- Olivia tries to get Charlie to reveal her flashforward. Bryce talks to Nicole about his cancer. Demetri, Janis, Simon, and Vogel go to Somalia to investigate the tower Simon created and discover a person who was a part of the '91 blackout.
- Demetri, Janis, Simon and Vogel travel to Somalia in search of clues to a mysterious tower and encounter a dangerous man who saw his fellow villagers black-out in 1991; Bryce tells Nicole that he has cancer; and Olivia attempts to get daughter Charlie to tell her what she saw in her flashforward.—ABC Publicity
- "FlashForward" - "Better Angels" - April 1, 2010
We get a big recap of everyone's flashes and what's happened since.
Ganwar Region, Somalia
The gang is on a helicopter on its way to the towers, learning Somali phrases from a genial guide. He asks Janis and Demetri about their flashes. She says she was baking bread. He claims he was waterskiing. Demetri said he thought she was supposed to be "baking bread" this week. She says Vogel's field trip is making that unlikely. When they land Simon wants a gun. Vogel says nope, he's just an adviser and to stay close to the security guys.
Back in L.A., Mark shows Wedeck a painting of the Hydra. He says it was done by D. Gibbons (who is a bad man) and relates to a man named Dyson Frost who Simcoe ID'ed as a brilliant, reclusive particle physicist who became a chess grand master at 15, which relates to the chess piece he found. Although Frost supposedly died in 1990, he's still kicking. This picture was on Mark's board in his vision. Wedeck tells him to go investigate Dyson Frost.
In Somalia, they find the tower. And as they walk through town they are immediately shot at. They all hit the deck. The leader of the warlords occupying the town comes forward. Vogel tells the guide to translate saying they are aide workers from Red Panda, peaceful and with a right to enter. The gum-chomping leader, whose name is Abdi Khalif, promptly shoots the guide. He introduces himself and notes that he speaks English, so they don't need their guide anymore.
Khalif and his men bring the group to a building. They pull Simon aside saying they saw him on Al-Jazeera saying he caused the blackout. Khalif punches him and says God caused the blackout. Vogel tries again saying they are aide workers.
Khalif knows they're lying, just like "the others." Janis asks what others. Khalif remembers, and we see, that when he was a boy people came to the town offering, as a humanitarian act, to provide the town with electricity via the towers. He says he knows they were there for some other reason.
He was outside the towers one day tending goats and, when he returned, all the people of the village were lying on the ground dead. He was scared and confused. He tried to rouse his mother but couldn't. He saw a camel--alive and kicking--nearby and ran before death could take hold of him, too. He says everything happens for a purpose. He has his men grab one of their colleagues, the helicopter pilot, drag him outside, and shoot him. He says that man has now served his purpose. He says he knows they're here for a reason and he will kill them all if they don't tell what the reason is.
In L.A., Bryce is getting sick in the restroom at the hospital. His beeper goes off. He heads off and literally bumps into Nicole making her drop her book: a medical book. She admits she's trying out a pre-med class. She doesn't want anyone to see her fail if she does. He jokes that Dr. Kirby has a nice ring to it. He jokes that his real name is Martin Goathead. He promises he won't tell anyone her secret. He coughs and she asks if he's alright. He likes that she's already diagnosing patients and says he's fine, and they part ways.
Back in Somalia, Demetri points out that the locals aren't buying the humanitarian shtick so they need to come up with a plan before they all get shot. Vogel points out that Demetri's done anyway so what difference does it make. They start fighting. Which turns out to have been a cover to attack and neutralize the men guarding them and get their guns. Mission accomplished. They head off to do the same to Khalif and his men. Vogel says if all goes well, Simon may get that gun after all.
They go to the copter and begin shooting bad guys. One of the bad guy's missile launcher goes off, destroying a nearby building. Under cover of the explosion, they take down the other men. Khalif rolls up in a tank, the Feds drop their weapons and Khalif shoots his own men. He says they failed him but the Feds will not, they will fulfill their part of "the plan."
At the Benford home, Mark and Olivia have lunch. Olivia's been looking at houses in Denver. There's two major hospitals that need surgeons and the FBI has a division there. He jokes about joining the ski police and coming home to her wrapped in a tiger skin. She says they don't have to decide right now, although they should pursue it.
He says it's finally time to ask Charlie about what she saw in her flash, especially if it can help the investigation. He says with the D. Gibbons issue, they can't deny that their family needs to be part of the puzzle. He wants to bring her down to the office to talk to someone who has been dealing with kids and their flashes. Olivia wants to try and talk to her first. He says okay. And she gets back to the Denver home listings.
In Somalia, Khalif, who has a huge scar across his face, complains about the lack of U.S. aid to his country where children are dying every six seconds. Janis says they already send hundreds of millions in food relief and it gets stolen by people like him. Khalif pulls a gun on one of the security dudes who promptly pukes and gives up that they are CIA. (?) Khalif whacks Simon and goes to Demetri and asks again why they are here. He says they think the flash forward may have happened before, on a smaller scale here, and that maybe those people from his village weren't dead. Khalif says they were since he saw the black camel, which is a bad sign in his culture. "Death is a black camel that kneels at every man's gate." He reiterates they were dead. He came back from the refugee camps changed--an older boy with a gun--and the bodies were gone and it was a ghost town. And there was only one tower left. Word spread that he had lived and others had died, and he became feared and he used that fear to become the person he is now, which was God's plan.
His flash was that he was making a speech to a huge crowd, quoting Lincoln's line about the "better angels of our nature" and he was telling the world that he was the new face of Somalia and it was God's plan for him to rule this country. He says they will help because they are CIA and they can get him what he needs: planes, tanks and boats. Vogel says that ain't happening. He punches him in the gut with the gun and says that yes, they will get him these things to win his war. He then shoots the security guy.
Janis tells Vogel to make the call. Vogel says he can't, there is no cavalry. Demetri says there have to be options since most of these people saw themselves alive. She points out that Khalif also saw himself as the leader of this country. "Yeah, better angels," says Demetri. She muses on that phrase. When Khalif returns, he asks what it'll be. They grab Simon. She tells Khalif that his prophecy was wrong and she can prove it to him; she says that she knows about the better angels.
He drags her outside and asks what's up. She points out that the line was from Lincoln's inaugural address. He knows all about Lincoln. She says his speech was about unity. He says she doesn't know what he saw. She says no, but she thinks she knows someone who did. They go online and she finds a site that talks about prophecies, a man who saw Khalif's speech as part of his flash describes what Khalif said and what he was wearing including a necklace of Khalif's mother that he hasn't seen since the day she "died." We see more of the speech and Janis says it was about unity. She says Khalif doesn't need tanks or guns since his destiny is to stop the war, not start one.
Charlie is playing video bowling when Olivia comes to talk to her. She asks her to be brave and tell her what she saw in her flash. She says it's okay to be afraid but she might be able to help daddy and others and be a hero. Charlie gets tearful and says if she tells her, something bad will happen. Olivia promises nothing bad will happen.
We see her flash: she was in the kitchen and Dylan was there. She tells him to take a cookie from the jar since it's his house too. She overheard Lloyd saying "the man you call D. Gibbons lied to you." Dylan hears too and says liars are bad people and takes the magnetic letters on the fridge and spells out "D. Gibbons is a bad man." She didn't see D. Gibbons though. She says she heard something, she went to look out the back door and saw two men in suits, where one said to the other, "Mark Benford is dead." Charlie cries and hugs Olivia.
She relays the message to Mark who says it isn't possible since in his flash, he's at his board at work. She tells him that this is the point where she tells him that they can escape to Denver and then it's the part where he tells her they can't. He says nothing. She gets up to walk away. He says there's going to be another blackout and he has to try and stop it. She walks away.
In Somalia, they explain to a now less combative Khalif that his people weren't dead, but blacked out. They go to the tower. He explains the "66:6" is from a Koran passage about saving yourself and your family from the fire. He wrote it himself. All this time, he's been afraid of going in but the one thing more powerful than fear, he says, is destiny. Simon is agape. Janis says it looks like he's seen a ghost. He says it's the opposite. What he imagined only existed on paper and could maybe be built in some nebulous future. And yet it's been standing here for 18 years even though he didn't design it until a year later.
Inside Simon confirms it's his design. Demetri wonders why they left one behind for them to find. Vogel says maybe the war interrupted them. There's a chess board inside one compartment. Inside the board is a video. It has people from Khalif's village talking about their flashes and how they came true, including his mother. She was looking for him. Next up on the tape is one of the researchers--D.Gibbons--on the tape saying that the experiment in consciousness-shifting two weeks into the future worked. Demetri is perplexed that D. Gibbons was in Somalia in 1991. Vogel points out to Khalif that God had nothing to do with it, that this was a man-made phenomenon.
Simon finds a trap door and they descend and into a Hatch and find a crazy Scottish guy. (Just kidding!) It's a tunnel to a "linear accelerator" which created the "beta-blackout." Demetri points out that five towers were needed to knock out the village. Certainly just one couldn't knock out the whole world. You never know, says Simon; technology moves fast. Vogel finds another door, which opens on to a huge warehouse-like space full of skeletons. The remains of the villagers. They were all executed. Khalif finds his mother's skeleton and picks up the necklace seen in his flash. Khalif is now shifting his anger to Simon whom he claims is responsible. Simon says his plans were stolen. Khalif is about to shoot Simon when Vogel shoots Khalif first. Janis is freaked, saying Khalif had a "better angels" vision and this wasn't supposed to happen.
Mark comes to Olivia and she asks him yes or no, can they get away from all their visions and L.A. He can't say anything. She says he can't have both. He says this is what they signed on for, they both save lives. She says this is how it happens: the marriage dissolution. She reiterates he can't have it both ways--yes or no? He doesn't answer.
Janis is contemplative. Demetri brings in some food and rum. They toast yet another flash forward never coming true. She asks if she's okay. She says sure, so she won't have a baby, lots of people don't. He says she can have a baby later. But it won't be the one she named Willa though. She was supposed to conceive this weekend. She feels stupid, she just saw a mass grave and all she can think about is a mythical baby. Demetri says the weekend isn't over and if it's babymaking she needs "he'll take one for the team." She says um, you're not my type and ew, gross. He says he will make her gayer. She asks about Zoey. He says, chances are he won't be around and it would be nice if Willa was. She asks if he's serious.
Simon comes to Vogel sitting by a fire in another room. He got a gun off of one of Khalif's men by fixing their satellite TV. He says Vogel thinks he might not think Simon can handle a weapon but in his vision he was killing a man and he didn't even need a gun. (As he says this, he unwraps his hand exposing his pinky stump.) He asks what Vogel saw. We see Vogel's vision. He's the man Charlie saw saying to the other man, "Mark Benford is dead." Vogel doesn't say this, though. He just says he was doing his job.
Nicole is grabbing graham crackers for a patient and Bryce commends her instincts for listening. She's more worried about organic chemistry. He gifts her with his lucky calculator. She thanks him and asks if he really thinks she can do it. He says yes, he doesn't lie and he's not that nice. She talks about going into psychiatry since she's an expert in dealing with people's problems. So in twelve years they can work together! He admits that he lied earlier and that, twelve years from now, he might not be around.
Demetri looks at the video again. Simon enters. Demetri says he's packing stuff up and he's been thinking about life, death, and fate. Simon tells him not to ponder too much. Then suddenly the video, which had gone to black, crackles back to life and it's D. Gibbons who says "Hello Demetri. My name is Dyson Frost and I'm recording this message in 1991. Got your attention, didn't I?"
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