Recap – FlashForward 1.16 “Let No Man Put Asunder”

If you missed last week’s mind-blowing episode, “Queen Sacrifice,” check out a recap here.

This week’s episode of FlashForward, “Let No Man Put Asunder,” opens two years before the blackout. Mark welcomes the new FBI agents, including Demetri, Janis, Al(!), and Marcy, to the force. He tells them that they will be asked to make sacrifices, often anonymously, but that they will always do the right thing. Every time. The new recruits are given their partner assignments. Demetri is assigned to Vreede, while Al gets Benford. Demetri begs Al to switch so he can work with the “legend,” Mark. Al relents to the request. Janis tells them that she’s been assigned to intelligence, and Marcy has to report to Janis, even though she scored higher than Janis in their agency exams. Her fellow newbies tell her that she shouldn’t worry about her position, she’s the smartest one of all of them, and that they know she’ll do something special in the department one day.

Cut to Marcy’s interrogation by Mark and Demetri. Demetri immediately peppers her with questions. Who came after them in the garage in Washington, D.C.? Are they still in danger? Did the people she works kill Ian McKinnon? Marcy only replies, “I don’t know.” Demetri starts getting very hot, so Mark ushers him out of the room. He knows that Demetri is supposed to die in three days, but he needs to maintain his composure. Janis walks by, so Mark asks for her help in the interrogation room. She is reluctant, but agrees. In the room, she asks Marcy how she came to join the other side and what her duties are. Marcy answers that three months before the blackout, she was approached by a man to be part of something big. She was responsible for conducting dead drops of information on the Mosaic case. When Janis and Mark express their confusion over why she would betray the FBI, Marcy then tells them about her flash. She saw herself incarcerated, but she was happier then ever before. She was holding the name of the man who recruited her so she could cut a deal on her prison sentence. Further, she finally felt important. Wedeck enters the room and pulls Mark out to talk. Some federal agents are there to take Marcy back to, presumably, D.C. Mark asks for one more day to interrogate his former colleague, but the next thing he knows, Marcy is being led out of the building. Wedeck orders the team to refocus on finding Frost. But Mark has to look into something else: Mark’ss gun was used in a murder the previous night.

Mark and Demtri go to the homeless shelter where the murder took place. Demetri recounts what they know: a 55-yr old homeless man was asleep when a man walked in, hovered over him, and shot the man. A couple others overheard the ordeal, and heard the victim say, “I knew it would be you, but I didn’t want to believe it.” They also saw the killer leave in an early 70’s sedan. Mark wonders who was known to have handled his gun. Demetri says all of those people were cleared previously. But what about Marcy, Mark adds. The partners run to the airport where Marcy is about to get on a plane back to D.C. They ask her who has Mark’s gun, but she replies she doesn’t know (does she know anything?!?) She would call a phone number that changed every time she had to call to get her instructions. All she ever heard was that Demetri is to be killed on March 15th.

At a park near their house, Charlie leads Olivia hurriedly toward the playground. She told someone they wouldn’t be late. Who is the someone? Why, it’s Dylan and Lloyd. Recognizing the awkward situation, Lloyd offers to go to the other side of the park, but Olivia stops him. They are adults and can handle it. They hear Charlie yelp and run over. She and Dylan had accidentally bumped heads and now Charlie’s lip is bleeding. Charlie is concerned that she won’t be able to go to the carnival that night. Olivia assures her daughter that they’ll make it to the carnival, and as she looks at the injury, Lloyd tells the little girl to squeeze his hand if the pain is too much. He playfully teases her that she can squeeze harder, and he mollifies the child, to Olivia’s appreciation.

Wedeck, having received a call to come to the airport after Marcy was led away, arrives at the wheels of Air Force 2. Vice President (formerly Senator) Clemente, long time opponent of Wedeck, has called the FBI director for a conversation important enough that she flew all the way across the country for it. She received information that Jericho has recently tripled the security around its compound. Knowing that mark had previously looked into Jericho, she wants Wedeck to continue the investigation. He says that is a job for the NSA, but the Vice President very specifically does not want the NSA involved. Nor does she want President Segovia to know about the investigation. Wedeck recoils (as much as Wedeck ever reacts to anything), saying he has known Segovia for decades; there is no way he could be involved in anything. VP Clemente reminds him that in her flash Jericho had done something wrong, and further, she was President. Whether Wedeck likes it or not, President Segovia is going down. Wedeck can either “be out with the old, or in with the new.” Wedeck returns to the FBI and asks Mark about why he was looking into Jericho. Mark tells his boss that a friend was concerned about the safety of his daughter. Wedeck asks if whether he could talk to Mark’s friend. If he can find Aaron, Wedeck is free to talk to him. Demetri runs in and tells the men that a gunman, driving an early 70’s sedan has just taken hostages in an office building nearby. They rush off to the scene.

Demetri and Mark enter the building and find the gunman with a hostage on the second floor. Mark tries to take the lead, but Demetri moves before Mark can. The gunman tells Demetri to stay where he is or he will kill the woman he is holding. He wants to talk to Randy Savage (Ooohhhhhhhhh Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!) Demetri drops his gun, extra clip and ankle gun, and moves toward the gunman, trying to talk him down. He knows the guy is scared, and specifically, scared to die. Demetri is scared. So is the hostage. One’s judgment is impaired when one is scared. Bad choices are made. The gunman has a chance to make a good decision, to save his life, by giving Demetri the gun. The guy pushes the hostage away, and Demetri quickly grabs for his back. In one motion, Demetri draws a hidden gun and shoots the man in the shoulder. The gunman drops to the floor, and releases his gun. It’s not Mark’s gun. Mark tells Demetri that he risked his life for nothing. Demetri saved the woman, but why did he rush into the fight with the guy? Demetri responds that the wanted to ask the shooter why he was going to kill Demetri. He reminds Mark of the speech he gave when Demetri joined the force; about being the person relied upon to do the right thing. Demetri has had a hard time doing that since the blackout, and he needs Mark’s help to get back to that. Mark acknowledges his own deficiencies in that area, but, of course, he will help Demetri. In fact, he suggests that Demetri get away from L.A. It’s not running away, as Demetri fears, but rather being smart. He and Zoey should go someplace safe.

Demetri flashes to two years before the blackout, and he is on the witness stand. Zoey, a criminal defense attorney, grills Demetri over the contents of his incident report. After she eviscerates him, he approaches her in the hall outside the courtroom, saying it was unfair how she treated him. Are they dating yet? Obviously not based on Demetri’s response to Zoey asking him out for dinner to make up for her interrogation, “There’s no chance in hell I’d ever go out with you.” Cut to present day. Demetri enters and greets his “beautiful” fiance. He tells her about how all of the tiny decisions one makes eventually lead to something good. If he never asked Al to switch partners on their first day, he wouldn’t have been at the scene he testified about, and never would have met her. He asks her to marry him, much to Zoey’s confusion as they had already had that conversation. No, he wants to do it immediately, and then go to Hawaii until March 15th, or April 29th, or maybe forever. “Hell yes!” is Zoey’s perfect response.

Olivia knocks on a house door. The door opens to reveal Lloyd. Olivia wanted to say thank you for his handling of Charlie at the park earlier in the day. He invites her in and offers a drink. Olivia demurs, but is clearly torn. Not enjoying the possible game being played, Lloyd wonders why she is there. He has a phone, she could have called to say thank you. “Why are you here?” he directly asks. Olivia stays, and the two talk on the couch. She admits that she’s can’t blame all of her marriage problems on Mark. She’s certainly made a mess of things herself. Lloyd did the same with his wife. Worse, he used Dylan’s autism as an excuse to leave his wife. He grabs Olivia’s hands, and she doesn’t pull away. He looks at her, and says, “I’m not arguing against Mark. He’s a brave man doing something very important.” “Yes, he is,” Olivia admits. “But now I’m stuck being Lancelot trying to persuade Guinevere.” Olivia laughs at the thought of Lloyd as Lancelot, but he presses on. He knows she’s having the same feelings he is. How does he know that, Olivia wonders. He knows because he is in her room on April 29th. “This scares me,” Olivia says to Lloyd, succumbing to the attraction between them. “It should,” he replies, before they begin to kiss.

Aaron returns to his hotel room and finds Wedeck sitting at the table. Wedeck assures Aaron that he is a friend of Mark’s and explains that he tracked Aaron down based on internet searches for Jericho generated near the hotel. He continues, telling Aaron that very powerful people want to take Jericho down, but they need proof. Aaron tells the FBI man that he’s going to Afghanistan to find Tracy. Wedeck asks why Jericho tried to kill Tracy. Aaron responds that Tracy witnessed Jericho murder an entire village. Knowing he’s not going to be able to stop Aaron, Wedeck offers help. The men meet later, where Wedeck provides Aaron with a cover (he will be an electricity contractor working to improve Afghan villages), a video satellite phone to record Tracy’s story, and a number of guns. He warns Aaron to get to Bagram Air Force Base as soon as he can so he and Tracy can be extracted; however, if things go bad, Aaron will be on his own. Aaron knows. He will stop at nothing to find his daughter, “God help anyone who stands in my way.”

Missions are the furthest thing from Demetri’s mind as he is getting drunk with his coworkers the night before his wedding. Vreede even offers to officiate the wedding. Janis offers to get Demetri to a cab, and as they walk down the street, Demetri wonders if he’s being chicken in running away. Janis assures him he is not, “Everyone needs an exit strategy.” She puts her friend in the car, but Demetri needs to tell her something. What they had talked about in Somalia (getting Janis pregnant), he still wants to try, so he can leave something in this world. Janis tries to hush him, eventually telling him, “I’m pregnant” (and no, she wasn’t drinking at the bar. I checked.) Utterly confused, Demetri is driven off by the cab.

The next day, Demetri and Zoey are looking at the church they want to be married in that day. While they speak with the priest, it is revealed that Frost, fingering his rosary, is up in the balcony watching them. Meanwhile, back at the FBI office, Mark asks Wedeck if he ever found Aaron. Wedeck responds that he doesn’t think Aaron wanted to be found — the subtext not needed to be voiced. Vreede enters with a video to show the men. He explains that Frost’s cell phone was turned on a few days ago and was traced to a parking lot. The video is security footage of that lot where Frost is shown getting into an early 70’s sedan. Frost was the one who killed the homeless man!

Demetri is in his apartment, joyously singing “Islands in the Stream” while getting his tux on. As he moves to put his shoes on, Frost jumps out and knocks Demetri out cold. At the church, the wedding is ready to start, but where is Demetri? Both Demetri’s mother and Mark try to rouse the groom on his cell phone, but only get his voicemail. Frost has placed Demetri in the back of the sedan. He covers the unconscious Demetri with a blanket and gets out of the car and enters a carnival. Olivia is there, running the “Wheel of Fortune” game (no relation to the game show, save a large spoked wheel). She receives a call from Mark — her slight hesitation before answering speaking volumes about her guilt. Mark tells her that Demetri is missing. He assumes Demetri might just be getting cold feet with March 15th coming soon, but he still wants Olivia to be careful. She agrees and hangs up. She looks around for Charlie but can’t find her. Charlie has wandered away, and is sitting on a bench. A man walks over and sits down next to her. “Hello Charlie,” Frost smiles at the little girl.

Commentary

Well, “Let No Man Put Asunder” was a much better hour of television than “Queen Sacrifice.” If you read my recap last week, you won’t be surprised why I say this — no Nicole, Bryce or Keiko. With all of the plots centering around the FBI, and specifically the March 15th deadline for Demetri, the show had some real dramatic oomph behind it this week. It didn’t feel like a moment was wasted in the episode, which I cannot say about many of FF‘s installments. You know how I can tell I was invested in the episode? Even though there is absolutely no way they are going to kill off John Cho’s character, I was still worried about Demetri. I was actually beginning to doubt whether the powers that be may just actually kill off the most famous person on the show. If they do, I will literally be floored, but even if they don’t, I am still very concerned with Demetri’s well-being. The other stuff I thought was pretty great in the episode were Lloyd and Olivia’s scenes (God, how good is Sonya Walger? I mean, any Lost fans out there so how great she was in last week’s Desmond-centric episode, and she just continued to kill it here), and some of the dialogue and direction. For example, the questions Janis asked Marcy, and they way they were played by Christine Woods were top-notch. Woods played them with just the slightest hint of the double agent we know she is (do we know? Are we sure??), illustrating Janis’ desire to figure out whether Marcy knows her true identity, and her attempt to gain more knowledge of the conspiracy than she currently has. Also, John Cho is becoming quite a great actor. Fantastic stuff with Zoey and the gunman scene. Great work all around.

Of course, this wouldn’t be FlashForward if a couple things didn’t work. First, was it just me, or was Joseph Fiennes trying out a new accent for Mark for the first half of the episode? I almost couldn’t concentrate on Mark’s speech to the new FBI agents because I was trying to figure out what was going on with his voice. Very strange. Also, from what I saw in the preview for next week, Demetri is going to be put into some Saw-like murder device? Really? That just looked, well, awful. I hope it ends up being a lot cooler than it looked.

That’s what I have for this week. The show seems to be picking up some good momentum, so hopefully it will continue to grow in a positive direction and get picked up for next season. Prospects may be looking better. What did you think of this week’s episode? Did you enjoy it as much as I did? Do you think there’s any scenario in which John Cho’s last episode is actually next week? How did Janis get pregnant? Was it by Demetri in Somalia? The sperm bank? Please leave your thoughts, questions and theories below. Also, be sure to check out TVOverMind for photos and sneak peeks into next week’s episode when they become available, and for all of your TV needs. Don’t forget to follow me and TVOM on Twitter. Our addresses are below. I will be back next week with a recap of “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Until then, I’m off to hug everyone that’s awesome.

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