Flashforward - 5/27/2010 - "Future Shock"

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There's one thing I still have absolutely no clue on, and am curious as to anyone's speculation: Why is the BigBadOrganization so determined to trigger a worldwide blackout not only once, but twice (and potentially more)?

Their semi-important players all seem to be awake during the blackouts, which means that seeing that particular future isn't their goal (we know they can trigger localized blackouts whenever they want). So they for some reason want the entire world to be unconscious for 2-5 minutes so they can have free rein to do... what?

I can't remember even a single hint being dropped about the motive. Everyone was so hell-bent on figuring out what caused it that no one ever bothered to ask why.

 

I learned a lesson from this show. I've mentioned in previous FF threads that I had no intention of watching this show after this season, had it been renewed. That I just wanted to see how it played out.

Mistake. A bad show is a bad show. Once I realized I didn't like this show, I should have simply killed the SP and stopped watching. Lesson learned for me: if you don't like a show, walk away. Geez, it took me 50+ yrs to learn this?

[back to thread]
Bad ending to a bad show. The plot splintered and went in a thousand directions, almost none of which were interesting. The shootouts were a joke, the inability to secure an FBI building was preposterous. People & story lines we never cared about... we still don't care about. And since it clearly wasn't a series finale, we didn't get any substantial closure.

[repeatedly banging my head against the wall--while mumbling 'dumb, dumb, dumb'--as penance for watching this show]

 

The series was somewhat entertaining at times but I never really got "involved" with the characters so not having a 2nd season is not a big deal.

It had great potential but it seems the writers and actors were just not up to the challenge.

 

OK, don't yell at me. I watched all the episodes and the finale and I didn't quite get it all. Don't care enough to go back and try to figure it out on my own, but would enjoy knowing if someone took 30 seconds to just tell me.

(Is this fan indifference symptomatic of why it is cancelled?)

So the first blackout happened as planned on April 29, 2010 from 10:00 to 10:02 plus some seconds. But some things could be changed, so Demetri didn't die, Simon wasn't at the stadium (why was he at a stadium in the first place?), hospital girl did go into the water as she had seen but subsequently got saved from drowning.

But some things did happen as viewed in the FastForward. Hospital guy got his Japanese girl (awww, I'm glad), pregnant Janice was at the hospital, and Lloyd was at the house and figured out the formula that was desperately needed because (??????) maybe that's how the bad guys did the blackouts and they needed it to stop them.

But the plastic mask guys didn't attack Mark in this first one. Instead, he figured out the wall chart and found out that there would be a second blackout on April 14 (?????) at 10:14?

He called the President and they put out a warning a couple of minutes ahead of time, so all the planes landed, trains stopped, cars parked, people got off elevators, etc., all over the world and nobody got hurt.

Mark was jumping out of the FBI building through a reinforced plate glass window (?????) onto a helicopter that just happened to be at that window waiting for him (that then had time to land before the second FlashForward (?????)) before the building blew up. Charlie as a teenager said that "They found him", meaning her Dad. But he had been God knows where for years leaving the wife with Lloyd.

Demetri and Simon couldn't stop the second blackout and we don't know if they blew up the NLAP or not with their attempts. They both blacked out because neither put on the ring, preferring not to know the future.

I know this doesn't make total sense -- but as I said, the show didn't totally make sense either in my opinion.

Barbeedoll

 

meh... A whole lot of meh...

There is so much that is problematic about this finale (and the show in general) that I just didn't care.

Some things in the Flashforwards were different, for example I seem to recall Benford's wife and Simcoe's flashforward were a lot more suggestive of them just having had sex before he went to the living room. Didn't she call him Honey or something? that didn't happen.

Mark didn't drink from the flask this time (probably since he got rid of it when he was tossed in the pokey). Also I don't recall his face being brusied up the 1st time through.

Oh well I think I'll just re-read the book.

 

The main thing I wanted to know is why the bad guys wanted to cause the blackouts. What could that possibly accomplish? And how they tied into previous BOs.

Also, I remember a tease from the last ep before the break. Benford shoved Dem up against a wall and said "I should have shot you myself." Did that scene ever happen after the break?

Bob

 

Remember Simon had just slept with her and then she introduced him to Hellinger?

In the case of FF, there was no mystery. It has been known that it was a goner since it returned from hiatus to horrible ratings. We should be grateful that ABC allowed it to play out to an ending at all.

I doubt that made much of a difference. There wasn't time to get the word out to anyone that might have actually been in danger anyway.

Either you mistyped a lot of that explanation, or you REALLY had no idea what was going on in this series.

The first blackout happened October 6, 2009. Simon didn't have a blackout because he was wearing the QED ring.

The only things that were significantly different from the October FFs to the April 29th realities were Demitri was alive, Lloyd was wearing a shirt and didn't just get up from the bed, and Benford wasn't drinking in his office. Other than that, the FFs pretty much matched the eventual reality.

Mark didn't get the word out in time for any of those things you mentioned to have happened.

Simon and Demitri were not trying to blow up NLAP.

My biggest complaint about the show was that they spent a whole episode back in the fall dealing with the organization where everyone had three stars tattooed on their forearms. Was that Jericho? They made it seem like that organization was going to play a major part in how the conspiracy was unraveled, but instead, they completely dropped that part. In fact, if they had completely left out any references to Jericho, Aaron and/or his daughter, it would not have changed the way the story played out at all. They never tied them into the story at all. Same with Bryce/Nicole/Keiko. Their stories were completely superfluous.

I have to believe that the original plan was to have the April 29 episode come several episodes before the end of the season, and then those stories that seemed superfluous would somehow play out after April 29 to help the FBI solve the conspiracy.

However, given what they had to work with and knowing that this would be a series finale, I think they did a decent job wrapping it up as best they could. I went into it knowing that it was a series finale, and I was satisfied.

 

I realize that. But I'm saying that if Benford and Simcoe figure this all out at 10:03 pm, and then Benford calls Weddick at 10:04 pm and tells him to call the White House, and then Weddick calls the White House at 10:05 and gets POTUS out of bed (it's now 1:05 a.m in DC), how does POTUS get the word out to the world about the impending FF in less than ten minutes? I realize that people who were watching the news or listening to the radio at the time might have gotten some warning, but the percentage of the population who would actually get notice in a situation like that is very, very small. It would have made much more sense if they had it happen at 11:14 and they had an hour to get the word out.

 

You know, this was a thought I had previously that piqued my interest until Simcoe and Benford yammering dulled me back into boredom.

There was a throwaway line about how evil organization was using Gabriel and his buddies to see potential futures and take economic advantage of it through stock transactions and the like.

But no one explained why they felt the need to create Global Blackouts, twice!

The most likely explanation I can come up with would be Global Terror (which I guess is what all the Government agencies were assuming).
But I think it was stated in a throwaway line in the pilot that no one came forward claiming responsibility.

But then, I probably put more thought into it then the producers did.

 

While I agree that not everyone would get the word that quickly, news in today's world moves FAST... and a huge amount of people were already up and communicating with eachother about flashforwards, since they were living out their previous one at that moment. I bet news of a second one would spread within just minutes to a large segment of the population (it's not like "watching the news or listening to the radio" is the only way to get the message out these days). Hell, I think a large part of at least the more technologically advanced world knew about Michael Jackson's passing within 30 minutes.

 

Good point.

 

If they'd had more time to get the word out, they might've had time to actually stop it. Not as dramatic.

 

This should be added to the Evil Overlord List.
If I am able to, with reasonable certainty, predict the future, I will not allow anyone else to find out about this ability, instead using it only for my own gain.

Until we know why they bothered with the global scale, it would appear that they had nothing to gain and everything to lose from allowing the general public to even be aware that seeing the future is possible. Before that, they could practically print their own money with no one the wiser.

 

That was something different than Jericho -- Jericho was more or less a stand-in for Halliburton or a similar company with a lot of government contracts. The thing with the stars was a loose organization of people who hadn't seen anything during their flash-forwards.

 

I think they definitely hinted that Jericho, which tried to kill Tracy in Iraq, and later kidnapped her and took her to Afghanistan, was somehow related to the Big Bad Organization that caused the FF. If that wasn't the case, then what was the purpose of including that 3-star organization at all?

Also, didn't the guy who was handling Simon and pretended to be his uncle (Flasso?) make some deal with that 3-star organization during that episode?