FlashForward, Episode 1.07: "The Gift"

"What you call cheating, I call finding a way to change the game."

-Demetri Noh

Welcome to this week's analysis of FlashForward!

As a reminder, I use FF to indicate flashforward and GBO when referring to the Global Blackout.

Al

Of course we have to start with Al, as the ramifications of his actions may have a vast ripple effect on the entire series. His suicide does indeed change the game altogether. And clearly he is not the only person who took their own life in order to prevent another's death. 

Hopefully we will get a glimpse into exactly HOW the game is changed when people change the rules on their own.

Celia

In theory, Al's sacrifice prevents Celia's accidental death. But we do not know at this point whether or not she was fated to die before April 29, 2010 anyway. Al is not going to be the cause of her death, but he may not have prevented the inevitable by sacrificing his own life. In his FF, her accident had already occurred; it remains to be seen if it still does.

Fiona Banks

Now that Al has taken himself out of the picture, I wonder whether or not Fiona will pursue the Rutherford case. If I had to guess, she not only takes over the investigation, she joins the team in LA in hot pursuit of the Blue Hand organization. 

Part of me wonders...if Fiona had accepted Al's offer to come over for dinner that night, would it have changed his outcome or decision the next day?

Mark Benford

I'm sure that if Benford had any inkling that investigating the Blue Hand would lead to the death of a fellow FBI agent, he would have done everything in his power to avoid it. 

Nicole

Am I the only one who thinks that Nicole has a crush on Bryce? Of course she thinks she's doomed due to her ominous FF and is watching him dream about the woman in his, but IF the game has changed...

It struck me as significant that Nicole mentioned that her father was former military. We know that she and Tracy Stark (Aaron's allegedly deceased daughter) were friends, so I automatically assumed that Aaron and her father served together. This may prove to be relevant if Tracy is alive and well (rather than merely a wishful vision come to life from Aaron's FF). Because if Nicole's father is still alive as well, perhaps he has information about or is involved with Tracy's current whereabouts...


Demetri Noh


I don't think that he is behaving any differently than I would if I knew my date of expiration in advance. Not only is he battling an unknown future and balancing a massive GBO investigation with a pending marriage, his two FBI friends from the academy are now down; Janis is in the hospital after being shot, and Al committed suicide.  

Simon

Potential parallel alert!

Judging by the bracelet that he is holding at the end of the episode, it seems that Simon has a daughter named Annabelle (it did not resemble the bracelet of a grown woman). Mark's daughter Charlie gave him a bracelet, which figures prominently on the Mosaic clue board in his office, and now we see that Simon's daughter probably gave him one as well. 

Is this the first hint of a softer side to Simon, or will it turn out to be the bracelet of someone that he killed? [sidenote: There is no way in hell that this bracelet belonged to the woman on the train...unless it belonged to HER daughter. But I still don't think that he killed this woman...]

Tracy Stark

Corporal Mike Willingham told Tracy's father Aaron that he saw her die in Afghanistan. I do not believe that to be the case. While it is true that she appeared to have lost a leg after the explosion, Willingham ran away and did not actually see her pass away. My guess is that she was either taken in by a sympathetic (non-insurgent) local and secretly attended to or Willingham and the military are lying/hiding something. 

If it turns out that Tracy is real and in the flesh at Aaron's house, it is my belief that what he sees in his FF still comes true. From the look and feel of it, she appears to be injured again and they are in a military zone. Perhaps she resurfaces only briefly and has to return on a mission, and Aaron goes to be by his daughter's side in six months time...

Zoey

Something still does not add up with her, at least to me. She is a criminal defense attorney with obvious intellect, and yet it didn't occur to her to check the Mosaic site when her fiance had been acting so out of character since the GBO? I do not believe for one second that it is a matter of trust, that she took Demetri's version of his FF at face value. I'm not implying that she has anything to do with his future murder, but I would not be at all surprised to learn that she has a connection to either Simon, Simcoe or Suspect Zero...

Let's not forget that we have not seen Zoey's entire FF. She repeatedly tells Demetri that she sees him, but we have not witnessed that.

Band of the Blue Hand

We now know that the Blue Hand group recruited others without FFs via the Mosaic website. I assume that is how they discovered Celia and put that note on her windshield. 

Does every new Blue Hand candidate have to play Russian Roulette? If so, odds are that occasionally one gets the bullet. What is done with those bodies? Then again, who exactly is responsible for lining and covering up the bodies after they kill themselves? 

It seems to me that whomever wanted Janis in LA and the boys in DC killed specifically hired Blue Hand members for that dangerous mission and potentially suicidal attack on the FBI. 

FYI, I went to AlreadyGhosts.com but right now it simply redirects to the FlashForward site on ABC. Although that is rather disappointing given their track record of interactive alternate reality sites, I have faith that it may become active in the near future. 

Changes: Turn and Face the Strange

A Blue Hand indicates surrendering to the inevitable. Al Gough did just the opposite; he changed the inevitable. 

Now that Al has died, does that signify change for everyone else we've met? Perhaps Janis won't get pregnant after all, Mark won't fall off the wagon, Demetri will solve his murder before 3/15/10, etc. 

What is fascinating to me is the popular debate of fate vs. free will. It is a CHOICE for Janis to get pregnant and Mark to start drinking again, whereas Demetri may fall victim to fate. Of course he may have the will to dedicate his life to preventing his death, but that may be out of his hands. 

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Thank you for taking the time to visit this site and read along as we traverse this new road together. I appreciate your eyes and comments. See you next week!


-Jo