FlashForward, 1x18, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”

Episode Title: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Writers: Nicole Yorkin and Dawn Prestwich

Director: Nick Gomez

Originally Aired: 04/29/2010
Grade: B+

Wait, Olivia being with Lloyd is relevant to the overall plot? It is according to Gabriel (who is awesome, because he’s crazy and funny and likes The Pixies). I’m not sure how I feel about that… Clearly the formula that Olivia glimpsed on the mirror in her flash-forward was important and her seeing it would not have been possible without their tryst, but Gabriel is making it seem like the two of them not being together may have changed some very important plot details along the way. I’ll wait and see how this plays out before I decide—it may amount to nothing.

This was really a Janis episode, though, and a moderately enjoyable one. There were some things I liked, some that confused me, and some that annoyed me. I loved seeing her bond with Demetri at Quantico—even before the episode gets into the nitty gritty details about who Janis is working with, we can see that her friendship with Demetri has always been completely genuine (not that I ever really doubted that it was). I was also amused by Janis's joke that Frost’s clue (“You’ll be saved by the lady you see everyday”) meant that Janis would save Mark’s ass. How convenient that the shady organization she’s undercover with subsequently ordered her to kill Mark.

I was confused at Janis’s “So you want me to be a double agent?” to Vogel. Part of their preceding conversation revolved around the fact that the FBI and the CIA are not the same thing and thus don’t share information. So isn’t she more of a triple agent? Working at the FBI, sharing that information with the shady organization, and dishing on both to Vogel? I understand that the CIA and FBI are both intended to protect the U.S., so working for both isn’t exactly treason, but unless there was an official inter-agency taskforce when Vogel propositioned Janis (and I didn’t get that impression), then she’s pulling triple duty.

As for being annoyed, I think I did a double-take at Janis’s “I can’t believe this is happening right now” to the doctor’s concerns about her pregnancy. I like Janis, I really do, but she chose to get pregnant “right now,” and she knew it was risky because the shooting shredded her insides. Stop whining about it, woman, you made your bed.

I also can’t believe that Mark bought Janis’s BS story about stealing the blueprints, especially since the professor’s story didn’t quite match up with hers. Janis said the man called and told her he’d lost the blueprints, so looking at it from Mark’s perspective, why did the professor tell her the whole story again when she entered Mark’s office? When Mark and Janis exchanged that significant look, I think I was supposed to believe Mark was telegraphing, “Lucky for you the stories match,” but I was really left wondering how Mark could possibly not find that suspicious. I hope that Mark suspects her now and is only pretending to be mollified, because if not, that was terrible writing.

Other Stuff

-I hope that Olivia and Vreede share what they learned from Gabriel with Mark and Wedeck. It seems likely given that one of Gabriel’s flash-forwards had him looking over Mark’s Mosaic board.

-Vogel mentioned Janis having an “unusual upbringing.” I hope we get to find out what that means!