We open 14 days ago, with everyone walking happily, until the blackout occurs. We see people falling and a bus plunging into a lake, presumably drowning everyone inside. No, wait, some people are still alive. Including one foreign woman, who is saved by an American man.

The man (Ned) is being examined by Olivia and Bryce in the hospital. He’s not suffering from pain, which is why he’s going to see a doctor. Bryce asks what Ned saw.....apparently he was “rocking” leather pants in a bar. Apparently Ned was also African-American. Except he’s actually white. So this is obviously weird.

Zoey wants Demetri to tell his parents that they’ve moved up the date for the wedding. Dem’s distracted, still preoccupied with the call from the lady who said he was going to be murdered. Zoey asks if Demetri if the FBI is holding a blonde woman from the day of the crash, but he won’t confirm or deny it.

At home, Joseph Fiennes is putting his real British accent to good use as Mark horses around with his daughter, Charlie. Olivia comes in to announce that Nicole will be babysitting for Charlie again.

Cut to Nicole, who’s having breakfast with Aaron. I guess Aaron’s daughter, Tracey, used to babysit for Nicole when they were younger. Aaron says Mark said Nicole went AWOL and we learn that Aaron got her that job with Mark. Aaron tells her they saw the flashes for a reason.

In the hospital, Olivia is asking Bryce about Ned’s scan. Bryce wonders how Ned will turn black, but Olivia isn’t interested in the flash. She also tells Bryce he needs to follow up with a psychiatrist once a week because of his suicide attempt.

Dylan Simcoe throws a tray out of his room and Lloyd retrieves it, spilling pop on himself in the process. He goes back inside to comfort his son, who is very upset. Olivia walks by, but tries to ignore the Simcoe boys.

At work, Mark is asking Stanford to send him to Somalia. Yes! Please! I’m very curious as to what happened in Somalia. Stanford reminds Mark that just last week he was sent to Germany and the FBI isn’t made of money. The tech guy (Al) is there too, trying to convince Stan. He says they’ve been trying to get more information from the CIA, but they aren’t very forthcoming. Stan warns them to stay away from the CIA.

As they leave the office, Mark reminds Al about a hacker they busted (Cheeto Dust) and wants him to help break into the CIA mainframe. Al’s hesitant - because it’s super-illegal. Al reveals that Demetri is interrogating Alda (the blonde terrorist lady).

Demetri reveals that Alda has multiple passports, but she denies doing anything wrong. She says Dem wants to speak to her associates (but they died during the blackout). She tells him to investigate “Customer Choice Restaurant Group”. Dem warns her that she’s running out of time, but she says he should “get out there before it’s too late”.

In Stanford’s office, Mark and Dem are arguing about following up Somalia or Alda. Stan tells them to head to Indio to follow up on the Restaurant Group.

Lloyd meets up with Olivia in the hospital cafeteria. Olivia seems uncomfortable with the conversation, but Lloyd admits that he hasn’t spent much time with Dylan since he and his wife separated. As she walks away, Bryce wants to talk to her about Ned’s scan, but she just tells him to transfer Dylan to the physical therapy department.

In Indio, Dem and Mark are talking to an employee of the Restaurant Group. One of the cooks seems freaked when he finds out that two FBI are in the restaurant and takes off, while Mark and Demetri give chase. Mark finally catches him. Dem finds a box and thinks it’s full of yellowcake uranium, but it’s just full of weed. Mark is disgusted about wasting their time. Demetri gets pissed and attacks the pot guy, but Mark pulls him off and then the two fight (Dem punches Mark). Dem tells Mark how he’s going to die on March 15.

Pot guy gets carted off in a cop car and Demetri tells Mark about the call he got about his murder. Mark thinks that Alda was playing Demetri by sending him to Indio and tells him he needs to stop being afraid. Mark is convinced they can change the future, but Demetri isn’t so convinced.

At the hospital, Lloyd brings Bryce a sketchbook he left in Dylan’s room. I think that Bryce sketched a woman he saw in his flash. A news story comes on the TV about people using the Mosaic website to connect. Bryce asks Lloyd what he saw. Lloyd says he was in a strange house when he got a call. He heard Dylan nearby and then heard a woman’s voice. Lloyd’s vision - assuming he’s telling the truth - is identical to Olivia’s.

Bryce brings Olivia Ned’s CT scan and it shows blood pooling around his liver. Bryce says that Ned is obviously alive in his future and doesn’t understand why Olivia is so quick to dismiss the flashes.

Bryce goes to explain the surgery to Ned, but Ned isn’t afraid. Ned is convinced that he becomes a stronger man in the future and he’s a different person because of that.

Nicole meets with a priest in a church. She tells him she wants to start volunteering at the church, but he says they’re swamped with volunteers. We see a bit of her flash and it looks like she’s in water. She asks the priest how to atone for something she hasn’t done yet. She says in her flash it felt like she was being punished and wonders if God caused the flashes. He gives her the number for the volunteer coordinator, Audrey and then leaves.

Bryce is investigating pigment changes at the hospital and seems to have stumbled on something. He tells a nurse to call the OR, because they’re about to kill Ned.

Bryce goes to talk to Olivia in the OR, where she’s prepping. He says Ned has Addison’s disease and surgery could kill him. Olivia doesn’t buy any of it. When Bryce says that she doesn’t want to believe in the flashes because she saw the end of her marriage, she says he’s out of line.

Lloyd goes to his ex-wife’s house (she’s now dead) and looks around, seeing photos of Dylan.

In the OR room, Ned starts to crash on the table. Bryce watches as Olivia uses a defibrillator on Ned. Ned’s such a nice guy, I don’t want him to die. Olivia doesn’t understand why Ned is crashing, then she decides to use the drug that Bryce suggested and says that Ned has Addison’s disease. As soon as he gets the drug, Ned begins to stabilize.

Back in the FBI building, Mark is questioning Alda about Dem’s murder. Alda admits that Demetri didn’t have a flash, but not that he was going to be murdered. She admits that nothing she says will be the truth. He asks what she knows about the blackout and whether she’s ever been to Somalia or Detroit. She says he shouldn’t be investigating the cause of the blackout, but should be focusing on why. She asks if he knows what a “black swan” is (there’s our episode title). She says it’s a metaphor to describe a high-impact event. She speaks Farsi and recites a parable. She says that she is friends with dangerous people and suicide bombers, but she doesn’t think that Mark is willing to do whatever it takes to get answers.

Al signs onto the Mosaic site and searches for the name “Celia”, which returns many hits. Mark comes by to talk about the hacker (Cheeto Dust). He tells Al to give Cheeto a call.

Bryce tells Ned about his Addison’s disease and doesn’t take credit for being the one to discover it. Ned thinks that his future saved him.

Outside the room, Olivia apologizes for the way she treated Bryce. She tells him that she’s there if he wants to talk about his suicide attempt. He says he’s OK now and parrots Ned, saying the future saved him. A nurse comes by to tell Olivia that Dylan was transferred back from Physical Therapy. Olivia is not happy about this.

Mark greets Nicole at his house. Nicole apologizes for going AWOL and Mark says she’s part of the family. Nicole says that she saw someone drowning her in her flash. She says she felt like she deserved it because she did something wrong. She also saw the man’s face who was drowning her. Mark tells her that she won’t do anything wrong and says that he’ll help protect her. Charlie comes down and Mark invites Nicole to stay for dinner.

Lloyd is doing magic tricks for Dylan in his hospital room and Olivia walks by. Lloyd goes off to get dinner and gets a call from a man named Simon. Simon says they need to talk (it’s Dominic Monaghan!), because they’re responsible for the blackout. Dun dun dunnnnnnn!

Written by: Clarissa
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