We open with a stroll down memory lane to four weeks BEFORE the Black-Out. It's before anyone had any idea what their future was and, more importantly, it's when Bryce was still a significant character. He's in a doctor's office and the doctor is gesturing to images of the brain and telling him the treatments aren't working, because it turns out our old friend Bryce has Stage 4 cancer. I guess now the suicide attempt makes more sense; I was just assuming Dr. Olivia had been particularly bitchy and/or homewrecking that one day.

In a daze, Bryce leaves the office and accidentally smashes into an expensive-looking red sports car. Central casting has sent over "belligerent asshole" (because we all know they're the only ones who own red sports cars) and he starts screaming and yelling at Bryce. Bryce simply pulls out and continuously rams into the sports car while the car owner (who I guess in retrospect isn't THAT belligerent) calls the cops. Bryce then jumps out of his own car and storms off. Well NOW we know why he wanted to kill himself! He had to deal with insurance companies.

Flashforward (a little pun there) to two weeks before the Black-Out. Over in the Land of the Rising Sun, a Japanese woman is going into facial convulsions in a bathroom mirror. Her name is Keiko, and she's interrupted by a man who tells her that everyone is waiting and they need to go.

Keiko is attempting to get hired at this Japanese robotics firm, and talks about her engineering degree and being first in her class at the University of Tokyo. Also, she likes guitar and salsa dancing. Not sure why she finds that relevant, but more power to her. Unfortunately, it appears not to be going well.

Over in the States, Dr. Olivia is pissed because a certain patient is having the gall to "ooze" everywhere that they cut. I'm no doctor (I only play one on TV), but I think that's called BLEEDING. Seriously, it's some medical problem, and Bryce can't answer any of the questions that she asks him about it. Surgery be damned, Dr. Olivia storms out.

We're in Japan again, or else a SUPER Asian part of LA. Keiko arrives home to find all of her friends throwing a surprise 'congratulations' party for her. Recall that things did not go so well for Keiko, so this is probably only slightly less awkward than a 'Happy Pearl Harbor Day' party would have been. But Keiko plasters on her fake smile and thanks her mom. She is, however, shocked to find that her mother has invited two random guys that she wants her to get together with. Our girl Keiko is not digging them.

Back to the US. Bryce is talking seriously to a therapist about whether he should keep being a doctor, and a helpful subtitle tells us that this is Black-Out Day. I feel like being a doctor isn't like being a waiter or actor: you don't just dabble in it, you go to school for crazy years and pay lots of money to get there. But whatever the case may be, Bryce is upset and he has cancer and then we find him taking a walk on that infamous pier. And we all now what happens from there, TVgasm readers.

There's the extended Bryce flashforward, in which he's in a Japanese restaurant and he meets Keiko. They're really happy to see each other and they take each other's hands, and then he's back on the pier. She, presumably having had the same vision, wakes up on her bathroom floor. Finally, a character experience I can relate with!

Back in the present, Bryce is attempting to learn Japanese phrases via audio tape. I would comment on phrases he probably should know to travel in Japan, but I see that I've already made my extremely racially-insensitive joke today and so I'll move on. He then runs to the bathroom and vomits for some reason. It's no way to treat the Japanese culture!

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Posted in Flash Forward by Moorels at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Last Comment: Vince on Nov 25, 2009 06:44 PM.