In episode 7 of Flash Forward, one of the characters Gough who foreseen himself as the one responsible for the death of a young mother, decides to change the the course of events by ending his own life. Thus, he prevented the unfortunate future event from happening.
For those of you who are not familiar with the popular TV drama Flash Forward, here's a brief synopsis:
A mysterious event causes everyone on the planet to simultaneously lose consciousness for 137 seconds, during which people see what appear to be visions of their lives approximately six months in the future—a global “flashforward”. A team of Los Angeles FBI agents, led by Stanford Wedeck (Vance) and spearheaded by Mark Benford (Fiennes), begin the process of determining what happened, why, and whether it will happen again. Benford contributes a unique perspective on the investigation; in his flashforward, he saw the results of six months of investigation that he had done on the flashforward event, and he and his team use those clues to recreate the investigation.
Gough, one of the FPI agents experienced a flashforward; he saw himself crying and feeling remorseful after hearing the death of the young woman, and he learnt that he was (or rather, will be) responsible for the event. He could not live with the notion that he will soon cause two young kids to lose their mother - an innocent woman he did not know. To stop the event from taking place and causing pain onto himself and the family of the woman, Gough decided that the only solution is to end his life before things could happen. He pulled the plug on his life.
This can be interpreted in two ways:
1. He is courageous. The bravery to end the course of his life in order to put a stop to the pending awful event unthinkable. You could say he sacrificed himself to save a stranger.
2. He is weak. By ending his own life, he thought the problem would be solved. But is it too easy a way out? Would there be repercussions? He will not live to find out. If he had stayed on, his determination to pursue for a solution will be tested and regardless of success or failure, at least he tried and that, would garner him admiration.
Similarly, his co-partner, Mark had a flashforward: he saw himself killed by a thug during a police raid. He feared for his live, and the future of his family. Instead of waiting around for his time to come, he hunted down his (potential) killer, and pulled the trigger on him first. He lived.
Morality is being tested. Decisions have to be made. How do we judge whether they are made correctly or impartially?
