One Sentence Review

Not as good as last week but yet another solid episode in a so far superb series

Episode Synopsis

Find it here

Thoughts and Analysis

If the main theme of the previous episode “The Gift” was that the Future can be changed, then the main theme of Playing Cards with Coyotes is that the future may be more fixed then we would like to admit. This is even before we go into the new faction introduced and questions raised.

One of the nice things about the start of the episode was that it showed to some impact the effect of Al’s suicide and that Celia was found and told the news. My main problem though was given that it is now about a month on from the blackout I am sure there would have already been similar cases in the news, and would actually expect a more likely topic to be how has the rash of Flash Forward/Blackout related suicides impacted the future.

A similar issue I had was with Marks reaction the the tattoo on the arm, now while I would consider it likely that there was a connection between the man I saw in the Flash Forward and the man in the cell phone footage I would not instantly assume they are the same man. The reason for this is from looking at the tatoo its design and location make it likely to be a symbol of belonging to some sort of group as was later shown to be the case which did not surprise me in the slightest except perhaps that it was revealed so soon. The only question now is how long will it be before Mark discovers this as well, and what will be the impact on him when he discovers he killed an “innocent” man (in the fact he was not going to try to kill him in the future sense).

Another thing that I thought idiotic was Simon putting everything on one hand in the poker game when he was winning by a wide margin and as such only needed to match Lloyds stack at that time. While he did have a very strong hand it was not unbeatable, though I did find it amusing how Lloyd performing magic for Dylan was used.

On the topic of did their group cause the blackout or not, I am leaning heavily towards the they did not and it was a coincidence or if they did it was caused by other members of their group without their knowledge. The e-mail (click image for larger view) was sent to nlap.usa.com addresses which as far as I can tell is a made up domain, as the only NLAP a google search returns is National Lakes Assessment Project. My guess is that given Lloyd and Simons background that NLAP stands for National Laboratory for Advanced (or Applied) Physics.

Once again though a real life Physics award is referenced as the Sloan Fellowship is a genuine award for relatively new scientists and not an off hand reference to Alias. This also implies that despite their British background Lloyd and Simon have been in the US for sometime (as it is a US only award). As for the QED reference this also a potential red herring as it is something that a character such as Simon would say in that situation and not necesarily implying he is part of the group behind the Flash Forward.

As for the rings, it appears that there is an alpha engraved on one side so I assume there will be an Omega on the other. The question is are the rings simply symbolic or do they provide an additional function such as immunity to the blackouts as I would be very surprised if it turned out that the ring Subject Zero wore was not the same as the one seen in this episode.

We also learn more about Tracey and why she has been in hiding, as it turns out there is a corrupt faction of the military allied with a private military contractor called Jericho. The question now is will Jericho tie into the main plot or will they be a separate story entirely.

The final thing I found particularly noteworthy is that Director Wedeck and Mark now suspect there is a mole in their office given how events have played out. If their is a mole then there are 2 probable Marcie Turoff and Agent Vreede.

I discount Mark for obvious reasons and Director Wedeck as he could simply have refused to allow Mark to investigate the blackout. There is a slim chance it could be Janis as the attack on her could be unrelated and due to the president wanting her for her role in Wedeck’s investigation of him, however she was in a position to let the group know it is a trap

Demetri is also unlikely but with a slim chance of it being him since as I pointed out in my analysis of the first episode there are a few things off about where he ends up after the blackout, there is also the question of why is he killed. Like Janis he is unlikely as he would know its a trap.

Marcie is a suspect as she is in a position to pass on information on how the case is proceeding and was heavily involved with the Somalia analysis, but was not attacked. This is also the strongest evidence against her as she would also be in a position to have stopped them finding anything out about the Towers in Somalia. We don’t yet know anything about her Flash Forward so cant use this to evaluate the likelihood of her involvement in the infiltration of the FBI offices.

Agent Vreede however is my current lead mole candidate. Like Marcie he was in a position to pass on information but unlike her could not have influenced the Somalia investigation. In his blackout he was leaving via the security exit of the building putting him in a place where he could have let the attackers in or be trying to avoid them knowing they are coming. The main evidence against him is that he was put a risk during the attack in Washington. As I have already stated the attack may not have been related to the Mosaic investigation but rather due to the President going after Wedeck.

It is just as likely though that the mole (or moles) are characters we have not yet met or only seen briefly and so while Vreede is the lead candidate he could just as easily be innocent.

Once again we have a strong episode of FlashForward that answers some questions while leaving more unanswered revealing pictures of a larger puzzle, I just hope the high quality of the series is maintained in the future.

Episode Rating

8/10