After watching this episode I was drawn to conclude that all the characters in this show fall into two neat categories: those you can care about and those you just don’t. Aaron so far hasn’t been an inspirational character, as he’s far too caught up in his own little world to be a plausible support system for Mark’s drink issue. But in this story they try really hard to resurrect him by creating a backstory about his and Tracy’s past. This does involve some time hopping to the extent that it started to annoy me to a degree. Yes, I can see they’re trying to emulate Lost, in the way that they reveal information, but this show isn’t Lost, except in a creative sense. It’s mostly a setup for Aaron following Tracy to Afghanistan as per his flash, but we do find out some interesting things along the way, thankfully. Aaron’s best part is after Tracy is abducted, when he gets primordial on her old unit buddy now working for James Erskine, the head of Jericho, who tries to stab him. This excellent scene is entirely ruined because, after Aaron throws him from the pickup, the guy counter attacks by throwing dust in his eyes, despite the fact that it’s been raining, everything is wet and very muddy. If there’s a hint that some things aren’t changeable, then she doesn’t take it. As if to counter that particular plot element, they’ve now got Janis being almost as desperate to make her flash happen, as in the baby she’s supposed to be having. But probably the best written scenes this week were the ones where Mark walked Lloyd through his exact recollections of the flash, which, disturbingly for Mark, took place in the Benford’s bedroom. Thankfully, it didn’t involve Olivia, who, for me, is the most irritating character by a very long way. Considering that she’s a doctor, she’s terminally dumb and keeps saying exactly the wrong things to pretty much everyone. I kept wishing she’d admit she’s got the hots for Lloyd and we could all move on. Thankfully, we got spared her in this episode. What we did get were two subsequent scenes where Lloyd finally admits that he knows who ‘D Gibbons’ is, and it’s not a primate, but a devious man called Dyson Frost. Overall, not as strong as the season re-opener, but gripping in places. In the next story, which I’m about to belatedly watch, the Mosaic team is off to southern California, or Somalia as it will undoubtedly be called, I predict. Read our review of episode 12 here.
