(S01E21) This is the kind of episode that makes you even more disappointed that this is the end of the road for 'FlashForward.' It all comes to an end with next week's series finale.

When 'FlashForward' began, the showrunners talked about how there was a plan for the day after April 29, 2010, and that we would see what comes next. Now, I'm not so sure. For the characters, I'd imagine "FlashForward Day," as April 29 has come to be called, would feel like the longest day of their lives, as they careen toward the time of their visions: 10 PM PT.

Looks like it's going to be that way for us, too. Tonight's episode began at three in the morning on April 29, and we worked our way through the day, checking in with all the major plotlines throughout the season, but we're not at 10 PM PT yet. While fate may be moving to bring those visions to fruition, it doesn't seem like all of them will happen.

The episode ended three hours short of 10PM PT, and left me wondering if any of the visions would come true as seen. Janis is with Demetri and Simon which means she'll have a hard time getting a sonogram. It was always a little wonky that she was getting one at 10PM anyway, but with the way she winced and held her baby, maybe there's an emergency one in her future yet.

Nicole is now home alone, after she finally admitted to Bryce that she knew where Keiko was. The fact that she let Keiko stay in a detainment facility may have irreparably damaged her chances with Bryce, but staying at home will do a lot to keep her from getting drowned. The sense that she deserved what was happening to her, though, is there.

Bryce and Keiko's fateful union at the sushi restaurant seems pretty far-fetched at this point, too. Keiko is with her mother and on her way back to Japan, and considering she's basically being deported I'm not sure how she could steal away to rendezvous with Bryce. For his part, he did try and connect with her. It just looks like he got there too late.

Lloyd tried to make his vision come true, though his reasoning looks to have more to do with the equation he's struggling with than a desire to get in bed with Olivia. Olivia, though, is determined to avoid the visions by scheduling an impromptu picnic with Charlie.

Aaron did everything right to be reunited with Tracy in Afghanistan, and they were exactly where they needed to be. Time, however, ran out and before the moment of the visions, Tracy died. Aaron did find out that she was awake during an experimental blackout Jericho had orchestrated, which is why they were after her, but what that means we don't know. With one episode left, will we ever?

Mark did what Mark does when confronted with anything. He got angry and violent. First against Lucas Hellinger, who told him he would die this day, and then against everyone at a bar. The moment when he was given the flask he'd seen himself with in the flashforward was a very cool scene. Those are the kinds of moments that succeed for this show, as this is where we get the goosebumps of seeing the future coming true.

Mark could still get back into the FBI building and talk to Lloyd on the phone and face gunned assassins in front of his mosaic board, but in order for that to work, Olivia has to go home so Lloyd can get into her house and write the equation on the mirror. Of course, events don't have to transpire exactly as they'd been seen in the visions.

We already saw a shift like this occur when Fiona Banks replaced Al Gough as the person who hit the woman who will die on April 29, 2010. Events that need to happen will happen, even if they must transpire in a slightly different way.

Why is it that 'FlashForward' couldn't juggle multiple storylines like this all season? Bryce and Aaron and Nicole have hardly been seen, as we've dealt almost exclusively with Mark and the FBI task force. It's a little disappointing that the potential of the show as a true ensemble exploration of the global impact of the blackout, as seen in the pilot, is coming out in this penultimate episode when it's too late for the series. Maybe this was really a 10-episode mini-series that the writers stretched into a 22-episode season.

Next week, it all comes to a close. Hopefully, we'll get more than just seeing what happens at 10 PM PT, and which visions come true exactly as seen, which are altered, and which don't happen at all. It doesn't seem likely that we can have all of our questions answered, but we'd better get some closure, or an ending of sorts followed by an awesome cliffhanger that leaves us to speculate on what happens next.

As a fan of genre television, I've become used to shows I like getting canceled prematurely, and I've even come to expect an unsatisfying ending. The design of this season, though, with the flashforward event happening toward the finale of the season means that it should be built like a novel. Perhaps it's the first novel of a longer series, which means further exploration is warranted, but you still want to leave your readers satisfied with this first taste.