I don't buy the Chinese theory. While it's true their people were the least affected, it does not explain any motivation. What do they have to gain?
Besides if you are going to test this device, you would do it under military control in rual China where you could very effectively keep the lid on this, not in Somalia. There is clearly another force at work here.

I think we'll find out that Lloyd Simcoe and his "unnamed co-conspirator" played by Dominic Monaghan actually have something to do with it. Still, Goyer & Braga damned well better keep a tight rein on their plotting, or it's going to devolve into a horrible mess, unworthy of being adapted from a truly fine SF novel.

Agree that the FOA was a flubbed line, but I immediatelt re-noted it as FDA, and being that this was a US hearing, the Food and Drug Administration would be answerable to the US Committee investigating, where the UN agency would not...

See where it goes... Admittedly, this episode was the best written so far, and required less FF'ing of the DVR. -kh

There seems to be a contradiction which may be a clue. First, the current president was clearly alive in the FF. However, he was in bed which would be at 2 PM Eastern time when the Secret Service (?) agent wakes him to say something is happening. While it might have been a little dalliance with the first lady, it seems more likely that he was in Europe or Asia at the time. Also, the senator claimed she saw herself as president. Either she is lying, the future is malleable, or the current president is out of office..

Ahhh, but your missing the most obvious conclusion...the chinese ARE Aliens!!!!

Excellent episode, first action we have really had since the pilot.
Could be North Koreans; but I am betting an international team of terrorists. Did the Prez order the hits?

China has a lot of ties with Africa, politically, militarily and economically. Wouldn't it make sense to build and test something like this in an extremely remote area outside their own country?
I'm just very surprised the oriental assassins needed to attack the team, including Hawk. The LA office appears to have a couple of dozen of agents working on this. Were the rest attacked at the same time?
The big reveal in this episode was actually that Benford's investigation is justified by the attack. It's being taken very seriously by someone bad. The attack should prove to the committee that the FBI's LA office is the investigation to pursue, though I doubt that would happen with Senator Clemente's chip on her shoulder.

Who frakkin' cares? This show has gotten so boring and stupid, it won't survive past the first season!

I need more cookies and milk...

Here is my theory. The show will not live past the 13 episodes so all the theories you guys come up with dont matter because its cancellation will not resolve any plot lines. Thats the only theory that makes sense.

The towers in Somalia were there to measure, not cause, the event. The Chinese are an obvious red herring. The president will be impeached. Dominic Monahan THINKS he caused the blackout, but he didn't do it intentionally - and it will be something that can't be prevented from occuring again. At least not this season. The next Flashforward will occur in the closing seconds of this season.

I just assumed that the president ordered the "hit" on the Mosaic team, as we see him talking to someone on the phone just prior about taking care of a problem. I think the fact that the gunmen are asian is a red herring.

Yes, the Asians are a red herring. The current President put out a hit on the team because he was getting blackmailed. Because they live, the team manages to connect the President to the hit and he ends up resigning to prevent it from leaking. Because he is then an ex-President, he may still have a Secret Service agent assigned and would still be called 'Mr. President', while the VP would be President.

The only thing that makes any sense to me is that the whole thing was man made I,m think along the lines of a em pulse that happens before a nuclear bomb goes off I know that apperently people have been working on theory in different countries though how this fits in with the dreams people have I,ve no idea the pulse has to have been modifed in some way....

I don't think the President ordered the hit. I think he was calling Senator Clemente and offering her a deal: give funding to the FBI office in LA for the MOSAIC Project and he will appoint her Vice-President. This way, the President won't be blackmailed and it will keep Agent Wedeck away from trying again, as the agent doesn't want to go anywhere near the Senator.

Also, if the President ordered the hit in DC, would he also have sent a lone attacker to LA to go after Hawk? And how would the attacker get there so quickly?
And, yes, I think the Asian gang was also a red herring..too obvious. But, who ordered the attack? ...

the one thought i had during the first ep was that this might have been part of a paradox with a handful of people being put into the past has caused this ripple. and the ripples that everyone see is what had been possible 6 months later but since those people were sent back to a pervious date they will interupt the current time flow by interacting with people they would likely never had had any intention of meeting or bumping into. at least for now i will continue to watch and am intrigued with the writing so far. keep up the good work.

I agree 100% with Falconer. They had better be REALLY careful with the plot so that it doesn't disentegrate into the horifically insane mish mash of plot lunacy that "Lost" turned into.

If you are going to propose an enemy like the Chinese that would have the power to see the future and create flashforwards aimed to take down the U.S. government, then you also would have to propose why they were so incompetent at it. Because obviously the U.S. government was not taken down.

Stop and consider that some people have conflicting visions such as Agent Hu not seeing anything (because he is dead) while his fiance sees their wedding. This could mean that there are two or more possible futures, which is possible, and that the bad guys of the show are trying to make theirs happen. I look forward to see if I am right.

i don't understand why any of those characters don't seem to recognize their flash forward while they 're "in" it. It's like forgetting your own birthday, the very day of said birthday.
None of them is going "hey; i'm living my flash forward today!"

OMG... I just passed out and flash forward-ed 6 months into my future... I found... I saw that... that I still don't care about this boring tv show...

why couldn't they have just stuck with the same storyline as the book.

The flash forward event was clearly caused by the detonation of the nuclear bomb at the future swan site at the end of LOST season five. Simon is really a reincarnated and possessed Charlie who now works for Esau. With Jacob dead, Esau and his minions can manipulate space/time and are gong to take over the world and issue in Armageddon.

I still say time travelers came back to stop something-or-other. Their emergence caused the blackout. As they knew it would. At least one character will be involved.

The bigger question: how can 2 people see themselves as the President of the US in six months?

There are possibly 2 sets of FF- some taking place in 6 months time the other in another still-un-specified time frame possibly years in which anyone asleep or in a coma or whatever would have experienced as a default. This would explain why one of the characters had no ff and his g/f had one of their marrage. My Theory is some sort of chain of quantem events -say a solar flare or Residual energy from a Distant Supernova or left over from the big bang taking place durring the people's life time are conecting them to the FF -any answer will be scientific and revolving around quantium physics

There are possibly 2 sets of FF- some taking place in 6 months time the other in another still-un-specified time frame possibly years in which anyone asleep or in a coma or whatever would have experienced as a default. This would explain why one of the characters had no ff and his g/f had one of their marrage. My Theory is some sort of chain of quantem events -say a solar flare or Residual energy from a Distant Supernova or left over from the big bang taking place durring the people's life time are conecting them to the FF -any answer will be scientific and revolving around quantium physics

Uhhhh... it was caused by Tupac, who was assimilated by the Borg and forced to scout this planet for tribbles, which caused the space/time rift, and now Hiro and Andy are trying to fix it... who needs the FBI??

Actually, it was caused by Helen and Daniel Faraday, who were trying to reach the LOST Island, to set off a nuclear bomb that would reset time and make everyone on earth forget how convoluted the plot has become. But they ended up opening a rift into a parallel universe, so eventually Mark has to turn MOSAIC over to Walter Bishop and the Fringe division, who are able to determine that it was Colonel Mustard in the Billiard Room with the Lead Pipe.