What I’m Watching: Flash Forward

Flash Forward: Season 1, Episode 16 “The Garden of Forking Paths” (B+)

This episode really had a nice, brisk pace to it accompanied by some terrific music. More importantly, it doesn’t feel like a major letdown or sloppy contrivance that Demetri doesn’t die on March 15th, since he came so close and it’s now been established, thanks in part to the late, not-so-great Dyson Frost, that multiple futures are possible. It seemed for a while like Frost’s own machinations would lead to Demetri’s demise, but as it turns out, it’s likely that he prevented it and ensured his own by coming out into the open and trying so hard to make Demetri a vulnerable target instead of letting fate play its own hand. It might have made more sense for the villains in question to hire someone they didn’t have to spring out of jail to take Frost out, but promises are promises, so therefore it appears it had to be Alda. I like the incorporation of Barry Shabaka Henley, who plays Agent Vreede, into the main arc of the storyline. His decision to have Olivia accompany him on his investigation at first doesn’t track, but at the coffee stand it seems much clearer. I’m most excited about the introduction of the mysterious character who seems able to flash forward played by James Callis, best known as Gaius Baltar on “Battlestar Galactica.” He’s portraying such an extraordinarily different and, dare I say, much more fascinating personality (and that’s saying a lot), and I’m eager to see more of him now that Frost is out of the picture.