FlashForward, Episode 1.05: "Gimme Some Truth"

As a reminder, I use FF in place of flashforward and GBO to indicate the Global Blackout.


Before we begin, I want to ask your opinion about something I noticed during this particular episode. With all sensitivity in mind, I want to know if anyone else found it odd that there were so many references to Asian nations, in addition to the fact that both sets of men who attacked the FBI agents in LA and DC were Asian: 

• Agent Vreede refers to the Senate hearings as a Chinese fire drill.
• President Segovia says that the Chinese view chaos as opportunity.
• CIA Director Keller mentions that China suffered fatalities of less than half a percent during the GBO.
• FBI Director Wedeck tells his wife that the whole thing is Kabuki theater.

Am I overthinking this one, are they misdirecting our attention, or does this relate to the GBO?


Mark Benford


Even though he was intoxicated at the time, I have a feeling that we will be privy to more than 30 seconds of Mark's FF in the near future. 


By the way, I realize that the rest of his team needs to blow off steam, but it strikes me as cruel that they subject their recovering alcoholic co-worker and friend Mark to hang out in bars. 


Olivia Benford


I feel they want us to assume that Wedeck texted Olivia to tell her about Mark's drinking in his FF. But that seems far too obvious to me. Mark was quite loud when he and Wedeck were arguing in the bar and he admitted to being loaded in his FF. It was DC, after all; every inch is covered with journalists looking for a story or angle. 


Janis


There are now two very strong reasons why Janis' FF is odd. First of all, she is gay and no longer dates men, making it quite challenging to become impregnated in such a short period of time. Second, she was shot in the gut and lost a good deal of blood. Most people don't recover from that type of injury quickly, nor would they be healthy enough (physically and mentally) to conceive for a month or two...no matter the method. 

So...is it possible that we're seeing her flash to a time beyond six months from now? I don't believe that Janis is lying or that she was dreaming, but I at this point I am flummoxed. 


I do have one point of contention with regard to this character and her reveal. In my experience, if someone is closeted (especially in their place of work, and for a government agency no less), they do not openly kiss their dates in a restaurant in the same town where they work. That is something that people who have nothing to hide are comfortable doing in public, no matter their sexuality. And don't get me started with the Angelina Jolie stereotype/reference, let alone the Clinton & Palin. Just my $02 on the subject.


By the way, Janis was shot in LA at the very moment that her team was attacked in DC. It was a premeditated job on every level, but I'm wondering why they seemed to want the DC gang dead and not Janis. After all, the assassin did not aim for her head or heart...

That last scene with Janis lying in the street as the alarm clock made circles in her blood? Visually stunning and very well done. 


Oscar Obregon


FlashForward is doing a great job of successfully intermingling the online experience with the series.  Obregon appeared in this episode, asking the President why he didn't share what he saw in his FF. 

Obregon runs the fictional TruthHack site and Twitter page, sharing data and videos from his investigation into the GBO. 


President Dave Segovia


In the President's FF, a Secret Service agent opens the door to his bedroom and says that "something's happened." That he says this DURING the GBO is fascinating. I look forward to the episode airing on April 29, 2010 because not only will we actually see who's FF was real, we will probably see something happen that opens up a whole new can of worms (i.e. what they'll focus on in Season 2). 


I find it hard to believe that the President didn't know about it ahead of time, and believe that he asked Wedeck to be his new Director of Homeland Security specifically to remove him from his current investigation into the GBO for the FBI. 


We already know that the President had an affair, so of course I now question if it was his wife in that bed during his FF. 


Another point to consider is that Senator Clemente saw herself as President during her FF, so Segovia may have been out of office but still under protection during his FF. And if he wasn't dead during his FF, then he was removed from office for a reason. 


In his mistress Renee's FF, she was alive and living in Puerto Rico. That is why I knew when the President made the phone call about "a problem you need to take care of," it wasn't her. The obvious conclusion is that the President ordered the entire FBI team to be taken out after Wedeck blackmailed him into continuing the Mosaic funding. 


Marcie Turoff


Those of you who had the opportunity to visit the Mosaic booth at Comic-Con earlier this summer may have met Turoff in person, as she was interviewing people who recorded their own personal flashforwards. She actually pulled me aside after I recorded mine, and asked me some very random questions about what I saw. Turoff is the face of JoinTheMosaic, and appears in videos on that site frequently. 

Of course Turoff is played by an actress (who is appearing the new Robert Pattinson film Remember Me along with Lost's Emilie de Raven), but I was pleasantly surprised to see that she is actually on the show. That being said, I don't think that we'll be seeing her for very long. It was not subtle when they placed her in a red shirt (using a red laptop) in the FBI conference room with Janis and Al in this episode. Star Trek, Lost and general pop culture fans know what a Red Shirt indicates. Sorry, Marcie. 

Agent Vreede

The information from his FF was brief but rather revealing. That he used the security exit at the exact time that the masked men with guns were going after Benford in the FBI building leads me to believe that he knew they were coming; that he knew to get out. I will be interested to find out how implicit he was with regard to what he knew and when.

Rather Alarming...


I noticed that alarms were front and center in Gimme Some Truth. The alarm system at the Benford residence was broken, and it is unclear at this point whether or not that was caused by the GBO. And Janis was given a new alarm clock that repeats "Wake up; it's time to get up." An alarm serves as a warning; Olivia is warned about Mark falling off of the wagon and Janis is served a dangerous wake-up call about investigating the GBO. 


Somalia


In a previous post, I suggested that the tall pole in the Ganwar region of Somalia may have emitted an airborne toxin or virus that could have caused the blackout in 1991. In this episode, they discover that there were several large towers secretly installed in another area of Somalia during that time, which further fuels my theory.


Crazy Theory of the Week


Senator Clemente accused Wedeck of something improper with a woman six years ago. Perhaps Wedeck not only paid Renee off to disappear after an affair with the President, he had relations with her as well. Her son appears to be six or seven years old, and he was very familiar with and excited to see Wedeck...who called the boy "my man."
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That wraps up this week's analysis of FlashForward. You may notice that the settings for leaving Comments have changed; please see this post for details. 


Thank you for reading and and for your weekly input! I don't know about you, but I thought that this week's episode was a potential game changer and loved both the reveals and surprises. 


-Jo