TV Review: FlashForward 1.19 – “Course Correction”

Episode: FlashForward 1.19 – “Course Correction”
Original Air Date: May 6, 2010

Screencaps from burgundy_shoes.

This week’s episode was all over the place! There wasn’t a ton of action, but holy crap did we get a lot of plot development and finally some peak moments we’ve been waiting for all season! If you haven’t seen it yet, spoilers up ahead.

The biggest holy crap for me was Lloyd and Olivia finally crossing the line! They share an awkward kiss, and I was literally yelling “yeah!” out loud when it happened. FlashForward has been leading up to this all season, and it’s been almost iffy if it was ever going to happen, and I am so excited that it did!

Okay, so let me back up a minute. Lloyd goes on TV, basically lies to the public to reassure everyone about the blackouts and promises another blackout won’t happen. We all know this is a big ole lie, and after the broadcast Lloyd even admits that he knows there’s another blackout. The point is that to avoid mass panic, those who know another blackout will occur are going to hide it. I’m not sure how this really pans out when the next one does happen: won’t all credibility from “the experts” be totally eradicated?

The day everyone saw in their flash forwards is April 29th. On the show, that’s one week from “now.” The drama that’s coming to light is that with only a week to go, lots of vision-less folks are still alive, and some who did have flash forwards of themselves in April are dead and gone. So what gives? Lloyd offers such explanations as the power of suggestion, and even further goes on to say that perhaps the universe will help propel people to actualize their visions. As in, if you were supposed to be dead by April 29th, and you aren’t yet, there’s still time. Yikes! Pretty brazen, huh? (Does this mean Demetri can still die? I know I said last week I’m glad he’s alive, but I just have to point that out! He still can, there’s still time!!)

The Blue Hand club is back, and we find out that they’re probably involved in killing people who supposedly were “dead” in their flash forwards. This group is forcing the predictions to come true. Instead of shootings or simple methods of execution though, they’re staging similar means of death based on each victim’s predicted death, according to Mosaic. I guess if you die by being hit by a car before the 29th, you don’t envision that, but your friends and family may have gleaned that through their flash forwards? That makes sense to me.

I could go on and on about the Blue Hand club and this woman Cella who they’ve made sure dies (in a car crash), but if you saw the episode you already know all of this. I want to talk about the juicy stuff!

Bryce (the doctor who works with Olivia) is in remission. In his flash forward he envisioned himself going out to dinner with a pretty Japanese gal, and they’ve been having near misses with each other all season. They both want to find the other and realize the love connection they had visions of! But in real life, the girl he has known is Nicole, and their flirtation has been mounting. As if inspired by the clarity of being in remission, he decided that pursuing some dream girl he’s never met (I mean, he hardly has proof that she exists), he goes in for the kill with Nicole. She’s all about it, and kisses him back. Pretty hot, huh?

The irony here is that right before Nicole finds out about Bryce’s remission and they smooch, she’s been on a job to give immunizations to detained immigrants. And guess who she sees? Keiko. Bryce’s Japanese dream girl. So Nicole knows that Keiko is real, in L.A., and that Bryce could go see her. But as soon as he gives her some spiel about living in the now, she decides not to mention her Keiko sighting. So what now? Is the Keiko thing out the window? Will Bryce and Nicole actually date? I’m thinking some cheesy revealing of Keiko’s presence in LA will happen, and Dr. Bryce will have to make some kind of choice.

So that’s one hook-up that’s been building all season. The other big one, and I already mentioned it: Lloyd and Olivia! They finally kiss. And they talk about their flash forwards, and both admit that when they experienced the vision with each other, they were happy. I love Lloyd and Olivia together, and I am so stoked this is one flash forward that’s actually playing out.

As would only happen in TV, within seconds of their fateful liplock, there’s a knock at the door — it’s Mark. Of course. Mark is there to see Lloyd and ask about Simon. Of course, another thing that would only happen in TV, the FBI has just blindly trusted Simon all along, and now they’re suddenly suspecting that maybe (shock!) he’s more involved in the blackout and more devious than expected.

The super puppet masters (the ones who made the rings, and the folks truly behind the blackouts) have kidnapped Simon’s sister in an effort to get Simon to cooperate. Simon’s sister delivers a message while kidnapped, and tells her brother he has 12 hours to save her life. As Simon is bribing people in the FBI to help him figure out who has his sister, Mark finds out about what’s going on and decided to help Simon. The sister, Annabelle, is saved. Simon repays the favor by disappearing. Back in his wake, the FBI crew finally realizes that Simon is “suspect zero,” the guy they have footage of being awake during the blackout.

Okay, really, FlashForward? It took the FBI this long to even try to match up the physical profile of every person known to be mixed up in this whole ordeal with what they know about suspect zero? And Lloyd, who is some sort of scientist genius, was fooled by the excuse that Simon gave him, about his dad dying? (He used that story back in October, and since his dad can’t die twice, that’s how Lloyd connected the dots). That whole development is kind of lame. As viewers, we’ve known that Simon is shady for a while so at least its nice that the rest of the cast has caught up.

No developments on Janis and her super double-agent scam. No further insight into Jericho. So I guess in my intro when I alluded to serious plot development, I probably should have said personal romance development, because honestly, this episode gave us little insight into what’s actually going on. I don’t really care about this Blue Hand group, because they seem petty and vigilante more than they could be connected to Jericho, who I suspect is one and the same with the group inventing the QED rings and masterminding all the blackouts.

But Lloyd and Olivia kissed! (Have I mentioned that enough?) To me, that’s super big, and it’s what I’ve been waiting for all season.

The thinness of the FBI and everything to do with just now catching onto Simon should really merit me trashing this episode. Not to mention the fact that we are still left hanging about Janis, Aaron, Jericho and pretty much every serious aspect of the plot. But, I’m a sucker for cheap thrills so I’m totally giving this week 4 out of 5 stars. I was at least interested and entertained the entire time, and with one week to go onto V-day (vision day, haha) I feel like we’re reaching the boiling point and I’m expecting big things!

Rating: 4 / 5 Stars