The Event - season 1 thread (1 Viewer)

[EricSchulz]

NBC is really pushing this...last night SyFy was rerunning eps and this morning they were on Bravo!

 

[Patrick Sun]

NBC really needs to find a new show that can draw in respectable ratings because most of their new shows this season haven't caught fire with the TV audience so far. I can understand why they are pushing "The Event" since it probably offers the most potential for a sustain sprawling storyline that rewards multi-season arcs.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Apparently President Martinez does have balls. Thank God the director of national intelligence isn't the president, though, because apparently there's no limit to the number of Americans he'd sacrifice to make a point. I'm not really sold on the vice president, either. Lots of interesting tidbits mixed in tonight, too, like how they sped up our nuclear development to hasten the arrival of the technology needed to take them home (wherever or whenever that is). Still the fastest hour on television.

 

[Josh Dial]

A few thoughts:


- After a few episodes, I had guessed that the alien/future-humans/whatever (the others?) need their subjects to be in motion before they can transport them. This is why they could move the plane, but why the prisoners stay put. They need to be travelling "fast." I'm not totally convinced, but that was a thought.


- The references such as "they are still using vacuum tubes" and "they are all going to die anyway" might be a reference to them being from the future, since everyone IS going to die eventually, or everyone is going to be killed in the event. However, the part about the Manhattan Project sort of dislodged this idea in my mind, since it would introduce some serious timeline issues (though these are never quite avoided in time-travel stuff anyway). Also, though I don't personally mind, I know time travel puts a lot of people off of a show, so a part of me thinks that The Event won't go there (at least not directly).


I agree that it's one of the fastest hours of TV right now--the pace is breakneck.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

If they're from the future and not aliens, the writers are sure doing their part to throw viewers off. They specifically refer to their ship. It isn't a far jump for the average viewer to "spaceship," which is usually associated with aliens. The crash landing scenes also lead the viewers to think a ship crashed, but they've specifically not shown us the "ship" even a few seconds before the crash. If we accept that their transportation technology requires things to be moving fast, they could have been in anything that was moving fast, and it crashed like it did when it appeared where it did.


It's also strange that in 66 years, Sophia would never once have told anyone where she's from. It's difficult to believe the President was about to free beings who wouldn't say where they're from or what they're doing here. I can't see even a President of the No-Balls party doing that. I know Sophia said she hadn't told the president the whole truth, but I think that was mostly about their abilities and the free faction.

 

[NeilO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt

Apparently President Martinez does have balls. Thank God the director of national intelligence isn't the president, though, because apparently there's no limit to the number of Americans he'd sacrifice to make a point. I'm not really sold on the vice president, either. Lots of interesting tidbits mixed in tonight, too, like how they sped up our nuclear development to hasten the arrival of the technology needed to take them home (wherever or whenever that is). Still the fastest hour on television.

I was telling myself that he had to present that logic to Thomas and I'm glad he did so.

I'm also glad that Sean did use the picture of the son to good effect. I was quite impressed with the whole episode.

The preview for next week was (deliberately) confusing and while we were able to call some of the events in this episode, I have no idea what comes next. I am looking forward to it.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Mikah Cerucco


It seems the going theory (read: most prevelant) is that they are both aliens AND from the future, in that they are humans who have evolved that 1% away from us over the years (centuries?) and travelled back to either stop the event, warn of the event, or something similar.


Regarding Sophia, my take is that President Martinez is the first POTUS to have knowledge of the Inostranka refugees, and before him, the intel was limited to a handful of CIA/military personel. Those folks likely used some "interesting methods" to get results from Sophia, so it's not totally unbelievable that she wouldn't have once mentioned where her people are from.


I do, however, agree it's a tad strange that the President was about to release them all, without knowing a darn thing about them.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Originally Posted by Josh Dial

I think what Mikah was suggesting is that they arrived in Alaska in 1944 using the same technology they used to teleport the plane. In that case, it wouldn't matter what vessel they used to travel, as long as it could go fast enough to trigger the teleporting (assuming there is a speed component at all). They could have arrived on a sailboat, for all we know, if that's true.

It seems the going theory (read: most prevelant) is that they are both aliens AND from the future, in that they are humans who have evolved that 1% away from us over the years (centuries?) and travelled back to either stop the event, warn of the event, or something similar.

Or cause the Event.

Regarding Sophia, my take is that President Martinez is the first POTUS to have knowledge of the Inostranka refugees, and before him, the intel was limited to a handful of CIA/military personel. Those folks likely used some "interesting methods" to get results from Sophia, so it's not totally unbelievable that she wouldn't have once mentioned where her people are from.

Other presidents were made away of Inostranka; we know this because of Sophia's line in the pilot that "presidents haven't helped us before." Presumably FDR approved the creation of the Inostranka facility in the last months of his administration, and presumably Truman oversaw the program's first years. Since the detention facility is run by the military, it's likely the Eisenhower would have known about it from his days as a five star general. After him? Probably a handful of presidents learned about the detainees, and more almost certainly did not. The ones who did learn about them clearly didn't do anything to improve their situation.

I do, however, agree it's a tad strange that the President was about to release them all, without knowing a darn thing about them.

My guess is that the president thought he had an understanding with Sophia, encouraged by ambiguous but leading statements from her which led him to reach conclusions that she did not directly contradict. When the plane plot forced the sleeper agents to reveal themselves, it undermined President Martinez's understanding of what he was dealing with.

 

[ScottH]

Originally Posted by NeilO

Quote:


I'm also glad that Sean did use the picture of the son to good effect

I didn't really get what he actually did use it for though. Who was he gonna send the photo to? And what exactly was the threat to Vicky (or whatever her name is)?

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by ScottH

I didn't really get what he actually did use it for though. Who was he gonna send the photo to? And what exactly was the threat to Vicky (or whatever her name is)?

I guess with his magic computer hacking abilities, he could post the picture and information on high profile websites and that hack would generate a story and then her bosses might find out about the kid still being alive. Other than doing that, I can't imagine how he could make a picture of some random little kid go 'viral'.


I'm more curious as to what kind of idiot the President has to be to let Sofia go. I know they're tracking her but he can't know that she isn't part of some giant diabolical plan with Thomas. And even if she isn't part of his plan, she's the last person that you'd let go because she's basically your best hostage against Thomas and his biological warfare.


I wonder what happened to all the people who used to endlessly and needlessly nitpick 24 and Lost to death. They'd have a field day with this show.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt
Other presidents were made away of Inostranka; we know this because of Sophia's line in the pilot that "presidents haven't helped us before." Presumably FDR approved the creation of the Inostranka facility in the last months of his administration, and presumably Truman oversaw the program's first years. Since the detention facility is run by the military, it's likely the Eisenhower would have known about it from his days as a five star general. After him? Probably a handful of presidents learned about the detainees, and more almost certainly did not. The ones who did learn about them clearly didn't do anything to improve their situation.

Ahh yes, well-spotted.


One thing I'll add is that perhaps that quote is even deeper than first appears; maybe *future* presidents didn't help her, either. That would actually be a clever little line if that was the case.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Originally Posted by Mikah Cerucco

Hmm. I may have to try to recap just to keep myself straight.


I didn't think being after Sean was a focal point of the plot to kill the president or free the visitors, just a focal point of the show. Here's what I think happened...


This faction wants to fly a plane into the president to kill him. They need a pilot to cooperate in doing so. In order to get the pilot to cooperate, they killed his wife, kidnapped his younger daughter, then kidnapped his older daughter. The whole Sean ocean rescue and becoming friends, etc. was all just to keep tabs on the older daughter and then eventually kidnap her. Overkill? Probably, but that's what I think occurred. The loose end was the boyfriend. It looked like in their plot, they tried to make it appear that he was never on the cruise with the girlfriend, which is incredibly convoluted. It'd be much easier to just kill him (which we know they're capable of doing).


Anyway, I think they were going to kill him, but he ran off and somehow figured out why the kidnapping occurred (I can't remember if they showed this -- it's possible they did and I've forgotten). Then he boarded the plane and tried to stop the captain from doing the Presidential kill run, promising they could figure out another way to retrieve the girls. Before the plane could crash into the President, it went through a "man"made wormhole from Miami to Arizona. Sean escapes from the plane when the free faction of visitors does what they do to all the people on the plane, and he's been running since.


The only thing anyone wants from Sean is to silence him because he knows too much about what's going on, and he's spreading the information too far. He's a loose end. He's Marc Donovan (Marc Singer) from "V" -- the guy fighting against them when nobody else even suspects there's anything to fight.

I agree about Sean. While he may be becoming more, he started out as a simple loose end.


The mystery to me is who is the faction that took over the plane and is trying to capture Sean? Ultimately their goal was to prevent the release of the visitors which were about to be released.

 

[Will_B]

Originally Posted by ScottH


I didn't really get what he actually did use it for though. Who was he gonna send the photo to? And what exactly was the threat to Vicky (or whatever her name is)?

He had only a vague idea that she didn't want it known that she had a son, and hoped that the reason she kept him hidden wasn't just to increase her ability to date. More realistically, he'd have claimed he had the kid in the back of the SUV and would kill him if she did not comply -- but the writers probably are asked to keep things mild when they can. So they went with the vague notion that it would be somehow bad for knowledge of her son to be out in the open.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Originally Posted by TravisR

He had only a vague idea that she didn't want it known that she had a son, and hoped that the reason she kept him hidden wasn't just to increase her ability to date. More realistically, he'd have claimed he had the kid in the back of the SUV and would kill him if she did not comply -- but the writers probably are asked to keep things mild when they can. So they went with the vague notion that it would be somehow bad for knowledge of her son to be out in the open.

He read the situation and made a judgment call. He's seen this organization be absolutely ruthless, and he'd seen the steps she'd taken to shield the boy's existence from the world. It's not a huge leap to put two and two together. Not threatening the boy's life was also a judgment call. In order to win Vikki over, he had to appeal to her humanity. He had to be better than she was to him, which is why he framed it as a choice rather than an order. I think Vikki had to know that Sean didn't want to hurt her "son" in order to turn on her own people like that.


As for sending the picture viral, that's easier than you'd think. The sleeper visitors, the US federal government and this shadow organization are all trying to find Sean Walker. All he'd have to do is post the photo on his Facebook wall and mention that it's Vikki's son, and the boy'd be as good as dead.

 

[Will_B]

LOS ANGELES — NBC is giving three freshmen series, including "The Event," a full-season pickup.

 

[Stan]

Missed the first two episodes so am just really starting to get into this. Thanks to Micah for the recap above.


One question I have is Thomas. He seems to be everywhere. Is he using some sort of personal wormhole to move around?


Are we seeing flashbacks or are they're moving through time, especially back to 1945, pre Hiroshima/Nagasaki.


What is this prison Sofia and others are in. Seems almost like Star Trek II where Khan and others are exiled, but possibly to the wrong place? Do they have food/medical supplies, are they completely on their own?

 

[Will_B]

They aren't time traveling at the moment, they simply age at a fraction of the pace that typical humans do. Some of the characters such as Simon (the CIA agent) and Sophia seem able to zip up to the Inostranka prison (in Alaska) and back down without travel time being a factor, but it is unclear how.


About Thomas, here's what The Event website says about him:

http://www.nbc.com/the-event/about/thomas/

• LAST NAME: [redacted]
• FIRST NAME: Thomas
• OCCUPATION: [redacted]
• HOMETOWN: Washington, DC

Thomas has acted as Sophia’s right hand outside the Inostranka facility for 66 years. With Simon’s help, Thomas successfully avoided detection and led a group of unharmed survivors away from the 1944 Mount Inostranka crash site, while Sophia remained behind with those who were injured. Thomas worked in conjunction with Simon [redacted]


Sophia put Thomas in charge of finding a way home for his people. Aware such a thing would be impossible with the technology available at the time, Thomas managed to get hired on [redacted] technology -- the technology needed to get his people home.


Since 1944, Thomas has managed to discretely insert himself into society, affecting its future in subtle ways that have helped him. He has also [redacted] His wealth comes from [redacted]


Thomas is smart, impulsive and impatient. He will stop at nothing to achieve what he wants and shows complete disregard for human life. Over the decades, he has grown tired of diplomacy and of Sophia’s leadership.


He enjoys the classic music and style of the 1950’s. His priceless music collection includes prized items such as records from singers such as Perry Como and Maria Lanza. Thomas loves to live in luxury, fanning his closet with the best clothing and his apartment with luxurious furniture.

 

[Will_B]

Well that was a nice episode. It fleshed out a character, and changed up his life enough to ensure change. Liked it.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The evidence that this episode provided for identifying a sleeper -- advanced math skills, no family history to speak of -- reminded me of Sean Walker. We still don't know how he knew to get on the plane, and we've never seen a flashback to before he met Leila. I'm not convinced that he's one of them, but I'm not convinced he is either.


The flashbacks for Blake Sterling really fleshed out why he's an emotional black hole. His life was taken from him because he got sloppy and sentimental, and he's never going to let that happen again. In the mean time, poor Murphy.


My theory for the abductors is that the character played by Hal Holbrook -- Deep Throat himself -- is a very wealthy man hoping to exploit the visitors' DNA to create a fountain of youth for himself and perhaps humanity as a whole. The experiments with the young girls have something to do with that. Why they need a specific set of girls roughly seven years of age is a mystery, though. You'd think if they were trying to use it on an old man, they'd use old men as guinea pigs.

 

[NeilO]

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt
In the mean time, poor Murphy.
My theory for the abductors is that the character played by Hal Holbrook -- Deep Throat himself -- is a very wealthy man hoping to exploit the visitors' DNA to create a fountain of youth for himself and perhaps humanity as a whole.

Murphy seems a poor choice to frame, but I guess it depends on how Lee explains how he got into the trunk. You'd think he should be able to get another blood test or something. Were there any cameras where the blood was stored for Lee's test?
That sounds like an interesting theory for abductors. The preview promises some answers next time and I'm looking forward to that. I wonder if we'll see more of the FBI lady?