The episode's teleplay was written by David S. Goyer and Brannon Braga, who also conceived of the television story, based upon the novel of the same name by Robert J. Sawyer.

As the episode closes, FBI Agent Janis Hawk makes a startling discovery: an image from CCTV in Detroit of a man in black, walking through the stadium while everyone around him is unconscious.

Olivia Benford (Sonya Walger) scrubs up at the hospital before surgery; Bryce Varley (Zachary Knighton) prepares to commit suicide by shooting himself at the beach; Aaron Stark (Brían F. O'Byrne) and Mark attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting; Nicole Kirby (Peyton List) sneaks a boy into the Benfords' house as she babysits their daughter Charlie (Lennon Wynn).

Upon awakening, Bryce finds himself alive and helps to save the lives of surfers lost at sea; Olivia's patient flatlines in theatre; Aaron wakes up injured on an electricity pole; Nicole and her boyfriend are in a naked and confused state.

Everyone slowly admits they experienced a 'vision' during the blackout: Mark was furiously working an FBI case and has resumed drinking alcohol; Olivia was with another man; Janis was 17 weeks pregnant.

At the hospital (in the present time), that same man from Olivia's vision walks into the ward where the 8-year-old boy resides and asks to speak to Dr Benford.

ABC Studios and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment discussed co-producing FlashForward, but Braga eventually pulled out of his "day-to-day" involvement with the project.

[11] Gabrielle Union was announced to be playing the part of Zoey on July 30, 2009,[12] and Seth MacFarlane on June 18, 2009, as FBI agent Jake Curdy.

[16] "Whatever the outcome, be it a solar flare, God punishing the world, or an angry Minnesota Twins fan, the interplay between fate and freewill fuels the drama more than the mystery itself.

If FlashForward can keep the momentum it set in its premiere episode, the show's apocalyptic tone and fate-bending intrigue should prove deeply fascinating".

[19] David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun, likewise, said, "It's smart, richly textured, complex and filled with suspense and intellectual challenge--in short, it has all the things network television is supposed to have abandoned in favor of cheap reality shows.

"[20] San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Tim Goodman said, "If you like big-screen-level thrills and complicated plot structures, you'll opt-in to FlashForward.

[18] Reviewer Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly said the premiere combined "sci-fi-ish conspiracy suspense with excellent prime-time-soap drama" giving it a B+.

Tom Shales from The Washington Post gave a mixed-to-positive review of the episode, saying, "The new series seems to share a perhaps fatal flaw of that now-canceled show [Pushing Daisies], which is that the premise becomes so byzantine and the complications so arcane that eventually people just give up on trying to make sense of the darn thing.

[24] In her review, Ellen Gray of the Philadelphia Daily News, was not pleased with the outcome, comparing it to the pilot episode of Lost and commenting that "No More Good Days" felt "more like deja vu, with characters who could've been rounded up from a disaster miniseries".