Olivia and Charlie have a "Girls Day" at the amusement park. Unfortunately for Olivia, Charlie wants her father there. Over some ice cream, Olivia assures her daughter that both of her parents
love Charlie very much, and that no matter what, they will always be a family. Charlie perks up, so Olivia takes her on the Ferris Wheel. Mother and daughter enjoy the ride, but, is that guy in the next car the same that was using the phone where Olivia and Charlie were previously talking? The girls make their way to the merry-go-round, and Olivia notices the man watching them again. When the ride stops, Olivia hurries Charlie away. They attempt to rush out of the park, but the man catches up to them. Olivia confronts him, asking why he is following them. He is an FBI agent, he explains, that Mark assigned to Olivia and Charlie for their protection. Later, when she returns to the hospital, Olivia leaves a message for Mark, thanking him for the agent. She hopes that he is well and that he'll call her later. As she finishes the call, Lloyd interrupts her. He's sorry for the intrusion, but he needs to speak with her; he needs to know exactly what she saw in her flash. He asks whether she saw a formula written on the mirror. She recollects that when Lloyd took a phone call, she got up, and found a tube of lipstick on the floor (the flash in the title card of the episode). She looked to the mirror and did see the formula, but didn't understand any of it. She did recognize one portion: the chemical formula for halzane, an anesthetic. She writes down the formula for Lloyd, who realizes a connection to his flash: QED didn't mean quantum electrodynamics as he suspected. Rather, it stood for Quantum Entanglement Device (how he got that from an anesthetic, I have absolutely no idea.). Lloyd leaves, telling Olivia that he swears he's not harassing her. She knows -- he and Mark are just trying to save the world.
Keiko has fallen in well with Emil. She did such a good job with his car, that he brings her to his garage. After some cracks at her expense from the other mechanics, Emil informs the men there that Keiko is a new hire, and as a result, a member of the family, worthy of respect. That night, Keiko takes Emil to the sushi restaurant, and tells him about how she goes there every day waiting or the man in her flash. He asks her why, and she explains that her flash showed her the best day of her life. Keiko asks him what he saw. He responds, simply, it was something different than hers. While they drink sake, Bryce and Nicole, too, are in Little Tokyo. Bryce, not a fan of Japanese cuisine, worries that the mystery woman from his flash will only want to eat sushi. Nicole remarks that he makes her sound like a mogwai, referencing the food restrictions placed on Gizmo in the movie Gremlins (as if you needed the explanation). Bryce is clearly amused by Nicole, as he takes her by the face and kisses her. She stops him, saying she can't let him kiss her as he is thinking of another woman. He apologizes, and offers to buy her a burger to make it up to her. She agrees, and they leave; the entire scene directly in front of the window an oblivious Keiko is sitting in. The next day, Keiko isn't working at the garage when ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, busts in and arrests Emil for hiring undocumented workers. Keiko and the other illegal workers are arrested as well. Bryce, as the ICE truck drives by his car, calls Nicole to apologize again. He's not actually sorry, though, because he really likes her, and is thankful to have her there while he's going through his treatment.
Back at the FBI, the suspected agents are still in the conference room, 36 hours later. Mark and Demetri peruse surveillance video of Marcy drinking her coffee outside the FBI building. Mark notices something weird: Marcy is putting sugar in her coffee, something she normally doesn't do. In fact, every time the Mosaic team went on one of its missions, Marcy was outside pouring sugar into her coffee. She must have been signaling her handlers. Marcy is the mole! When the partners stare her down in the conference room, Marcy grabs one of the guards' gun, kills the guard, shoots Agent Seth MacFarlane, a number of other redshirt agents, and runs from the building. Outside, she is met by a motorcycle rider dressed completely in black. Marcy hops on the back of the motorcycle and the pair take off. Janis runs from the building, shoots the driver, causing Marcy and the motorcycle to crash into the fountain. Janis jumps in after her and takes her down with a nice roundhouse to the face. Mark places Marcy under arrest; the mole has been found. Back inside, Wedeck tells Mark he wished he was informed about Mark's plan to flush out the mole. Mark needed to keep Wedeck in the dark so the mole wouldn't suspect anything. So, he was used for the greater good, Wedeck notes, "a Queen Sacrifice." Wedeck leaves and Mark's phone rings. It's Frost. He congratulates Mark on fixing his mole problem, and says he will be in touch. Saying nothing else, Frost hangs up.
Simon and Janis, finally free to leave, walk through the garage. Simon notes that he likes a woman with a firearm. Janis jokes that she's probably not his type. She goes on, telling Simon that she looked into his Uncle Teddy's death. It sure seems like the CPR Simon performed was the actual cause of death. It was like Simon wanted to send a message. Well..."Message received," Janis says slyly. Simon grins broadly. Janis is a mole too! The FBI would never expect a double mole, and they would certainly never suspect Janis. "That's the whole point, isn't it?" she coyly asks, ending the episode.
Commentary
I thought "Queen Sacrifice" was...interesting. There was some that I really liked about the episode. Namely, everything with Mark, Demetri and Vogel, as well as Olivia, Charlie and Lloyd was spot on. Yes, there were some major jumps in logic and believability, (like Mark finding Morse code in the length of Frost's moves in his last three chess games or Marcy's weird coffee habit) but all in all, I dug it. On the other side of the ledger, though, you have the Bryce/Nicole/Keiko storylines. There wasn't anything in particular "wrong" with these plots, or the way they were performed, but rather, I felt like I was watching a completely different show. Other than the fact they had flashes, there is nothing in those stories that links them back to the main action. Seriously, think about Bryce/Nicole and Keiko -- if you remove them from the show completely, nothing negative happens to the show. Nothing becomes less clear, nothing is left unexplained. They are utterly superfluous to the main story. Therefore, I can't be bothered with them. Still, even with this criticism, I was still really into this episode.
Then the last three minutes happened.
OK, it was a great twist that Janis is also a mole, in that the twist was unexpected. However, my reaction wasn't excitement. It was more, "Really? There are two moles? What is this, 24?" I jsut don't see the reasoning here. You already have Simon who is semi-working with the bad guys, Gibbons/Frost who is on both sides, Nhadra who may be a good guy or a bad guy, Marcy who was a double agent, and now Janis who is also a double agent. I just don't buy it. The breadth of this conspiracy just seems haphazard. There were more than enough bad guys to deal with when you throw in Jericho and the three-start tattoo guys (assuming they are not Jericho), that you didn't need a trusted and appealing character to be a mole too. Maybe this is just my affection for Janis shining through, but I just don't buy her as a double agent. I mean, she wants a baby...named Willow! Why would someone risk the baby she wants so dearly now by remaining a double agent? I just don't get it. I guess I'll have to wait to find out where this goes. Let me predict now that she is actually a triple agent and will end up on the side of good.
Alright, that's all I have for "Queen Sacrifice." What did you think of the episode? How do you feel about the "Janis-is-a-double-agent" twist? Do you find the Bryce/Nicole/Keiko stories to be unnecessary? What do you want to see from FlashForward? Please leave your questions, comments and theories below. Be sure to come back to TVOverMind for next week's recap, and all of your TV news needs. Until then, I'm off to sing "You Are My Sunshine."
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Thanks Mike. I was disappointed that Janis is a mole too – her character is so likable. Also don't see the significance of Bryce/Nicole/Keiko storyline and you are right, I was distracted whenever the sense goes to them (not that they are not likable characters). I think they should focus on Mark/Demetri/Simon/Lloyd/Frost and then go back to Mark's AA sponsor buddy and his daughter who got kidnapped.
Maybe if Janis is a double agent, she has also a sexual double identity she maybe doesn't know herself about yet. Let's hope Simon helps her to figure that out.
I'm hoping Janis is just a really smart agent. Surely Lloyd would have been debriefed after the kidnapping and produced a police sketch of the kidnapper. Janis saw it and recognized uncle Teddy. Remember also that she also ordered a trace on the phone call from Simon's sister, which presumably revealed that she was not in a NYC bus station after all. If she was a mole there would be no reason for the trace unless it was theatrics for the benefit of Simon's family. So Janis puts the pieces together and realizes that Simon's sister is being held captive by the bad guys, that Teddy is an emissary, and that Simon killed him to send a message. She's playing him to find out whether he is a bad guy, a good guy caught in a bad situation, or something else.
Ok, I know some people already hate this show. I am a big fan of it. At least I WAS until the latest episode "Better Angels". And the reason is the ending. There is NO WAY for a second I could have pegged Janis for a mole. And there's no way I will continue to enjoy this show because of it.
whoops I mean "Queen Sacrifice". I'm tired…