povsry

You probably saw the scene in the second episode of FlashForward where the guy who bore quite the resemblance to WWE star The Undertaker quotes anti-slavery activist and Archbishop of London from the late 1700s Beilby Porteous.

Of course, I think the reason both the guy in the office of that doll factory in episode two who said, "He who foresees calamities, suffers them twice over" looks like The Undertaker (seen here to the right) as does that figure in the sports stadium that skulks around ominously during everyone's flash forward is because of the uniform.

I'm pretty sure the body in the shadows of that doll factory was wearing a black trenchcoat as was the Oxide Stadium observer which looks a lot like The Undertaker's duster which also looks like ... a black trenchcoat, as in the Trenchcoat Mafia (?!?) from ... well you know.

(So, ominous indeed. Thanks for borrowing that visual and making me feel all the more creepy about these people that gave people this 137-second long glimpse of their futures.)

And, what about this idea from the multiverse theory that every decision we make creates a slightly different version of our world and how will that play out when some people see their futures as needing fixing because of what they did (or in the case of Agent Noh) didn't see?

But, back to Beilby Porteus, there are a few sources on the web to start with, one being this Porteus family website (at this link, curated -- if you will -- by Bruce Porteus of Norwich, England) and particularly this page on the Archbishop, which provides a wealthy of background material.

Interestingly, this year on May 13 (but not April 29, which we know is a critical day for the show) is the bicentenary of the death of the Bishop.

Hmmmmm.

The bishop, btw, and obviously a number of other bishops are given the educational degree designation D.D., Doctor of Divinity, which I think might have something to do with the whole D.D. Gibbons thing. Possibly Thomas Gibbons? He was a contemporary of Porteus who like him had lived in England and in the Colonies before the American Revolution. Gibbons wrote about Calvinism and the Nonconformist churches of England who were looking to separate from the Anglican church right around the same time Porteus was advocating for that church to take a position on the horrendous conditions suffered by African and Carribbean slaves. He also worked in the House of Lords toward the abolition of slavery.

(Robert J. Sawyer, who wrote the book which the series is based on, is blogging about the show and his other projects and the world in general from his perspective at this link. Interesting, not spoilery so far, and I'm adding him to my links list to the right today. He lives in Mississauga, Ontario, home of Musclemag International, not that that means anything, it's just one of those random pieces of unremovable ephemera in my brain.)

I know, I know, I'm the king of digression. More about Porteus as we go forward. There are a few Porteus quotes with some real oomph to them not yet used, you can check them out at this link. Two preview clips for the next episode of FlashForward are in the widget from ABC.com after the jump.