Future Shock (FlashForward)

"Future Shock (FlashForward)"

"Future Shock" is the 22nd episode of the ABC series FlashForward, and the series finale, due to the cancellation of the show.

The episode aired on May 27, 2010 at 8pm Eastern Daylight Time. The episode was directed by John Polson and written by Timothy J. Lea and Scott M. Gimple. The episode received mixed reviews, mostly positive.

Plot

It is 8:30 p.m., an hour and a half before the futures foreseen in the flashforwards. Keiko leaves the detention center with her mother and heads for the airport to fly back to Japan. Olivia and Charlie head for the beach with blankets, far from the celebrations downtown. Nicole tells Bryce that she feels bad about having concealed from him that Keiko was in Los Angeles, but is still bitter as he leaves to try and find her, noting he only just realized he's wearing the clothes he had on in his vision. In Afghanistan, Aaron and Kahmir detect a faint pulse in Tracy and begin trying to revive her. Wedeck bails Mark out of jail, feeling partly responsible for the incident with Hellinger earlier since he had been too concerned with preventing another blackout and had neglected to deal with Benford. He puts Mark on the phone with Aaron, who tells him that Tracy has pulled through after Mark confesses that he fell off the wagon. Demetri, Janis and Simon arrive at the NLAP and argue about how to get inside as she starts to feel faint. She refuses their offer to take her to the hospital, what she had seen in her flashforward, since she wants to be there helping them.

Bryce shows up at the detention center and finds out Keiko has been released. The guard refuses to give him contact information until he explains about his flashforward. Citing her own vision, she gives him the information in exchange for a hundred dollars she was carrying in her own vision. Mark and Wedeck hear that several bombs have been found at the FBI office, and head there. On the beach, Olivia and Charlie are surprised by the sight of Lloyd and Dylan, who had tracked them there with their security detail's help. Olivia changes her mind and returns to the house with Lloyd, who says he needs her there to make the major discovery he was on the verge of making in his flashforward.

At NLAP, Janis drives up to the security guard and begs for help before she collapses. This distraction allows Demetri and Simon to get into the complex undetected while she is taken to the hospital. As they are about to go through security at the airport, Keiko's mother suddenly tells her to be careful while she runs to that man, and creates a diversion that allows Keiko to get away. Upon arriving at the FBI offices, surrounded with emergency personnel and being evacuated, Mark sees Hellinger being led out. Hellinger suggests again that he leave the building, but Mark says that he has a few loose ends to tie up. As Mark walks away, Hellinger nods slightly to some men in bomb squad gear.

Driving home alone, a distracted Nicole runs off the road while passing another car, putting her own car in a deep lake. Charlie, Dylan, Lloyd and Olivia return to the Benford House, where Charlie tells Dylan his house is her house, mi casa es su casa, just as she did in Dylan's flashforward, except the two are on the stairs rather than in the kitchen. Alone, Olivia finally lets herself feel for Lloyd, and the two kiss. Bryce arrives at the sushi bar where he saw himself meeting Keiko. The manager rebuffs him, saying it was reserved for a private party, even when he explains in Japanese why he is here. Just as he is about to close the door, a woman inside recognizes him from her own vision.

Mark encounters Vogel as he heads into the building's parking garage. He tells Vogel that whoever is attempting to destroy the Mosaic information inside will probably be after Lloyd as well, and that he should head to the Benford home to protect Lloyd. Vogel warns him that in his flashforward he told another agent that Mark was dead, but Mark continues into the building. Demetri and Simon get to the accelerator's mainframe, but Demetri tells Simon he still does not trust him. Simon offers him his ring.

Nicole fights for her life, desperately swimming out of the car. Her flashforward comes to pass as she sees a man above the surface grabbing her. He eventually pulls her to safety. At the hospital, Janis meets the doctor who was giving her the sonogram in her flashforward. In the living room, Lloyd and Olivia find that Dylan has written the equation Lloyd saw in lipstick on a mirror. He realizes he has a half hour to figure out a problem that has mystified physicists for a long time.

Mark gets to his office and contemplates the Mosaic board again, telling himself he's right where he's supposed to be. Downstairs, one Bomb Squad team removes automatic weapons from their gear bags and fatally ambushes another, and then its members put on the plastic masks we saw them wearing in Mark's flashforward. Another one has the star tattoos on his arm. Simon is eventually able to hack into his account at NLAP, putting all the incriminating information about Hellinger on a flash drive. He sends Lloyd the text message Lloyd had just been looking at in his flashforward, an old wave equation Lloyd had once used as his email sig file.

Nicole's rescuer tells her had seen this moment too, and had been worried he would not be able to save her because she was fighting him so hard. Olivia comes out of her bedroom and looks affectionately downstairs at Lloyd, as she did in her flashforward, except they are both fully dressed. He tells her that Simon's text has indeed helped make the breakthrough he was looking for, and calls Mark to tell him that the next blackout will occur sometime in the last two days of April 2010, a period of time almost halfway elapsed. Their conversation is more civil than it was in Benford's flashforward. Wedek, fearing for Mark, goes into the building and sees the assassins out looking. He goes into a bathroom and hides in a stall, the same situation he was in in his flashforward.

Janis gets her sonogram and learns her fetus is alright, just as she and the doctor foresaw, except that it's a boy instead of a girl. Simon and Demetri are about to leave when Simon sees evidence that someone else is accessing the mainframe from outside. Benford recalls Gabriel's changes to the Mosaic board and realizes that the red string was meant to tell him something. He writes down the letters it connects and realizes that the next blackout will occur at 10:14 p.m. ... mere minutes away. At that point he ducks behind his desk, just before the assassins get to his office and shoot it up.

Keiko leaves the cab she's in, stuck in heavy traffic, and makes her way to the sushi bar, finally meeting Bryce. Wedek shoots one of the assassins who comes into the bathroom, then flees the building. Vogel, at the Benford home, tells another agent that Benford is dead, as he foresaw, since Mark doesn't have time to get out of the building before the bombs go off. Mark, taking refuge, calls Wedek and tells him the next blackout is imminent and to call the President.

At NLAP, the accelerator starts up. In various cities around the world, warnings go out that another blackout is about to happen. Demetri receives a text message to this effect, confirming what he and Simon suspected. Demetri takes off the ring, wanting to see his future this time. Benford, having killed the last of his attackers, races to flee the building before the bombs go off but is apparently too late. Similarly, Simon cannot stop the accelerator in time. The second blackout spreads across the planet, and is shown to have affected not only all of the main characters but also crowds in London, Moscow, and India, among other places. A dog at LAX and a kangaroo are unaffected, and a ringed hand revealed to be Lita's wheels Janis out of the hospital.

A montage of flashforward images shows, among other things, other dates in the future, possibly as far ahead as New Year's Day 2015. It ends with an older Charlie, standing before an open, sunlit window, saying "They found him!" to someone off-camera. After that, the show closes with the current Charlie regaining consciousness along with her mother, and the FBI office exploding, possibly with Mark still inside.

Title sequence image

Charlie Benford's eyes as she wakes up from her flash forward during the second global blackout.

Production

The series was cancelled on May 14, 2010. However, the promo that aired on May 20, 2010 stated that this was the season finale. The finale was originally set to be two hours long, consisting of both this episode and "Countdown". After cancellation, they were aired separately.

The show should definitely be continued in another season.

Reception

Viewership

TBA

Critical reception

TV.com stated "the finale makes me feel more than ever that the series deserved at least another season." MTV stated "looking at it as a season finale made the episode fall short." Zap2it stated "things could have gone better, but overall not unhappy."