FlashForward: "Black Swan" 10/15 - Grading & Discussion

[AntonyF]

AND I'm done!

I've not liked this show, but this episode made me finally delete the 'season pass'.

The opening was quite fab, but once again the tone of this show fails. You go from people drowning, hundreds of people dying as planes explode... then some ha ha moments of a guy going on about wearing leather pants. It's just wrong. It's so jarring.

Then some blatant exposition with Sulu and his bint, some egg humour, some drunk guy moodiness, farting around with vending machines... and within 5 - 10 minutes it's such a mess of themes I don't know what the hell I'm watching.

So I deleted it, cancelled it... and I'm done!

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Boy what a stubborn one that Olivia is... her blinders' made you want to take her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her.

Why doesn't she just march up to the guy and say, "Hey I had the weirdest flash forward - we were apparently lovers. But there's no way I'm cheating on my hubby, so I'm wondering what you might have seen that would have shed some light on the situation?"

What the frak is she so scared of? Who knows what the explanation was - maybe there was some reason she needed to pretend to be his lover (was someone watching the house or in the house with them? were they both putting on an act?) Maybe she had amnesia. Maybe they discovered they were long-lost siblings, which would explain why they would innocently cavort around in the same household in their underoos.

She should take the approach that she wouldn't willingly cheat on her husband and therefore she should get to the bottom of this perplexing situation. Her vision was ambiguous enough that there could be plenty of alternative explanations.

Perhaps he becomes furious with her, pretends to forgive her, and then pretends to be "baptizing her" to save her, and then gets a WEE bit carried away.

He's an epileptic and happened to have a fit while baptizing her. He wasn't meaning to drown her at all. If his intent was innocuous, that would explain why she felt she deserved it - she felt she deserved to be baptized, not drowned!

 

[DevilEyes]

Boy what a stubborn one that Olivia is... her blinders' made you want to take her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her.

Why doesn't she just march up to the guy and say, "Hey I had the weirdest flash forward - we were apparently lovers. But there's no way I'm cheating on my hubby, so I'm wondering what you might have seen that would have shed some light on the situation?"

What the frak is she so scared of? Who knows what the explanation was - maybe there was some reason she needed to pretend to be his lover (was someone watching the house or in the house with them? were they both putting on an act?)

Not likely, since she said she remembered that in her flashforward, she had strong feelings for the man.

But I was annoyed with her as well. She almost let a patient die for her stubborness, and, sorry, but there are worse things in the world than the possibility that your marriage will not work out and you will be in love with someone else in 6 months time. I can't imagined what she would be like if, say, she saw herself being murdered in 6 months time like the babysitter did.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

she had strong feelings for the man.

Didn't say she "loved" him. Might have hated him, or maybe was his ally in some scheme and felt great loyalty to him. I noticed the intentional ambiguity of that statement. I think the one emotion we can rule out is the obvious one - love.

 

[DevilEyes]

she had strong feelings for the man.

Didn't say she "loved" him. Might have hated him, or maybe was his ally in some scheme and felt great loyalty to him. I noticed the intentional ambiguity of that statement. I think the one emotion we can rule out is the obvious one - love.

I think we can't. Why would we?

In fact, HATE is one emotion you can definitely rule out. Olivia would know the difference and would be very well aware if the feeling she felt was that of love or hate. It's not like she was given a paper with a prophecy that said "You will have strong feeling for this man". She was there and she felt it.

 

[Witterquick]

They look like siblings to me.

 

[Trent Roman]

What's all this about adult siblings prancing around in their skivvies? It would actually be worse if they were related, since you'd have genetic sexual attraction without the Westermarck effect, since they obviously weren't raised together.

The best 'alternative' explanation I can come up with is a kidnap scenario. We know that Charlie's vision included D. Gibbons and Simcoe's son, so all three of them are likely together--and, more to the point, not in either parent's flashforward. Perhaps the kids are abducted to pressure Mark and Simcoe, since they are both involved in these larger events (it seems like the kind of 'climax' a TV show might like). As seen in his flashforward, Mark is madly trying to sort out Mosaic (to find his daughter) and has hit the bottle (in desperation, blaming himself for her abduction). Meanwhile, Olivia and Simcoe are at the Benfords' house, waiting to hear from the kidnapper; they're underdressed because they were settling in for the night (Simcoe sleeping on the couch maybe); starts off in the bedroom as Olivia was comforting Simcoe; and the strong feelings she has towards him is that of two people linked by mutual tragedy. Although I can't explain away Olivia's smile.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I think we can't. Why would we?

Because it's too obvious. If the writers are clever, they will set up future visions, let the audience think one thing (something that seems impossible, to grab our interest) and then turn it 180 on us so that we realize what we were looking at was never so impossible because it was completely different from our assumptions.

Olivia is doing something in her flash-forward that doesn't involve infidelity. The babysitter isn't being drowned. Demitri doesn't die on that day (just because we heard of a report he was murdered doesn't mean it's true - maybe the FBI issues a false report for some strategic reason?)

But I'm assuming these writers are clever. I've fallen into that trap many times!

Olivia would know the difference and would be very well aware if the feeling she felt was that of love or hate.

Then why didn't see say she was "in love"? That's the kind of thing that signals to me that the writers are going to pull a fast one. They've given themselves a suspicious degree of wiggle room.

What's all this about adult siblings prancing around in their skivvies? It would actually be worse if they were related, since you'd have genetic sexual attraction without the Westermarck effect, since they obviously weren't raised together.

I didn't see them doing anything too salacious. Okay granted, that's a far fetched scenario. It's fun coming up with zany explanations for this stuff. For instance, what if Demitri and some allies at the FBI actually kill him under medically controlled circumstances at exactly the flash forward time in order to uh, I'm not sure but there must be a good explanation! And then they bring him back to life. Or maybe there's a "zone" in which the flash forwards don't work, a sealed room somewhere where the conspirators control things, and Demitri happened to be in that room in the future, because he's figured out who the conspirators are, and has tracked them to their underground lair!

Although I can't explain away Olivia's smile.

She's being observed and their scheme hinges on someone thinking that Olivia is no longer loyal to her husband. Or she's whacked out on drugs. And Simcoe's shirt is off because they were having a barbecue and he got barbecue sauce all over it and it's in the washing machine.

*EDIT: waitaminute...that might be the explanation. Consider the shadowy guy on the security video in the stadium. He's not having a flashfoward, because he's awake during that time, so presumably the conspirators do have a way of shielding themselves from the flashforward - does that mean they take certain drugs or are in a certain location in the future? All it would take would be for Demitrit to be partially shielded - he still loses consciousness, but he doesn't see the flashforward.

 

[DevilEyes]

Olivia would know the difference and would be very well aware if the feeling she felt was that of love or hate.

Then why didn't see say she was "in love"? That's the kind of thing that signals to me that the writers are going to pull a fast one. They've given themselves a suspicious degree of wiggle room.

So if she didn't say she was "in love", that means she hated him? But she wasn't aware that the "strong feelings" were those of hate rather than love?

As I said, one thing we can rule out is that the feelings are those of hate. She would certainly know if that were the case. By "strong feelings" she obviously meant some kind of love.

Now, whether that means that they are lovers or that share some other kind of strong bond - maybe over their children as suggested here - that's another matter.