This Week in FlashForward - 5/13/10

This week brings us one step closer to the fated April 29th, but it seems we won't actually see that day until the season finale. Will Mark and crew be able to bring down this shadowy organization or is it too late? Well, they are definitely getting to the bottom of it.

Episode 20 - "The Negotiation"

Zach says: Today's episode opens with another media blurb, this time, about that Suspect Zero footage. How did they know to refer to him as Suspect Zero? Who knows, but they do have some of the footage, from a different angle, and given to them from that shadowy organization for some reason.

We then catch up with Simon, who has a fancy new passport, and trying to go by the name of David Walker. However, before he can escape, or do whatever it is he planned to, he runs into Lita, that woman who turned Janis into a double agent. She lures Simon away, and gets him a meeting with the head honcho of the organization, referred to as "Big Guy", by Gabriel. You see, Gabriel apparently knows everything, having seen all of those visions, so he is the go-to guy for information. So naturally, this organization wants to kidnap/kill Gabriel, but we'll get to that later.

Anyway, in normal badassery, Simon talks shit to this main boss man, saying they NEED him, and can't do their work without him. Then he just walks away. So, it's apparent he doesn't really want to help these guys out, but it's hard to say what his REAL motive or plans are for anything. Lots of stuff be going down with the FBI, as they take care of Gabriel, Janis is cracking under the stress, but we know she is good, Demetri thinks he could die any second and wants to be the father of Janis' baby, and Assistant Director Stan blackmails the president.

We also see a little of Aaron is Afghanistan, which just seems pointless a bit. He does find his daughter and gets her to safety, which reinforces his flash forward, but it seems so distanced from everything else in the show, which makes it seem unnecessary, although it does give Wittick something to blackmail the president with, which may make him resign, but I would think they could have found a better way to put it together.

The FBI catch a pretty big break when pretending to move Gabriel to a safe house. Janis alerts her evil people of the move, and so Mark lays out a sting operation. They hijack the hijackers and make them take them to the Big Guy's HQ, where they apprehend both him and lots of other people. So, it seems that they have the major players in custody, so it'll be interesting to see where it goes from here. Perhaps THAT is the real reason those people attacked the FBI building in Mark's flash forward; to get the main guy out of prison...hmmm. Anyways, that's about it for this week's episode, aside from the ending, where Simon holds Janis at gun point and asks for her help. We'll see where that goes.
Zach's Score: 7.3/10

JDW says: This week's episode was definitely better than the last few weeks of visual crap we've been served. For once, a bulk of the episode focused on a core storyline, but there was still that completely useless story of Aaron in Afghanistan which just seems like wasted screen-time at this point. But hey, at least that bitchy Bryce and his life/love struggles wasn't around, and who can't be thankful for that?

Also, Mark as Gabriel made me laugh, am I a terrible person? Probably..
JDW's Score: 7/10

Overall Score: 7.2/10

Missed the episode? Catch it on Hulu