I just watched episode 2 of ABC's FlashForward and it was a-mazing! This is why I haven't followed network tv in a long time. Shows that offers surprises and cliffhangers at every turn require uncommon amounts of patience and emotional self-control, none of which I have. So rather than sitting pretty in a Snuggie and with a bucket of ice cream for a Saturday night marathon, I have to wait an entire week until my next 45 minute fix. (Luckily I have numerous distractions in Merlin, Glee, maybe Three Mile, and all the other old shows I'm just catching up on.)
Things really start churning in this second episode. The pilot was mostly a prolonged edition of all the previews they've been showing this summer. There's nothing terribly revealing about the plot, the characters, or their visions that we didn't already know from the publicity campaign. The only real surprise came at the end when it was discovered that a man was awake, wandering around Detroit's baseball stadium during the blackout. Spooky. Episode 2 jumped on the first real lead and involved the search for someone named 'D. Gibbons'. Olivia, Mark Benford's (Joseph Fiennes) wife, gets her first meeting with the mysterious man she saw in her vision. He happens to be the father of a patient - who, it turns out, Olivia's daughter Charlie saw in her vision. A crazy cupcake lady is introduced as well, and I mention this mostly because I want to eat her cupcakes, though she is sure to reappear later on.
One of the major sources of tension thus far seems to be between Mark and Olivia as they navigate infidelity of all sorts. There is the obvious conflict regarding the other man, but there is also cheating of the non-sexual variety. Mark has yet to tell his wife that part of his vision involved a relapse into alcoholism, and he makes an effort to keep even minor details from her (such as the bracelet). All signs point to a volatile descent into chaos, at least in their personal lives.
The biggest pseudo-surprise, however, comes at Demetri Noh's (John Cho) expense. In the immediate aftermath of the blackout, he hypothesized that his lack of a vision meant that he'd be dead in 6 months. Well, tonight we learned from some raspy voiced woman with some prime real estate in Hong Kong that he will be...murdered!! O-M-to-the-G. This is brutal, and I am officially hooked.
