So, you’ve successfully managed to survive past your own death date. And then, because that’s not quite angsty enough, they drop you right in the middle of Final Destination.
Wouldn’t you rather just go to White Castle?
Palo Alto, CA, two days before the blackout. Lloyd and Simon are in their NLAP offices talking fashion and the project. They’re also drinking, which is exactly what you want your responsible scientists simulating the big bang to do two days before the biggest experiments of their lives. Simon gets a phone call. It’s his mother. His father has just died. Simon promises to be on the first flight home.
On the day of the blackout, Lloyd is in charge. He’s surprised to find the press there, but Angie the reporter’s been cleared. They begin the experiment, and the world goes dark. Unfortunately, when it does, Angie bonks her head on the side of a desk. She doesn’t survive.
In the present (one week to go until the day of the FFs), Lloyd is talking to another reporter. He’s telling her that seeing the future might have an impact of changing the futures. However, the future has a way of fighting back that should be accounted for. It’s like the whole thing with Al. If he’d lived, he’d be mowing Celia down with the car right about now. He’s dead, so she gets to live.
Liv catches part of the interview while she checks in on Gabriel. He’s in a hospital bed fast asleep. The reporter asks Lloyd if he’s worried about the people who have lived past their presumed death dates. Will the universe try to “course correct” and snatch them up anyway? Lloyd thinks they’re statistical anomalies.
Simon, too, is watching the interview from his car. As someone drives him to his destination, he dons a glove that makes him appear to have the missing pinky finger. The reporter brings out her next guest. It’s Celia herself.
The reporter opens the floor to call-in viewers. The first one asks if the blackout caused permanent brain damage. Lloyd assures him that that is not the case. He also promises that there won’t be another blackout. The reporter asks Celia if she has any thoughts, and she shares that she thinks the universe has a different plan for her. Lloyd also adds that as of the 29th, he thinks they’ll all end up where they’re supposed to be. Burn on Mark! As they watch in their office, Dem asks Mark what he thinks Lloyd means by that. Mark thinks that that doesn’t mean they can’t decide their fates.
Simon’s on a bridge when he sees Annabelle out of the car window. He orders the driver to stop and runs back to his little sister. She’s got lasers pointed everywhere on her and tells him that if he comes any closer, “they” will kill her. He has twelve hours to get them the ring or else they’ll kill her. She orders him back to the car. He goes, but not before noting the license plate.
At the FBI, Simon approaches a tech wizard agent and hands over the license plate number. The agent agrees to run the plate after he runs it by Mark. Simon asks him to omit that part of the process. The agent says that he won’t, but Simon tells him to name his price.
Nicole pops in on Bryce at chemo. She brings him a copy of Pema Chodron’s The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times. It helped her with her mom; it might help Bryce now. She wishes Bryce would tell her when he’s getting chemo, but he doesn’t want her to feel obligated to come. To her, it’s not an obligation.
Dem walks into a household homicide and tells the MI-6 agent taking pictures that someone used his name to gain access. It’s Fiona Banks, the agent that was supposed to have been with Al during the FF event. The victim is Andy Weeks, a man who was supposed to have died on March 2. He survived the date, but ended up being poisoned via his coffee. Dem notes the room full of guns. Why wasn’t he shot? Fiona thinks it’s because he was supposed to have died via a drug allergy. She hands Dem a piece of paper found at the scene. It’s got the Blue Hand logo. It’s not the first one of these Fiona knows about. In fact, there have been four in the last three weeks in LA alone.
Liv and Lloyd meet for coffee. He feels guilty about telling them there won’t be another blackout. Liv feels guilty about not being able to help. Lloyd assures her that she really is helping.
Mark calls Simon into his office and tells him that promising a junior analyst a weekend at the Bunny Ranch (really? That’s what he wanted??) is a way to get things done. It’s not. Simon tells Mark about Annabelle. Well, not the entire truth. He claims to have seen her in a van that morning, but Mark shows him the traffic cam footage of their real meeting. Simon tries again, but Mark knows she’s been kidnapped. Mark doesn’t know if Simon can be compromised, but he’s been lying. The entire mosaic investigation is in jeopardy because of him.
Simon reviews the footage while Lloyd examines the ring. Simon thinks that Lloyd just feels guilty about not preventing the blackout. As Lloyd locks up the ring, Simon tells him about Annabelle. Lloyd claims he would have helped if he’d known. Simon doesn’t know why he didn’t tell, but he’s been busy.
Mark and Stan talk about Simon. Why would he have lied about the fact that Annabelle was kidnapped. Stan’s not thrilled about the lying, but they need Simon. Therefore, they’ll look for Annabelle.
Dem and Fiona head to a local high school to speak with the teacher that ran the Blue Hand group. They show him the Weeks file. The teacher recognizes him from the Blue Hand gatherings. They tell him he’s dead. The teacher is stunned but thinks that it’s probably a case of the universe balancing itself. Fiona asks for a list of people from the Blue Hand group that knew Andy. She also warns the teacher that he might want to be careful in the coming weeks. He lived past his own death date and could be another victim.
Bryce gives Liv and update on Gabriel. Except for his feet, he looks good. Liv asks for another update later and sends Bryce on his way. Dylan walks up and asks where Charlie is. She’s in school…why isn’t Dylan? Occupational therapy. Gabriel sees the two together and insists that Liv and Lloyd are supposed to be together. Liv takes Gabriel back to his room as he sings the “sitting in a tree” song. He tells Liv that she’s the best thing for Lloyd since sliced bread. Vreede shows up with lunch for Gabriel. He asks how he’s doing and tells Liv that he really needs to take Gabriel to the FBI. When Liv says no, Vreede starts asking his questions in the office. He shows Gabriel a picture that he drew at some point. It’s Mark’s board o fun. Gabriel saw it on one of his “trips.” They’re getting somewhere when Gabriel starts picking apart his lunch. And they shut down.
Back at the FBI, Mark, Stan ,and the junior agent think they might have located the van. Simon catches wind of it and tries to go with them when they check out the tip. Mark reminds Simon that he’s got another mission: work on the QED. His volunteering is starting to feel a little convenient to Mark. Mark’s going to get sis, and when they get back he’s going to sit down with Simon.
Simon heads into the lab and tries to get on the computer. Mark’s changed his password. Simon remembers the ring and decides to steal it.
Bryce sits down with his oncologist. His tumor markers are undetectable and his cells seem to be back to normal. The experimental treatment Bryce has been undergoing seems to be working. He’s officially in remission. The future awaits.
One of the nurses asks Nicole if she can help out with giving detainees flu shots that night at an immigration lock up. She hands over the files so that Nicole can get familiar with what she’s getting into. I can see where this is going already, and, sure enough, the third file she flips to is Keiko.
Dem and Fiona are at a coffee bar. They show the barista Andy’s file. He’s a regular at the coffee house, and he was there yesterday with a tall, geeky looking guy wearing a big horseshoe ring: the teacher.
Back at the high school, the teacher’s leading his students through a lesson on free will when Dem and Fiona show up. He sneaks out the back after giving the kids a message for Dem: the universe always pushes back. They remember Celia. Sure enough, the teacher is about to mow her down when Dem crashes into her car. He tells Celia to run, and she does…right in front of Fiona’s car. They call it in. The teacher is also injured. He was supposed to die of a brain aneurysm, instead he dies of a head injury in front of Dem. He still blames the universe
Lloyd heads to his car when Simon approaches and apologizes for his behavior. He thanks Lloyd for all the opportunities Lloyd has given him in the past. He tells Lloyd he’s the only friend Simon has ever had. Lloyd thinks he needs a drink. Simon tells him he needs to be somewhere.
Bryce runs up to Nicole. He’s about to tell him that he’s cancer free, but notices that she’s upset about something. He asks what’s wrong. She says she has something to tell him. He does too, and he kisses her. Then he tells her that his cancer’s in remission. He doesn’t want to waste any more time. Forget what they saw…they’re here now and this is all that matters.
At the FBI Dem tries to comfort her, but Fiona remembers the conversation she had with Al about the bird. He had suggested that she cover the window so the bird wouldn’t run into it. It was a nice thought, she’d said, but she thinks the bird would probably run into another window. Clearly, Fiona’s car was Celia’s other window. The hospital calls. Celia’s not dead, but it’s not looking good. Fiona realizes they’re going to call again on the 29th. The hospital assures her it was an accident. Fiona claims that there are no accidents anymore.
Mark’s still looking for Annabelle. He finds a maintenance guy working on an electrical box. Someone came through like a bat out of hell, nearly took out the box. Mark calls swat and finds Annabelle in the van. He calls Simon. The siblings talk, and Simon tells Annabelle that he loves her. Then Simon hangs up on Mark and walks out of his hotel room/apartment. Stan and Mark race back to the lab and realize that Simon took the ring.
At Lloyd’s house, Liv shows Lloyd a series of brain scans. First up is Gabriel’s. There’s no damage, despite the multiple FFs. Then, she shows them pictures of people who were actually having scans done at the time of the blackout on October 6. Same thing, there’s no damage. Lloyd’s a little more concerned with the things Gabriel saw. Does Gabriel think they were happy? Liv says that she was in her’s.
Someone knocks at the door, and Lloyd kisses the top of Liv’s head as he answers. It’s Mark. He’s not thrilled to find his wife there, and she scurries out. Mark tells Lloyd that Simon’s gone. Was there anything about his behavior the day of the blackout that was weird? Lloyd doesn’t know. Then, he remembers that Simon insisted that they go forward with the experiment that day, despite the fact Simon wasn’t going to be there. Mark wants to know if Simon’s capable of engineering the blackout. Lloyd says that he’s capable of engineering anything.
Back at the FBI, the junior agent walks them through the gait analysis he did on Simon and Suspect Zero after they realized Simon had a larger role in the blackout than originally thought. It could be him, but Stan points out that Simon was in Toronto at a funeral. Mark tells them about a flight that made an emergency landing in Detroit from Canada. No flight plan, and after a few hours it headed back to Toronto. They run through the footage again, and Mark realizes that Simon is suspect zero.
Mark tries to run Annabelle through some photos, but she tells him that they always wore some weird masks. He asks what they wanted him for, but she hesitates. Then she tells him that he’s going to cause another blackout.
