What I’m Watching: Flash Forward

Flash Forward: Season 1, Episode 14 “Queen Sacrifice” (C-)

At first I was irritated with the fact that this show appeared to have employed the unfair trick of having a previously unseen character be the mole since it’s really cheating. I would have much preferred that to the second reveal that came afterward. Making sweet, harmless Janis a traitor doesn’t make any sense, and of course she changes completely the moment that Simon discovers her identity, as if she’s been hiding another personality all along. This constant need to have moles, not to mention multiple moles, is something that I think has been popularized by “24” and really detracts from the validity and believability of the drama. Sometimes there can just be bad guys and the good guys don’t need to be bad too. It’s a storytelling crutch that is extremely annoying, and it doesn’t really have much of a place on this show. That was quite a crash dive the motorcycle took into the water, though. That was pretty much the highlight of the episode, by far. Bringing Keiko back into the storyline is hardly necessary, especially since she hasn’t appeared for five episodes and could easily have been swept under the rug and dismissed from the show’s memory. Bryce is too busy trying to make out with Nicole, another unconnected and uninteresting character the show seems intent on spotlighting for no apparent reason. What happened to Aaron? The newly renamed Dyson Frost calling Mark is a sign that maybe there is something positive ahead, but it certainly took him long enough.