Hoo kay, I'm fairly sure this hasn't aired in the US yet, so if you happen to have clicked on this by mistake then Beware Spoilers. And be more careful where you're clicking in future!
So, Lloyd and Simon finally got round to their press conference and surprisingly enough (given the whole 20 million dead people thing) it doesn't go too well. I thought the press conference itself was pretty weak, as was the idea that not a single member of the FBI, CIA or similar was waiting to question them after it. It was considered big enough news to be beamed live around the world but the authorities couldn't be assed pitching up? Hmmm.
That was my only real quibble though and it picked up after that.
Noh and Mark managed to track down their mystery Persian woman (was she Behrouz's mother in season 4 of 24? I need to look this stuff up) in Hong Kong in impressively quick time, despite interference from a CIA agent who definitely WAS in Sleeper Cell. The revelation that Mark will shoot Noh wasn't *that* surprising and I think adds weight to the idea that his death will be staged. Anyway, Mark had given up his gun by the end of the episode, so he shouldn't be too worried about it. I'd recommend destroying the gun altogether if I were Noh, but he didn't appear to think of that. Of course, I remain fairly convinced that Noh is the mole, so maybe he has his own agenda here.
Simon working with the FBI was kinda neat. Between having Lloyd confess to 20million manslaughters on his behalf and finding out someone beat him to completing his life's work by several years, it was not a good day for Simon.
You could see the kidnapping of Lloyd coming a mile off at the end of the show, but that doesn't make it any less intriguing. And D Gibbons is in league with Persian woman? Interesting.
Overall, I enjoyed the episode. They left me hoping that the first 10 would be repeated during the break so that I could geek my way through them and check some stuff out, so that's definitely a good sign. On the downside, I still have absolutuely zero empathy for Mark whether he's angsting it up with Olivia or trying to go Jack Bauer on a man's ass in Hong Kong. I can't think of a show that's had me so hooked while having me care so little about so many of their characters. Such is the wacky, wacky world of Flashforward!
Mark is so far off the deep end, I can only imagine that him falling off the wagon would stabilize him.
After Community's reverse-Porky's gag, I can only describe what happened with the Simcoe's at the end as a reverse-Walt. Given how crazy Mark is, I wonder if he didn't put those thugs up to it so that he could keep Lloyd and Olivia apart.
Olivia was surprisingly flirty with Lloyd. I guess she was now THAT comfortable in her relationship with Mark after Al's death that she wasn't worried, but that seemed odd.
The Christmas Carol motif was heavy-handed but amusing.
Shoreh Aghdashloo is awesome. (Yes she was Behrouz's mom.) I loved her own mosaic on her window. I can't wait to find out what her connection with D. Gibbons is.
I agree that Noh needs to destroy the gun. Given all the allegations of mole-ry, I can't see how he can trust turning it back over to the FBI. And keeping it isn't an option, since its too easy to die by a firearm in your own house.
I'm glad that Wedeck fired Mark. He deserved it. Maybe the reason men are coming after him in his office is because on 4/29, its not his office.
I like that Noh's girlfriend FINALLY figured out it was a funeral.
So now this show is gone until March? ABC has such weird scheduling habits.
You believe me, don't you? Please believe what I just said...
It's a really funny show; I've grown to enjoy it. I can't say I like seeing the same three ads over and over whenever I watch MXC, but it's still quite fun. Here's a bio on Lance, if interested. (imdb.com)