FlashForward – Recap & Review – No More Good Days (Pilot)

photo: abc

FlashForward
No More Good Days (Pilot)

Original Air Date: Sept 24, 2009

Caitlin- Senior Reviewer
caitlin@thetwocentscorp.com

If you’ve watched ABC recently, you’ve probably seen the advertisements for this show. Mysterious and action-packed, they’ve been pushing the “2 minutes, 17 seconds” tagline for a while now, and given the buzz for the show, the tactic seems to have worked. Chances are, with its stellar cast and intriguing plot, FlashForward will have a great shot at being everything ABC wants it to be.

We open on our main character, Mark Benford, lying confused and bloody in what turns out to be his overturned car. He emerges into a hellish scene of accidents and dead bodies- and cue the title screen. Afterward, we go back to the past, where his wife’s note saying “I hate you” is apparently a sign of love.

We meet his daughter, Charlie, and an assortment of other characters, including the man sponsoring him through being a recovering alcoholic and his friend Demetri. Both Mark and Demetri are with the FBI, and on a job that soon leads to a car chase. And then, as we see people across the world doing normal or not-so-normal things, we slam abruptly into a dreamlike scene of images strung together, and then open up where we left off in first place.

There are explosions and all sorts of gruesome injuries (this is going to be a very popular show). It becomes clear that basically the whole city is in ruin. Turns out Demetri is alive and well, and he and Mark pull people from their cars. We see all other effects of the reaction, including Charlie saying she dreamt there were “No more good days”. After determining that the suspects they were following had nothing to do with the events, and realizing they took place all over the world, Mark leaves to check on his family, seeing the worldwide horror on the way.

In the small favors department, Mark’s wife, Olivia, is fine, and meets a young boy being wheeled into the ER who knows her name. As she and other doctors fight and eventually succeed to save his life, Mark and other agents discuss what happened. As they try to imagine the devastation, Mark recalls that during his blackout, he saw something which turns out to be a time about six months in the future. As you’ve probably already guessed, everyone else reports the exact same thing.

Much of the story here is being told through news reports and our cast, in their various locations, watches them try to explain what happened. For one thing, people who were in the same place in the future shared the same vision. The FBI workers compare their stories, and decide the whole world should as well, with the power of the internet. Mark says he seemed to have an idea of what was going on. So, taking the pictures they saw, he and Demetri start trying to piece things together. He also recalls that he was being tracked down by people who wanted to kill him. Demetri has other issues, though. He saw nothing when he blacked out- which could well mean he was dead.

At their home, the Benfords’ nanny, who was having sex with her boyfriend in their living room at the time of the event, checks in with Mark, and wonders if the phenomenon could have been an act of God. Olivia talks with a coworker who had a gun to his head when he blacked out. For his sake, he now his hope for the future. This feeling isn’t shared by Olivia. Nor by Mark, who tells his counselor he saw himself drinking again. The counselor tries to relate to him by reporting he saw his daughter alive- the same daughter who was killed in Afghanistan. As he tells Mark, “You’re worried your future’s gonna come true. I’m worried mine won’t.”

After all this excitement, it’s time for some peace. Mark and Olivia get home and tuck their daughter into bed. When they head to sleep, though, they discuss what they saw. First, Mark doesn’t tell his wife about his drinking. Then, Olivia tries to avoid telling him the truth, but he finally works out of her that she was with another man, and apparently in love with him. Mark comforts her, and attempts to comfort himself by saying “Just because we saw these things doesn’t mean they’re going to happen”. Back at Olivia’s hospital, the father of her young patient shows up- and it’s the man she was sleeping with. Then another bit of foreshadowing- Charlie gives her father the bracelet he saw himself wearing six months in the future. Finally, a fellow FBI agent has something to show Demetri- someone walking around in Detroit while everyone else was unconscious.

There’s a long and elaborate preview for the season to come. Just in case you weren’t confused out of your mind before seeing this, it should do the job. In the meantime, though, feel free to discuss what little we do know. There isn’t much, but that’s never stopped elaborate theories before. Is everyone fated to experience what they saw? And what does it all mean?