Flashforward 15 (spoilers)

[ewx]

Nice to check in on Keiko Arahida, though Emil Gutierrez didn’t last long! (The Flashforward wiki reminds me that it was he who helped Dylan Simcoe find his way to the Benford residence back at Halloween, though, so we probably shouldn’t write him off just yet.) Did anyone not see Keiko’s near miss with Bryce coming?

Frost’s having seen into the future many times before isn’t especially surprising, though if he’s using that to know when Benford catches the mole then he’s taking a risk; and if he isn’t then how does he know? Frost implies that whoever was behind the bugging of Benford is not on his side, making for a third force, perhaps Flosso’s erstwhile employers.

Is Janis’s revelation to Campos real, or is she playing Campos? If she really is the mole then her getting shot seems directly analogous to Campos losing a finger, but also an exceptionally high risk strategy. And why expose herself to Campos anyway? And if she isn’t a mole, and is instead hoping to trick Campos into revealing something he’d rather communicate to Flosso’s associates, won’t he be wondering about the same questions?

And did she sleep with Demetri or not?

If Simcoe and Campos are trying to prevent the next flashforward by using something that’s the “inverse” of their existing work then presumably they are going to be constructing the equivalent of the flashforward-suppressing α rings that Flosso was distributing and collecting, but on a world-wide scale.

For all that this episode produces more questions than answers it’s moved the plot on a fair bit. The Benfords are split at last, the (or a) mole is unearthed, they’ve made real progress towards Frost and Keiko has stopped sitting around waiting for her man and instead started to go places, do things and generally get into trouble.

Halothane and Quantum Entanglement Devices

Halothane does seem to be a real anaesthetic. But what on earth is its relevance to quantum entanglement devices (whatever those might turn out to be)?

http://www.davidjarvis.ca/entanglement/ describes quantum entanglement in non-mathematical terms. In short, it can happen that a pair of particles are related (“entangled”) in such a way that when you measure a property of one, that instantly determines that property for the other, even if they have by then travelled a long way away from one another. Einstein famously disliked this (when it was still purely theoretical) and referred to it as “spooky action at a distance” but experiment confirms it really happens.

Things happening instantaneously across a distance is a bit of a problem for physics, since faster-than-light signalling can lead to causality violation. But a problem for physics is an opportunity for an SF author, and causality violation is just the ticket in a time travel story (even if the characters are, as far as we know, only looking into the future rather than going there), so quantum entanglement is at least “on topic”.

Even understanding this however the connection to Halothane remains opaque. While the mechanism by which general anaesthetics work is poorly understood, the web suggests that people are looking for essentially chemical explanations rather than quantum mechanical ones. And although there are people arguing for a quantum mechanical basis for human consciousness (i.e. the subject upon which a general anaesthetic acts), they do not seem to be winning much acceptance for their ideas.

But anaesthetics do knock you out and mess with your memory, and that’s not such a bad description of the flashforward, so perhaps that’s where to seek the connection.

Characters

Name	Actor	Description	Notes
Mark Benford	Joseph Fiennes	FBI agent	Husband of Olivia Benford Father of Charlie Benford Colleague of Demetri Noh
Aaron Stark	Brian F. O’Byrne	AA-goer	Confidant of Mark Benford
Tracy Stark		Soldier	Was thought to be dead
Nicole Kirby	Peyton List	Student	Babysitter for the Benfords Japanese speaker, helps out Bryce
Olivia Benford	Sonya Walger	Doctor	Wife of Mark Benford Mother of Charlie Benford Apparent future lover of Lloyd Simcoe Colleague of Bryce Varley Operated on Dylan Simcoe
Demetri Noh	John Cho	Junior FBI agent, apparently doomed	Colleague of Mark Benford Fiancé of Zoey Andata
Zoey Andata		Gabrielle Union	Fiancée of Demetri Noh
Bryce Varley	Zachary Knighton	Formerly-suicidal doctor	Colleague of Olivia Benford
Lloyd Simcoe	Jack Davenport	(Self-described) annoying parent	Father of Dylan Simcoe Apparent future lover of Olivia Benford Apparently unwilling co-conspirator of Simon
Dylan Simcoe	Ryan Wynott	Injured autistic child	Son of Lloyd Simcoe Saved by Olivia Benford
Charlie Benford	Lennon Wynn	Winsome child	Daughter of Mark and Olivia Benford Saw D. Gibbons in vision and didn’t like him
Stanford Wedeck	Courtney B. Vance	Assistant Director FBI LA Field Office	Boss of Mark Sanford and Demetri Noh Former fixer for the current president
Marshall Vogel	Michael Ealy	CIA Agent	Seconded to FBI’s investigation
Joyce Clemente	Barbara Williams	US Senator	Political opponent of Stanford Wedeck
Janis Hawk	Christine Woods	FBI agent	Girlfriend of Maya Pregnant in her flashforward
Al Gough	Lee Thompson Young	FBI agent	Would have killed Celia had he lived, but suicided
Celia ?	?	Mother	Would have been killed by Al Gough
Timothy	Gil Bellows	Windowcleaner, prophet	Narrowly avoided a long fall; founder of Sanctuary.
Keiko Arahida	Yûko Takeuchi	Robot researcher at Nakahara	Seen by Bryce in his vision
Emil Gutierrez		Auto repair shop owner	Employer of illegal immigrants, including Keiko Arahida
Maya			Girlfriend of Janis Hawk
Alda Hertzog	Rachel Roberts	Terrorist
Nhadra Udaya	Shohreh Aghdashloo	Spook	Sheltering D. Gibbons Learned of Demetri Noh’s death
Dyson Frost (aka D. Gibbons)	Michael Massee	Obscure hacker/bomber	Telephone interlocutor of suspect 0Simon Campos Killer of Pigeon local cop
Simon Campos	Dominic Monaghan	Sinister guy on phone; suspect 0	Tells Lloyd Simcoe they’re responsible for the “greatest disaster in human history” (presumably the flashforward). Uses expertise in QM to pick up women on trains. Telephone interlocutor of D. Gibbons
Flosso	Ricky Jay	Collector of rings and physicists	Has six out of seven α rings, which immunize the wearer against the Flashforward. Also (temporarily) had Simcoe and Campos. Self-declared villain. But nonetheless, the monkey, not the organ-grinder...
“Reynaud”	Jeff Slingerland	Blue Hand organizer
James Erskin	James Remar	Executive at Jericho	Opponent of the Starks
Annabelle Campos	Hannah Marks	Sister of Simon Campos	Kidnapped by Flosso’s associates
Abdi Kalif	Owiso Odera	Somali warlord	Counts life rather cheaply

Comments

[sweh.livejournal.com]

if he’s using that to know when Benford catches the mole then he’s taking a risk; and if he isn’t then how does he know?

I think we've sufficiently seen the "possible future" aspect of the flash forwards; presumably it's probabilistic and Frost has seen enough variations of the future to have a high level of confidence. Add on top of that a bluff (ie pretending he knows rather than just has a probability) which can actually help keep the future on a track that matches expectations (if people believe X is true then they'll act like X is true and this makes X true).

Saw D. Gibbons in vision and didn’t like him
I didn't think Charlie saw Gibbons; merely overhead Lloyd's conversation where he said the Gibbons was a bad man, and also overhead another conversation where she heard Mark was dead.

And re anaesthetic... knocking people out to prevent them from...becoming unconscious and flash-forwarding sounds a little self-defeating. Given how little science is in this show, I don't look too hard into reality :-)

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I didn't realise that Eil had been in it before. Yay! I hope he's in it more. Maybe his flashforward featured him in prison or something.

Did anyone not see Keiko’s near miss with Bryce coming?

No. You don't need a flashforward to foresee this. I was hoping Bryce and Nicole wouldn't end up together though. Their friendship seemed like such a great friendship, and I really want Bryce and Keiko to end up together. Oh well.

And did she sleep with Demetri or not?

I was working on the assumption that she did... but maybe not. I suppose we'll find out sooner or later.

Thank you for the quantum entanglement description too. I like things to make sense. They don't, but at least I have a better idea where they're getting their ideas from :) I suspect the writers' thinking is as simple as 'quantum entanglement + anaesthetic = blackout immunity'. But I may be doing them a disservice.

I've written my own thoughts on this episode at greater length here (http://rochvelleth.livejournal.com/737386.html) - would like to know what you think!