Anyone watch Flashforward (Dylan/Lloyd Simcoe Question)
Does anyone watch the show FlashForward? Dylan Simcoe is (according to his dad) "autistic" but I doubt this. Here is the post I made on the FF wik viewable in its entirety at here
* I personally do not even believe Dylan really has autism. consider this: Autism is a spectrum disorder. So, if Dylan is really autistic, either he has "classic" autism, or he has Asperger's/High Functioning Autism (HFA). Dylan seems far too high functioning to have the "classic" autism (which is actually not a correct terminology, but what I mean by that is he has what is commonly regarded medically as autism, as opposed to HFA or AS, which can also be called autism). That is clear to me. So, one might conclude that he has HFA or AS. But I don't think he does. As someone who personally does in fact have the latter, Dylan seems waaaay too socialy apt to have AS or HFA, especially considering he's only 8. Most people with an ASD tend to not enjoy social gatherings, and (especially at a young age) do not enjoy talking to others. Dylan on the other hand seems to enjoy playdates and conversations, especially with Charlie. He also does not seem socially "awkward" as many of those with AS or HFA do, especially at a young age like that. He seems to be perfectly capable of carrying on and initiating a mutually interesting conversation. Furthermore, he seems to have little to no aversion of Olivia touching him in the early episodes for medical treatment (aside from the little amount that would be expected for an 8-year-old). This also goes against what would be expected of an individual on the Autistic Spectrum. Also, I never noticed a lack of eye contact when Dylan is talking, whether to Olivia, Lloyd, or Charlie. And the fact that he addresses Olivia by name without (presumably) having seen her before seems uncharacterisc too. If he were in fact autistic, these social skills would be doubtful. So, either the writers are idiots who know nothing about autism, Asperger's, or HFA (unlikely) or he is not in fact an autistic individual, and this misdiagnosis (if Lloyd is even telling the truth about it; you heard what he said about how it ruined his marriage - maybe it's just an excuse) is intentional and will somehow figure into the plot.
On a slightly related subject, I personally think Lloyd Simcoe might in fact have Asperger's. He seems far more socially awkward than his son, and also when he spoke before the large crowd while admitting to the GBO, he seemed very uncomfortable. (Then again, most people would while taking responsibility for inadvertently causing the biggest disaster in human history). However, he also seems slightly awkward with Olivia, and the fact that in his Flash he left her while they were romantically sleeping with eachother to go answer Simon's text then call Mark means that either he is socially awkward (one of the key indications of AS) or Simon's text and/or Mark's call were incredibly urgent (and I doubt the latter couldn't have waited a few minutes, especially since he wasn't cracking the QED while sleeping with Olivia). So, I don't know, but it seems to me that Dylan is not autistic, and if anything, Lloyd may be slightly on the spectrum.
Keep in mind that, in the Flashforward world, everyone is suffering from various after-effects of the blackout. Dylan knew Olivia and Charlie through his flashforward. That might change the way he interacts with those two to something that's not typical of autistics. Also, he was supposedly with Charlie in his flashforward. Charlie, in her flashforward, saw something bad happen, from what I understand (I'm behind a few episodes), so Dylan is likely to have seen what she saw as well. If that's the case, that could also have an effect on his behaviors.
Seeing that Flashforward is a story based on an alternate reality, I think it's somewhat okay to take some creative liberties on how an autistic child would react to the transpiring events, and on the after-effects. That's why the genre is called science-fiction. ![]()
