"Revelation Zero (Part 2)" is the twelfth episode of the American television series, ''
FlashForward
A flashforward (also spelled flash-forward, and more formally known as prolepsis) is a scene that temporarily takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards a ...
''. This episode was written by Quinton Peeples and was directed by
Constantine Makris
Constantine Makris A.S.C. is a Greek-American cinematographer, television director and television producer who has mainly worked on Dick Wolf's series. For his work on '' Law & Order'', he won Emmys for Outstanding Cinematography, Single Camera Se ...
and
John Polson
John Polson (born 6 September 1965) is an Australian actor, director and founder of Tropfest.
As an actor, Polson's best known role is probably starring opposite Russell Crowe and Jack Thompson in '' The Sum of Us'' (1994).
In February 2001, ...
. It originally aired in the United States on March 18, 2010 on the
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
TV network, along with the first half of the episode,
Revelation Zero (Part 1).
Plot
The day of the blackout
Simon is at his father's funeral in
Toronto, Ontario
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, Canada. He gets into a car to go back to the funeral home, but the driver tells him that he has instructions to fly Simon to a
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
game in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
. Simon goes to the game, where he is called by his boss, D. Gibbons, who tells him to put on a ring. He does so, and the
blackout happens, all spectators in the stadium lose consciousness, while Simon remains awake. Gibbons tells Simon to go to the nearest exit. He does so, and through the security footage, he is shown to be "Suspect Zero". His driver, Victor and Flosso are waiting for him. Flosso and Gibbons are directing the FBI away from discovering what caused the blackout to trying to discover who "Suspect Zero" is. Flosso asks for his ring back, and leaves Victor to take Simon back home. Before leaving, Flosso tells Simon that he is sorry for the so-called "hunting accident" which Simon's father had. Simon realizes that it was Victor who killed his father and strangles him to death, deciding to use the murder as his "vision".
Nicole and Bryce
Nicole and Bryce go into a coffee shop, where Nicole is set to talk with Timothy. Nicole asks Bryce to get a change of pennies and put it in a
backpack
A backpack—also called knapsack, schoolbag, rucksack, rucksac, pack, sackpack, booksack, bookbag or backsack—is, in its simplest frameless form, a fabric sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders ...
she brought. Nicole tells Timothy about her vision of getting drowned by someone, and Timothy tells her that she was probably getting
baptized
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
, and that she fainted, not died. He tells her that the visions are only tiny clips of their future, and when they see the big picture, they will fully embrace it, because, as of right now, it is not
free will
Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actio ...
versus fate, it is free will and fate working together to get them to where they are supposed to be in the future. That night, Bryce decides to meet Nicole's mother, who is
crazy
Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or t ...
. Bryce sees that all the pennies he got were for the mom, who is gluing them to the wall, but only the ones marked ''1989'', which is the year Nicole was born, and the wall is a tribute to her. Bryce asks her if she thinks
God
In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
caused the blackout. She says that she receives a hallucination everyday, and no one believes her, but what people think is coincidence is really God doing his work. Later, Bryce meets up with Timothy, asking him what he is trying to sell to Nicole because he does not want her to get hurt. Timothy explains that he is just doing what he believes will get him to what he is doing in the future: become a religious speaker.
FBI
Marshall and Demetri find the location of an EMT's cellphone, which will direct them to the stolen
ambulance
An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport.
Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...
, which should lead them to where Lloyd and Simon are being held captive. As Demetri, Janis, Marshall and a SWAT team enter the building, they do not find Simon and Lloyd, but they do find the vehicle. One of the officers opens the back of the vehicle, only to find it triggered with a bomb. The bomb explodes, killing the officer and destroying the vehicle. Marshall informs Demetri that the bomb squad discovered the code for the bomb: it is a bureau frequency, meaning it was triggered by their
walkie-talkie
A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver (HT), is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, ...
s when they came into the building.
Mark
As Mark leaves "Red Panda Industries", he finds a "Crown Cheese Steak" flier on his windshield, and remembers seeing one with the words "HELP US" written in blood in his vision. He goes to the restaurant, and finds nothing, but he learns that the restaurant is at a new location, the old one having burned down during the blackout. Mark then travels to the original location. Meanwhile, Flosso comes in with Wheeler and Quarny, telling Lloyd that he knows about his son, and if he does not tell him how many electron volts were generated during their experiment, they will kill Dylan. Lloyd gives him the answer, and Flosso leaves telling Quarny and Wheeler to get rid of them. Meanwhile, Mark arrives at the restaurant but it is locked. As Mark is about to leave, he remembers something else from his flashforward: as he is yelling at Lloyd, he tells him he wishes Lloyd was standing behind the eight-ball when he crashed through. Mark then realizes that there was an eight-ball spray painted on the doors to the restaurant. Mark drives back to the restaurant, and backs his car through the doors, just as Wheeler and Quarny are taking Lloyd and Simon out of the basement. Quarny stays behind to deal with Mark, while Wheeler tries to escape. Simon picks up Wheeler's gun and chased him outside, where he shoots him in the head, killing him. Meanwhile, Mark attacks Quarny and punches him until he is unconscious for slapping his wife in the face. The next day, Mark brings Lloyd into the office to question him about not telling the FBI what he heard in his flashforward. Lloyd says that he thought talking to a drunk man on a phone in his vision did not seem important.
Simon
As Simon is being put into an ambulance, recently after killing Wheeler, in the vehicle waiting for him is Flosso, who tells Simon that he is still under his control, and if he does not stop working for the FBI, he will tell the FBI about Simon being "Suspect Zero". The next day, after Olivia treats Simon's wounds, Janis tells him that he cannot go anywhere because he will be on surveillance for nearly getting attacked. Simon, suddenly, starts to have an allergic reaction from the pills Olivia gave him. Janis goes to get help, but Simon, apparently, faked it, and gets on a plane to Toronto. But he is greeted by Janis and a couple of SWAT team members, who are bringing him back to L.A. Simon begs her to let him stay, saying his family needs him because his sister Annabelle ran away since the blackout and he has been coming home every month to look for her. Janis calls Wedeck for permission to stay in Toronto for the night, and her reason is because she thinks Simon is there for another reason. Janis puts a security brace around Simon's ankle, and then Simon takes Janis back to his place. Later that night, Simon escapes from the house by putting tinfoil around his security brace, so Janis could not catch him. Simon arrives at the house of a man named Phillip, who is Simon's professor in
quantum physics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, qua ...
. He was also the adviser for Simon's designs of the "specialized pulsed laser for a plasma afterburner" in the Ganwar region of Somalia.
Janis finds him again, because Simon has made ten phone calls to Phillip within the month. Simon came to see Phillip to know if there is a possible way to protect people from another blackout, which Phillip claims is impossible. That night, Simon's Uncle Teddy, who turns out to be Flosso, arrives for dinner, both of them pretending to have not seen each other during the interrogation. After dinner, Annabelle calls the house, telling her mom that she wants to come home. Janis calls the FBI to have them trace the location of the phone call. Flosso shows Simon on his cellphone that Annabelle is being held at gunpoint by his men and is reading a script to her mom. Flosso takes Simon outside and shows him Phillip's dead body in the back of the car. Flosso gives Simon one last warning: stop working for the FBI or they will be shipping Annabelle back to Simon, piece by piece. Simon knows that Flosso needs him for something, and in anger pushes him to the ground. Simon knows his Uncle Flosso has
emphysema
Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...
, and with this knowledge, Simon pushes down on Flosso's chest, causing him to have shortness of breath, and after a while he dies. Simon then tells him that no one bosses him around, and no one messes with his father or his sister. Simon continues to go with the story that he tried to save his life by using CPR, hence the marks on Flosso's chest.
Title sequence image
The image in the title sequence is the
Hydra
Hydra generally refers to:
* Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed serpent in Greek mythology
* ''Hydra'' (genus), a genus of simple freshwater animals belonging to the phylum Cnidaria
Hydra or The Hydra may also refer to:
Astronomy
* Hydra (constel ...
painting from Mark's Mosaic investigation board.
Reception
Viewership
The second half of the two-hour episode was watched by 6.49 million American viewers.
Reviews
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
gave the episode an 8.4 out of 10 rating.
''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' pointed out how well they recognize the philosophical and spiritual thematic possibilities within their sci-fi premise and that they actually have characters talk about said themes. ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' gave this episode a B−, stating that "
Monaghan's Simon was probably the show's most useless character before tonight."
References
External links
{{FlashForward
2010 American television episodes
FlashForward episodes
Television episodes directed by Constantine Makris