FlashForward: The Gift – When Giving is Not Better than Receiving

It is made pretty clear from the beginning of the episode that we are to take a deeper look into the story of Agent Al Gough (Lee Thompson Young).  Unfortunately this focus is very short-lived and far from fulfilled.

Until this point, Gough has probably been the most overlooked and irrelevant character on FlashForward.  Nothing has been revealed about who he is or his connection to anyone else.  However, within an hour long episode he has become the most important character with more substance than any other character/actor.

To start off, we learn a little more about Gough’s flash forward in which he is informed over the phone that because of his actions, a mother of two dies.  However, what happens in his flash forward is not as important as we may have once believed.  This is because Gough decides to provide us with the first real twist in determining the legitimacy of the flash forwards.  In addition to learning about Gough’s supposedly decided future, we also learn about Gough’s inner disposition as the price of being responsible for someone’s death outweighs the prospect of living himself.  This changes the game, and most likely a whole bunch of theories on the flash forwards, as Gough makes the decision to jump off of the ledge of the FBI high-rise building thus making two flash forwards that are impossible (Gough’s and Fiona Banks).

Now, by this point I would have hoped to have some speculation as to what exactly is going on, but the writers seem content with allowing for one significant event to occur per episode.  Beside Gough’s death and our subsequent realization that the fate of the world’s population is not, in fact, written in stone, the only other thing that was able to hold my interest was the investigation of the blue hands.  The crew discovers the existence of an ‘Already Ghosts’ website that encourages those without a flash forward to gather at secret underground locations to “do whatever you want”.  As we eventually see once Mark, Demetri, and Gough infiltrate the club, this sort of Honor Code run establishment usually ends in self-inflicted torture and crazy games of Russian Roulette.

Aside – In order for the three guys to get into the club, a crazy old man (who I could only assume to be the gate keeper of sorts) requires they themselves to play a short game of Russian Roulette.  This becomes one of the better moments of the show as Gough, without any sort of hesitation, lists the gun to his chin and pulls this trigger without a flinch.  In that moment alone, I gained more respect for that character than I have for anyone else up until now.

Besides these few attention grabbing instances here are some other disappointing plot points that I refuse to find value in:

-Demetri and Zoey’s (Gabrielle Union) engagement troubles.  Alright, so Demetri finally comes clean about not seeing any kind of flash forward.  Let us only hope that that is the last of his relationship incapacities…  (Highly unlikely as it is doubtful that producers would sign Gabrielle Union for all of 6 and a half minutes of airtime)

-As if Demetri and Zoey weren’t enough, Mark and Olivia continue to awkwardly converse and stare at each other like they are on some kind of extreme psychedelics.

- The lackluster attempt at an interrogation of Already Ghosts coordinator Jeff Slingerland.  Seriously, if FBI agents were this inept in real life, Tony Montana wannabees would be distributing more easily than Canadian health care.

The final somewhat noteworthy interaction involves Mark’s AA sponsor Aaron (Brian F. O’Byrne).  As we know, he sees his supposedly dead daughter in his flash forward.  However, he is informed by his daughter’s military partner that he watched her die.  Just as Aaron begins to feel some sort of closure, the show comes to a close with Aaron coming home to his daughter and us realizing that this show cannot make up its mind.

Hopefully some real speculation and theory development is soon to come … stay tuned. (If you can bear it)

Season 1, Episode 7: The Gift (originally aired November 5, 2009)

For more on FlashForward, click here.

Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC, Craig Sjodin