FlashForward Episode 1.03 137 Sekunden

Rudolf Geyer, an elderly Nazi criminal being held in a German prison claims to know why the blackout lasted exactly 137 sekunden (that's German for seconds). Mark recalls seeing a picture of Geyer and a printout of "137 Sekunden" on the bulletin board in his flash. The murderous Nazi will only talk to Agent Mark Benford of the FBI. Good thing the planes are up and running again, as Mark and Janis are headed to Munich.

Demetri is understandably anxious after receiving a phone call saying he'll be murdered on March 15, 2010. The caller, a woman with a foreign accent, elaborates by saying he'll be shot three times in the chest. To avoid a premature death, we're thinking Demetri should start wearing a Kevlar vest and beware the ides of March. He should also stay away from fried foods, as that stuff'll kill you, too. Demetri tries to trace the cell transmission, but whoever made the call covered their tracks.

Demetri's fiancée, Zoey (Gabrielle Union), returns from Seattle where she'd been stranded since the blackout. She asks Demetri if they can finally talk about their flashes. He relents. Zoey's vision was of their wedding day, as she walked down the beach in Hawaii. Demetri asks if she saw him there. She did. He lies and says he saw her as well. Guess they don't have to worry about setting a wedding date. Zoey's flash has set it for them.

Rudolf Geyer wants a full pardon and a safe return to the United States. He will divulge one piece of information now and provide the remainder of his knowledge after the pardon is granted. Geyer speaks of Kabbalah, a set of esoteric teachings relating to the mystical aspect of Judaism. He says, "In Kabbalah, everything has a hidden meaning." Geyer spells out the word in Hebrew. Each letter in the Hebrew alphabet is attributed a number. And if you add up the numbers in Kabbalah, it totals up to...you guessed it...137.

Geyer promises that his second piece of information will prove crucial to the investigation. He knows this because in his flash he was being repatriated to the U.S. having bought his freedom with the info. He says a U.S. Customs agent named J. Murphy was clearing him as he arrived at the airport. He told the agent he was returning home and he has a murder to thank for it. But Geyer will say no more until he gets the pardon.

Demetri tracks down Jerome Murphy, an applicant for the U.S. Customs program. Jerome is psyched to hear that his vision was on target and he got the job. He corroborates everything that was said by Geyer, even though Jerome doesn't know what the word "corroborate" means. The guy's a total goof.

Upon the verification of Geyer's flash, the pardon is approved. Geyer then tells Mark that after the blackout he saw a grouping of dead crows in the prison courtyard. In his vision, he knew that he was freed because he told Mark about the crows dying. He gives Mark a book on birds saying it may be helpful in his investigation. Geyer also admits that he has no idea why the blackout lasted 137 seconds. This guy played them and Mark knows it.

Charlie's vision may have involved the mysterious D. Gibbons. Mark is worried that Charlie may be in danger. He's confides in Aaron, as he's also a dad and understands his concerns. Aaron is dealing with his own fatherly issues as he visits his ex-wife, Kate, to tell her that their daughter, Tracy, is alive. He saw it in his vision.Aaron wants Kate to sign an affidavit to exhume Tracy's remains, but she refuses. He then asks for Mark's help to get around the legal red tape and Demetri provides him with the needed warrant. Aaron visits Kate once more to tell her that test results confirm the body they buried is, indeed, Tracy's. Kate was right. Their daughter is dead. But if that's true, we're still wondering why she's alive in Aaron's flash.

Olivia has lunch with Wedeck's wife, Felicia (Gina Torres), who tells about her vision. She was tucking a young boy into bed. Though she's never seen him before, the boy refers to her as "Mom." At a memorial service for fallen FBI agents, Wedeck addresses the mourners as Felicia gazes into the crowd. She sees what we're guessing is the young son of a deceased agent. It's the same boy from her flash, the one who called her Mom.

After the service, Demetri tells Zoey that they should go forward with their "D-Day wedding," meaning he wants to plan the ceremony for April 29, 2010. He says to her, "I want us to make our future happen."

Mark and Janis do some research and discover that crows didn't just die outside of Geyer's cell the day of the blackout; they perished all over the world. There was another instance of this phenomenon. In the Ganwar region of Somalia, all crows died on the same day in October of 1991. The inhabitants of the region claim to have suffered a mass loss of consciousness. Mark says, "We've been so worried the blackout might happen again, we haven't stopped to ask ourselves...what if it happened before?"

Our final image features a young boy herding sheep in 1991 Somalia. A disturbing noise from above causes him to gaze skyward. Crows scatter in frantic flight before finally plummeting to the Earth. The boy looks down at the deceased birds until his attention is ultimately drawn elsewhere. Standing before him in the distance is a soaring, mystifying tower. We don't know what this means, but at least we now know what a sekunden is.