FlashForward: Difference between revisions

[[File:flashforward.jpg|frame|"What did you see?"]]

 

 

 

Two FBI agents, Mark Benford and Demetri Noh, are investigating a terrorist cell when an event called "the Blackout" occurs. Everyone on Earth blacks out for two minutes and 17 seconds. Twenty million people die. And more than that: during the two minutes and 17 seconds, the people didn't just black out, they had visions of what they were doing six months ''in the future''.

Janis Hawk, their co-worker at the FBI, has a vision of herself pregnant. Olivia, Mark's wife, sees herself with another man. Demetri doesn't have a vision at all, leading him to believe that [[Your Days Are Numbered|he will be dead in six months]]. Mark himself has a vision of his own [[Room Full of Crazy]] with clues about what caused the Blackout (as well as him falling off the wagon). And Mark's daughter Charlie says there will be "no more good days."

 

 

 

If you're just getting started on watching this show, know the [[Wild Mass Guessing]] page for this show has been divided into folders letting you read theories as you go without being spoiled.

Despite having a strong start, ratings progressively dwindled throughout its run until it ended up with about a third of its original viewers, [[Cut Short|and it never made it to a second season]], leaving fans pondering the season-ending [[Cliff Hanger]]. [http://www.digitalspy.com/ustv/s56/flashforward/news/a236830/flashforward-is-most-missed-axed-show.html Zap2It declared FlashForward the most missed show] after a poll determined that 46.3% of voters would miss it the most (by comparison, the runner-up, ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]'', had 17.1% of the vote), and there were rumours that Starz might pick the show up for a second season, but it appears this has come to naught.

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* [[Action Girl]]: Janis Hawk, who knows tae kwando and manages to {{spoiler|shoot an assassin dead even while bleeding from a gut wound}} in "Gimme Some Truth."

* [[Actor Allusion]]: In episode four, Olivia calls Mark "The [[Shakespeare]] of children's stories," which is probably a reference to Joseph Fiennes's role in [[Shakespeare in Love]].

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: Double subverted. At first, the fact that most characters have visions of themselves in the future seems to show that none of those characters are going to die before April 29. But after the {{spoiler|Self inflicted death of Al Gough, it is now believed that the future can be changed and that anyone without a flash forward can still live, and likewise, any with a flash forward can still die}}.

* [[Arc Words]]: Mark's whole [[Room Full of Crazy]].

** {{spoiler|Frost's whole warehouse wall full of batshit crazy.}}

** And 29th April 2010 - not just the date that people experienced in their flashforwards, but also originally meant to be the airdate for the final episode, until its scheduling was changed.

** And 2 minutes, 17 seconds... keeps getting mentioned moreso even than the others (in the intro voiceover for every episode, as well as being mentioned in-episode multiple times) - 137 seconds, 137 Sekunden (the German - also used as one episode title). A lot of importance was originally attributed to the number by characters early on, but later this stopped being treated as important. One theory is that it is because 137 is very nearly the reciprocal of the universal Fine Structure Constant. (137.0359990...)

* [[The Artifact]]: Zoe. Her role was originally supposed to increase later in the season, and in the second season that never got to be, due to Demetri's death as expected. Instead, the new showrunners decided to keep him alive since John Cho had become popular following the release of the 2009 ''Star Trek'', and the ratings needed all the help they could get. As a result, Zoe has little to do after Demetri survives his would-be death beyond break up with him, and is gone from the series by the season/series finale.

* [[The Atoner]]: {{spoiler|Lloyd}} doesn't start out this way, but [[Character Development|becomes one as the series goes on.]]

* [[Benevolent Boss]]: Though he does not allow himself to be taken advantage of, Wedeck ''really'' cares about his employees. He most definitely comes off as [[A Father to His Men]] after {{spoiler|Janis}} is shot, and sheds sincerely touching [[Manly Tears]] when {{spoiler|Al Gough kills himself}}.

* [[Berserk Button]]: Agent Noh and Olivia Benford do NOT care or want to hear what your flashforward was about, because {{spoiler|neither of them want theirs to happen.}}

** Don't accuse '''anyone''' of blabbing secrets to Olivia.

** Simon is capable of anything when someone tries to manipulate him into doing something he doesn't want to do. {{spoiler|Even murder.}}

* [[Conveniently Empty Building]]: Implied. Mark is there in his flash forward, and he sees people coming to get him. [[Fridge Logic|One would assume they would grill the entire building staff from top agents to the janitors emptying the trash to see if anyone else was at the building and saw anything that may clue them in to these soldiers]], but instead it seems the viewer is left to assume this trope.

** Ultimately justified in that {{spoiler|the entire building has been evacuated due to a bomb inside of it, set to go off immediately after the flash forwards were going to happen}}. It's never fully explained how no one else realized this would happen, though, given the number of extras who must have had flash forwards about it.

** Charlie, in some ways.

** Most of her classmates veer into this when they're playing "Blackout".

** So does Dylan.

* [[Death Trap]]: {{spoiler|Dyson Frost puts Demetri into one.}}

* [[Disc One Final Boss]]: {{spoiler|Dyson Frost}}

*** It did work and they spent quite a while trying to justify why the tiny ring could be enhanced when the face could not. It's still unbelievable.

* [[Estrogen Brigade Bait]]: John Cho and Jack Davenport have both gotten [[Shirtless Scene|shirtless scenes]]. Joseph Fiennes is all broody and not bad on the eyes either.

* [[Evil Brit]]: {{spoiler|Simon seemed to be this initially as he claims responsibility for the Blackout, but then in "A561984" he starts co-operating with the FBI, and his claim is thrown in doubt when he reveals he had no knowledge of the pylons in Somalia. Now possibly double subverted when we've seen that he was (albeit unhappily) working with the people responsible for the blackout as [[The Mole]].}}

** There's also {{spoiler|Lucas Hellinger, the show's apparent [[Big Bad]].}}

** Irish Brían O'Byrne as Aaron Stark

*** O'Byrne is [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping|a particularly egregious example]].

** Subverted when it turns out that the murder of crows is indeed a clue that points to the possibility that {{spoiler|a mass blackout has occurred before.}}

** [[Most Definitely Not a Villain|"Oh, we've had training."]]

** The brief [[Cat Fight]] in "Queen Sacrifice" between two [[Action Girl|Action Girls]]. Both wearing fairly light blouses. In a pond.

** Whenever Janis goes into full [[Action Girl]] mode the camera ''never'' ignores her tight pants or blouse.

* [[Flash Forward]]: The entire show is ''built'' around this premise.

* [[Flat Earth Atheist]] / [[Skepticism Failure]] : Several people are shown to be skeptical of the flash forward despite ''overwhelming evidence'' to the contrary, calling them meaningless "visions" and getting angry at people who are considering the visions as true ''just in case'' because they could possibly ''save lives''. Explained in that these characters were shown to have ''really awful futures'' they don't want to be true.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: "Have you heard of the double-slit theory?" "Well, I did a little experimenting in college..."

* [[A God Am I]]: This is Simon's viewpoint on the fact that {{spoiler|his experiment maybe caused the blackout.}}

* [[Good Smoking, Evil Smoking]]: Flosso [[Card-Carrying Villain|intentionally invokes this.]]

* [[Heel Face Revolving Door]]: {{spoiler|Simon}}.

* [[Heroic Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Al Gough}} commits suicide so that the woman he found he accidentally killed in his flashforward can live.

* [[I Did What I Had to Do]]: Janis says this word-for-word after {{spoiler|revealing her double mole status to Mark}}.

* [[Idiot Ball]]: Come on, Mark, you don't recognize a unit tattoo when you see one?

* [[In Medias Res]]

* [[Insufferable Genius]]: Simon

** {{spoiler|They seem to be dressed and acted more like gangbangers than professional hitmen, even the way they held the guns. More likely they were hired by Monaghan and Davenport to cover up the ones who are getting close.}}

*** {{spoiler|And yet the autopsy of the few of them the Mosaic team manage to kill suggests that these men are trained professionals.}}

* [[Ironic Nursery Tune]]: The second episode opens with "Ring Around the Rosie" and images of children lying completely still on the ground. Later on, the fake D. Gibbons has dolls which also sing the song. [[Nightmare Fuel|It's creepy.]]

* [[It Meant Something to Me]]: Poor Demetri...

* [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]: A [[Tear Jerker|truly touching moment]] between Mark and Gabriel in "The Negotiation". (No, [[Ho Yay|not like that!]] [[It Makes Sense in Context]].)

* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|Anyone involved in the global blackout apart from Dyson Frost, who's dead, and Hellinger, who's still in FBI custody as of the end of the series. Alda Herzog and Evil Pet Shop Lady are still on the loose, and no one apart from Aaron even knows about Jericho's involvement.}}

** {{spoiler|And it's ''still'' running around in the series finale! [[Fridge Logic|How the hell did no-one do anything about that kangaroo in six months?]]}}

*** Well, during Hurricane Andrew, much of Miami Metro Zoo was destroyed and lots of animals escaped. Some, including a ''giraffe'' were never recovered. Dead or alive. If you can lose something as big and prominent as a giraffe, a kangaroo is child's play.

** An incredibly sad running gag.

** {{spoiler|Double subverted in that Janis is actually [[The Infiltration|working for the CIA to spy on her unknown employers]].}}

** {{spoiler|Simon}} could also be called this. As could {{spoiler|Mike, who was spying on Aaron on behalf of the Jericho PMC}}.

** Nice job {{spoiler|killing the man who would eventually lead war-torn Somalia to peace, Vogel.}}

*** {{spoiler|Vogel is CIA. It could be taken that once he learned Abdi was going to be a peacemaker, he began looking for an opportunity to kill him. Cause', you know, [[Strawman Political|that's what the CIA does.]]}}

'''Vogel''': ''I was <s>[[Shoot the Dog|Shooting The Dog]]</s> doing my job.'' }}

* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]: Dr. Raynaud, the highest ranking Blue Hand we've met so far.

** Possibly lampshaded by Mark when he asks Raynaud what made him turn from an ordinary nice guy into Friedrich Nietzsche.

* [[Not What It Looks Like]]: Olivia invokes this one in non-humorous context.

* [[Noughties Drama Series]]

** Or it could be [[You Didn't Ask]].

** Various characters seem to remember New Flash Forwards As The Plot Demands, or at least new parts of the one they had, on a regular basis.

* [[No Ending]]: Due to the cancellation of the series after a cliffhanger in the finale.

* [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]: The head of the Senate committee in "Gimme Some Truth" is practically the embodiment of this trope.

* [[Oh Crap]]: When Demetri's fiancee realizes {{spoiler|that what she saw wasn't a wedding, it was a funeral.}}

** "Hello, Demetri. My name is {{spoiler|Dyson Frost. I'm recording this in 1991. Got your attention, didn't I?"}}

* [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping]]: Brían F. O'Byrne as "American" Aaron Stark.

* [[The Other Darrin]]: Dylan Simcoe was recast in the middle of filming the pilot. Some scenes feature Dylan #1 and some Dylan #2; one of them took over for the series proper.

** Don't forget he's also President {{spoiler|Playboy. It's how he gets blackmailed by Wedeck into keeping Mosaic open.}}

* [[Papa Wolf]]: Aaron Stark.

* [[Psychic Dreams for Everyone]]: The event that kicked off the [[Myth Arc]].

* [[The Rainman]]: Gabriel McDow

*** {{spoiler|Who then gets killed anyways.}}

* [[Red Herring]]: Brilliantly [[Double Subversion|double subverted]] in "Queen Sacrifice."

** Done rather well as her motivator was that - as a wallflower - nobody ever paid any attention to her in the first place.

* [[Retired Badass]]: Aaron Stark, as of "Blowback."

** Also the kangaroo.

* [[Scenery Gorn]]: The first 17 minutes of the pilot is dedicated to showing what would happen to downtown Los Angeles if everyone blacked out for 2 minutes, 17 seconds. Helicopters sticking out of skyscrapers, freeways full of twisted metal and bodies... it's pretty darn Gorn-iffic. Gorn from around the world is mentioned through the rest of the episode, but not shown (700 plane crashes?!).

* [[Screw Destiny]]: What Mark's trying to do by {{spoiler|burning the friendship bracelet}}.

** In episode 7, Al Gough does this by {{spoiler|killing himself}}.

** Mark again by {{spoiler|getting himself fired}} in episode 10. Considering what he did {{spoiler|(went to China against his boss's orders, then kidnapped a woman at gunpoint and got arrested and deported by Chinese authorities)}}, it's not likely he'll get his job back in the next few months.

*** Oh, Nevermind.

* [[Science Marches On]]: In [http://tinyurl.com/ylgy9bw the 1999 novel on which the television show was based], the flashforward was caused {{spoiler|partly by the activation of the Large Hadron Collider}}.

** In-universe example:

'''Janis:''' Well, welcome to the future. }}

* [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]]: Who doesn't already believe that Mark and Olivia's marriage is going to fail? They seem to have grown distant already just at the thought that she will cheat on him. {{spoiler|Even more so now that he knows she's met the man in her vision and she knows he was drinking in his [[Flash Forward]].}}

*** For that matter, so would {{spoiler|Dyson Frost}}.

** The Finale goes to town on this one. {{spoiler|So the second blackout was predicted by Gabriel's modifications to the board, who modified the board because he modified the board, because he modified the board, because he modified the board? Come again?}}

* [[Shoot Out the Lock]]: how Mark gets into the building where {{spoiler|Demetri is stuck in a [[Death Trap]]}} in "The Garden of Forking Paths".

* [[Shoot the Dog]]: Mark engages in this pretty heavily in "A561984".

** There's also an ad for Lost's final season on a briefly seen bus. [[Fridge Logic|So, uh,]] who [[Celebrity Paradox|plays Charlie and Penny]] in this show's Lost?

** "Revelation Zero, Part 1" has mention of a Detective [[Rob Liefeld|Liefeld.]]

** There's also a character called [[Doctor Fate|Kent Nelson]] on the show.

** [[Jorge Luis Borges|"The Garden of Forking Paths"]].

** I'm surprised no one has mentioned that Al Gough is played by the guy who played Cyborg on Smallville which was developed by Alfred Gough.

* [[Smug Snake]]: Heroic variant in Marshall Vogel of the CIA. Most infuriatingly, he's most often right.

*** {{spoiler|Of course he was. [[Smug Snake]] that he is, he was the one who recruited her to be [[The Infiltration]] in the first place.}}

** And in the villain corner, Carline, {{spoiler|Janis's contact within the mysterious conspiracy}} is one full-stop.

* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: A massive shootout (and {{spoiler|Janis bleeding out}}) all to the tune of a karaoke-version of "Sister Christian." Motoring!

** In "Black Swan", the flashforward occurring in Echo Park (with all the carnage that implies, specifically, {{spoiler|an out-of-control city bus heading straight into a lake, ''running over several unconscious people in the process''}}) set to Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet".

** Several, including the stuff that was on Mark's [[Room Full of Crazy|wall of crazy]]. It'll drive you mad just thinking about the reason he put up those cards: he put them on the wall because he had a vision of them on the wall.

** In the second episode, Mark puts up a picture of the burned doll on the wall. But the doll wouldn't have been burned (and he wouldn't have gone into the doll factory at all) if he hadn't had the vision of the burned doll picture in the first place. [[Austin Powers|Oh no, I've gone cross-eyed.]]

* [[Token Minority]]: Mostly averted, as there are three of the six regular cast members playing FBI agents are black, as is Demetri's fiancee. Lynn Whitfield and Gina Torres have also appeared. Still only one Asian regular, but he's co-lead and has been getting [[Character Development]], so...

** Now the Japanese girl in Bryce's vision, Keiko, seems to be getting a bigger role.

** Also, to many, Mark Benford. In the first block of episodes, it wouldn't be a stretch to say he was in the running for most hated character. After the hiatus, he has become much more level-headed, proactive, decisive and mature about his responsibilities.

** About half the episodes qualify, to one degree or another. "A561984" is probably the biggest one yet, even more so than "The Gift". Just about every point of the meeting with {{spoiler|the woman in Hong Kong}} is its own mini-wham, and then you have {{spoiler|Simon working with the Good Guys}} and the things he reveals, plus what happens to Lloyd (and his son and Olivia!) at the end.

** "The Garden of Forking Paths". {{spoiler|Dyson Frost ''isn't'' actually the [[Big Bad]]. And now he's dead. And Demetri's successfully managed to [[Screw Destiny]] by not dying on March 15th. Or has he?}}

** "Countdown". Oh, boy. Where to begin? {{spoiler|Everyone's future goes severely downhill and strays ''very'' far away from the flash forwards: Mark is expelled from the bureau after beating up Hellinger (something the latter had just predicted it would happen), starts drinking again, gets in a bar brawl and is thrown in jail for good measure. Zoey departs for Hawaii alone after Demetri tells her he impregnated Janis, who in turn might have lost her baby while handcuffing Simon. Lloyd can't complete the tachionic equation since Olivia decided not to let her flash forward become true. Nicole reveals Bryce she knew where Keiko was, but he misses her (again) because she's returning to Japan on immigration agents' watch. All of this mere hours before the moment of the visions. What else? Oh right. Too bad for Aaron, ''Tracy is dead''.}}

*** {{spoiler|And then all of that gets totally reversed <s> soon</s> immediately after. Except for Demetri.}}

** The episode before: {{spoiler|"Hello Demetri. My name is Dyson Frost. I am recording this message in 1991. [pause] Got your attention, didn't I?"}}

** {{spoiler|Dyson Frost}} again: {{spoiler|"Hello, Charlie! :)"}}

** Series Finale: {{spoiler|"They Found Him!"}} [[Aborted Arc|Whatever that meant.]]

* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]] - The New York Times review of the pilot included a list of historical events tied to the flash forward date of April 29, 2010, and suggesting speculation over the date's significance would be more fuel for [[Epileptic Trees]]. In actuality, it's just the 50th birthday of Robert J. Sawyer, author of the ''Flash Forward'' novel, which coincidentally falls close to the airing of the first season finale.

** Or get his impeachment. We saw her flashforward, it was a little unclear. What more interesting - what about Arabian boy who was seen by Wedeck's wife? Did writers forget about him or something?

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Janis, Olivia and Wedeck have all given this treatment to Mark. Demetri has gone as far as punching Mark in the face, although that was more his [[Berserk Button]] going off.

** [[Designated Hero|He seems to attract a lot of this..]]

* [[Wrench Wench]]: Keiko

* [[You Are Too Late]]: {{spoiler|In the finale, Lloyd and Mark discover when the second blackout will take place. Unfortunately, it's due to happen just minutes from when they found out, so they're unable to stop it.}}

** {{spoiler|Slightly subverted in that they managed to save millions of lives by getting the last-minute warning out.}}

** Special Agent {{spoiler|<s>Jett Jackson</s> Al Gough}} just proved you can fight it and [[Screw Destiny]] {{spoiler|by killing himself, even though he had a vision of himself six months in the future after he had accidentally killed a young mother}}.

*** However, {{spoiler|in episode 19 she <s>dies</s> suffers massive injuries in a freak car accident. Chance? No: The universe correcting itself. It is implied that the she will still die on April 29 and the events of Al's flashforward will happen to someone else.}}

* [[You Killed My Father]], [[Prepare to Die]]: {{spoiler|Simon does this, twice.}}

* [[You're Insane!]]: Demetri to D.Gibbons in "The Garden of Forking Paths". Gibbons' reply: [[Mad Oracle|Most oracles are]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Science Fiction Series]]

[[Category:American Series]]