FlashForward Episode 1.02 White To Play

It's a jarring, horrifying image as we see a group of seemingly unconscious children on the ground of a schoolyard. Only Mark and Olivia Benford's daughter, Charlie, is standing. She wears an unsettled look on her face as she clutches her favorite stuffed doll, Squirrelio. Thankfully, the kids are only playing a game called blackout. Everyone is having fun. Everyone but Charlie.

Charlie won't talk about her vision with the other kids and gets into a fight when a bully rips her doll. Charlie's teacher wants Mark and Olivia to ask their daughter about her vision, as she has yet to talk about it. Mark fears it's because Olivia's flash showed her with another man. What if Charlie saw this, too? The little girl may be worried that her family is falling apart, as Mark and Olivia continue to try to convince themselves that it surely isn't. Mark tells his wife, "It's gonna take a helluva lot more than fate if you want get rid of me."

At the FBI office, the team is visited by the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Anastasia Markham (guest star Lynn Whitfield). Janis briefs her on the Mosaic Collective Web site. They are looking for patterns from the hundreds of thousands of stories that have already been submitted. Markham is less than impressed until she sees the video of the solitary figure at a Detroit stadium, the one who was awake during the blackout. They're calling him "Suspect Zero." Cool name, right? Video forensics suggests the subject is male, 5'8" and about 150 pounds.

Olivia brings Charlie to the hospital with her. Although she's swamped with patients, her first order of business is to suture the wounds sustained by her little girl's doll. While Olivia is stitching up Squirellio, she meets the father of the young boy she saved. His name is Lloyd Simcoe and he's the man she saw in her vision.

Olivia is understandably freaked but seems to settle down when it becomes apparent that Lloyd doesn't recognize her. Nevertheless, she shifts Lloyd's son's case to Bryce, who seems to be taking things in stride. Bryce was suicidal before his flash but now feels "there's a gift in the knowing." He tries to comfort Lloyd, who is struggling to find a way to tell his autistic son, Dylan, that his mom died during the blackout.

When Olivia points out Lloyd to Charlie, she doesn't know who he is. But when Charlie sees Dylan in the hospital bed, she gets very upset. She screams, "Who hurt Dylan?" Olivia is thoroughly confused, as are we. She asks her daughter how she knows Dylan. Charlie says she saw him in her dream. She tells Mark what happened at the hospital. He's a little unhinged by the fact that Olivia has now literally met the man of her dreams.

Demetri notices that Mark is wearing the friendship bracelet from his vision. He says that by putting that thing on, Mark wants the future to happen. Based on the belief that Olivia's with someone else, he's drinking again and assassins are trying to kill him, we're pretty sure that's not the case. Nevertheless, we totally get why Demetri is so upset. He fears the worst for himself because he didn't have a vision.

Mark and Demetri are investigating the name "D. Gibbons" that was posted on the bulletin board during Mark's flash when Janis steps in to say that a D. Gibbons has just walked into their office. Actually, it's Didi Gibbons, the owner of a cupcake store in Anaheim. She even brought some samples. The carrot cake ones look especially tasty. In Didi's vision, she was on the phone arguing with someone over her credit card. She tells the other caller they need to talk to FBI agents Benford and Noh.

Janis runs a check on Didi but she's pretty much a girl scout. The only odd thing is that her credit card account was charged almost simultaneously in two different locations last week. Someone was using a clone credit card somewhere in Utah. Didi mentioned the word "pigeon" in her flash and they discover it refers to a location: Pigeon, Utah. D. Gibbons purchased a bus ticket, as all planes are still grounded. Mark and Demetri chopper into Utah to find their person of interest before he skips town.

When they arrive, Demetri learns that the local sheriff did not have a vision either. They wait by the bus station, but the subject never shows. As they are wrapping things up, Mark notices a vacant doll factory next to the station. In Mark's vision, there was a photo of a burned doll next to a card with the name D. Gibbons.

The place is extremely eerie, with dolls hanging from the rafters in nooses. A shadow is seen in the upper level. As Mark moves up the stairs, he triggers a booby trap. Bells ding, gears squeak and we hear a recording of a totally creepy rendition of ring-around-the-rosy. "Freeze!" Mark yells as they storm into the upper loft to find a silhouetted figure standing with his back to them.

The figure ominously says, "He who foresees calamities suffers them twice over." Anyone else totally freaked out by this guy? Mark is caught off guard by the statement. Things quickly spiral out of control. The figure flicks a lighter and drops it into some bubbling liquid. Flames whoosh! The sheriff is shot dead. An explosion rocks the building and the figure escapes.

In the aftermath, a photo is taken of a charred doll. It's the same picture from Mark's flash. A cell phone and a chess piece are also found. The chess piece suggests D. Gibbons was playing a game with another person. A photograph of a burnt doll with a shell casing is snapped and, you guessed it, it's the same picture from Mark's flash. There are also signs that D. Gibbons was using the place as a hideout as he attempted to hack into computer networks around the world. It seems they aren't the only ones investigating the blackout.

Back at the FBI office, Janis is able to determine that the cell phone belonging to D. Gibbons was used 30 seconds into the blackout, which means he was also awake. They trace the call to a second cell, one that was used at a baseball stadium in Detroit. Janis says, "D. Gibbons was talking to Suspect Zero."

Janis is still confused by the fact that she was pregnant in her flash as blonde woman performs a sonogram. Demetri is still uneasy about his lack of a vision, especially since the sheriff who was just shot dead was flashless in Utah. They both opt to enter their stories into the Mosaic Collective. Later, Demetri receives a call from a foreign-sounding woman who read his post. She says her vision involved him. She read in an intelligence briefing that on March 15, 2010 he is going to be murdered.

When Lloyd finally tells his son that his mother died, Dylan says, "I want to see Olivia." Other than the fact that she saved his life, just how does Dylan know her?

Back at the Benford home, Olivia wonders why Mark has built a fire. We know why instantly once we see Charlie's friendship bracelet engulfed in flames. When Mark stops up to check on Charlie, he asks her if she saw something scary in her vision. She nods despondently before saying the words, "D. Gibbons is a bad man." That sensation you're undoubtedly feeling right now is a chill running down your spine.