The two men without a flash, Simon and Demetri, still work in NLAP. Simon discovers that the mainframe is actually running a clone, obscuring the real mainframe from Simon. Simon is able to break the clone, and access the information
for which they were looking. He copies the information on the conspiracy's leaders and NLAP collider access to a jump drive for Demetri. Back in his office, Mark's phone rings. The masked gunmen immediately train their fire on the phone, utterly obliterating Mark's office. Near the lake, Nicole comes to, and sees her rescuer hovering over her. He says that he saw himself save a woman in his flash, but he thought he failed in his flash. He was glad he didn't. His name is Ed. Just then, Simon notices that someone is trying to access the mainframe remotely. The intruder begins the collider commencement sequence. Meanwhile, the gunmen finally complete their shootout, and inspect the office. As they look for Mark, Mark actually crawls out from a vent, and kills his two assailants. Grabbing one of their pup-action shotguns, Mark runs from his office, shooting other attackers in slo-motion. Demetri pulls his gun on Simon, but Simon insists that he isn't the one who started up the collider. He is doing everything he can to stop the commencement sequence.
Mark finds one of the bombs and sees that there are only eight minutes remaining until detonation. Using the elevator as a distraction, Mark is able to kill the remaining masked men in his immediate area. Mark calls Wedeck and tells him to inform the President, NTSB, etc. that another blackout will occur at 10:14pm. More masked gunmen search for Mark as news of the second blackout is broadcast around the world. Mark calls Olivia and tells her about the second blackout. He tells her that he loves both her and Charlie. Olivia tells him she's glad to hear from him, to be careful and that she'll see him soon. Mark, however, simply says, "Goodbye."
Simon tells Demetri that he can't shut down the collider so he should put the QED ring on. Demetri didn't have a flash the first time, so he doesn't want the ring -- he wants to see his future. As the collider fires and gets up to speed, Mark runs toward his office (and the helicopter hovering outside?). The -as-fast-as-light particles slam into each other, and the blackout occurs. Multiple images are seen, including one of New Year's Day 2015. During the blackout, Janis, knocked out in a wheelchair, is taken away by an orderly wearing a QED ring. It's Lita, Hellinger's henchwoman who brought Simon to Hellinger in "Negotiation." Back to the flashes, a young blonde woman is seen staring at a window. A male voice asks her if she is OK? She turns around and says, "They found him!" The flash disappears as a pair of young eyes are opened. They are Charlie's eyes. At that moment, the bombs detonate, and the FBI building is reduced to rubble.
Commentary
And so it goes, FlashForward is no more. I have to be honest, I kind of upset about that, especially after this final episode. Although it bounced around between the different stories incessantly (something I have complained about a number of times before), in this case, the bouncing actually built up a lot of tension leading to the second blackout. The reveal that the second blackout was going to occur that night was pretty good. With the exception of Mark's ridiculous running style (what's with the open hands??), I thought everything about this episode really worked, and was FF at its best. Yes, there wasn't much character development, per se, which is what the first half of the season lacked, but, at least for me, seeing how these characters arrived at their pre-seen futures was intriguing and well-executed. Further, I thought they introduced some really interesting ideas that would have been fun to see play out over upcoming season. Was Vogel on the side of the conspiracy?� What was going to happen to Janis, now in the hands of the conspiracy? Heck, how would have the Bryce/Keiko and Nicole/Ed relationships worked out (yes, I even enjoyed those, now that Bryce and Keiko were together)? And of course, what happened to Mark and who was the male voice with Older Charlie (although, didn't Older Charlie look a little too old for what current Charlie would have looked like in five years?)? Would the show really have kept Mark apart from his family for the next five years? These questions were all important enough, and well-established enough, that for the first time in a couple weeks, I was actually upset the show was cancelled.
Now, why was it cancelled? Well, I think a few elements conspired together to do in the show. First, was the initial marketing plan to try to establish FF as the replacement for Lost. Maybe no particular advertisement said "FlashForward is the new Lost!" but it was clear that was how ABC was pushing it. From casting two Lost vets (Dominic Monaghan and Sonya Walger) to putting an Oceanic Airlines ad in the first two minutes of the pilot episode, to numerous Lost Numbers references, the comparisons were inescapable. When the show didn't hit the same creative high notes as Lost, the show was at an initial, and major, disadvantage.
Now why didn't it hit the same high notes? Well, Lost first and foremost, was a show deeply committed to character development. Yes, it can be argued that it got lost in its own mythology for a huge chunk of the series, but that was only after the characters had been developed (for the most part), and the best episodes were always those that revealed more about the characters themselves, and how they reacted to the mythology around them. FF was so clearly enamored with its concept from the beginning, that it never took time to develop any of its characters during the autumn part of its season. I mean, really, who were you connected to at the end of the first ten episodes? Me? Really no one, but if I had to pick, I'd say probably Olivia, Janis and Demetri. Unsurprisingly, these were the three strongest acting performances given. These actors took the very thin gruel of character development that was written into the scripts and made the most of it. Still, these characters were more defined by the concept (Demetri had no flash; Janis is a lesbian, how is she pregnant in her flash; Olivia is with another man in her flash), than by any actual character development. This problem was brought into relief when the show returned in the spring because there was a sudden, marked and welcome shift to character development, starting with the episode about Simon. The episodes were much better in the spring, but by then, it was a little too late because of...
...the Danged Hiatus. This is a trend that I am really not enjoying. As you may remember, FF debuted in September 2009, and finished its "fall season" the first week of November. It didn't come back until mid-March. That was four full months without the show. Moreover, ABC didn't really promote it at all during that break. Yes, as the spring debut got closer, there were a few commercials, but for the better part of those four months, casual viewers would have had no idea the show existed. Now, FF was not the only show to do this; Glee had a similar (and actually longer) break. Fox, however, was smart about this. You couldn't go longer then a couple hours without hearing about Glee. There was the controversy over NBC rejecting a Glee float during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. A DVD of the fall season was released. A CD was released. The actors did a mall tour. Sneak peeks of the spring season were leaked months in advance. All of this was done to keep the show in people's minds throughout their hiatus, and that doesn't count the numerous commercials, bus stop ads, magazine ads, even flash mob performances, also used to promote the series. Fox did right by their freshman series on hiatus; ABC did not. These mid-season breaks make sense with established series that have a following, and I know that the series wanted to re-tool itself creatively (thank God it did), but when a show is looking to find its footing, banishing it from the airwaves for four months with no promotion is television malfeasance.
So, if the characters were a little more developed, and the show didn't try to be the next Lost, and such a long break didn't exist, would FF be coming back next season? I think it would have. The concept itself was actually pretty cool. Remember, the debut of FF did a great ratings number, so the interest was there. It was just a number of missteps both creatively and in management, that did in this once-promising series. And oh yeah, a leading actor who could do a convincing American accent would have helped, too. (I kid! I kid!)
There you have it folks. The end of FlashForward. What did you think of the final episode? Did you see potential in where they were going with the show? Would you have continued to watch? How would you have improved the series? Please leave your questions, comments and theories below. I'm still scouting out the new fall shows to see what piques my interest in the "serial mystery" genre, but The Event on NBC looks interesting. Is there anything you have seen that you'd like to start a discussion about? Please let me know via Twitter (twitter.com/MikeNJD) or email (michael@tvovermind.com), and we can start a community here at TVOvermind for our new favorite TV obsession (and all your summer TV news!). Until then, I'm off to swear to all the glorious choirs in heaven.
Didn't like the finale. I loved the idea of the show and looked forward to it's start. But the lack of character development and the jumping around made it hard to watch. I too was thinking what the heck was up with Mark's silly little run out of the building. I wasn't expecting much since it was meant to be a season finale but edited at the last moment as a series finale. Didn't feel like the end of the series though, and didn't answer many questions.I did love the Bryce/Keiko story and loved it when they finally met, that's something that gave me a feeling similar to that I got from Lost reunions.
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The finale certainly makes me feel that a second season is needed. It is definitely not a series finale, it doesn't feel like one. It's a pity FlashForward is cancelled because it definitely has the potential. With a second flashforward and whoever is responsible for it still on the loose, it shouldn't end there. FlashForward started well, although it was slightly draggy. It wasn't meant to be a character driven show but the main focus was the blackout event and finding out what caused it, who's behind it, and also look at how people are struggling with the knowledge of their future. Lost took a season for us to relate and to understand the characters, but FlashForward had only one season to not only address the character issues, but more importantly the blackout event. This led to the lack of character development, and in turn made it hard for the audience to relate to these people in the show. However, it made a huge improvement when it came back after the break when they accelerated the plot, and we started to see many things come into place. We also got some plot twists that were really intriguing like Simon being Suspect Zero, and Janis being a double agent. The book behind this series was brilliant. The show added even more interesting elements to it to make it more interesting and captivating for the audience and I think they did a great job. ABC should have given it a chance. It might not be the best show, but it's definitely a great one, much better than V in my opinion, which was picked up for a second season instead.
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