and that this piece of information will lead the FBI agent closer to the truth. For some reason, when Geyer handed Mark a book on birds, it seemed to me like he was hiding something. I have a feeling that this isn’t the last time we see Rudolf Geyer, and that he might even be the main culprit in the story.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of this episode was the cliff-hanger in the end. We see a large structure in Somalia, to which a number of crows flock, with fatal consequence. We also find out that this isn’t the first time a “flashforward” had occurred, in fact it has happened before, once in Ganwar, Somalia, 1991, and each occurrence seems to be accompanied by a sharp dip in worldwide crow population.

So far the writers of the show have done a good job of keeping the story interesting without giving away too many plot elements. At this point, anybody’s guess is as good as mine. What I can tell you however is that several signs seem to point in the direction of a “manipulated” flashforward, instead of a “naturally” occurring one. The Blue Hand, D. Gibbons, Suspect Zero, and the Tower in Somalia, all seem to point in one direction, a group of conspirators who have artificially manufactured the blackout. However some may argue that the blackout has been caused by a naturally occurring phenomenon, and that the Tower is simply a way to detect and monitor this phenomenon.