Better Angels

"Better Angels"
Episode	Season {{#pad:1|2|0|left}}, Number 14
Air Date	April 1, 2010
Title Image	necklace of three beads on a skeleton
Written by	Scott M. Gimple Ian Goldberg
Directed by	Constantine Makris
Guest Stars	Michael Massee as D. Gibbons Owiso Odera as Abdi with Michael Ealy as Marshall Vogel
Co-starring	Lennon Wynn as Charlie Benford Ryan Wynott as Dylan Simcoe Zora Bikangaga as Awaale Travis Johns as Malveaux Robert Neary as Statham Pascal Petardi as FBI Agent Adrian Kali Turner as Korfa David Haley as Marine Major Blauvelt Nina Onuora as Somali Woman Robert Lonzo Thompson as Young Abdi Larkin Campbell as Carl
Transcript
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"Better Angels" is the fourteenth episode of season one of FlashForward. It first aired in the United States on Thursday, April 1, 2010 on ABC. A team headed by Marshall Vogel investigates the beta Blackout in Ganwar, Somalia. Mark and Olivia Benford move further apart while they learn what troubled their daughter, Charlie, in her Flashforward. Bryce Varley and Nicole Kirby discuss their separate futures.

Summary

Previously on FlashForward

• Janis Hawk recounts seeing herself pregnant and the timetable for getting pregnant.
• Mark Benford and Lloyd Simcoe discuss Charlie Benford's reluctance to discuss her Flashforward and her knowing the name "D. Gibbons."
• Olivia Benford asks Mark what would happen if the family moved away from Los Angeles.
• Marshall Vogel plans a mission to Somalia and Simon Campos invites himself to participate.

Los Angeles

"...s – something bad will happen."

Mark shows Stan Wedeck a new element of mosaic – hydra painting – and explains its relation to D. Gibbons aka Dyson Frost. Mark tells Wedeck that Dyson Frost was believed to have died long ago.

Olivia asks Charlie about her flash, but she refuses to answer – she believes that something bad will happen if she does. Later she reveals that she saw Dylan, heard Lloyd's conversation with Mark, and also heard two man speaking outside her house, claiming "Mark Benford is dead."

Nicole Kirby tells Bryce Varley that she's studying pre-med. Bryce says she's part-way there, since she has a good name (Dr. Kirby). Bryce explains that he had to change his name to make it sound more rugged. Nicole calculates that it'll be twelve years until they can work together as professionals but Bryce reveals that he doesn't have twelve years to live.

Somalia: 1991

The five towers and the village

Abdi tells Vogel's party the story of his village. Unknown men built five towers around village. They declared that they were on a humanitarian mission to give the village electricity "for all time." Instead, as far as Abdi knew, the entire population of the village was killed. The only "survivor" was Abdi. He saw a black camel – a dark omen – and ran away in fear. Sometime later he returned but found neither living villagers nor bodies; he decided that his people had been driven away by the on-going war in Somalia.

Somalia: Present Day

Dyson Frost sends Demetri a message from 1991

On January 4, 2010, posing as a Red Panda Resources members Demetri Noh, Janis Hawk, Marshall Vogel and Simon Campos arrive in the Ganwar region, Somalia, to investigate the mystery of the tower. At this moment the group is ambushed by heavily armed men. Their leader is Abdi Khalif.

Abdi recognizes Simon as one of the men who confessed to have caused the GBO. He is also convinced that the group is not on a humanitarian mission and demands to know the real objective.

When left alone, Demetri suggests to Marshall Vogel to tell everything. Vogel replies that Demetri is doomed anyway which causes a fight between the two. The others overcome the distracted guards and take their weapons. Unfortunately Abdi arrives in an armed jeep which withstands their firepower.

Later Abdi reveals his flash – he will speak in a stadium as leader of Somalia, which led him to believe that he needs weapons and ammunition to take the power by force. Janis, using the Mosaic website, proves to him that his destiny it not to take the power by force, but to stop the civil war.

The group's relation with Abdi warms up after this. He takes them to the standing tower. Inside they find a chessboard and a VHS with records of conversation between an unknown man and village residents, among them a former friend of Abdi's and his mother. The unseen interviewer asks the people what they saw and they tell about their visions that that they came true. Later, the interviewer is seen and identified as D. Gibbons. He says that the people were members of test group "B," who uniformly saw actual events two weeks into the future.

When further investigating the tower, Simon finds a linear accelerator, part of a circumference around the village. Behind another door they find human remains, apparently from the village inhabitants who were shot. On one of the skeletons Abdi finds his mother's necklace. Overcome with grief and rage, Abdi turns on Simon and threatens to shoot him. Marshall Vogel is able to prevent this by shooting Abdi from behind, apparently killing him, meaning that what he saw in his flashforward can't come true.

Demetri finds Janis sitting alone in a room and offers food and drink. Janis laments that her flashforward will not come true because after this weekend this window of opportunity will close before she has time to get pregnant. Although that does not mean she can not have a baby, it does mean she will not have Willa, the name she has selected for her "mythical" baby. Demetri suggests that he could get her pregnant. At first, Janis rejects the advance, asking about Demetri's relationship with Zoey Andata. Demetri answers that he does not expect to be alive in a couple of months and it would be nice if Willa could be. Janis eventually warms to the idea, although her decision is unknown.

Vogel relates his vision to Simon; he was the man Charlie saw saying "Mark Benford is dead," but Vogel does not tell Simon that detail.

Demetri is packaging all the evidence found to bring it back to Los Angeles while re-watching the tape with the interviews. Simon enters and strikes up a conversation, over which Demetri doesn't stop the tape. After some static, D. Gibbons reappears and addresses Demetri directly, from 1991, and asks if he got Demetri's attention.

Trivia

Production Notes

• Brían F. O'Byrne (Aaron Stark) was credited but did not appear.
• Jack Davenport appears as Lloyd Simcoe in archive footage.
• David Haley, although credited as Marine Major Blauvelt, did not appear in this episode; he did, however, appear in "Blowback", where he was not credited.

Bloopers and Continuity Errors

• The Red Panda translator is shot in the chest three times, but the angle at which the gun is held when Abdi starts shooting is too low at first to have shot the man through the chest.

Cultural References

• The Koran: "66.6": "O you who believe! save yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel is men and stones; over it are angels stern and strong, they do not disobey Allah in what He commands them, and do as they are commanded."
• Biblical: The three sixes on the tower may also refer to 666, the number of the beast (Revelation 13:18).
• Divine Comedy: "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." Simon's quote is the supposed inscription at the gates of hell.
• Smurfs: Nicole makes reference to the Smurfs cartoon.

Literary Techniques

• Plot Twist: At the end of the episode, Simon finds Demetri reviewing the Dyson Frost tape in the tower. Dyson Frost then addresses Demetri directly through the tape, although he admits that he is recording the tape in 1991, but Demetri is in 2010.

Unanswered Questions

Unanswered questions
Do not answer the questions here. Keep the questions open-ended and neutral: do not suggest an answer. Avoid questions that are unlikely to be answered. More details...

Theories for these unanswered questions should go on this article's theory page.

Flashes

• What determines how far forward consciousness shifts?

External links

• Episode's article on IMDB