Flash Forward 01-09: Believe

Shows

So remember when the show first started, and I said that it looked like all Dr. Bryce needed was a girl?  Well, it turns out that for once I might actually be on to something.

Last week, we learned that his vision involved a girl who made him forget about his plan to commit suicide on the Santa Monica pier.  With Nicole’s help, he figured out that the gorgeous woman he couldn’t stop thinking about was probably in Japan.

Now, I know I’ve done a lot of picking on Bryce over the last several weeks.  But to be fair, it isn’t entirely unjustified.  After all, he’s attacked practically every patient that’s walked in the door like a rabid puppy looking for information about their visions, while not giving up the goods on his own.  Sure we got hints and we figured it was going to be a good one, but up until now, he’s been all talk and no action (or talk of his own).

This week, our patience finally paid off.

We start four weeks before the blackout. Bryce is looking at a set of x-rays and learning that he’s got Stage 4 Cancer.  Another round of chemo is possible, but it’s going to make him feel lousy.  He asks how long he’s got.

Bryce climbs into his car, still dazed from the diagnosis, and backs into a classic red ’63 T-Bird.  It’s a beaut.  The owner gets out and starts yelling at him about it.  Bryce then decides to back into him over and over and over again.  Dude, it’s a CLASSIC!  You don’t mess with a classic!!!

Two weeks before the blackout, a woman in Japan is getting ready for her interview at a major robotics firm.  Her name is Keiko, and in addition to being a mechanical engineer with a masters in biomedical engineering, she plays the guitar and salsa dances.  Her idols are Marie Curie, Jane Goodall, and Jimi Hendrix.

Bryce, meanwhile, is doing surgery.  He’s distracted, doesn’t know the platelet count, and probably has no business being in the room.  When they’re scrubbing out, Liv has another “are you focused on doctoring?” discussion with him.

Keiko arrives home and finds a surprise party waiting for her.  Neighbors and friends, and two guys her mother is just dying to set her up with are at the house to congratulate her on her new job.  Bonus, she’ll never have to work in a restaurant.

The morning of the blackout, Bryce is in therapy.  He doesn’t know what he wants, but he doesn’t want anyone to know about his illness.  His dad died of lung cancer for three years; his colleagues would just be full of pity.  He’s terminal, so he decides to off himself.

Which is why he’s on the pier with the gun the first time we saw him in the pilot.

In his Flash Forward, Bryce is in a Japanese restaurant, speaking the language fluently.  He sees Keiko, and invites her to sit down with him.  She shows him her “Believe” tattoo. They’e clearly in love, but it’s almost like the first time they’re meeting in person.  He wakes up to see the balloons; she wakes up in her bathroom.  There’s something that looks like a knife on the sink…is it possible that she’d just attempted suicide herself?  Someone feel free to tell me if I’m crazy.

Finally, we’re up to “today.”  Bryce is drawing his pictures again and learning Japanese in between rounds of chemo-induced vomit.

Mark’s on the phone with Aaron. Aaron tells her that she’s terrified of Jericho.  Mark’s tried to find out some information, but he hasn’t managed to come up with anything so far.  As Aaron finds a bottle of vodka next to Tracy’s bed, Mark tells them that Jericho’s located in Santa Monica at some International Think Tank for Peace.  Liv’s phone rings, and she asks Mark to pick it up.  When he does, he finds the text message about drinking in his FF.  He asks Liv about it, but she tells him that she didn’t mention it because he’d told her about the drinking.

At the hospital, Liv notices that Bryce looks sick.  He’s not burning up, she thinks he should go home anyway.  She starts doing a quick workup, and that’s when she finds the central line.  He tells her about the Renal Cell Carcinoma.  He’s known for about a year and is down to one kidney.  Liv can’t believe she hasn’t seen the signs of it.  He’s fine, though, he knows that he’s got something to live for.

Tracy and Aaron are sharing dinner.  Tracy’s got a glass of wine, and Aaron asks her about it.  He’s not thrilled that she’s bringing alcohol into the house. He’s a recovering alcoholic, and he can’t have it in the house.

A woman from the NSA (Agent Levy) is going through a briefing about the ring discovered last week.  It’s an “alpha,” the beginning of everything.  Mark wants to know why, if the ring detail is so good, they can’t see his face. Levy tells them that it’s all about the hard edges, and the fact that the guy at the game moved around quite a bit.  Stan’s not impressed, but the NSA agent tells him that she’s got a problem with speaking to the task force.  One of its members “pinged” on the NSA Radar thanks to a call he’d received from Hong Kong.  Demetri realizes it’s HIS call, and wants a copy of the audio as well as anything else they can tell him about the woman.  Levy stonewalls, but she finally agrees to make a call.  After all, it’s his life on the line.

BTW, Vreede looks nervous.  Too nervous. They were talking about a mole last week, and considering 1) he’s supposed to be in the building when Mark is attacked on 4/29 2) he’s on the task force and has been in every meeting EXCEPT the one where they were talking about the fact that they’ve got a mole 3) he was at the  bar when Mark told Stan he’d been drinking in his FF, and 4) he’s just a guest star despite his major role…I’m thinking Vreede might be our guy.

Keiko’s at her desk looking bored.  Her little robotic arm is dishing out jelly beans, but that doesn’t even make her happy.  She remembers running to the restaurant in her FF.  Then, she flips on a YouTube video of Bob Dylan singing “Shelter from the Storm,” and starts air-guitaring the chords.  A coworker runs up and says that the boss needs to see her urgently.  She runs in, expecting to be put to good use, but it turns out that she’s the only woman in the department and they need someone to serve them their tea.

I know, right?

Bryce and Nicole are at a coffee shop.  She’s helping him with his Japanese.  He thinks he’s crazy, but she tells him that it’s “good crazy, love crazy.”

Mark accuses Aaron of telling Liv about the drinking. They break up as sponsor and sponsee.

Keiko passes a tattoo shop that’s playing a Japanese language version of “Shelter from the Storm.” It’s a sign.  She goes into the shop and asks for a tattoo on her wrist.  At first, the artist refuses since she looks like an office girl, and he doesn’t know what they’re going to think at work.  She doesn’t care.

Stan and Mark talk about the text too.  Stan denies sending it as well.  He throws Mark out of his office.

Bryce checks in on a patient from Japan. She tells him that his accent is improving and asks how the great search is going.  She recognizes the logo on Keiko’s shirt and says that it’s a little tiny restaurant just outside of Tokyo.  There’s probably only one of them, so she’s probably a local.  Liv pulls him into her office and tells Bryce that she got him into a clinical trial.  He’s worried about the side effects, especially since he’s got something to live for now.  She points out that it might just be because he’s taken the drug that he is alive.  Liv tells him to take a few days, go to Houston, and meet with the people running the trial.

Texas, Tokyo, they both start with “T,” right?  Because that’s actually where Bryce ends up.  Using his rudimentary Japanese, he finds the restaurant and gets accused of looking for a girl for sex.  When he shows them the picture of Keiko,  the guys are a little confused about what he wants with her.  He manages to explain that he loves her, and one of the chefs gives her the name and address.

Keiko has quit her job at the robotics firm.  Her mother is livid at that and the fact that she won’t settle for one of the many eligible bachelors she’s flung at her in recent months.  Keiko knows there is someone else out there for her.  Mom throws her out of the house.

Dem, Mark, and Vreede hear the tape of Dem’s call.  Vreede tells them that he’s stripped away everything but the background noise, and they hear, as Dem calls it, “cheesy electronic music.”  Actually, it’s the Symphony of Lights.  It plays every night in Hong Kong Harbor.

Mark and Dem are up for the trip, but Stan can’t send them because the CIA accused the Chinese of causing the blackout.  Stan offers to put the lead agent in Asia on the case, but they’re not going to Hong Kong, end of story.  Of course it isn’t.  Coming soon to a theater near you: Harold and Shakespeare Go to Hong Kong!  Stan’s going to be pissed, but Mark says he’ll get over it.

Bryce arrives at Keiko’s family’s home.  Her little sister opens the door, and when her mom comes to deal with the visitor, she does what any woman would likely do when a guy she doesn’t know and who barely speaks the language, shows up in the middle of the night looking for her daughter: she disavows all knowledge of Keiko or her whereabouts.  Well, it also could have been the fact that she’s pretty sure that this is the guy from the FF Keiko just mentioned and she doesn’t like “the look” of him.  That could be it too….

Defeated, Bryce calls Nicole.  At least he knows her name, that’s something.  Nicole reminds him to be patient.  It’ll happen.  In the meantime he should come home.

Aaron’s drinking now.  Mark knocks on the door, and after they snark at each other, Aaron tells him that Tracy’s drinking now too.  They don’t make up as sponsor/sponsee, but they do make up as friends.  That’s something.

Bryce returns home set to this week’s musical montage of an awesome version of “Shelter from the Storm.”  And guess who’s on the plane with him….  Keiko, finally having gotten her tattoo, sets herself up in a small LA apartment.  They haven’t met, but they will.  They believe.