As an avid admirer of the noir genre, I was truly honored to have received approval for this Press Room on Thursday July 25, 2024 with interviews included below for your enjoyment. Noir fiction, widely regarded as a sub-genre in the realm of film, holds an exceptional place in my heart.
I am currently engrossed in crafting a screenplay that draws inspiration from its compelling essence. The round table interviews provided an unforgettable glimpse into the captivating world of True Noir, and I am eagerly looking forward to sharing more about this enriching experience with all of you.
Thanks to its innovative approach, the True Noir project is a standout in its field. Unlike conventional weekly shows, producers Robert Meyer Burnett and Mike Bawden are crafting an audio experience for their audience. What’s even more intriguing is that this project is part of a Kickstarter Campaign, allowing fans to contribute and become part of the series.
Fans can anticipate immersing themselves in a ten-episode drama adapted from the acclaimed novels of Max Allan Collins, featuring the ‘The Nathan Heller Casebooks’ series, including the highly anticipated nineteenth and twentieth installments.
Don McManus emphasized the creative freedom that comes with voice-over work. According to him, voice-over allows actors to embody any character without the constraints of physical appearance or preconceived expectations. This form of acting liberates performers from the usual pressures of being in front of a camera, opening up a world of limitless possibilities. The listener has the opportunity to engage their imagination, allowing them to vividly visualize the story and immerse themselves in the characters’ lives, experiencing their adventures along the way.
Image by Lori of WormholeRiders #TeamWHR
I am delighted to see a resurgence in this unique form of storytelling. Before the era of television, there were captivating radio dramas, brimming with mystery and camp, akin to the narratives found in the pulp novels of yesteryear. This type of entertainment had the remarkable ability to captivate listeners, evoking empathy and feelings of antipathy towards the characters they encountered. The resurgence of this art form is a testament to its enduring appeal and appreciation for its unique storytelling techniques, which the True Noir project is set to revive.
During a conversation, Lombardi pointed out that the experience of doing voice-over work at that time was unlike usual. While you were alone in the booth, the other actors were remotely visible on a screen. This setup meant that interactions between actors differed from typical, but it also allowed for a sense of freedom. Additionally, seeing how the other actors delivered their lines benefited the overall process.
Image by Lori of WormholeRiders #TeamWHR
Bill Smirtovich, a brilliant character actor, shared fascinating insights into his early days on the stage with Arthur Miller, illustrating how this experience shaped his ability to bring characters to life across various mediums. What sets this series apart is the intriguing blend of fictional and real characters, with the detective Nathan Heller being the sole creation of the author. Additionally, Collins’s meticulous research brings authenticity to the characters and the real crimes that form the backdrop of his novels, showcasing his masterful storytelling. The evocative original score by Alexander Bornstein effectively transports viewers back to the noir era. The music plays an integral role in the genre, almost like a character, adding depth and emotion to the storytelling.
Image by Lori of WormholeRiders #TeamWHR
Louis Lombardi was a captivating speaker because of his profound appreciation for Cagney. He eloquently delved into the reasons behind Cagney’s excellence, highlighting the complexity of his characters and the valuable lessons he imparted to his fans about toughness. He expressed an optimistic sentiment, hoping that revisiting this medium would provide listeners with a focused and immersive experience, allowing them to engage with the words and characters presented thoroughly.
I hope to see an increase in the number of studios adopting this storytelling style. I also wish that studios revive noir as a prominent genre in the entertainment industry. It’s pretty challenging to come across high-quality noir books or movies. I am optimistic that this rejuvenated storytelling approach will open up new opportunities for actors to showcase their talents uniquely and compellingly. The presentation of this particular form of entertainment provides an opportunity for writers and composers to gain increased visibility. By introducing audiences to fresh content from various artists, the producers aim to create opportunities for talented writers and composers to expand their fanbase and access exciting new projects. The magic of Comic-Con lies in its ability to not only unveil the latest and most thrilling upcoming movies but also to pay homage to the timeless classics of the past. Additionally, the convention offers a platform for genres like noir, which aren’t typically highlighted at such events, introducing them to a fresh audience and potentially revitalizing interest in the genre.
Image courtesy Imagination Connoisseurs Unlimited
Imagination Connoisseurs Unlimited (ICU) is the innovative company behind this exceptional material. ICU’s mission is to transform genre entertainment by prioritizing the involvement of fans and creators. The description of the ICU’s intentions fills me with hope that major Hollywood studios will consider developing their renditions of this type of entertainment. It would be remarkable to witness an influx of noir or science fiction narratives akin to the style of Orson Welles with The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama).
Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the panel for the exciting new series, but fans can eagerly anticipate a 10-episode, six ½-hour serialized audio drama. I am eagerly looking forward to the release of this series in September 2024. For anyone passionate about this form of entertainment, I strongly urge you to consider contributing to the Kickstarter fund, just as I have. Presenting this series at a panel at Comic-Con has significantly boosted their pledges, and they have now surpassed one-third of their funding target.
Image by Lori of WormholeRiders #TeamWHR
I was privileged to attend a press event organized by Amy Prenner From The Prenner Group and Gary Miereanu was a fantastic opportunity to talk with the talented actors about their experiences working on this new project. Additionally, I extend my best wishes to the producers, hoping their hard work pays off and this project becomes a huge success, providing us with years of enjoyable entertainment.
I’m excited to share this article about an intriguing new project. Be sure to tune in and immerse yourself in the captivating world of True Noir. You won’t want to miss what’s in store for you!
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It is that time of the year again, and TeamWHR is gearing up for a fantastic event. The aftermath of the writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023 left a noticeable void at Comic-Con. Unless you were a gamer or an anime fan, the offerings at the 2023 Comic Con were limited. However, more panels featured comic book artists discussing upcoming issues in the following years. With those strikes now resolved, the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con is set to include a wide array of talent from writers, producers, actors, and everyone involved in creating series and movies. Last year’s convention was particularly challenging for someone like me, who has been attending with a press badge since 2012. Unfortunately, many scheduled interviews were canceled last year due to the absence of actors. I hope to make up for lost opportunities with a bounty of interviews this year..
The San Diego Comic-Con 2024 schedule, a highly anticipated event, has been released over the past few days and is now available on their website. It is a thrilling moment for fans as Marvel Studios and other beloved franchises make a long-awaited return to Comic-Con panel on Saturday July 27th featuring Kevin Feige, rekindling the excitement dampened by the pandemic and subsequent content shortage. This absence left many fans disheartened and frustrated, but with the return to normalcy, attendees eagerly anticipate the unveiling of new adventures in February 2025 with Captain America Brave New World and series from many other entertainment powerhouses.
On the evening of Wednesday, July 24th, attendees can experience the excitement of Preview Night, a unique opportunity to explore the convention floor before the main event. This is the perfect occasion for fans and collectors to get their hands on exclusive items before they are gone, ensuring they beat the rush of eager attendees flocking to those sought-after booths. We include a fun Preview Night “walk tour” video from last year to provide a feeling of the coming event.
One panel that I am particularly looking forward to is FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows” in Hall H. It is unusual to see it scheduled on a Thursday, as it is traditionally held on Sundays with the rest of the FX shows. It turns out that there are no FX shows featured on Sunday this year so Hall H will be dark that day. However, there is a bittersweet aspect to this year’s event as it marks the final season for Shadows, making this the last panel for the beloved show.
Similar to previous events, there is a significant amount of scheduling overlap among panels, which is quite common. When navigating your itinerary, it is essential to be careful and allocate ample time for reaching panel rooms, especially since the smaller ones tend to reach capacity quickly, leading to long queues.
I am particularly excited about a few panels happening on Thursday. One of them is the new Peacock TV series “Those About to Die” starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Iwan Rheon from “Game of Thrones“. It is about ancient Rome and its gladiatorial games, a topic that has always fascinated me. With the sequel to “Gladiator” coming out this year, it should be a great companion to this series.
I am also looking forward to The Groundlings panel. The Groundlings is a legendary sketch comedy troupe that has launched the careers of some of the most iconic and successful comedians of our time. Another panel that I am looking forward to is by Jonathan Frakes from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” will be there to talk about “Venus Prime,” an adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s famed book series of six short stories. Frakes will be directing the series and producing it as one of the an seriesd executives. Additionally, there is the panel for the audio drama “The Assassination of Anton Cermak: True Noir.” I am a huge noir fan, so this immediately caught my eye. The cast includes Anthony LaPaglia from “Without A Trace“, Bill Smitrovich from “Air Force One“, Don McManus from “Vice“, and Louis Lombardi from “The Sopranos“. They also promise “a few surprise guests.” This panel is scheduled in Room 6A from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm on Thursday, July 25th.
Image courtesy Amazon MGM Studios
Friday’s events begin with Amazon MGM Studios series “The Boys” in Hall H, followed by “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” Fridays and Saturdays are the busiest, as studios display their most anticipated shows, much to the fans’ delight. Hall H and Ballroom 20 are where you will find the top-rated and most popular shows. If you want to attend any panels in Hall H, you must line up incredibly early. I have heard that wristbands are required to enter Hall H for the big panels, although I am not exactly sure how it works, as I am press and have a different entrance than regular attendees.
The final panel for “Snowpiercer” will take place in Ballroom 20. Considering its popularity, I do not doubt it will draw a large and enthusiastic crowd.
On Friday, the much-anticipated “Alien: Romulus” panel will occur at Comic-Con. We may get a sneak peek at some behind-the-scenes footage or a brand-new trailer in addition to the cast and creators. That is the beautiful thing about Comic-Con – fans get to see trailers and extras before the rest of the world does.
I anticipate most of my Saturday at the upcoming event will be spent in Hall H, where a lineup of exciting panels is set to take place. I look forward to the “BRZRKR: The Immortal Saga Continues” comic book series panel featuring Keanu Reeves. This will be followed by panels for “Star Trek Universe“, Max’s “The Penguin” with Colin Farrell, and Marvel, making Saturday’s Hall H schedule compelling. It has been a while since I have spent so much time in Hall H, and while there are other panels of interest, the ones I am most excited about are all in Hall H.
With the Marvel Studios panel’s return, I suspect we will witness a panel for “The Fantastic Four” and, hopefully, a panel or something for “Venom: The Last Dance“. I look forward to seeing what else Marvel Studios will unveil, including potential upcoming projects for release in the coming years. This prospect is exciting, as we have not seen much news from Marvel at Comic-Con in recent years. Additionally, we may get updates on “Deadpool & Wolverine“, considering a movie screening is scheduled for Comic-Con on July 26th. The highly anticipated Hall H on Thursday still has a TBA slot, sparking speculation about what surprise could be in store. We may not receive any announcement until right before the convention or on the day. This aligns with Comic-Con’s knack for delivering thrilling, last-minute surprises for fans, which are always awe-inspiring.
I plan to attend just two panels on Sunday, usually the slowest day for panels. One is “Godzilla: Minus One” in Room 25 ABC with the film now showing on Netflix, and the other is “Jellystone” in Room 6DE.
Surprisingly, Sunday’s lineup is almost nonexistent, with nothing scheduled in Hall H, Ballroom 20, or the Indigo Ballroom at The Hilton Bayfront. Last year’s strikes appear to have influenced the scheduling of Comic-Con this year. While some exciting panels are planned, quite a few still need to be included.
Even though we will not see panels from other significant shows or Disney content, exploring the smaller panels is always enjoyable. If you find some free time (which might be rare), you can explore the offsite events behind the convention center. The Gaslamp Quarter will also host themed restaurants throughout Comic-Con. Additionally, Petco Park will feature several offsite events and food trucks to keep hunger at bay. Off-sites offer a fantastic opportunity to engage in the exciting activities and events of Comic-Con without needing a badge. However, it is essential to note that off-sites often have long lines, so it is best to be prepared for potential wait times. Tickets are required to attend certain offsite events. You can visit the Comic-Con website for more information on which events require tickets.
Image by Kenn of WormholeRiders TeamWHR
As I step onto the convention floor, I am surrounded by a dazzling array of booths offering various goods to purchase. While the big, popular booths are constantly enticing with their giveaways and freebies, I highly recommend strolling down Artist’s Alley. Here, you will discover a treasure trove of unique and captivating artwork, each piece a testament to the talent and creativity of the artists. Many of these artists depend on conventions like this to highlight their work, making it incredibly meaningful to support them. Social media plays a crucial role for exhibitors and panelists, so feel free to share your unique experiences at San Diego Comic-Con across all your platforms, but remember to avoid leaking any sensitive information.
This is my summary of what we can expect at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. We will encounter some surprises in the next ten days leading up to the convention. Before I sign off, here are a few final tips: wear comfortable shoes, bring snacks, stay hydrated, and most importantly, have fun!
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When Dempsey saw Sean was worthy of being one of them, he turned over the tools he had, told them what was going on with the Aliens and committed suicide. Sean and Vicky went on an international scale to fight the “Others” in releasing a biological weapon to kill humanity and make room for their people to come to Earth, escaping a Supernova.
Sophia had three main points of initiating the virus among the world’s population. A food processing plant would get to six states and infect the eastern seaboard, the Government engraving plant where all currency is printed would spread it on a national level and the international terminal at Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. would make the disease go global. Soon, the disease would be worldwide and in five weeks the human population would be dead.
President Elias Martinez (Blair Underwood) was saved by a counter-agent which Simon Lee was able to smuggle within a bouquet of flowers which Christina Martinez (Lisa Vidal) picked up for the President in the hospitals’ florist’s shop. Christina got the medication to Elias and he was recovering from the strokes he had had in the last episode. Blake and Simon were know in Sean and Vicky, they got information from Dr. Liu’s laptop and were trying to find a way to stop the plans to release the virus. Sean found Leila Buchanan (Sarah Roemer) in the medical sector of the alien’s Evacuation Center, we left them there as Leila, behind a protective plastic wall was talking with Sean.
Sophia was talking with Gerard on the final preparations at the site of the Portal array in Tibet. With everything ‘All Set and Ready”, she ordered the activation of the Portal. The effects of the activation reminded me of a ‘Wormhole’ being created.
“ARRIVAL”
“Leila?… Leila?” Sean’s distant voice is calling softly to Leila through the plastic. “Sterling’s called a specialist at the CDC…Under the radar… they said they’ll be here any minute. OK?” Sean tries to keep her awake. Leila tells him they have to stop Sophia. She tells him that it is too late for her. Sean points out that Simon told them his people are immune to it. She has their DNA so he remains more optimistic than she is right now. As Leila tells Sean to find Samantha (Her little sister as remembered in past episodes) and make sure she is okay, she starts to fade off as the CDC and some others come in to take her to a facility where she will be cared for.
Now, Sterling, Simon and Vicky are looking over the laptop and finds the graphics of the planned spread of the Bio-weapon. Using a reverse time line, they will know when the attack will take place. They find the locations and details about the specialized aerosol containers. Blake tells them “That means they’re either on their way, or already in place!” Cue Exit by the three to find Sean and get a move on.
Sophia and Carlos, in an SUV are traveling through the city and Carlos is appraising Sophia of what is happening with their plans. Sophia tells him; “All right. …Pull over here.” Carlos asks “Is there a problem?” to which Sophia replies “It’ll be safer when we’re stopped” Carlos pulls over and they both get out. Just as Carlos asked “Sophia, what are we doing here?” a rather large earthquake happens.
Cars veer, collide, people screaming or yelling etc. After this dies off, Carlos asked “How did you know?” Sophia replies “Gerard. He says the portal would impact the Earth’s procession. We’d feel the effects along the thirty eighth parallel as the time grew near. The Portal is creating a door in the fabric of space and we just cracked it open.”
Carlos seems to sense her unease “Sophia, I know you have mixed feeling about what we’re doing to the native population… Think of the alternative!” Sophia tells Carlos “Our people will be arriving soon.” Sighing, she finishes “I don’t have time for self-doubt. We have to get this done!”. Music plays as we see a shot overlooking the Earth and the blue cloud out past the stratosphere growing in size.
We are now hearing a newscaster saying a “Small Earthquake measuring four point six on the Richter scale was felt along the East coast today. There have been no reports of any injuries or deaths…” OKAY! I live in Southern California and know Earthquakes quite well. They have awakened me a number of times like an arrogant lover in the early morning hours. The effect scene of the earthquake making cars move and veer and so on, made ME think more of a magnitude six point five up to an eight perhaps, at the actual epicenter. I have easily slept through a three or lower four, without difficulty.
Martinez is on the phone to Blake They discuss what Sophia’s plans are. Martinez tells him Jarvis is fighting his reinstatement as President and Martinez is demanding a vote by the cabinet, but until that happens, Martinez cannot issue any orders. When they both find time is not on their side, Martinez says that they can launch contained operations at the food center and the bureau of Engraving, but shutting down an airport is another matter. Blake comes back into where Vicky, Sean and Simon are readying for their part. They discuss how to stop the airport becoming the ‘Ground Zero’ of the bio-weapon.
Martinez comes to see Jarvis in the office as everything is being made ready for the cabinet. Martinez tries to reason with Jarvis and tells him what Sophia is planning. Jarvis will not believe him and instead, accuses Martinez of trying to make him look inept in front of the cabinet. Martinez feels defeated as Jarvis dismisses him and goes in to his office, immediately calling Sophia. Jarvis tells her what just happened with Martinez, and of course Sophia tells him that the plans are not true.
She strokes his ego by telling him “Tomorrow, there will be a New World Order, with your guiding hand. You only need to hang on, for one more day. Do you understand?” She asks and he says yes. She continues “We must not let anyone get in our way. Can you do that?” again, Jarvis says yes. Sophia nails it with “I chose you! Because of your strength, your power…use it!”. She uses that soft ‘little girl’ type voice and Jarvis totally buys it. As they hang up, Sophia tells Carlos as he drives; “We may have a problem. They know… Somehow, they know.”
In a hangar at Dulles, Sophia enters and her operative takes the two bags she is carrying to get them through security. He gives them a card to get them through and she can pick up her bags once inside the terminal. Sophia tells the operative that they can not wait. That now their plan is known. She tells them they must release the virus immediately. We see the operative walking off with the bags.
A newscaster is out on location by Mount Shasta. reporting that volcanic experts are stumped by the finding of new lava flows from this once thought to be dormant volcano. We see smoke and steam rising from the summit off in a distance behind her. She is saying there is no official notice of any evacuations as yet. The TV screen retreats back to let us see we are in the White House, and Christina is preparing Elias’ medications as he enters with Peel.
They discuss Blake and Simon being on the way, and two civilians, whom we know are Sean and Vicky even think the chances of success is small. Christina brings the medications to Elias trying once again to talk him out of going for reinstatement. “It looks worse than it is” he tells her. Christina admonishes him and reminds him of what the doctors said. “You could… You could die…” she says painfully.
In the Food Processing plant we see a canister of the bio-weapon being prepared and also coming up the corridor are Military personnel. A tactical unit to stop the virus being released. Shouts of “Freeze!” and a short burst of gunfire results in Sophia’s operative falling-presumably dead- onto cases of produce.
Next, we see two operatives in the Bureau of Engraving talking about getting the set up done and accessing the control room to switch over to the infected canisters. Right at that time, the tactical squad comes in and lays those two to rest as well. Devon, one of Sophia’s people gets away for a time.
Then, we are at the International terminal at Dulles as Sean, Blake, Simon and Vicky come speeding into the parking lot. After a short debrief, they split up. Sean and Vicky into the Terminal to find Sophia, Blake and Simon to the secured off-limits are to search for the toxin. As the Operative at the terminal chats to another TSA agent the (human) agent says “Confiscate anything interesting? …Whoa…” he laughs as he pulls out some ‘sexy’ handcuffs. “Mind if I keep these? Me and the wife like to keeps things invigorating”.
The other, posing as a TSA man said “OOOOH, To Much Information, you know what? Just keep ’em!” and continues with the cart – and the canisters- onto an elevator. Sophia got caught for a ‘random check at the search area. She gets wanded and released.The iPhone rings as she is finishing at TSA, and it is Devon. He is on the phone to Sophia telling her they have been caught it is up to her now. As we see the Tactical team yell “Freeze” and of course Devon moves, Sophia and we all hear short gunfire as Devon is taken out.
Now, at the Capital, the cabinet has convened for the possibility of reinstating Elias Martinez back into the Presidency. As Martinez enters the room, all stand and applaud for him. As he enters he look dazed and passes out.
Back at Dulles Blake and Simon try to ask a TSA agent about anyone also with TSA credentials passing him. They had to pull a gun to get him to say “Yeah, Delgado just came by with a cart full of stuff.” Off they went to find this ‘Delgado’ agent. Sophia and Carlos come into the security area and use the card to gain access to the off-limits area. Blake and Simon do get to ‘Delgado’ and gunfire erupts. Simon Lee gets hit and Delgado runs off. Blake gets over to Simon, who is okay as he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
Meanwhile Sean and Vicky slam their way into a secured zone behind someone else who was going in. Delgado and Sophia do meet up and she retrieves the canisters from him. As Sophia issues final orders Sean and Vicky see them all and again, more gunfire. Delgado is hit. Gun play between Carlos, Sean and Vicky ensues as Sophia gets away. Sean goes after her. Just as it looks like Carlos will release the virus from his canister, he is shot from behind… by Blake Sterling.
The Cabinet is reconvening now, as it seems Martinez is not present, Madame Speaker is about to withdraw his petition. Just as she is saying this, Martinez comes in to the room, …Again, to applause… “Madame Speaker”, he says…”Let’s begin”. Sean is, at this same time in Dulles chasing down Sophia.
We come back to the Cabinet meeting as Jarvis addresses them and shows dossiers about Elias Martinez’s medical condition. Jarvis reminds them how Martinez needs ‘Months’ of rehabilitation, how he was in a vegetative state and that even though Martinez wants to do “…the right thing for his country, but according to the medical evidence, to take office now would not be in the best interest of anyone…especially not himself.” Martinez looks at all in the room, and tells them he has to come back to save everyone from a tragedy of major proportion. He then makes the large accusation about Jarvis. Jarvis finally burst out “He’s LYING!!” on which Martinez brings out a small recorder and plays it for them all.
We hear Jarvis and Martinez from earlier about the poison, about Sophia and so on. “Amid Jarvis’ claims of this being a set-up, Martinez says “Madame Speaker, we must take a vote… NOW!” We then see them all leaving and Martinez… Excuse me, PRESIDENT Martinez is ordering the Dulles Airport to be locked down, and Blake Sterling and General Ambruster are to be reinstated. Peel asked “What about Jarvis?” President Martinez looks at him and say “Who?” –I’m thinking “BURN!! Yeah! Get ’em Elias!”
We are back in Dulles Airport and I can see Sophia’s fire-red hair glinting in the crowds as she is making her way to a place appropriate to release the virus. If I can see that hair, we know Sean does too. the chase is on.
Ironically, or perhaps deliberately, Sophia holes up in a lounge belonging to Avias Air. As we recall, this was the carrier of the original airplane that traveled the wormhole and crashed in episodes one and two. As she is in there, Sean comes to the door and is calling to her, trying to break the door down. Vicky sees the boards all over announcing the lock down of all flights and the airport itself being shut down.
Sean is at the lounge door talking through it to Sophia. He tells her what has happened to her other locations and this is now of no use. He asks her “Do these people deserve to die?” Sophia replies with her voice breaking “Did my people deserve to die? On those buses, did my SON deserve to die?”
Sean replies “No.” Sophia repeats “No” and starts to connect the virus canister to what appears to be a timer. “You don’t want this!” cries Sean through the door… “You don’t know me” Sophia mutters. Vicky is with Sean outside in the terminal and is looking around at the chaos. Sean continues, reminding Sophia she was not always like this.
When they had met before, she had said her people came here in peace. It ends there with Sean saying he knew about the Nova, about Sophia being forced to do things to try to save her people. There has been too much pain. But there does not have to be any more pain…. “No one else needs to get hurt” he says. Sophia finally disarms the devise and comes up to handcuffs and arrest.
At the CDC, Leila is laying in her bed, in the bio-hazard sector and the specialist who came for her at the Evacuation center and Dr. Lius’ section earlier comes to talk to her. “You should know the spread of the virus has been stopped. At least in part because of someone you know… Sean Walker” Relief from Leila when told he is okay. “There’s something else, Leila.” The specialist continues “Something we found in your labs.”
Okay, Hold up. I can hear it without it being said… Leila is Pregnant. We should realize the show’s timeline in it’s reality has only been about two months. I know she is not even ‘Showing’ yet. But I cannot help thinking Dr. Liu dropped the ball on THIS! Blood work shows pregnancy at six weeks if not before.
Back at Dulles, there are screening canopies up outside as the Hazard team is in containing the virus left in the Avias Air lounge. Simon and Sean are out there sitting down and talking. Simon tells Sean “Look, this isn’t over yet. I don’t know how, but Sophia’s still bringing our people here… Sean, what you need to know is; Our people were here before. We were here first.” Sean looking a bit confused replies “I don’t…I don’t understand..”… Simon continued “This place was our home before it was yours.”
Sean asked “Why did you…Leave?” Simon replied “Because my people believe that if we stay here, something will happen…to all of us. We call it The Event. It’s a rebirth. The next step for our people, will change… Evolve into something else. Something greater. But your people won’t survive it.” “Why not? What’s going to happen?” asks Sean. Simon looks at Sean and seems lost for words. Blake comes to tell Simon their transport is here. “Simon, Simon! Sean beseeches. Simon for an answer. Simon only tells him all the “…answers are in that scroll. About where we come from, and about how this all ends.”
At the White House, Blake and Simon enter to see President Martinez. Simon is thanked for his role in saving Martinez’s life. They start to speak about Sophia’s plan of bringing her people here and how many of them. That rumors have the Portal array being somewhere in Asia, but a precise location is not known. Blake speculates along with the other when Agent Peel comes in with the hourly logs from every department and he sees the time that Jarvis ordered to redirect a satellite from its’ view of Tibet.
Next we observe that they are in the ‘War Room’ And viewing the streaming data from that satellite. An area between the Indian Sub-Continent and the Tibetan plateau. A communication cites unusual electromagnetic activity and the image hones in on the location. Watching the videos, they see it. The Portal Array. Simon tells them the electromagnetic readings they are getting means it has been activated. “What does that mean?” asked Agent Peel. Martinez looks at them as he says “It means they’re coming”.
In the serene scene of space, above the Earth and off to the distant side, the Moon, we see the bright, blue haze growing larger and larger. We are pulled into the ‘wormhole’ and are almost in a sea of vibrant blue plasma-like surroundings. We are back in the ‘War Room’ as communications are going on about this Portal. Someone gets up to hear the news from all over the world. Tremors are happening on devastating scale. Peel walks in on a phone. Hanging up, he tells them “Sophia’s a few minutes away.”
Back in a lobby at the CDC, Vicky comes in with a coffee and offers Sean some. Sean declines the offer and tells her “I really appreciate you waiting with me but you don’t have..” Just as the specialist walks in “Mr. Walker, you’ve been clear to see Leila in the observation area. I’ll take you there.” As Sean starts to follow her, Vicky calls him back for a minute: “I didn’t join this fight willingly, I know that. But, you forcing me to is the reason my family’s safe. And, because of you, I’m no longer ashamed to face them”
She whispers “Thank you.” An embrace happens and Sean goes off with the specialist. We reach the observation area and Sean sees Leila and they talk a bit. He still thinks they may still help Leila. Leila tells Sean that she is pregnant. Of course he is actually overjoyed. “You’re BOTH going to be OK!”
Back at the White House, Sophia is brought in to Martinez’s office. Elias tells Sophia “We’ve identified the Portal array in Tibet. We know it’s bringing your people here.” Simon interjects “I’ve told them…everything I know about the Portal.” President Martinez asks “How do we stop it, Sophia? How do we shut it down?” “You can’t” Sophia replies. “Do you have a pre-determined landing site?” Martinez asked. “You know I won’t answer that.” replies Sophia.
“Sophia, it’s over! You know you’ve lost. We stopped you.” Sophia, looks down for a minute saying “You might find this hard to believe, but the truth is I ordered the spread of the virus as an act of mercy. We will still need to make room for our people here on Earth or another way only now, the choice left open to us will be…far from humane” Elias stared at her demanding “what the Hell’s that supposed to mean?” Sophia softly says “I’m sorry, Mr. President” “Sorry about what?” Asked Martinez Sophia, smiling says “It’s too late.” as an earthquake begins.
We are traveling up into the blue plasma-like wormhole and the noise seems to be indicating great speed. As the sound effects play, we then see scenes of streets filled with people panicking and looking up. Vicky stops her car and stands out in the street, also looking up.
Sean and Lila in the CDC Feel the quake and get up to look out the window at a bright light. Martinez and all in the office come out to the balcony and are looking up at the spectacle. Even Simon, who is one of “Them” seems incredulous at what he is seeing.
Out on the White House lawn, Christina takes her son in her arms and holds him from the wind storm and noise.
We then see it, an ENTIRE PLANET has appeared, scorched and floating in the plasma.
— OK, Stanton Friedman (Nuclear Physicist) I am not, but parking a planet between Earth and the moon would mean instant devastation of Earth. Even within the Roche limit which this appears to be, the larger body would take from the smaller body…The larger body’s gravity would totally skew Earth’s Gravity! We see some nice scenes of our cities showing the new arrival and earth in space, with this new planet here.
Over in the White House lawn, Christina and her son holding each other as Christina looks up to see the planet. We see parts of it appear to be burning, most likely from the effects of their Supernova. Her little boy asks “What is it?” Christina still looking amazed and stunned answers;
“Home!”
My Take…For what it is worth:
I doubt many people saw THAT coming. Laws of Physics aside, this is a Science FICTION. If it says so in the script, it will be played. But then I wonder why Sophia seemed so anxious to control the virus after a sufficient amount of humanity had been killed off by this.
Why was it always implied that they were going to ‘Move here’ from their world far off in the Sculptor Galaxy? It seemed that Sophia was always looking at ‘After” the native population was winnowed. Why the heck bother? At first, when I saw it was an actual PLANET being brought here, I thought they would plop it down outside our solar system and arrange transport on craft or with smaller portals to bring their people to this world’s surface. Of course, if another network picks up the series that could still happen, by defying the laws of conventional physics.
Then again, we are dealing with Alien Technology. Seems that they can do anything they want to and bend any Physical law that they please.
I wonder if the Others’ “Event” is like that of the theological “Rapture” that conventionalist theories speak of? In that, the chosen ones would be taken to heaven and others who did not live a certain way would be left behind to see the New World Order under one they call the “Beast”. It mainly sounds like a totalitarian, Fascist state and later, the Earth itself is destroyed in the end. Why would humans not survive the Others’ “Event”? There are many unanswered questions in this cliffhanger of a finale.
There is an interesting book by a man called Michio Kaku; “Physics of the Impossible”. it is available here and a Google search will net you just about anything on this book.
— A contour plot of the effective potential of a two-body system due to gravity and momentum at one point in time. Objects revolving with the same orbital period as the larger bodies will tend to move according to the contour lines showing equipotential surfaces. The arrows in the graphic indicate the gradients of the potential around the five Lagrange points — downhill toward them (red) or away from them (blue), but at the points themselves these forces are balanced.
The five Lagrange points (marked in green) at two objects orbiting each other (here a yellow sun and blue earth) Lagrange points are the stationary solutions of the circular restricted three-body problem. For example, given two massive bodies in circular orbits around their common center of mass, there are five positions in space where a third body, of comparatively negligible mass, could be placed which would then maintain its position relative to the two massive bodies. As seen in a rotating reference frame with the same period as the two co-orbiting bodies, the gravitational fields of two massive bodies combined with the satellite’s circular motion are in balance at the Lagrangian points, allowing the third body to be stationary with respect to the first two bodies
I, for one, am heartbroken this show could not be given a second season. Lately I am seeing a trend here where invasion shows seem to end with us feeling like “We are really screwed”. It used to be that Eartheaons always defeated the invading forces. Seems like people are changing their tune now and are either accepting the superiority of “Alien” technology or perhaps there is a need to feel ‘Humbled’ among the species.
I will be one of the first to admit a science fiction where the “Aliens” are actually friendly could be boring. After all, are we to just sit around saying the other is ‘So cool’? No. but I did like a series by Kenneth Johnson called “Alien Nation” because even though it was more like a police drama, it illustrated an ‘Alien’ race living and working side-by-side with Eartheaons. Gee, if only Eartheaons could do that with themselves, this would be a very nice place. In this writer’s opinion, that would be a TRUE “Event”!
I am not sure what will happen in the future for The Event or if any other network will pick it up. I do hope so. In the interim below is the complete “Arrival” episode courtesy of NBC. Enjoy!
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Last week we saw the attempt to infect a major shopping center with the disease obtained from a dead WW1 soldier who died from an extremely deadly strain of the Spanish flu.
When that failed due to the daring-do of Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) and Vicky Roberts (Taylor Q. Cole), The Russian air stewardess, Alexandra (Angela Gots) released the disease on a commuter bus, killing all within it. Dr. Liu (Alexandra Bokyun Chun) was able to use the the data retrieved from this to gauge the effect of the strain on ordinary people.
Finding the disease killed the human population too quickly, yet did not effect the Aliens at all, it was decided to use Leila (Sarah Roemer) to Trans-mutate the strain to act more slowly, allowing it to be spread more effectively among the native population.
Acting President Raymond Jarvis (Bill Smitrovich) ordered an air strike to a warehouse in which Christina had told him Blake and Simon were hiding. Simon and Blake however, had escaped the warehouse and no bodies were found in the wreckage of the storage facility.. Jarvis fired General Ambruster (Blue Deckart) and Agent Peel (Roger Bart) knew Jarvis was not the Commander In Chief they wanted. Upon finding out the warehouse was a diversion and finding out Christina Martinez was in on Blake’s plan, Jarvis knew he was in deep trouble.
We ended with the antidote being hidden by Simon in a bouquet of flowers which Christina had bought for her husband, then, as she prayed softly we saw her remove the filled syringe and give the antidote to Martinez in his hospital room. We saw Jarvis realized he was going to be in deep trouble for his role in the attempt on Martinez’s life, Sophia watching as Dr. Liu infected Leila with a nasal introduction of the infection. Sophia’s home world ever closer to incineration and Sean, with Vicky in pursuit of the Aliens.
The Beginning of the End
We open in a desolate scene of dead humans laying out in a town. All are dead or close to it, as Sophia Maguire (Laura Innes) is walking along, calling out “Hello?” to anyone who might still be alive. She is stopped at a car in which a young girl is still alive, asking if she is a doctor. Her little brother will not wake up and with a small gasp, Sophia sees a toddler laying dead beside the little girl who then asked Sophia “Why is everybody sick?” Sophia has no answer for her and the little girl starts to yell at Sophia “It’s YOUR FAULT!! Why won’t you HELP ME!?” through the closed window of the car and hitting the window.
Sophia wakes up. This was a dream she had been having. It calls into question whether or not Aliens actually dream. I say Why the heck not? I would think any sentient being would be able to dream. Sophia seems horrified by what she dreamt. Sophia wakes on a cot in the Evacuation center they have set up Dr. Liu is saying the trans-mutation of the disease with Leila is successful and apprizing her of the timeline.”In two weeks twenty-five percent of the world’s population. … In five, ninety-eight percent”
Sophia stops her “We…we only have to make room for our own people. There has to be a way to control the disease. To limit the number of deaths”. “There isn’t” Dr. Liu replies “The strength of the pathogen, is uncontrollable.” Sophia looks very remorseful as Dr. Liu finished “Sophia, We need to bring our people here.” Sophia asked then the question “Does need always justify the action?” Shaking her head ‘no’ she adds softly “This goes against everything we believe in” but Dr. Liu says in my almost exact words: “If the situation were reversed, they wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to us”. We see Leila laying there in the room with them bathed in sweat and very sick.
Back in ICU/CCU, Christina Martinez is speaking to her secretary at the doorway as the monitors on President Martinez start to indicate changes in his vitals. The doctor comes in and looks him over stating the EEG levels are showing improvement. Higher level brain activity. Christina says “He’s getting better…” but the doctor is hedging. pointing out it is anomalous brain activity but seems to feel they are not out of the woods yet.
In the Evacuation shelter with Carlos and Sophia among others, Carlos says they have everything in place on their home world and their people are ready to arrive. Gerard has the Portal activated and it must remain on for several more hours. but there is a reconnaissance satellite over Tibet -Where the Portal array is actually located- Gerard, the alien involved there at the Portal site is worried about detection.
Jarvis is on the phone in his office talking to Sophia. “I’m not comfortable blindly doing your bidding. If you want me to do something I need to know why.” Sophia tells him about the Satellite “I know the satellite is shared by NATO, but operated by your NSA. I need it… redirected. The NSA refers to it internally as E3175” she asks Jarvis to repeat that back to her, which he does. She thanks him, using his first name “Raymond”. Jarvis then tells her about Martinez’s improvement in hospital. “Meaning you didn’t stop them getting the counter agent to him” Sophia finishes. Sophia tells Jarvis that he must not let Martinez re-enter the equation as it would jeopardize everything.. for both of them. Jarvis asked for assurance that the American people would be spared. Sophia in a bold-faced lie replies “I give you my word.” They hang up and someone asked Sophia “You know by the time the pathogen is released and people start getting sick that he’ll know he’s been duped.” Sophia answers “By that time, it’ll be too late.”
In a bar, Blake meets up with Simon Lee meet up in a local bar They talk over Martinez’s improvement and Simon tells Blake Sophia had sent a team to Siberia to find the weapon. Blake said that this makes sense. citing a few weeks ago the government found out about ice core samples being analyzed by a scientist. “What was it?” Simon asked. “I don’t know, but I think they found it” Blake surmises. He talked about the Air Moscow flight’s military escort being waved off by Jarvis. They both then see the news on the bar’s television about the Mall evacuation. I had thought the accomplice involved was named “Devon” but it was… as cited by Simon Lee, a guy named “Roman”. Simon tells Blake that Roman is one of their people. Blake murmurs “A Terrorist attack…. and a dead sleeper”
Sean and Vicky are -where else?- in a car driving through Washington. Vicky is looking through the sleeper’s wallet, hoping for clues of where he, or the others may be holed up.
They found an address and go there to find it is what appears to be a sweatshop. They ask the workers there if they have seen this man and all say ‘no’. So off they go to the upper levels of the building. As they both sneak about, Simon grabs Vicky and we now see Sean with a gun to Blake Sterling’s head and Simon with a gun to Vicky’s head. Standoff. Shortly, they all are aware of who the other is, they know now they are on the same side, so to speak.
Next, in Dr. Liu’s sector, Leila is on the bed, restrained and Dr. liu is instructing the others that she needs more data points of how he virus replicates in the culture medium. “Initial indications are good” she says, sounding pleased. Dr. Liu walks over to Leila asking ‘What’s her Status?” The other says “Body temperature is rising, heart rate and blood pressure dropping”.
Dr. Liu tells him “We need to keep her alive for producing the virus. Increase her IV Fluids and give her a corticosteroid.”. Leila -able to speak, says “please… Please don’t do this… kill all those people…” Dr. Liu tells her: “If we had a choice, we wouldn’t, but we don’t. We’re just taking back what is rightfully ours. Your father should have told you… We were here first.”
Sophia is now addressing those in the evacuation center: “We’ve determined the most efficient way to spread the pathogen is by using three parallel distribution channels. The first team will release the pathogen in the immediate region; They will contaminate a food processing facility that ships products to supermarkets In six different states. within days it will spread across the eastern seaboard.”
She continues: ” The second team will contaminate currency at the bureau of Engraving facility in Virginia in time for the monthly reserve bank distribution. This will effectively spread the disease on a nationwide basis.” We see the graphics of the predicted spread.
Sophia concludes: “The third team will release it in the international terminal at Dulles Airport, at a time that will maximize global crossings by infected passengers. In five days, the vast majority of the human population… will be dead.”Sophia looks genuinely saddened, but again, she is driven to save her own people.
She pauses and says “This is the last time we’ll be meeting as a group, until it is all over. But I want each of you, in your own way to honor and mourn the loss of life, but also to remember why we are doing this. For our survival”.
Jarvis is ordering the redirection of the satellite. He is told it will take about two hours to redirect. Jarvis understands and disconnects. Jarvis then goes in to see the doctor who is attending to Martinez. As Jarvis leaves the ICU, he sees Christina coming up the hallway to him, her face a picture of fury. He starts to offer a word of support, only to feel the sting of a resounding slap from Christina. “I know you poisoned him!” She said angrily.
Pointing her finger at him as if to say Shut-Up! She starts to rant at him about almost losing her husband, their son losing his father because of Jarvis. She is going completely “Gangstah” on him, as the kids these days say. She continues to spear at his face with her finger as she says “I will hang you out to dry! I’m going to tell your wife and children what type of a…” Her lava-like explosion is quelled by someone coming in to tell them Martinez is awake. They rush in, except for Jarvis and the preliminary indications show Martinez is indeed recovering, amazingly well. Martinez and Christina visit and kiss, happily. Martinez asks Christina what has been happening and she tells him about Jarvis, Blake and Simon, who got the antidote to her for him.
Sean, Simon, Blake and Vicky are going through cabinets and drawers at the building where we last left them. “Notes, receipts, anything that might lead us to Sophia’s new location.” Simon tells them. Blake remembers Vicky being in the CIA and how she went rogue when he to work in Washington. Of course, Vicky denies all knowledge. They speak of Michael and the escape, when they hear the trash collectors come to get the scheduled collection. They stop the collectors and are delving through all the papers they can find. Blake then gets a phone call from Martinez.Blake hears Elias’ voice and we sense he is crying with relief at hearing President Martinez right now. Blake fills him in on things and Martinez is now determined to get back to the White House.
We are back in the Alien’s Evacuation center and the tanks of the pathogen are being readied for distribution. Carlos calls Sophia, to tell her everyone is ready at the infection sites. We see people we can presume to be of their world putting on badges, uniforms and at lockers etc, as if they are employees. We see a worker among vegetables and fruit and then someone at the Engraving facility having a quibble over a new drying agent being delivered (The pathogen, of course). The ‘human’ demands further confirmation of this order from a district supervisor upon which time the ‘alien’ shoots and kills the human worker. Sophia, on her ever-present iPhone is seeking status reports. All her people in their respective positions reply “In place and Ready” Sophia commands: “Time to begin!”
Sean is now trying to hack into the NSA along with him are Blake, Sterling and Vicky. Blake looks on, impressed; “Ever think about working for the government, Mr. Walker?” he asked. “Not while Vice-President Jarvis in in office” Sean replies. “Well, we have that in common” states Blake.
Sean accesses the site and only needs the key to get in. Sterling tells him they killed his, “…but Agent Peel was kind enough to lend me his”. They are in the site now. They use time stamps from images, Roman’s receipts and triangulate to another location. Simon tells Sean to go forward in time at this new building. They are over the Evacuation center, in my opinion.
Dr Liu is now in her section saying “At five thirty, all distribution channels will be spreading the pathogen. I have live feeds from the CDC that will allow us to follow this is real time.”
Sophia looks at Leila “What about her?” Dr. Liu replies “We’ve harvested enough viral cells from her.” Sophia interjects “No, what about her… her condition?” “It’s unclear how long her immune system will be able to fight off the virus. Could be hours, Days…” Sophia looks at Leila and says softly “She’s suffering.” Dr. Liu replies “It’ll only get worse” Sophia sighs saying “Then, just end it. But do it quickly and painlessly” Uhm, where have we heard THAT before?
In the Alien’s center, they are preparing the pathogen canisters for transport. Sophia asks Carlos: “Well, are you ready?” Carlos replies in the affirmative and we see vehicles leaving the building. At the same time, Sean, Simon Lee, Vicky and Blake are in the car heading to the building. Sean is handing ammunition out and Simon sees the scroll. Asking what it is, Sean tells him it was given to him by “Someone who claimed to have protected us from your people.” Simon, now interested asked what else he had been told. Sean said “I don’t know. He didn’t tell me anything … I have to idea what it is or… what it says.”
Sean looks at Simon asking “Do you?” Simon tells Sean “If you could read it, you’d know more than he was telling you” “About what?” Sean asked. Simon sighs as he drives and replied “About us. Why we’re here, and about what happened”. The discussion stops as the vehicle approaches the large building we presume to be where the Others had been working from. Inside the building, we see Dr. Liu coming in to Leila, with two vials and a syringe on a tray. We see Leila fighting the restraints on her wrists as we hear the appliances being brought out. Cue a window, through which we see Vicky running. It is a window at a Guarded entrance. Vicky uses the “I ran out of gas” ruse to get the two guards to stand down long enough to tell her to move on as Blake fires into the window from the side.
Dr. Liu is filling the syringe, and tapping air bubbles out of it (I ask: WHY do they do this? The shot is to KILL someone. Why care about the air bubble?) as she tells Leila. “There won’t be any pain. The first injection will put you to sleep, so you aren’t awake for the effects of the second one” In other words, a heavy Anesthetic, like Phenobarbital, followed by a Potassium Chloride chaser to stop the heart…abruptly. Leila moans and looks like she is crying.
Now we see a worker in the alien’s building pushing a stack of coolers which I presume are carrying infected specimens. Sean and Simon force this guy to detour and start questioning him about who else is in the building. ‘Five and the prisoner…. a girl.” Dr. Liu starts to give Leila the first injection, but Leila wrestles out of the restraints and goes Kung-Fu on Dr. Liu. Struggle ensues and Leila uses the tranquilizer syringe into Dr. Liu’s neck to knock her out. Finally freed, Leila runs off to one of the plastic-sheeted walls at the same time as Sean reaches the wall on the other side.
She warns Sean, but Sean already knows what Sophia’s plan is. Leila tells him she is infected and she can’t let him come in, or he will die. She tells Sean all their plans are in the laptop over there on a table. “They plan to release it by five-thirty”.
.Jarvis is in the Oval Office as the door opens and Jarvis says “I thought I told you I didn’t want to be disturbed” He see Eli Martinez coming into the office. Martinez walks up to the desk telling Jarvis to “Get out from behind that desk and get the hell out of my office!” Jarvis replies he has every right to be here. The cabinet enacted the twenty-fifth amendment and appointed him as acting President.” Martinez gets closer to Jarvis “I know, you tried to kill me… I know about you and Sophia…”
Jarvis says “I don’t know what you’ve been told, but if you’re talking about the Peace Agreement I’m currently negotiating with Sophia…That wouldn’t have been possible while you were at the helm… Please, Richard, Help me out here” To which Agent Peel responds “You’re on your own here, Raymond” Jarvis continues “Everything that I have done has been to guarantee the safety of the American People…” Martinez interrupts “Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night, Ray? Your actions have only served yourself and ONLY you!” Jarvis levels off at Martinez saying “Whether you like it or not, I am the President of the United States!” Martinez, said “Not for long… Not for long!” “Well, we’ll see about that, Eli.” Jarvis countered There needs to be a vote that you’re capable.” Pointing out the strokes and that he will demand tests to the President’s ability to come back to office.
Blake and Simon are trying to get into Dr. Liu’s Laptop. So far not having any luck. “I’ll take it from here” says Simon getting up to leave. Sean is in the medical sector with Leila as they talk about what if and Sean says they should move. When all this is over, they should move. Maybe to Portland, Bend or anywhere but Boston. “That’d be really nice” Leila said. “But you have to find Sophia… And stop her. Do it for me”
In another part of the building, Simon is reviving Dr. Liu. Simon looks at her and says “Now, you can rationalize all you want to, but deep down you know what you’re doing is wrong.” He sounds sincere in trying to talk to Dr. Liu. His voice was such I would follow him anywhere.
He continues: “According to Leila, all we need to know is on that laptop…over there. So all I need from you, is your password, Doctor. That’s all”. Dr. Liu tells him “Don’t you see? It’s too late. It’s pointless” Simon gets up, sighing “Suit Yourself…” and comes back with a power drill to her and threats, (…His voice no longer sweet and sensitive!) Simon ultimately gets her password for the laptop. They get the data they need…. Now, what to do with this information?
The SUV speeds up the streets with our heroes in it as we see the pallets of money being prepared to be processed at the engraving facility while one of the Others pushes the tank of pathogen to replace a normal one.We then see another of the Aliens in the airport terminal looking at his watch and the schedule of flights.
Sophia on her phone in a car saying “Jarvis has just confirmed the satellite has been diverted. Carlos replies “I’ll have Gerard power it up. Where are we on the pathogen?” “We’re right on schedule, but leave that to us. Your job is to power the array” replies Sophia We now are at the Portal center in Tibet and Gerard saying “We’re ready to activate, on your order” Sophia, smiling says “Proceed”. Gerard tells his colleague at the activation point: “Activate.”
The Portal comes alive with a blue column of light from the ground and we travel up, up, up through the skies where we see a view from space with a blue ball of energy building and coming to life above the Earth….
My Take…For what it’s worth…
We have seen the Aliens begin in this series as a tattered, forlorn group of human-like people from a crash site in Alaska. Detained for over 65 years they don’t age as we do. We find they have been misled and lied to by the powers that be and now the they have escaped their prison in Mount Inostranka and established contact with their world in a galaxy of over eight million light years away (NCG-253) to find their own people are facing certain death from a supernova.
They have gone from those who we might be friends with to a ‘people’ bent on their own survival at any cost, even if it means wiping out the native population on this world to meet that goal. Sophia is, as we are led to believe their actual leader. She is the matriarch of what most thought were a peaceful race. Refraining from harming benevolent civilizations. Sophia, in her desperation and apparent heartache over the killing of her people in Government-ordered attacks now sees this place as hostile. Releasing her people from an oath they took to harm no one, she has started the process of winnowing the native people here to make room for her own people to come here via a Portal array… Sort of what could be called a ‘wormhole’. She seemed shocked that the virus could not be stopped once it started to spread.
We have, in earlier episodes, followed an elderly man by the name of Dr. James Dempsey. (Hal Holbrook) He was a billionaire from working in big Pharmaceuticals and seemed a bit looney, if not downright evil. When he was in the Jura Mountain range (France) at an archeological dig, netting him information about an ancient tribe called “The Sentinels”. The Sentinels, who have been here for over three millennium , as he was telling Vicky Roberts in his house in France, were a group who “Have been given the task to protect the native population of earth from ‘Them’.” (Said as he pointed upward).
Dempsey then ordered Vicky to be killed, apparently knowing full well that a young man called Sean Walker would rescue her. Sean did, in fact, come through and Dempsey told them what was going on between the Sentinels and Sophia’s people. Now in this last episode. Simon and Sean were talking about the scroll Sean had received from Dr. Dempsey just before Dempsey committed suicide.
Their discussion, and what Dr. Liu told Leila in the medical sector leads us to believe the Aliens have been here for centuries. There had apparently been a major conflict between the Sentinels and the Aliens. While in a chamber in the Jura Mountains, we saw a cave paiting and tatoos on Dempsey’s arms as he said the ‘Guardian Angels’ are “Very, very real”.
I’ve heard folks describe the Book of Enoch being relevant to Dempsey’s story. There are a number of historical references to ‘Those from the Heavens’ so regardless of one’s religious beliefs, I include The Book of Enoch in summary for your edification.
1. The Book of the Watchers (chs. 1—36). Enoch is a righteous man who has received heavenly visions. The book is a collection of revelations regarding divine judgment. It describes the rebellion of angels. The fallen angels, called “Watchers,” have sexual intercourse with human women, who give birth to a race of wicked giants. The giants lay waste to the earth and humanity, and so become the occasion for the flood, in which they are destroyed. But once their demonic spirits are released from their dead bodies, these demons wreak havoc in the world until the end time of judgment.
2. The Book of the Similitudes (or Parables; chs. 37—71). Enoch again receives heavenly visions, which are interpreted by angels. The primary character of these revelations is the “son of man.” Other titles employed to name this messiah figure are “the Chosen One” (the most common title), God’s “Anointed One,” and “the Righteous One.” This heavenly being is God’s agent for the final judgment and vindication of the righteous.
3. The Book of Astronomical Writings (or Heavenly Luminaries, chs. 72—82). Visions of heavenly and earthly occurrences advocate a 364-day solar calendar, as opposed to the controversial lunar calendar. Enoch describes to his son Methuselah his journey through the stars above the earth, guided by the angel Uriel.
4. The Book of Dream Visions (or Animal Apocalypse, chs. 83—90). Enoch recounts two visions to Methuselah. The first vision is of the sky falling and the earth undergoing cataclysmic disasters as a result. The second vision takes the form of an apocalyptic allegory describing the history of humanity from the creation of Adam to the final judgment. In it, humans are represented as animals and angels are represented as human beings. The apocalypse details the relationship of Jews with Gentiles and the end-time judgment.
5. The Book of the Epistle of Enoch (chs. 91—107). This epistle is written by Enoch for later generations. Righteousness and wickedness are contrasted throughout the letter in order to show that goodness and truth will be rewarded by God, but evil and sin will be punished by God. This sober eschatological prophecy admonishes readers about the final divine judgment.
–Of course there are plentiful sources of reading or deeper study of this material if one so wishes to do, I only offered the short version for this review.–
So I am curious. Are we to think perhaps that outside of theological hypotheses that the ones from the sky are in a nuts and bolts reality, Space visitors? Could this be what was meant by Dr. Liu and the Others as “We were here first”? Perhaps the Others started out as peaceful but they obtained too much of the human characteristic of desperation and in a sense Greed, thereby becoming “Fallen Angels”? This is why I so look forward to next weeks Finale. I want to see the people come, see what Sophia has done and punish her severely.
I really do hold to a belief of a truly advanced people existing out there. Maybe not ‘PEOPLE’ as we would know this to mean, but beings of an inner vision arriving and doing the right thing. It is one of the reasons I cannot accept the almost constant Doomsday story lines of many Science Fiction stories. I would like to believe better of any species, really, Reptoid, Humanoid or otherwise. Included below is entire episode “The Beginning of the End” from NBC.
I had hoped those in NBC’s decision making powers would grant a second season, but alas. If not, perhaps another station would pick this show up for a second season. Be sure to watch live, or with On Demand to help the ratings! Monday night, 9/8C tune in for The Event! In the meantime, included below courtesy of NBC is a sneak peek of what appears to be the NBC “The Event” series finale “Arrival”!
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A short recap Has us following Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) and Vicky Roberts (Taylor Cole) on a flight coming back from Russia. They are following a courier who is carrying the infected lungs of a dead World War One soldier in order that the disease could be spread out through the world population.
They want to do this to make room for about two billion of their people they wish to bring here to escape their star’s explosion. Time is getting short, so Sophia Maguire (Laura Innes) is becoming more and more brutal in her plan to get her people here, resulting in their survival. Sophia is not really “Callous” per Se, but she is duty-bound to save her people above anything else. Sophia actually is taking no pleasure whatsoever in doing what she feels she has to do.
We left the last episode with President Elias Martinez (Blair Underwood) worsening in his condition in the Intensive Care Unit/Critical Care Unit suffering from a poison which Raymond Jarvis (Bill Smitrovich) gave him via his morning coffee on instruction of Sophia. Sophia told Jarvis if he did this, Jarvis would become the Acting President and could save his country from the plague with which Sophia would use to winnow the Eartheaon population.
Jarvis became acting president, and he had an argument with Blake Sterling (Zeljko Ivanek) We saw now that Sophia is getting more aggressive with Jarvis, and Jarvis is, I feel, well aware that he is being used by Sophia. At this point, he is in too deep and now must try to save himself. Sean and Vicky had the courier -“Alex” who turned out to be “Alexandra” (Angela Gots) (An Air Moscow Stewardess) in their sights, but Vicky did not take a shot which might have killed Sean, so Alex escaped with an accomplice..
Through the episode last week, Michael began to see sense and helped Simon Lee escape from their Alien compound, getting shot and killed in the process. We left it with Leila crying and yelling at Sophia “YOU killed him!!” as she was being detained by two of the Others. Simon escaped with a vial of antidote for Martinez which Michael had forced Dr Liu to give to him. We saw him go over the fencing and into the woods.
“Some Will Live And Some Will Die”
We open in the community, out by the fence and Sophia with the Others have Leila. Carlos goes and sees Michael. “He’s Gone” I feel he sounded genuinely upset at this fact Michael is dead. Carlos then came to Sophia apologizing for letting her down. Sophia does not seem angry at him though. “It’s not your fault” she tells him. At this point, Leila, crying says “You killed my father…” but Sophia interjects “I’ve known your father longer than you can comprehend. You have no idea what I felt for him.” Leila backs down a bit.
Dr. Liu (Alexandria Bokyun Chun) came up to the group asking if Michael had the vial. She broke the news that Michael had forced her to give him the vial of the antidote. Sophia was shocked “What compound?” Dr. Liu replied “DNA repair enzymes. It can reverse the effect of the poison we gave Martinez” Sophia orders that Leila and Michael’s body be searched. She correctly surmises that Simon Lee could get this to Martinez and then “If Martinez recovers, everything we’ve been working toward will be compromised”. Sophia then orders the evacuation of the compound before Simon has a chance to alert the authorities.
In the ICU/CCU, First Lady Christina Martinez (Lisa Vidal) is talking on the phone to her son. The doctor comes in saying they really have done all they can do.” “So, you’re just going to give up?” Christina asks through tears “No! just… No!” and goes back to Elias’ bedside.
Agent Peel (Roger Bart) comes into the Oval Office, handing Jarvis a list of candidates for Blake’s replacement. Jarvis says “I want the best!” to which Peel replies “You fired the best… With all due respect” Jarvis shuffles the papers saying “Director Sterling was a dangerous man. Things he said about me? He’s not in his right mind! I can’t have a man like that as the head of Intelligence Operations and for you to constantly remind me of his importance only makes you suspect.” He pauses and then apologized to Peel as his phone rings.
Peel is dismissed and Jarvis answers his call. It is Sophia, in a car being driven somewhere as she says to Jarvis “We have a problem. Simon Lee has escaped with a counter-agent” She tells him this will reverse the effects of the poison they gave to Martinez. “you need to focus on finding Simon Lee” Jarvis is arguing with her.
She pretty much tells him he has every resource on the ground to find one man, “USE them. She demands. Then in a softer tone she says “If Martinez recovers they will put you away for the rest of your life!” As Jarvis sits back down at his desk we can see he looks like he is going to be sick. He had better be scared, he blew his loyalties and he knows it.
Sean and Vicky are in their car, trying to track where the Courier and her accomplice went to. Sean is trying to track them on his laptop. The Others have a rental car. From about the mid-nineties, rental cars have had tracking devices on them so the companies could keep track of their cars out in the roads.
Sean is trying to find their car. Vicky, at one point snaps at Sean and then apologized. “You saw how those people died on the ship, if Sophia gets that out here, what could happen?” Sean replied “The Spanish flu killed about 50-100 million people, that was before international travel became so easy…” Vicky says “And this strain’s more virulent?” “Way more” replies Sean “If Sophia released it, I don’t what would be left.” The Tracking worked and they actually do find out the two Others are about fifty miles ahead of them. They speed up a little and go to find out where the disease may be.
We are now in the Aliens’ Evacuation shelter. Sophia is told that Gerard has established contact with their home world and that it is worse than they thought. “Radiation levels have become catastrophic. Our people are dying. We need to make room here-it needs to get done!” Sophia replies “I understand that better than anyone.” She walks into a makeshift lab and computer room. Dr. Liu tells her (Rightfully so) that in order for this to be spread on a global pandemic scale, the host must live long enough to spread the disease.
They watch a video Arron sent from the Irena Bogdanov. Dr Liu pointed out when the contaminant was released to the time everyone on the ship died. It happened too quickly. But, Dr. Liu also said this was in close quarters, the contaminant was in high concentration, she would need a better scenario to gauge the disease’s effects. Sophia tells Dr. Liu “If it’s more reliable data you need I am sure the next field test will provide it.”
Blake Sterling is sitting at his home, reading the newspaper and smoking a cigarette. He hears a noise and quietly gets his gun, going to investigate. He lets the intruder walk into a room and makes his, and the gun’s presence known. The intruder turns around and we see Simon Lee. After the initial confrontation, Blake is still doubting Simon’s credibility. Simon hands him the vial explaining what it would do for Martinez. “I split from from Sophia, for good. Once I realized what she wanted to do…How many people she was willing to murder!”
Blake still does not trust Simon but Simon points out “I was free and clear… ‘Even now I believe we can live in peace with each other… Starting with this…” He hands him the vial and says “If you don’t believe me, shoot me! But get this to Martinez.” Sterling tells Simon to step back from the window. Apparently someone followed Simon to Blake’s house and are out there in their car getting ready for the capture. We see two men in the car, one of whom was Simon’s partner for ten years, as they deploy to the house with others. Heavily armed the team assembles outside and get ready to go in.
Back in the car, Sean at his laptop; “They’re Stopped” he tells Vicky as they tail the Others ahead of them “Ten miles out”… He cross references a map and we then see a large mall parking lot. I know this mall! I am a female in Southern California. I know Malls in General. This, in real-life is the Del Amo Fashion Center, in Torrence, CA. It is near the Palos-Verdes Peninsula. We did Christmas shopping there one year staying ALL DAY LONG. It is a huge indoor mall, and if all this were real, would be a perfect place to release a bio-weapon.
Sean and Vicky search for the courier’s car and find it. They find plans for the mall in the other cars’ trunk and this is for details of the air circulation systems. Alexandra and her accomplice are walking inside the mall and Alex said that Sophia want all records about this operation. They agree to meet on the roof, Alexandra takes the container and they part ways. We see the massive interior of the mall and then we are on the roof, watching “Alex” opening the air circulation machine. She then opens one of the black cases to reveal glass canisters containing the lungs of the dead soldier.
Back at Blake Sterling’s house, the tactical team are outside planning who goes where. They are deep into it when sirens and a multitude of police cars show up. They are blowing a CIA operation and finally one of the officers checked the credentials. After standing down the police tell the covert ops that they had received a call about an armed robbery at this address. Blake and Simon escaped during the melee.
Jarvis is telling Sophia about Blake and Simon getting away. She is angered at this and tells Jarvis they must be stopped. Sophia is speaking to Jarvis like he is a child. Perhaps she is not wrong. That is why she chose to get to him, is it not? I also note the Aliens do not use cases on their iPhone 4’s. Not like they have to worry about warranty and so on, but that actually makes me nervous. Yes, I am a tech geek! In my opinion, it takes a good actor to make us ‘Hate’ or dislike his or her character. When we, the viewers are yelling at our televisions cussing at Jarvis or Sophia or whoever, that just shows that the particular actor is darn good at their job!
“The last thing I thought I’d be doing is stealing a car” Blake tells Simon as he drives them to a warehouse. They decide the First Lady is the least problematic and they should use her to get the antidote to Martinez. Jarvis already suspects Agent Peel and so they will have to figure a way to meet with Christina. Jarvis already suspects Agent Peel.
At this same time, Christina is being blocked from her husband’s room by soldiers enforcing a higher security alert. She is denied her visit. and then she gets a call from Blake: “We need to talk… but not here…” .
At this time, an agent comes into Jarvis’ office telling him there was a call to Christina from Blake Sterling which only lasted twenty four seconds. The call was encrypted so Jarvis orders that to be decrypted. On hearing this could take hours, Jarvis gets up, putting his jacket on and tells his secretary Eva to get a location on the First Lady.
Back at the Mall, we see Alex affixing a canister to a rectangular, bomb-like device and placing it
onto the air circulation system. Sean and Vicky come into the packed mall and split up. Sean went to the roof and Vicky looks around to try to see their quarry. We see the accomplice meanwhile, in the main security center with the real Security guard down and out. The accomplice calls Sophia: “I’ve got you routed into the video surveillance system, you should have a visual on the site now.”
Sophia asks “How much longer until you proceed with the test?” He replies “Alex is arosolizing the virus as we speak”. We see Alex on the roof, having placed some of the contaminant into a pressurized canister onto the bottom of the device she made.
Vicky is now seen running through the mall and she tries a fire alarm switch, which doesn’t work so she gets a security guard to ‘help’. She knew the accomplice most likely disabled the alarm system. The Security man did not believe her, so she had him with her gun to his back, leading him off to do this.
Back in the main security center, the accomplice sites camera four. “That’s the man from Alex’s flight. The one who tried to stop us” Sophia knows who he is. She says “…And I think I know who told him Alex was on the plane. He must’ve figured out we were going to release the virus. You can’t let him stop it!” The accomplice gets up and leaves to stop Sean.
Sean is now on the roof of the mall, looking around and spots Alex with her device at one of the circulation boxes. He starts to venture out onto the area where Alex is and a shot rings out. Alex’s accomplice is trying to stop Sean from stopping them. Sean gets more assertive and comes out shooting at the accomplice who then runs past Alex. Alex shouts “What’s going on?” “Keep working!” he orders as he runs after Sean.
She is soon on her phone reading the riot act to whoever banned her from seeing her husband in the ICU/CCU when Jarvis comes up to her. He said it was a mis-communication and he would straighten out the problem with her seeing Elias. He then gets down to business. He tells Christina that Elias was indeed poisoned and lays the blame on Blake Sterling and Simon. Christina remembered her time with Blake in Elias’ room and how he had told her there was nothing anyone could do. She told Jarvis about Blake’s phone call and she was to meet Blake at a warehouse on Kendal Street.
Sophia, back in the evacuation center, goes to a large panel truck and opens the back to find Leila is in there, restrained. Sophia remarked how hard it was for her to look at Leila and not see Michael “His courage, his resolve… I understand you better than you think. But you have to know how misguided you are I don’t want to hurt anyone. But if you had to choose between saving your family or saving someone Else’s, what would you do? who would you save?” Sophia then said “I need to know what you told Sean Walker.”
Leila denied telling him anything and Sophia wound up getting very angry snapping at Leila “Tell me!”. “Go to Hell!” Leila snapped back. Sophia’s voice became calm and level: “Don’t choose the wrong side on this Leila. Because I will do everything I can to protect my people… my family… OUR family!”
Oh, and yeah, she played the torn loyalties card, but Leila replied “I’m not telling you anything” Sophia gets up and as she leaves tells Leila: “By involving Sean in this you’ve ensured his death. Same way you did with your father.” As Sophia closes the door of the truck’s cargo hold she says “Their blood’s on your hands”.
Meanwhile the gunfight on the roof of the mall is in full swing. The Security guard with Vicky both come into the security center and Vicky gets the man to sound the alarm. It would still take about twenty to twenty five minutes to get all the people out. Vicky asks about shutting down the air circulation, but the guard says “I could shut down the breakers, but there’s a battery back up somewhere. I wouldn’t know how to do it”
Vicky tells this numbskull to hit the alarm and it sounds out sirens with an automated voice instructing patrons to leave the mall by the nearest exit Sean and the accomplice are still shooting it out but Sean is now out of ammo, so he brings hand to hand combat into it with the accomplice. I believe the accomplice’s name is Devon, but am unsure at this point.
They both fight, rolling about and swinging punches. Alex had the bio-bomb attached and armed. Sean finally kills the accomplice and Vicky comes up at this point. After they find the bio-bomb the “how do we disarm this?” questions start as the seconds tick backwards…
In the Briefing room, Jarvis, General Ambruster (Blue Deckert) and Agent Peel, among others see the SUV with Blake and Simon in it going into a warehouse via an IMED Satellite feed. Agent Peel is questioning Jarvis “source” and says that he doubts Blake would ever be involved with traitorous activities against his government. Jarvis is coordinating with the Air Force on this one. He instructs someone to ask Gen. McMillan if the Predator Drone is ready for its’ air strike.
Mr. Peel is appalled: “Air Strike?? You can’t possibly be serious?” Gen. Ambruster says “With all due respect sir, this is a mistake!” “This is an Order!” Growls Jarvis. “Well, I cannot condone it, Sir.” Says Ambruster Jarvis reminds him the He is acting President commander in Chief and if he cannot condone the actions of his commander in chief then he could “Get the Hell Out!!” We see Gen. Ambruster collect his things and walk out. “Anyone else?” asks Jarvis. “Fire when ready” Jarvis instructs and we see the missile, from leaving the drone to the explosion of the warehouse.
We can plainly see that Agent Peel is not happy with Jarvis in office. He knew Blake Sterling and what Blake thought of Jarvis, I feel Peel is finding out Blake Sterling was right all along. I can read his face as Jarvis asks for confirmation of the kills. Bill Smitrovich is good in this role!
Back in the Mall, the alarm is sounding and people are leaving.
We see Alex getting onto a RTD local bus outside of the mall and releasing a pressurized valve on her ‘luggage’. I guess if she could not get the Mall infected, a bus would do. At least the Aliens would have some new data about the disease from the people on the bus. From the picture, I see a camera is also there. Alex will video the reactions of the passengers to the disease for the Others.
At this same point in time, Sean and Vicky are on the roof, trying to think of ways to disarm the bio weapon. Vicky says “I thought you were an expert!” “At… at COMPUTERS! Not this…virus producing…” Sean stammers at her “Ok, Ok…Fine! Just do SOMETHING! we’re running out of time..!”. “OK, the timer’s connected to an actuator that opens a solenoid valve that…” They argue about the timer, power source what have you Finally, Sean shoots the device, in effect killing the power supply to it.
Uh, Are you SURE that is really disarmed? Want to burn it too? A bit of fun overkill…Literally! Good thing Sean did NOT puncture the container!
We see a bus inside the Aliens’ evac center, which I am guessing is just a huge, hollow warehouse I’ve seen trailer-like offices and so on within the large building in this episode. Alongside the bus are the bodies of the people which were on it. Alex is drinking some water and Sophia comes up to her to thank her for the contribution she has made. Alex asked about the device at the mall, and Sophia tells her that it was disarmed. Alex, apologizing, said she should have stayed with it. Sophia said “No, if you had we might have lost everything!!” She walks around the area with the bodies and Others charting and taking notes about the victims.
Sophia now says; “Dr Liu has been studying the video you filmed on board the bus. Now that she’s able to see every minute of how the virus affects humans, as well as having these test subjects to autopsy. we’ll be able to move forward.” Turning back to Alex Sophia continues; “We owe you a debt of gratitude.” Carlos comes in to tell Sophia Dr. Liu needs her in the lab. Sophia goes to see her. As we see Dr Liu in her makeshift Lab, she tells Sophia they may have a way to slow down the virus. “Viruses mutate when they jump from species to species. Like Bird Flu becoming H1N1when it crossed into humans. If we jump the virus into the right species, it’ll mutate on its own and we can screen for the variation we need.”
Sophia asked “What kind of species would that be?” Dr. Liu replies “The virus doesn’t effect us at all, and it kills the human beings too quickly. We need to infect a bridge species who’s DNA lies somewhere in between.” “Sophia gets a small smile on her face as she says “A Hybrid…” Dr. Liu responds: “Yes, and from what I understand, we’re in luck” Yes, of course she means Leila.
Christina and some Secret Service men are entering the hospital. “Give me a minute” Christina tells the men as she enters into a gift/florist shop on the first floor. As they wait, she gets a nice bouquet to take into Elias’ room. We then see them all coming from the elevator to Elias’ room and Christina excuses the Secret Service and goes in, alone. She meets the Doctor who tells her it is hopeless. his last EEG showed no signs of high-functioning brain activity. Nothing to be done. Christina refused the doctor’s words and went into the room, closing the curtains behind her.
Amid the rubble and burning wreck of the warehouse, people searched for bodies. They did not find any bodies, but they DID find a trap door into an underground tunnel. Apparently this led to an outbuilding. Jarvis was told of this news. Also, the earlier phone call from Blake to Christina was decrypted and Jarvis heard it as Blake told Christina “You have to trust me. Jarvis is behind everything that’s happened to your husband but I have a way to save him. I’ll call you on the pay phone in five minutes.”. Christina lied to him. She was in on it in regards to Blake and Simon. He told her about the warehouse…Which she then relayed to Jarvis. it was all a diversion! Jarvis, in his office, alone, whimpering ‘Oh, God…!’
Back in the Hospital, Christina, alone with Elias, flashes back to the florist’s shop, Leaving the Secret Service men outside as she went into the florist’s and seeing Simon Lee there. She begins to pray quietly as she retrieves the syringe from the flowers she brought in and removes the cap. She goes to Elias, lifts his sleeve and injects the contents into his arm as she prays. This is almost ‘sacred’ she wants her husband to get well again. She kisses Elias and he see him sleeping.
Back in the Alien’s Evac center, a portion set out for medical, we see Leila strapped to a gurney and Carlos goes to take her head in his hands. Dr. Liu comes up beside her with a petri dish of a yellow substance and a ‘Q-Tip’ type of applicator.
As Sophia comes in speaking to her, she seems to know what is about to happen. Sophia is talking to her; “In 1918 the Spanish Flu Pandemic killed twenty percent of the world’s population. There were localized strains and mutations. This is one of them. A strain so deadly, it turned entire cities into graveyards…. Overnight.” Leila is struggling against the restraints and Carlos’ hands on her head, also cupping her chin. She is crying “No…Please…!” as Sophia continues: “We worked very hard to find this particular strain. And now you, a Hybrid… a bridge between our people … You’re gonna help us spread it.” Carlos holds Leila’s head steady as Dr. Liu places the applicator, filled with the infectious matter into Leila’s nostrils. Leila looks at Sophia, Sophia’s face becomes blurry and the scene fades out to black.
My Take…For what it is worth…
We leave this week with the Aliens’ home world inching closer to all out destruction by the Supernova. Blake and Simon Lee are working together. Elias Martinez having received the medicine he needs. Jarvis, who I doubt could run a lemonade stand, let alone a country, is a simpering fool, so easily played by those around him, has ordered an air strike on domestic territory and fired General Ambruster. The Aliens are displaced into another refuge where they have their shelter and labs, computers etc… again off the radar for the most part. A busload of people who succumbed to the virulent strain of the virus, and Sean and Vicky having saved a mall full of people. Leila, is now apparently going to be the Aliens’ version of “Typhoid Mary” and be freed to the world so she can spread this disease all around. It kills pure humans too quickly, the Aliens are immune to the disease entirely. Leila, as the Host, would live long enough-if she even gets sick at all, to effectively spread this disease.
While much of this could make sense, and would seem somewhat indicative of what we as a species would do, I’m anxious to see what Sophia’s people are actually like. I personally believe they would be more like Simon Lee. Not only advanced in Technology, but also in Spirit and mentality. If one has ever watched the newer “Twilight Zone” series from the eighties, there was an episode based on an Arthur C. Clarke short story called “The Star”. It was aired in 1985 for Christmas, and dealt with the study of a nebula by astronauts of Earth’s future. On an outlying dead planet, they found a pillar and underneath that was an archive of music, art, writings images what used to be a peaceful, advanced People. Humans who have lived in Peace for over a thousand years.
One of the crew was a Jesuit Priest who was able to analyze data about when the Star in question exploded. The Star exploded, the light of that Supernova reached Earth only visible for a short time at certain co-ordinates . The Priest figured out the time line. He was angry because this had destroyed a peaceful planet and people….yes, people…. so that we could have the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ here on Earth. As he was dwelling in his anger and sadness at his God, one of his colleagues came in with something they had decoded from the lost civilization. The last item placed into the archive and first one retrieved:
“Mourn not for us, for we have known the light. and looked on Beauty, have lived in peace and loved. Grieve but for those who go alone, unwise, to die in darkness and never see the sun”.
I would like to feel that a truly advanced race of people… or otherwise… would realize when their time had come. I hope also when this sun may go nova, that this species can be the same. Sometimes, the price of one’s ‘survival’ is just too high for the other.
Next week is the second to last episode of this fine season. Included below courtesy of NBC Universal is the sneak peek of “The Beginning of the End”.
I do hope those in NBC’s decision making power will grant a second season. Be sure to watch live, or in On Demand to help the ratings! Monday night, 9/8C tune in for The Event! In the meantime, included below courtesy of NBC is “Some Will Live, Some Will Die”!
If you prefer, you may also click the social media icons below to share this news article or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit the WHR on Facebook or me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story and or on See You on The Other Side“!
We observed surveillance video of the meeting room before the call to order that morning and saw Jarvis hanging around the coffee cart, taking something out of his pocket and later, when the President had fallen, he saw Jarvis -in the surveillance video- reaching and taking a used packet of sweetener that the President had put into his coffee. Blake knew Jarvis was behind this and yet he had no real proof.
Until after the convening of the executive branch to vote for Jarvis to become acting President. When Blake returned to his office, he noticed a coffee stain on his sleeve which had been there all day from the time President Martinez’s coffee had spilled that morning.
Michael Buchanan (Scott Patterson) and Leila Buchanan (Sarah Roemer) argued about Leila calling outside of the Aliens’ community with details of what agent Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) had told her The Bodyguard, who we now know as Louis, who was assigned to keep an eye on Leila came up on them as they were arguing. He told Michael that Sophia had to be told what happened. As we saw them walking… presumably to where Sophia was, Michael killed Louis. He and Leila then took the body to their home to dispose of it and clean up the evidence.
The “weapon” recovered by the Aliens was in fact the body of a World War one soldier who had died of the Spanish flu. The Soldier’s corpse had been taken to a ship in Port in Murmansk, and he was being autopsied by a medical examiner. The M.E. wound up cutting his own hand, apparently got out and others on the ship became infected with the strain as well. Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) and Vicky Roberts (Tayler Cole) discovered “Irina Bogdanov” was not a woman, but was a large ship ported in Murmansk, Western Siberia.
They got to the ship and boarded it to find everyone they could see there had died. When they found the corpse in the makeshift autopsy room, the soldier’s lungs had been cleanly removed. Sean and Vicky did find a man who had been there and he told them the people who were there before got someone to take the tissue to the United States. “I don’t know what, but they are bringing contaminated tissue to your country!” The man told them it was being taken by Air Moscow to America.
President Martinez had all the symptoms of a brain bleed and his condition has been serious and then deteriorating through the episode. The compound that the Aliens gave Jarvis to spike the President’s coffee with was supposed to be “Quick and Painless”. It most likely would have been, had we not all the medical tech we do today for trying to save stroke victims. We ended with Christina Martinez (Lisa Vidal) being rushed out of the ICU as Elias was going into a convulsive seizure and what is termed as ‘Coding’ (pulse, breathing etc stopped or in arrhythmia) in the ICU, with staff trying to stabilize him.
“Us Or Them”
We open this episode with Jarvis being sworn in as President of the United States by the Chief Justice. The solemn voice of the swearing in took place with alternative scene of the emergency treatment being given to the President. His pupils are ‘blown’, this is anomalous and very serious.. At the same time, Raymond Jarvis is placing his hand on the Bible taking the oath to become acting president.
President Martinez is apparently getting a ventricular aspiration to analyze spinal fluid or in the attempt to relieve pressure but there is nothing there. No fluid. The pressure is increasing, then he goes into cardiac arrest. Several attempts with the defibrillator and his brain function has diminished. They do get him back, but with the Electroencephalogram (A test of brain activity) being ‘significantly flattened’, he is now in a deep, unresponsive coma.
Simon is in his room in the medical house in their community and is watching the news about President Martinez. He knows Sophia had something to do with this. Michael Buchanan comes in to see him, saying “I hear you have to be fed and watered.” throwing a packed lunch on Simon’s bed. He begins to walk out.. Simon asks him if he has seen the news about the President. Michael says that she is only doing what she has to do for their people. “By committing genocide!” Simon replies. “We need to make room!”
Michael replied. Simon points out that this is an indication of how Sophia has changed. Killing former friends, turning against her own. “How do you know you won’t be next?” Simon asked. Michael says “I’m not a traitor” Simon claims Michael is worse. Just blindly following her… “You’re a sheep… a Coward…”Simon tells him. With that, Michael explodes with temper and strikes Simon.
Fists fly from Michael on Simon, but Simon is in restraints. It comes down to Michael trying to strangle Simon, but Simon fights back, breaking the restraints on one hand and working on the other when Michael again attacks him. Simon is subdued and Michael pulls a gun on Simon saying “Accept!! The Native population is DONE! They don’t have a chance!” Simon looks at him dazed and says “Don’t underestimate them.” I can see why Simon is a Favourite character. He is acting the way I hope any ‘real’ extraterrestrials would, not just coming here to kill us all without any thought.
Next, we’re in the ‘war room’ as Jarvis addresses his new command. In brief, he says we must open diplomatic channels with Sophia and try to work with them. Jarvis orders the military to stand down from the aliens. “Letting them live in peace, so that we may do the same.” Blake is not happy at all seeing Jarvis in power. We then see Blake and Agent Peel conferring about the coffee stain, and the shirt has been sent to be analyzed. Peel pointed out to Sterling that Jarvis is now the President and that his proof must be completely irrefutable.
Sophia is with Michael in her house as he briefs her on what happened with Simon. After Michael leaves Sophia gets a call from Arron. Overlooking a beautiful scene of a Russian city, he is in a hotel telling Sophia that the body they had excavated is still ripe with a strain of the virus. Arron also told Sophia about the others on the ship being accidentally compromised. “Everyone on the ship died within hours. the strain works even more quickly than we’d anticipated”. We learn the couriers’ name is Alex and the tissue is en route from Moscow to New York. At this time, it is presumed “Alex” is a male.
At the Moscow Airport, we see a man carrying a metallic suitcase boarding the flight. He declines check-in of the suitcase and boards the flight. Next scene is Sean Walker and Vicky Roberts running thru the airport to the boarding area. They ask about the passengers on the flight, but the attendant nicely tells them she cannot give out that information. Spur of the moment tickets are bought by Sean and they both board the flight as the boarding is now closed. –I feel I’m correct in surmising the Bag that Dempsey gave to Sean also contained money. He knew they would need to board trains, planes and so on. As Sean and Vicky board, they pass the man who boarded earlier and we see the suitcase under his seat.
Scene of the Air Moscow flight over the a layer of clouds with the night sky. In the plane, Vicky is playing ‘tourist’ and watching the Stewardess prepare the cart for the passenger refreshments and when the woman leaves, Vicky sneaks a peek at the passenger manifest in the galley. She gets back to her seat beside Sean saying “I got the passenger manifest. There’s no ‘Alex’ on board. I even checked first and last names.” She shows Sean the manifest. Sean points out a man ahead of them is “Acting real weird, looking around him… He’s coming back from the bathroom” We see the man -carrying that suitcase- coming back. Sean asks quietly “Who brings their carry-on to the bathroom?”. Vicky notes the man’s seat location.
Back in Washington DC, Blake Sterling enters the ICU of the hospital to see President Martinez. Christina Martinez is there, keeping vigil over her husband. After greeting Blake, she tells him it isn’t good for Elias. She starts to blame herself for the stress put on Elias and other things. Blake gently tells her “This is nothing you did! Nothing could’ve helped him”. Christina is taken aback by Blake’s words.
“What do you mean?… What do you know?” Blake replies, “Nothing… I just meant Elias would be heartbroken if he thought you were blaming yourself for this.”. Christina is not buying this. “I know you Blake” she said firmly. “You know something! Tell me..” but Blake gently apologizes again to her and leaves. I liked Blake at this point. He always seemed so ‘unemotional’ but this scene showed him having a soft spot.
Sophia is being briefed by Dr. Liu, She tells Sophia the compound has already slowed Elias’ brain activity and he could die either later today or tomorrow. Michael heard the discussion as he came in to see Sophia. After the Doctor leaves, Michael and Sophia talk a bit. “Do you know what scares me the most?” asks Sophia. “The letting go. of who I used to be.
I knew that it would be painful to follow through on Thomas’ plan that in order to make room for our people here to ensure their survival, I would have to… sacrifice some of my principles.” Sophia (Laura Innes) played this part very well. that voice of hers, so soft and easy, makes me feel I want to be on her side. Even knowing full well what that means. Michael interjected “You’ve taken a huge burden on your shoulders, Sophia.”.
Sophia replies, “But that doesn’t make what has to happen next any easier”. She paused and then continued “This morning, Simon attacked Carlos in the infirmary and he nearly escaped” Michael said that Simon needs to be moved to a more secure location. Sophia says no. “I was hoping that Simon would soften his views and that we could welcome him back into the fold” She sighed “It’s clear to me that that will never happen. He needs to be taken care of.” — I know, she does NOT mean to ‘care for Simon’. THAT line NEVER means anything good as we know, but actually she thinks she has to kill him.
I was hoping she would not take this route. If I were Sophia, I would secure him more thoroughly and then let him see the fruition of the plan. THAT would be a pain to Simon, unmatched by any physical torture. Michael asked why she was approaching him about this. Sophia said he had always been loyal, able to set aside his attachments to his family for what needs to be done. “You will do this for me” she says as a matter-of-fact. Michael agrees.
On the Plane, Vicky walks past the suspected courier and spills a drink into his lap. The courier gets up and goes into the Galley for a cloth, of course carrying his suitcase with him. Sean and Vicky tackle him in the galley and Vicky opens the case…. To find Cocaine. “We have the wrong guy” she says to Sean “It’s Coke.”. One of the flight attendants enters, asking if everything is alright, and they all assure him it is. Back in their seats, Sean says “we have to let the authorities know there’s a WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction) on this plane. You used to work for the CIA, you have to know someone that we can get word to…” Pointing out at least the virus could be contained just to this plane. Not everyone else. Then, again, he sort of questions why Vicky is still staying with him and why she is helping him. She tells him not to flatter himself, that she is doing this to protect her family too.
Back in their house, Michael and Leila are in their kitchen. Leila tells Michael she has found a spot to bury Louis’ body. about a mile into the woods, the ground is soft. Michael tells her they will do this tonight and starts to walk out. Leila stops him with a question. “We can bury Louis, but what about everyone else? How many people will have to die?” Michael says the title line when he replies “Leila, I don’t like this any more than you do, but it’s Us, or Them! Now, I ‘ have to go.”
Leila retorts “When I was a kid, I was playing with the boys across the street and they killed a bird. I told you what happened and you said we were the strongest and smartest things on the planet, so we had a responsibility to protect the smaller weaker things because if we didn’t do it, no one else would. That it was the right thing to do. I don’t know if you remember that but I do. But I’m looking at you and I don’t recognize that person anymore.” Michael looks almost ashamed as he wordlessly walks out from their house.
Blake is in his office as Mr. Laduchi comes in with the preliminary lab results of the tox-screen run on Blake’s sleeve. “The analysis came back as containing coffee and sucralose which is a very common sugar substitute, but I also found traces of an unknown bio-catalyst. It’s not something naturally occurring it’s synthesized, which… is strange, because as far as I know, we don’t even have the science to create it.” It seems as if Blake is now fully aware of who does have the ‘science’ and seems to remember Jarvis pushing for diplomacy with the aliens. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have a better explanation” concludes Mr. Laduchi Blake sighs and looks at Laduchi as he says: “I think I do.”
Blake walks in to Jarvis’ office. Jarvis is going through paperwork and his head is resting on one hand.”Blake, What is it?” he asks tiredly. Blake says “We need to talk. I don’t think what happened to the President was an accident” Blake tells Jarvis that he had a sample of the coffee from that morning which spilled on his clothes analyzed. “So” Jarvis replies “You really do suspect foul play”. “There was foul play” Blake says as he gives Jarvis copies of the report from the lab.
“I have reason to believe the compound came from Sophia’s people” he said. “And once I realized Sophia was involved, it all made sense to me.” “Meaning…What?” asked Jarvis. “Meaning you’re not capable of doing something like this alone… Raymond.” Jarvis became upset and spluttered “H-how DARE you! Accuse me!”… They start to argue vehemently, but Blake’s onto Jarvis.
Blake said to Jarvis that Sophia only used Jarvis so she could get control of this office. “You’re a PAWN, Her puppet!” then, Blake softens and says “I know you care about this country, but trusting Sophia will only lead to more death and destruction… Whatever you’re doing, Put an end to it…Now… before it’s too late” Jarvis cites Blake’s accusations as baseless and says that this is where they part ways. At this point Jarvis effectively fires Blake and tells him “You’re Done!” He looked like he would spit fire at Blake if he could have.
Back on the airplane from Moscow, everyone in the cabin is sleeping or appears to be. Sean looks out of his window and sees the Military escort sidling up to the passenger jet. Cabin lights come on and the Stewardess announces that they “…are currently under military escort. There is no reason to be alarmed, Our flight is being redirected to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland only as a safety precaution. At this time we ask that you remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened. Thank you”. Passengers are whispering and talking among themselves.
We see the suspicious man getting up and walking to another part of the plane. On being told to go back to his seat, he says he wants to go to his wife. they were given separate seats, but he wants to be with her. The Attendant saying “I’ll see what I can do” leads him off to the other area of the plane. Arron is now on the phone to Sophia, telling her that their courier just emailed him telling him their plane now has a US Military escort. Sophia say they must get the virus to a better location. as this strain works too quickly. In other words, the tissue they have would kill only those in the plane and not allow it to spread out the way they need it to.
Jarvis is telling Agent Peel about having to fire Blake. As the agent leaves his office, Jarvis gets a call from Sophia. Sophia, no longer playing nice, tells Jarvis to issue a ‘stand down’ order on the Military escort of the Russian jet. “You don’t need to know anything, just do it.” She threatens Jarvis with more destruction of his people and a full-disclosure about Jarvis role in the attempts on Elias life. “You will call off the F-16’s Now!” –Her voice is no longer soft or friendly. She lays it on the line to Jarvis, Jarvis knows he has no hope of arguing her down.
Sophia, in my opinion has just attained the “BAMF” (BAMF=Bad a** mother f***er) Status. She is harder in voice and action than we have seen her before.I believe this is due to having been lied to for all these decades and her knowledge that time is of the essence for her people now.
At the same time, back on the jet, Sean, Vicky and the others see the fighter jets leave. The Captain announces the threat was unfounded and they are now back to the regular flight. Vicky says Sophia must have someone on the inside. They finally land at JFK airport, Sean and Vicky see the flight attendant go through as another steward offered to share a cab with her and called her “Alexandra”. “Oh, my boyfriend is picking me up” Alexandra replies as they walk through past the line Sean and Vicky stand in, waiting to get their bags checked. It was the Stewardess! That is why she was not on the flight manifesto.
Jarvis is told by his secretary that Blake Sterling has been escorted off the grounds. Jarvis thanks her, and turns to face out the window, hi expression could be read as disappointed and even ‘horrified’. Mainly I see anger at the fact he realizes he has been ‘Played’ by Sophia. It is as if Blake’s words have come back to haunt him now. Jarvis has been indeed a pawn in the greater game between two very powerful people.
Back in the infirmary at the community, Simon is bound and in his room. Michael come in to the room and the guard, Carlos, his nose bandaged most likely from the earlier attack on him by Simon, says it isn’t a good idea for him to enter. Michael tells him “Sophia asked me to take care of things. You can go now”. Carlos leaves. Simon looks at Michael asking “So, Sophia asked you to do her dirty work for her huh?” He looks at Michael and continues “You’re going to have to face up to what you’re doing, Michael.
To me, and the billions of people Sophia will ask you to kill.” It appears that Michael will indeed shoot Simon, but he doesn’t. After firing a round, he goes to Simon “We gotta get you out of here” Simon looks back at the wall where a bullet hole is and sighs. Next, we see Michael in the room as Carlos comes back in “Give me a hand with the body” he says. As Carlos comes in Michael knocks him out. Simon and he are going to meet on the northwest side of the compound in the woods.
Sean and Vicky are running through the airport and they see the stewardess with her bag, they chase and try to intercept her but another man drives up, blocking them off from Alexandra. The man jumps out and grabs Sean holding a gun to his head, preventing Vicky from shooting. Sean kept telling her to take the shot. Vicky refuses. Eventually, Vicky puts her gun down and she kicks it away on the man’s instructions. The Stewardess gets into her car, with the case and drives off, letting the other man get into the car with her. Sean and Vicky heist a car as per usual and they drive off in pursuit.
Back into the Community, Carlos is discovered, gagged and bound in Simon’s room. The call goes out “Michael and Simon are gone! Lock down the perimeter before they escape!” Scenes of the woods and Leila and Simon standing, Leila asks “where’s my dad?” Simon answers “He said he’d meet us here”. We then see many of the Aliens going out on search from their streets into the woods
. Michael shows up to where Simon and Leila are, closely followed by the search party. Michael tells the other two “The Perimeter fence is straight ahead… about fifty yards through those trees..” We see them running to the fence. It looks as if they’re about to make it, but gunfire erupts from the search party and fire is returned by Simon and Michael. Leila is seen running to the fence and the search party is hot on their trail.
After Michael lets the other two get ahead, he stays behind and fights with the searchers from the community. It looks like he is completely outnumbered, and we see him get a bullet. As Simon and Leila reach the fence, we see Michael coming up to Leila and he has indeed been shot. Leila holds him, trying to get him to run. Michael falls and Leila is calling for her dad to stay. Michael, while calling her ‘baby’ and so on is hurt bad but tells Leila there is a vial in his pocket. She is to get this to the president as soon as she can. Leila will not leave her ‘Dad’ and does not go with Simon. I was hoping she would leave with Simon. This could have put another twist into the story later.
Michael keeps telling her to go, saying “Go…Leila…” She tells Simon to take the vial instead. Simon leaves, jumping the fence and Michael dies in Leila’s arms, while apologizing to her for the way he had acted before. As Leila is captured and taken back from her father, she see Sophia and looks at Sophia saying “You did this! You killed him!” Sophia’s face is unreadable.
We are left with Sean and Vicky going after the courier of the infected tissue, Simon on the run and Leila, now apparently fatherless, in the hands of “The Others”. Elias Martinez is still in Critical care and Blake has been fired. Jarvis is now the President and realizes what has happened but will he change back to the side of the Humans? Will he have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to Sophia and her people? That remains to be seen…
My take…For what it is worth…
I will miss Michael Buchanan if he did, in fact die. We are left to presume he passed away, but most Sci-Fi people know that “No one really dies in Sci-Fi”. He was in a way a good guy/bad guy, leaning more to the side of peace but stuck in the control of Sophia’s plan.His inner conflict made him an interesting character.
If Sophia did not kill Michael directly, it was her orders and ways that did ultimately result in Michael’s demise. At least from what I saw, Michael saw what he had become and repented for this to his daughter, and to himself. He went back to what I feel the Aliens would really be about were they not facing such desperation in their people’s fate. There are very similar mannerisms among the Eartheaon people. I feel throughout history Man has been like this.
We would all like to think we are so much better than that, but are we really? Best to ask some of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, Australia, Africa etc and see what they would say about this. I doubt our history is much better than we would like to think it is. A lot of the actions in history was based on greed. Invading tribes did not face a supernova or the extinction of their people. Some actions were based on a survival instinct, sure: Food supply, water and shelter, but if they had not wanted it all, but wished to share.
I believe the history of this world would have been very different indeed. I feel that had the aliens been helped instead of lied to and detained all these years, things may well have been very different. Now, the time of their Supernova is nearer than eer, and the desperation in Sophia and her people is making them harsher in their actions.
I feel that sometimes, Sophia would be someone feeling like what Jessica Dovey was quoted as saying: “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy.”. This was when she told another of her people in the last episode that she took no joy in seeing this man (President Martinez) fall, and neither should he. Many people attribute the above quote to Dr. Martin Luther King, but he in fact did not say this.
I do not and never have felt that Sophia actually ‘Hates’ Eartheaons. If anything, she is first and foremost about saving her own people. She is looking at this as more clinical, or unattached than we would in her situation….Or is she? Would we not take a weaker race or species asunder if it meant the survival of our own people? I unfortunately, believe we would do exactly the same thing.
Be sure to watch the next episode of the Event, “One Will Live, One Will Die” which returns on Monday May 9, 2011 on NBC 9/8C. We include the promotional trailer for the next episode and the entire “Us or Them” episode for your enjoyment courtesy on The Event on NBC
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We left off last week with Sophia Maguire (Laura Innes) telling her people their scientist Herbert Mills was getting close to finding the weapon they needed to cull the population of this planet to prepare for their rescue of 2.5 Billion of their people from their sun about to go into supernova.
Christina was still not agreeable to take the DNA tests and after much probing by President Martinez, she admitted that her Dominican parents illegally entered the USA as Cuban refugees. She had lied about her history because she feared that her parents and she, herself, would be deported. Not to mention the trouble President himself could face.
Leila Buchanan (Sarah Roemer), back in the aliens community, used a ruse of cutting her hand in order to get the bodyguard to take her out of the house to a medic within the community. While in the house where the medical center had been set up, Leila saw Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) restrained in one of the rooms as she, herself was taken in for treatment of her cut hand.
She later got to see him. Simon quickly told Leila what Sophia had planned for this planet and bringing her people here. He mentioned a woman’s name, Irena Bogdanov and a search for a weapon in Murmansk, Russia. This weapon was the key to winnow the current population of this world to make room for their own people.
Dempsey wound up telling Sean about the Sentinels and how the Non-Terrestrials had been coming to this planet for centuries. Dempsey, impressed with Sean’s tenacity and ability to circumvent obstacles put before him essentially gave him the scroll, some passports and told Sean that he must now take up this fight. Sean, Vicky and Dempsey’s henchman then watched Dempsey take his own life with a gunshot to the head. Hal Holbrook as Dempsey was a great actor and I’m sure we will miss his presence in The Event
Leila called Sean -who was still in France- to try to warn him of the impending fate of the planet. She had stolen a cell phone from the bodyguard she had invited in for a drink and wound up fighting him, escaping with the phone. During her call, her father Michael Buchanan (Scott Patterson) grabbed her and stopped the call.
Sophia was getting Vice-President Jarvis to work with her to eliminate President Martinez. At first Jarvis was hesitant, but after trying to work with Blake Sterling (Zeljko Ivanek) and being given a cold reception, Jarvis knew he no longer had any friends in the Executive Branch. Sophia planned to ‘Cut off the head”… Kill the president and Jarvis was being persuaded to help her.
This “job” was to be done with a poison, administered in a packet of the sweetener the aliens provided to Jarvis so that it would be used in the President’s coffee. Sophia said something that clued us all in to the nature of the weapon as she had received a text that told her Jarvis received the packet while she was speaking to Arron: “He is naive enough to think he can save his country, but once we have the weapon, nothing can.”
“Strain”
In this case ‘strain’ the title, could mean a strain of a disease. We open in Murmansk, Russia and what appears to be a coffin being placed into a large ship. Down in the hold, the box is opened and the body -frozen stiff- is examined. The Medical Examiner is wearing a full-protection suit. We can hear the chilling ‘crunch’ as the corpse’s arm is lowered by the M.E. as he gets ready to do the autopsy. The corpse is remarkably preserved from having been in the frozen ground for over ninety years. Like many soldiers of that era, one could tell he was most likely quite young when he died and frozen in the ground.
Then the scene goes to the War Room as the President and his cabinet enter into for the morning meeting. We watch close ups of the President preparing the coffee brought to him and he sips it as he speaks to the others about the non-terrestrials. Then the talk goes to a bill that looked as though it would pass, but did not because of unemployment figures which came out at that time.
President Martinez instructed to meet with a senator and suddenly, his speech becomes impaired as if he is having a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack). He is trying to say ‘Let’s take five and…” but the words were mixed up. My own father had had three of these TIA’s and I must say Blair Underwood did a fine job of emulating this symptom. His sppech becomes worse as he stands up, disoriented, gripping his head and we can sense he is in pain. He then collapses to the floor. Just before he falls, The President’s eyes lock on with Raymond Jarvis’ who does not even blink.
Then, we see the President, surrounded by Emergency staff wheeled in through a hospital corridor and a doctor is barking out orders for medicines and getting President Martinez’s vitals. The flurry of activity is realistic enough for anyone having a brain bleed or stroke. This is what the formal diagnosis is for President Martinez. a brain bleed or hemorrhagic stroke. The Executive Branch are discussing how to keep this on a low-key. Not to panic, not to look vulnerable. The Doctor tells them President Martinez’s inter-cranial pressure is building and if they cannot get this under control, they will have to attempt surgery.
We then see Blake go in to the Intensive Care Unit room where President Martinez is laying. Martinez can still talk, albeit weakly. He tells Blake that Jarvis must not ascend to the Presidency. Martinez tells Blake he knows Jarvis did this. Blake now knows to investigate this matter further. We now see the hospital corridor and Christina entering, distraught, asking to see Elias. Jarvis is feeble in trying to comfort her and tells her “He’s a hero to me” Christina thanks him and goes in to see her husband. Then we see Jarvis going into the rest room, telling the Secret Service agent to ‘Give me a moment’. Jarvis looks into the mirror, in a state of shock and scared. His breathing is somewhat labored and he then runs to a stall and is sick.
Blake and others of the Secret Service go outside of the hospital and an agent tells him as he sites the twenty-fifth amendment, that action should be taken to put Jarvis in as President. Blake fights this, as he saw the President is still conscious. The agent says “For how long?”. Blake tells the agent that Martinez told him Jarvis was responsible for this, and he is inclined to believe him. “He thinks Jarvis did something to the coffee” Blake says. Amid arguments of “The President’s suffering brain trauma…” Blake succeeds in stalling the swearing in of Jarvis as President for now. He then leaves to try to get hard evidence of Jarvis’ attempt on Martinez’s life.
Sophia is sitting in a living room of one of their homes in the Alien community and watching the news about Martinez on television. One of the Others enters and says something about it being a cause for celebration. Looks like her plans are all coming together. Sophia tells him “Don’t. There’s no reason to be callous. I take no joy in seeing this man fall and neither should you.”
The other alien comes into the room saying that Arron reported back from Murmansk and they have recovered the weapon. Sophia asked ‘And are we prepared on this end?’ “Of course” he replied Sophia asked him “Why isn’t Michael helping with this?” “I tried calling him, he hasn’t phoned me back” The other replies “He must’ve got held up.” Then he asked “Once we have the weapon, how will we distribute it on the scale we need to?” Sophia replies “Once Jarvis is in power, he will help us. …He just doesn’t know it yet.”
We see Leila outside in the community, talking to Sean, before her father comes up to grab her. This was like a flashback to last week’s episode, but this time it carried on further. Michael yells at Leila, asking her who she called and what had she told them. “If Sophia finds out, I won’t be able to protect you!” he tells her. “Leila, Who did you call and what did you tell them!?” he asked again. Leila tells him she called Sean and told him about everything. What the Others were trying to do and the search going on in Siberia.
At this point, the Bodyguard, who we now know is called Louis, catches up to them and they all argue it out Louis rightfully tells Michael that Sophia needs to know what happened with this breach of their security by Leila. Michael agrees and the next scene has all three of them walking in the street, presumably to Sophia’s location. Louis says that he felt Leila should never have been brought here. In an instant, Michael kills Louis and tells Leila to grab his stuff, and grab his legs. They are going to dispose of Louis.
On a train in North-Eastern France, we see Sean and Vicky in a dining car. They speculate about what Leila told them, and Sean on his ever present laptop discovers the name Irena Bogdanov is the name of a SHIP, not a woman. Sean looks satisfied. He turns the laptop to face Vicky so that she could see what he was looking at as he says “Currently docked at the port of Murmansk!”
In the hold of the ship, we see the Medical Examiner dictating into a recorder as he works “The subject is surprisingly intact, even after ninety-three years…” He continues cutting and looking surmising it is most likely due to the permafrost He proceeds to work to expose the organs. He uses a tool to cut into the sternum, and it makes a loud clack as a piece of bone flies off. The scene shifts to the decks of the ship. “The men are worried” said a man “The job has risks that were not fully disclosed” Arron tells him “As long as they stay out of the clean room, your men are perfectly safe.” The man, who I presume to be a Captain remarks “Money will be more convincing than words.” Arron tells him “If you don’t like the job, then quit. You’re not getting more money.” He then tells the captain to get him more smokes, He Crushes the empty packet as he says “I’m out”.
Okay, I did not know aliens smoked cigarettes. This guy is either no alien, or they do smoke (!) It would be interesting to see perhaps if they are smoking to ‘shield’ their lungs from what is in the ship and that corpse, perhaps. That would add a “Camp” slant to the story, and I somehow do not see that happening. I will see it as a ruse to get the other man out of the way for a while and cease his questions.
Now, the Medical Examiner is removing the ribs from the corpse in the hold. He says as he works “The Lungs, are magnificent. I think we will have very good results. The epithelium are enlarged and the primary bronchi are filled with mucus or some kind of liquid…” We hear his breathing as he continues to work while wearing what appears to be a Hazardous Materials (HazMat) protective suit. No doubt this is a cumbersome, hot outfit to wear, but it is necessary to protect himself from the contaminants in that corpse.
He reaches for something and a horn outside blows, seeming to startle him. The M.E. cuts his hand with the scalpel he was using. He doesn’t look right away, but he finally sees the blood on his hands, looks at them and sees he is bleeding. In desperation, he calls out through the locked door to be released from the room, but is told he cannot come out. “Please! I know what I am doing!” he continues to knock at the door and we see the outside handle being turned downward to the “Locked” position.
President Martinez is laying unconscious in his hospital bed and Christina is holding his hand. A doctor tells her Martinez’s inter cranial pressure became such that he lost consciousness. The doctor tells Christina that if they do not see improvement in his condition, then they would have to discuss the Presidents’ wishes. This upsets Christina who starts to leave to be with her husband. We see the private ICU room with Christina laying over the bed, talking and telling him “I love you… So much…”
At the White House, Blake enters with the Head of the Secret Service, Agent Peel and tells him they have been tracing all of Jarvis’ movements before the President’s collapse. Jarvis was there in the briefing room early, before the others got there. With further discussion, Blake pulls up the security video of the room and they see Jarvis go to the coffee cart. We see him getting something from his jacket but his back is turned to the camera so we do not actually see what he is doing there. It’s enough to call a lot of red flags up in Blake.
Agent Peel says they’ll need more than this to prove anything. At this point, an aide comes in and tells them Jarvis wants to see them. Jarvis comes in and tells them he has submitted the request for Section 4 of the twenty fifth amendment … “Succession Protocol” in order to take the Presidency. They tell Jarvis the Secretary of State is returning soon from being out of town and Jarvis says “We’ll convene when she gets back.”. After Jarvis leaves, Blake said “The Secretary has already landed. I met her myself to brief her on the President’s condition” Agent Peel replied “I know. It bought us a couple of hours. If we don’t find something in that time, that man is going to be the next President of the United States.”
Jarvis walks into his office, telling his secretary he is busy and cannot take appointments. As he settles in alone, Sophia calls, wondering why he has not taken power yet. Jarvis says “Because the President isn’t dead yet. If that powder you gave me worked as it was supposed to… Sophia interrupted him saying “The poison is working as it’s supposed to. Be patient. It works slowly. In a few hours, President Martinez will lapse into a coma, and shortly after that he will die and you will be the next president of your country.” Jarvis looks weary and is deeply regretting what he has become, a pawn.
Blake and Peel are watching the video of the meeting as Martinez collapses and they see Jarvis remove the empty packet of sweetener from the table. Peel still says they need more hard evidence. Meanwhile, Jarvis is still on the phone to Sophia. Sophia tells Jarvis there will be no trace of the poison. It is made to metabolize quickly and as long as he took the sweetener packet, there will be no proof. Jarvis has a flashback to the morning’s happenings and says “We may have a problem…” We flash to Blake and Peel looking at the video in Blake’s office and we all see it as well, The spilled coffee. Back to Jarvis as he tells Sophia “When the President collapsed, his coffee spilled. Blake and Peel rush into the Briefing room to find it is already being cleaned by the staff.
Back in the Alien’s community, we see Michael and Leila cleaning up. Michael barks at Leila to clean up the blood as he drags Louis into their kitchen area. Leila thanks him for being on her side. “I’m not!” says Michael. “Leila, you are not one of them! We’re your people now, not Sean, not anyone else” he comes to face her “I know you can’t fully accept that right now, but anymore calls to the outside, anymore attempts of escape, will get us both killed!”
He turns back to their task “Now clean up the blood, we’re wasting time!” Michael gets Louis into plastic bags and Leila is cleaning the floor as a knock come to the door. It is Sophia. Cue the mad dash to hide bloody cloths and open door to stall Sophia. Michael appears saying he couldn’t sleep and Sophia asks if they can talk outside. Once there, Sophia asks if he has seen Louis. Michael says No, not since last night. Sophia is concerned because Louis is not answering his phone. She asks if Michael can track him down for her. Michael agrees to do so.
Back on the docks in Russia, we see the large ship and activity common of such a place. Sean and Vicky are laying low saying that’s the ship. They see the guards and plot how to get onto the ship. Sean asks Vicky why is she here with him. Before now, everything she has done has been for money or family. Vicky asks him “Why do you think I’m here?” Sean replies that he has no idea. “Honestly, I don’t understand you, at all” Vicky says “That’s right, you don’t” As they both jump up and hijack a small fishing boat, knocking out the owner and swiping a smaller lifeboat from it.
The two then sidle up to the Irena Bogdinov and climb up its’ side to gain entry onto the ship. They find the bridge is deserted and guards are not present on the large vessel. They find the room and as Vicky is about to open the door, Sean tells her not to. There might be something inside. Vicky looks in through the porthole of the door and sees the remains of a man, not the original corpse. “What the Hell happened in there?” she asks. Sean hands her one of the HazMat suits saying “Only one way to find out”. We see them enter the room to a myriad of blood, remains of men and it looks very bad.
Eventually they come to the plastic ‘walls’ of the makeshift autopsy room and they see the corpse. Vicky says she doesn’t know from what, but this one is wearing a uniform “He was a soldier..”. His chest had been cut open and she asked why. Sean looked it over and said “To get to his lungs. They’re missing.” This effect was pretty impressive. While some may find this to be ‘gross’, it is still our biology. Earlier, during the autopsy, we saw pristine lungs. These were taken, neatly and entirely, but now we ask why? I have an idea or two, but having done well in biology and Anatomy, among other allied health fields, I’m going to let you, the reader theorize.
Suddenly they both hear a sound from somewhere on the ship and Vicky say “We’re not alone” The next scene is Sean and Vicky with a Russian man “Start Talkin’!” Vicky commands. Through further ‘Persuasion’ the man tells them it was a Soldier from World War One, buried in the ice, and that Spanish Flu was the cause of the deaths. The man told them he only knew the flight number “Flight 34, Air Moscow”. He claimed to know nothing else other than that “They are bringing infected tissue to your country!”
In the USA, the Cabinet members, Jarvis and others are convening to enact the succession protocol which will make Jarvis the new President of the United States. Blake and Peel are in a hallway and Peel asked if they got anything from the briefing room. Blake tells him the fiber samples from the carpet were too contaminated from the cleaning solution. Blake says these proceedings must be stopped. He must have a chance to present evidence. Peel reminds him there really isn’t any useable evidence. “You’ll have to play along. and if you can’t do that, don’t go in… ever”. The secretaries are convened and a majority vote of ‘Ayes’ are taken.
Jarvis is now to become President of the United States. Blake returns to his office later, he looks dejected and very sad. He wonders, perhaps if there was something… a little bit of tangible evidence he might have missed! Surely no one could be this good at hiding their nefarious actions! As his head is resting on his hands, he looks, he sees….
The coffee stain on his own shirt sleeve! He’s had the evidence all along!!
We see President Martinez in his ICU room and Christina keeping vigil. Suddenly Martinez starts to have a seizure and the monitors begin to sound alarms, Christina yells for help and the room becomes a hive of activity with Doctors, nurses going to his aid as we fade out.
My Take, For what it’s worth…
I would understand the use of a disease to take out a large number of the native population. The “Spanish Flu” wiped out millions of people in 1918-1919. Although there is no vaccine against this, it is less threatening these days with modern medicine and what we know in epidemiology. It seems to me, this disease would be more of a threat in underdeveloped countries which lack the medical prowess needed to treat and contain it. I feel they plan to modify this disease to be even more resistant to any known treatments of this day.
Leila, of course grew up on this world and feels a loyalty to the native people of Earth. What would any of us do if we were to discover our parentage were not of this world? Michael seems to understand his daughter’s loyalties being torn, but he is about the survival of his people – including her. Perhaps his younger daughter, Samantha is so young he has left her in the care of others on the outside as she will not worry or be upset right now. It will be interesting to see where the story goes when and if the aliens do infect this world with the disease. I also think Michael, deep down, is concerned about the native population, yet he must remain loyal to Sophia and their own people
I missed seeing Simon Lee in this episode. As far as we know he is still detained in that medical house in the community. Perhaps Sophia does not want him dead, but will force him to watch the ‘genocide’ he is so sorely against. She will punish him for his treason, but I don’t feel she wants to actually take his life. I also can understand Sophia. She is duty bound to save her people from their extinction, yet doesn’t feel a total disregard for the native people here on this world. I do not feel feel she is brought any joy in doing what she feels she must. Perhaps using a disease to winnow the population is in her eyes, a fair thing to do. Those who can survive the sickness will, and they will most likely be allowed to live on in co-existence with the new arrivals from NCG-253. We will have to wait and see!
The Event Returns Monday May 2, 2011 with “Us Or Them” (Sneak Peek below). In the meantime, please enjoy “Strain” courtesy of NBC!
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In the last few episodes, we saw the aliens becoming more aggressive after yet more let downs from the government. Sophia Maguire (Laura Innes) and the “Others” were holed up in a cathedral.
They had had enough between Thomas’ rebellion and the broken promises by the Government. They tried to reason with President Martinez (Blair Underwood), but failing that they took down the Washington Monument.
Unknown to the Government, that was all the aliens had, power-wise, but it bluffed the President into thinking they were ready for full out war. The Aliens made demands to leave the cathedral by buses to LAX and a cargo jet there. The government complied so they left by three buses from the cathedral. Two of these were destroyed by Government ordered Apache gunship fire.
Thomas (Clifton Collins) and Sophia Maguire had resolved their difference in the stand-off earlier. When it looked like no escape, Thomas put his own bus in front of Sophia’s and he was killed in the missile attacks. On the third bus, Sophia (Laura Innes) and Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) survived, along with about sixty others.
Their bus escaped through the Portal array and they wound up back in the private housing development which Thomas had set up for their people to live in safely. But now, the Government is after ‘sleepers’ which have infiltrated the executive branch, among other high-level positions and President Martinez (Blair Underwood) has ordered DNA testing of everyone with the help of Senator Catherine Lewis (Virginia Madsen). Most everyone in the White House staff agreed to the tests, except for one hold-out; The First Lady, Christina Martinez (Lisa Vidal).
Sophia, Simon, Leila Buchanan (Sarah Roemer) and Michael Buchanan(Scott Patterson) are back in their community, and Sophia now says they will bring all their people here, to make this planet their own. The plan involves the destruction of most -if not all – humans on the Earth in order to make room for their two billion individuals.
While Sophia appears to be saddened by this option, she is duty bound to save her own people. The slaughter of the EBEs (Extraterrestrial Biological Entities) on the two buses in Los Angeles has embittered her and she no longer sees this world or its people as “Benevolent”. Because of this, she has released the EBEs from their vow of refraining to harm any benevolent civilizations. She is angry and desperate because their home world is about to be destroyed by their sun going into Supernova.
We now know that Dr. James Dempsey (Hal Holbrook) was working with an Archeology dig in the Jura Mountains in France. Dempsey’s team discovered some very ancient Amphora and a scroll within one of them. Dempsey is most pleased and was studying the scroll.
Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) and Vicky Roberts (Tyler Cole) had gone to find him and try to get answers, or kill Dr. Dempsey. Dempsey’s security agents captured Vicky. Sean went to get information from ‘Henri’ about the whereabouts of Dempsey and why they got ambushed. He got Henri to talk after inflicting much pain. Vicky was brought to Dempsey, who was studying the glyphs he now possessed.
Dempsey told her he was part of a line of people called “The Sentinels”. This line of Sentinels have been given the task of protecting us from “Them”. But, I was guessing because of Vicky’s knowledge of what he has done and had her do – for whatever reason – Dempsey ordered his henchman to kill her. We left with Vicky, bound and gagged in the Chateau, the henchman starting a fire with petrol and Sean on the run in the forest which surrounds the Chateau.
“Cut Off The Head”
This week, we come in to what appears to be an elaborate cryo-lab where a man we know as ‘Herbert’ is working with cylindrical packs of ice. He gently saws a piece of ice in a precise disc and lays this onto a large slide and places it into an analyzer. Outside, Government Tactical units are breaking into the building. Herbert is alerted to their presence, calls Sophia and tells her they are breaking in.
Sophia instructs him to send her what he has so far and destroy the rest of the samples he has. Herbert says he has worked so hard… but Sophia tells him he knows what he has to do. Herbert complies and starts a meltdown of the ice packets. The Government units break in and in the ensuing chase, Herbert jumps out of a window to his death.
In the EBEs’ community, Sophia is addressing her people in one of the homes. “There isn’t enough room on this planet to accommodate our entire population of 2.5 Billion, and their safety is my only priority! So we will have to…” She sighs heavily as she continues; “… effect changes here. The native population will be winnowed…substantially.” The others look at her as she says: “We’re working on a weapon that will make that happen quickly and efficiently. Herbert Mills was close to finding that weapon, but the government found him last night and he killed himself to avoid capture. Before doing so he uploaded the research that he’d found.”
Sophia pulled out a flash drive, giving this to a man she called Arron. “You’ll be in charge of analyzing the data that he sent and the sooner we find the weapon and use it, the sooner our people will be safe.”. Michael and the others speculate on the fact that if Herbert was found, the Government could find any one of them. Sophia agrees and that when we get to the next stage. By throwing this government into disarray, the focus will be off the EBE’s and they will have more time to find the weapon. One of the others asked “How?” Sophia said the title line: “Cut off the Head. we will take out President Martinez…Permanently.”
Next, in the White House “War Room”, Vice-President Ray Jarvis (Bill Smitrovich), Blake Sterling (Ziljko Ivanek) and Gen Ambruster (Blue Deckert) are discussing Herbert’s lab, his suicide and how they could find out what Herbert was looking for in the lab. As far as they know Herbert was studying Ice core samples. President Martinez is really into his coffee here, a strange turn as this was never that apparent in past episodes, is unsure why ice core samples were being studied. The General said it could be the EBE’s trying to find a way to bring more of their people here (At this time, the Government does not know how the EBEs could do this.).
Martinez tells them with the attack on the Washington Monument and their counterstrike at the EBEs, they are now at war with the non-Terrestrials which means Sophia could go on the defensive and if she does they must know what she is going to do and be ready for it. “This is a war we must win” he says. At this point, Vice-President Jarvis comments that this is a war maybe they should not fight alone. Maybe the should come clean about the aliens to other world leaders and get some help. President Martinez coldly tells Jarvis “When I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it” Jarvis backs down, and it is “Yes, Mr President.
An aide comes in telling Martinez that Sen Lewis is waiting to see him. All who agreed to the tests came back negative for non-terrestrial DNA. His wife is again called into question by Sen Lewis, who then produces a file on Christina. She put together this file on her own. She says that People and places do not match up. Martinez does not want to think of his wife as possibly being a non-terrestrial. As Senator Lewis was leaving his office, she pointed out a photo of the First Lady at a New Orleans rebuilding project six years ago, saying “She hasn’t aged a bit.” Martinez is irate at the Senator and tells her to “Get out”.
Jarvis receives a phone call from Sophia, who is standing outside in her community She is approaching Jarvis about the events that resulted in the loss of life. She tells Jarvis this will only get worse if Martinez has his way and she has a plan to get Jarvis in her ballpark and making him become the president. She expressed sadness at all who have been killed, leading Jarvis to believe this is the only way to save lives. Sophia knows how to stroke egos. Even her voice is very beguiling, so it seems fitting she would build Jarvis up to be the new Leader of the Free World and Jarvis would possibly grasp the opportunity.
Back in France, Sean is prowling in the woods around the Chateau de Perrault and sees Dempsey and others leaving. Sean then runs into the house and gets Vicky out of the fire. It appears she is in full arrest so Sean does rescue breathing and CPR on her. Eventually, he revives her. As Vicky comes around, We hear Dempsey saying “Impressive, Mr. Walker.” Sean looks up surprised as his gun is taken from him by a henchman and Dempsey continues; “I think it’s time we had a little talk”.
Back in the community, Leila sees the bodyguard thru the glass in the front door and causes a ruse to get out of the house by cutting her hand in the kitchen. I notice the kitchen is either never used, or these are a fastidiously clean people. The counter tops are totally cleared off, nothing seems to be plugged into the outlets on the walls, all that was there was an apple Leila claimed she was cutting with the knife.
She calls out and the guard comes in, wraps a cloth around her hand and takes her to the medic they have in the community. Their clinic is in one of the houses and seems to be well put together.As Leila is led into a treatment room, she looks around into the other rooms and spots Simon,who is restrained on one of the beds. His head is lightly bandaged. She is called into her treatment room so she doesn’t go to Simon.
I also notice the medic is an overweight female of “Over forty”. This to me is refreshing. Too many programs are so ‘Pretty’ these days and even EBE’s are attractive if not downright beautiful. I do like that age or weight is not a taboo in The Event. Sophia has facial lines and Arron looks ‘Over forty”…Hal Holbrook we know is advanced in years too. Quite a nice change in television! We need more ‘Real sizes’ in the entertainment business.
When the Medic is finished with tending to Leila’s hand, Leila asks if she could stay there for a while as she still feels a bit nauseous. The Medic agrees that she can stay and leaves. Leila then quietly leaves the treatment room and goes to Simon. She says she knows her father turned him in. She apologizes. He tells her what Sophia has planned and about what he saw in Thomas’ house. He tells her about the maps of Siberia and a woman’s’ name: Irena Bogdenov.
As he speaks, he is getting more anxious and it is good to see these EBEs do have emotions. That some of them care. Simon tells Leila that she must warn the humans. she points out there is no telephone and he says all of Sophia’s lieutenants have cell phones. We can see she understands what he is saying and she leaves after this meeting
Jarvis and some Secret Service people are in what appears to be an upscale hotel and Jarvis goes to a room, declining the Secret Service’s need to ‘Sweep” the room. Jarvis says “The room is clear” as the agent looks in and sees a woman with her back to the door, sitting there quietly. The Agent backs down, promising discretion and leaves. Jarvis walks into the room and locks it. The woman is Sophia, who is in a nice dress and make up. She cleans up nicely in fact. Jarvis pulls a gun on her and asks why he should not shoot her right now. She of course points out she would then become a martyr for her people. She says he can be the one to lead his country into the New order of co-existing with their people, but not while Martinez is in control. She tells him it would be non-traceable, we all know what this means. Martinez would be dead, Jarvis would become the President.
Martinez comes into his bedroom and sees his wife, asleep with her glasses still on. She has fallen asleep while reading and he wakes her. they talk a bit about an old vacation they were on and Martinez catches her in a ‘lie’ of sorts. She said she had seen a place before, but he remembers she had never been there. She ‘saves’ her comment by saying “In pictures” and he tries to egg her on for more information, mentioning he had never seen her family who was allegedly there, but she says it is late and they should sleep. We are still wondering if she could, in fact, be one of the EBEs.
President Martinez goes to see Senator Lewis and retrieves the file she had offered him earlier. Being assured that only she knows about the files as does he, he leaves with the file. We can tell President Martinez is very nervous about what secrets his wife could be holding back from him.
Jarvis goes to see Blake Sterling and tries to tell Blake about the impending war. Jarvis offered to help in discussions with Sophia, but Blake is vehemently against it. He tells Jarvis that “You should be in Prison!! Martinez is only keeping you around for appearances! So, for the year and a half you have left in office you should just Shut up and keep your head down!!”
Jarvis leaves, feeling dejected and upset that he apparently has no allies in the Government anymore. As Sophia and Arron are discussing what Herbert’s data indicated, they both seem very please at getting the actual location of their weapon. Jarvis calls her as Arron and Sophia wrap up their discussion to say he is on board with her idea to take out Martinez. Seems Jarvis is playing well into the plan Sophia has, and then… will he be of any use to the EBEs?
Back in the community, Leila opens the front door of her house to invite her bodyguard in for a drink. It is raining and the guard agrees to come in. Leila has him give her his jacket and gives him the corkscrew so he can open the wine as she pleads a need to use the bathroom. Of course Leila has taken the guard’s cell phone and locked herself in the loo where she then calls 911. She has no idea where the houses are, and the operator says her cell phone GPS is deactivated – cannot be located. During this time, the guard pours their wine, and notices she is taking a while. He goes to his jacket on a chair and finds his phone is gone. The Guard bursts into the bathroom and Leila fights him and escapes. It was interesting to see the non-Terrestrials do drink. I was really wondering as they do not seem to act like us, despite being ‘Humanoid’ in many respects.
Back in France, Dempsey is with Vicky and Sean at what appears to be a park far from his -now burning- chateau. Dempsey tells Sean what the Sentinels are, that the Non-Terrestrials have been coming here for thousands of years. Dempsey tell them the Sentinels have been here over three millennium, in a battle to preserve humanity and now the woman Sean knows as “Sophia” is dedicated to the extinction of our people. Sean tells Dempsey “Sophia is trying to save our people”. Dempsey says “Yes, she may have started out that way”
Dempsey then tells Sean that he must now take up this fight. Dempsey sites how Sean started out as a man with no resources, who has taken on the Government, and even Dempsey, in order to save Miss Roberts. Sean tells Dempsey he thinks he is a monster and that he should pay for his crimes. Dempsey tells Sean “Well, I must move you away from that, now” continuing that Sean is part of the “Tapestry”. He says Sean will be given things to help them fight the EBEs. Dempsey then commits suicide with a shot to his head.
Dempsey’s henchman drops a black bag at Sean’s feet and runs off.
I will miss seeing Mr. Holbrook. This is a fine Actor and his voice and mannerisms made for a great ‘Villain-Ally” character. One was questioning Dempsey’s motives through the whole series! To me, this is true entertainment. Many will be shocked to realize that Dr. Dempsey was on the side of humanity all along! After Dempsey falls dead, Vicky and Sean hear far off sirens and see the smoke billowing into the sky from the distant chateau, so they make a run for it. Once they both reach a desolate area, Sean stops for a rest and begins to open the bag which Dempsey’s henchman had given to him We see the Ancient Scroll, Passports and I am presuming some money will be in there for them to travel with. Then again, I am practical!
Leila has gotten away from the Guard and is outside in the community grounds calling Sean. In France, Sean is told by Leila what is planned. He must get help and stop this. She gets Irena Bogdanov’s name to him and was in the middle of telling him the plans when Michael, her father, tackles her and stops the conversation. Leila turns to her father and asked him ‘How could you be a part of all this??” He says “I don’t know what damage you may have caused, but if Sophia finds out, I won’t be able to protect you!”. Sean who has heard Leia get tackled and disconnected, now seems to understand Dempsey was telling the truth about Sophia and the non-Terrestrials.
President Martinez enters his bedroom and discloses the file about Christina to her. Christina is upset, but Martinez asks her to tell him what is going on. Turns out her parents are actually Dominican and they faked being from Cuba so they could be free here in America. Only the Cubans were getting amnesty in the USA so they sneaked into Cuba and then into America as Cuban refugees. She tells him that is why all the lies and misplaced details. Her family was here illegally and she had hoped it would all become a non issue over the years.
Jarvis is off to see an acupuncturist, one he specifically asked for. She tends to him. Jarvis said the needles look sharp to which she replies “Yes, very sharp.” she says softly to Jarvis. “But you won’t feel a thing. Quick and Painless.” she smiles. These were the words used before, with Sophia about dealing with Martinez. Her ‘assistant’ leaves a packet of sweetener in his jacket pocket. Jarvis apparently knows what to do with this. He asks for privacy while he gets dressed to leave. We see him pull out the little packet in a clear wrapping. The acupuncturist is then seen texting who we now know to be Sophia. Back in their house, Sophia says “Jarvis has it”. Arron asks if he will use it. Sophia replies “He’s naive enough to think he can save his country, but once we have the weapon, nothing can.”
In Murmansk, Russia, an excavation is taking place. It seems the EBEs have found the weapon they were counting on and as they bring what appears to be a large box or slab up from the frozen ground, we see a frozen body on top.
Jarvis is now in the White House “War Room” as the housekeeper is laying out the breakfast tray with danish and coffee. Jarvis asked her if she has any more of the croissants they had the day before and she goes to get some. Alone now, Jarvis leaves the sweetener he obtained from the acupuncturist in place of the President’s sweetener. The packets looks the same so it goes undetected. the President and others enter the room as Jarvis completes the switch of the packets. The President starts the meeting with the day’s business.
My thoughts, for what they are worth…
During the Russian excavation, the box did not look that large. I am wondering if the ‘Weapon’ is a biological agent, possibly within that body which was frozen to it. This would make sense to have a major pandemic/epidemic wipe out ‘humans’ instead of major surface or ecological damage from say, a Nuclear or Hydrogen bomb. Perhaps some disease that the EBEs can not get sick or die from. Keeping the planet liveable, sustaining and sound would be the way to go if you want to preserve it for your species, would it not? The fact that Sophia said in this episode; “(Jarvis) is naive enough to think he can save his country, but once we have our weapon, nothing can.”
Disease knows no borders. It has no prejudice. It only cares about your biology. I can safely guess that if Aliens can cure disease, like man, they can also create them.
But it seems that the EBEs are going from ‘co-existing’ with us to an all out obliteration of Earth’s populace. It is interesting to see Sophia is also reacting to the emotions of losing her son, Thomas and then having Simon betray her. She seems to in many ways regret what she has to do for her people, but at the same time doesn’t want to trust any human ever again. After what they have been through and thinking about what they may face – the extinction of their people- I can’t say I can completely blame her. I feel we could have, at one time, lived with the EBEs. They seem to be ‘Human’ enough to marry, have offspring with, work alongside… Heck, who’s that checkout girl at the market, really? Where is your Physician from? Do you REALLY know your ‘Fellow Man’?
Until next week below is the full episode courtesy of NBC. Enjoy!
As always we appreciate your visiting our news sites at WormholeRiders News Agency. Please feel free to leave a spam free comment or a question here. I will respond to your comment or question as soon as is possible. The Event Returns Monday April 24, 2011 with “Strain”. In the meantime, please enjoy the episode “Cut Off The Head” courtesy of NBC!
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This episode started off like the others, with a short recap of previous happenings. Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) and Vicky Roberts (Taylor Cole) going to France in pursuit of Dr. Dempsey (Hal Holbrook), Sophia Maguire (Laura Innes) and the “Sleepers”, trying to bargain with President Elias Martinez and getting nowhere, had Gerard activate the portal energy to take down the Washington Monument to the shock of the President and his staff.
When Martinez realized what their technology could do, he was compliant to Sophia’s demand that the Aliens in the Cathedral be given transportation away from the Cathedral, which culminated in 3 bus loads of Sophia’s people leaving the Cathedral. When a telephone message between Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) and Sophia was decrypted by President Martinez’s White House security team, we found out that Sophia had been bluffing and the aliens were, in fact “Completely Defenseless”.
Upon hearing the message, President Elias Martinez (Blair Underwood) became angry at the ruse. Martinez knows now that Simon Lee is one of the sleepers (Aliens). Blake Sterling (Zeljko Ivanek) had his suspicions about this and the phone call proved it. Martinez ordered that Sophia and her people be ‘Taken out’. We saw an Apache Gunship fly over the three buses, and firing missiles at two of the buses.
Gerard said he had enough power to transport only one bus to safety. Thomas (Clifton Collins Jr.), in a final act of maturity and courage, placed his bus ahead of Sophia’s. The Apache fired the second missile. Thomas’ bus was blown to smithereens as the remaining busload of Aliens, Michael Buchanan, his daughter Leila and Sophia watched in horror as they passed the wreckage.
Then we observed as a blue ball of light appear on the street ahead of the remaining bus. As Martinez and his staff watched on surveillance cameras, the bus disappeared into what they call a “Portal” -others might think of this as a “Wormhole”- disappearing from sight as we are treated to a scene on the bus, with Sophia and the others, going through the Portal.
The excellent special visual effects make it look as if the outside is bathed in blue light, distorted images look like this transport is at great speed. Sophia, Leila Buchanan (Sarah Roemer), Michael and the others look like they are being pressed back by this velocity. No one can really stand up or stay where they were if they had been standing, so the impression I got from this was a Portal is super fast and effects ones equilibrium. By the time the action stopped, the bus was on a dark, quiet residential street, vapor rising from the outside of it made me think of something very frozen.
Sophia asked “Where are we?” Another replied “We’re safe. This is where Thomas has been hiding our people” It is a gated community in which Thomas had bought up all the houses for use by their people. we see their people coming out from some of the houses as the scene fades out.
Back in the war room, with Martinez, Blake Sterling (Zeijko Ivanek) , General Armbruster (Blue Deckert) discussing what had happened with the buses. Simon Lee stands transfixed on the monitors showing the aftermath of the two destroyed buses.
Blake approaches Simon, complimenting him on crippling the aliens’ infrastructure and that his hard work is paying off. Simon thanks Blake and then looks down a bit. Martinez approaches, taking Blake out of the room to discuss a statement to the press. In the hallway, they’re discussing how to find Sophia, using Simon.
Simon, meanwhile, is viewing the carnage and devastation of what remains of the buses and their passengers.
We could see Simon was crying. A tear falls down his cheek as he sees his people, dead in the wreckage.
Blake comes back into the room, breaking Simon’s revere with news about NASA satellites detecting two unique electromagnetic signatures corresponding to the activation of the portal. Blake tells Simon it could lead to the activation of the portal device
Blake tells him this might lead them to the third bus and Sophia. Simon tells Blake he will gather his men and they’ll get on it. Blake nods and says “This could be the killing blow”. Simon leaves, a look of pain on his face. He goes out into the hallway, almost knocking another person over, but says a courtesy “I’m sorry”. The other man asks “Is everything OK?” Simon silently seems to assure him and walks on unaware that he is being watched on cameras back in the war room
This was a trap to see if Simon would call Sophia and they have a trace on Simon’s cell to alert them if he does call out. Simon goes to his office, closes the door and blinds. Simon is looking around his desk and is not calling anyone. He is called instead
Simon is instructed how to leave without detection by the security cameras. He winds up in an evacuation tunnel leading out to the street
He gets into a car, the distorted voice instructs him to change cars at Lexington. The interaction tells us this is Sophia calling him. Now, we see a newscaster telling the public the government now feels it was a Pakistan terrorist group “Durek E-Saleem” was responsible for the devastating attack on the Washington Monument
As we hear the newscaster, the scene pans to the hallway, where Martinez and Sterling are discussing Simon, how his photo has been distributed to all Federal and Local Law enforcement.
They have lost Simon and are none too pleased about it. President Martinez asks “Another Mole??” and Blake agrees it had to be an inside job. On another topic they discuss, identifications of the fatalities on the buses have been established. Many of them had positions of influence in government, Defense technology, Communications… even one who was appointed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by Martinez’s predecessor
Talk goes to the subject of how to find any other ‘sleepers’ in the world. So Martinez calls in Senator Catherine Lewis (Virginia Madsen) from Alaska.
The proposal Martinez wants to see done has to be enacted by Congress, not the Executive Branch.. Martinez wants to initiate a program to test every American’s DNA through the guise of tests for a virulent disease. Senator Lewis was a Doctor and spent time with the CDC. She says that tests could be run for a drug resistant form of Tuberculosis.
Leila Buchanan (Sarah Roemer) makes up on the couch at her house. She calls out for her dad, Michael Buchanan (Scott Patterson ) and finds he is out. So she leaves to go for a walk. Their housing area looks unusual in that garages are very clean, few seem to park on the street. In my neighborhood, this would be very anomalous.
.
She walks out onto the sidewalk.– I notice they don’t get US Mail service either. Maybe Thomas arranged for all Utility bills to be sent to his business–. Leila starts to head to the gates… I am thinking she wants to escape this place.
A polite man approaches her and says she is going the wrong way.He knows her name, so she is unsettled at this. She is cordially advised that she has everything she needs here and that she is safe.
Leila tells him she does not feel safe, to which he replies “Now, that’s just silly” and continues “You should be heading back now. You know you wouldn’t want to have anybody worry” Leila turns back to go home.
She pauses, watches the large gates closing behind a vehicle which has entered the community.
.
Sophia enters a house , also in the community and goes upstairs to what we find is Thomas’ bedroom. I think it is amusing that even aliens don’t seem to make their beds! This is serious though, as Thomas gave his life for their cause. This is like a mother coming to her dead child’s room and memories flooding over her.
She looks around, gently picks up a photograph of Thomas and herself in happier times off the nightstand, sits onto the bed and cries.
We can remember Thomas and his final act of bravery, giving his life to save Sophia’s and others. We should also remember Thomas by my understanding, was Sophia’s own Son.
In the same house, people are assembled in the living room and it looks almost like a funeral reception. Simon is among his people and they wait for Sophia. She comes from upstairs and looks at her people.
Seeing Simon, she hugs him. Then, she addresses her people: “Our planet is dying. Earth, it seems is our people’s only hope” She sits down wearily and continues: “I swore an oath. We all did… ‘To refrain from harming benevolent civilizations’ like the one on this planet That has been my guiding principle for the last sixty-six years But now, after witnessing the slaughter of our people in Los Angeles, I can no longer consider this population ‘Benevolent’.
Her voice gains strength as she says: “The Oath no longer applies”. Sophia stands up now as she says: “What matters now is that our star has begun to implode. two billion lives are at stake. I’m prepared to bring Thomas’ plan to fruition. We will bring all our people here and make this planet our own… No matter what this means for those who call this place their home”.
Seems that although Sophia is a wise woman, she is making an unwise decision….by Eartheaon’s interpretation at least. Remember, These aliens never denied having emotions, never really addressed a ‘soul’ like other shows might have. Sophia has lost many of her people to the violence of the government, so I feel Sophia’s grief for their people. It seems the fate of their home world is pushing her hand to act on an actual invasion. I could see it if the tables were turned. If we had the technology that they do and our sun was about to go supernova we would most certainly become the “Invaders” to another world.
We are now back in France. Henri, Vicky and Sean are hovering over a map.
.
Henri is telling them Dempsey’s camp is deep in the mountains, almost to the Swiss border. Dempsey himself is in a house known as “Chateau De Perrault” in the town of Morez. Henri and Vicky discuss the security and Sean says they must get to Dempsey tonight when Henri says Dempsey’s business here is almost concluded. They plot how to approach the Chateau and what the security is like. They opt for a service road out back of the estate. Henri tells them “Security will be most lax pre-dawn. That will be your best chance.” Later, Sean is in a cozy living-room -at Henri’s I presume- working on his laptop.
Vicky enters and they discuss what Sean plans on doing with Dempsey. Sean plans to turn him in. Vicky knows there is no proof of anything untoward by Dempsey and sarcastically says “And they’ll just take your word for it” and continues to tell him Dempsey needs to die. There is no other way. Sean thinks for a moment and starts to type rapidly on his laptop.
He is deactivating the software that would have exposed the whereabouts of Vicky’s son and shows her, saying “You’re free to go”.
Vicky asked “Why?” Sean replies “You got me this far, and you have a son. A family. I have nothing”. We see a gorgeous home which is the Chateau De Perrault.
Dempsey walks in to a fascinated archaeologist who is laboriously cleaning an Amphora with a soft brush and trying to interpret the glyphs on it. The man cites it at about the third Millennium B.C. That they are telling the story of a tribe of what could be best translated as ‘Guardians’.
Dempsey clarifies the word ‘Sentinels’. The archaeologist excitedly agrees to this word, then tells Dempsey they will know more with further translation.
Dempsey reaches out, brushing over the amphora with his bare hand. The archaeologist adminishes Dempsey for touching the amphora with bare hands. Dempsey agrees, but then tells him calmly; “I think we know enough already, Doctor”.
Dempsey then whacks the amphora with a small tack hammer. He ignores the horrified exclamations of the archaeologist… until he is successful at breaking it open to expose a scroll nestled inside.
Dempsey pulls out the scroll and they both stare at it in awe.
Sean gets into a car and starts to drive away to the Chateau De Perrault.
Vicky comes out of the house and gets into the car with him. Sean asked her what she was doing and why. Vicky tells him that all that she’s done for Dempsey, she wanted to put this all behind her.
They drive off to find Dempseys’ Chateau.
President Martinez is now speaking to the Public. He claims that terrorist group who was responsible for the attack on the Washington Monument had a long history of targeting western interest, Saying “You will not win” to the ‘terrorist group.
As the speech wraps up, his wife is waiting to speak with him about the DNA tests and she seems pretty irate about it. Christina (Lisa Videl) asks him what is this? mandatory testing? She sited measles, Polio, H1N1 etc so why this? Martinez confides in her about the search for ‘sleeper DNA’ and how this was the only way to find the Others. She snaps at him about privacy issues and that she cannot believe he is going along with this.
He says “I’m not going along with anything…this was MY idea!”
Under a starry sky. Sophia and Simon stand looking out over the houses of their community.
Sophia says; “It looks so peaceful from here… You would never know the violence in the universe.” Simon comments that they knew their sun would die eventually. Sophia says “…And then we must write the next chapter of our history”.
Simon asks “By bringing them here? Two Billion people… is that even possible? They’re going to need land food, infrastructure…There aren’t enough resources for the human population…” Sophia cuts him off saying “I’m considering solutions to that problem” Simon asks “What kind of solutions?”
Sophia said, without looking at Simon: “Permanent ones”. Then she faces Simon and continues “We need to make room here Simon.” Simon’s expression is indicative that he disagrees with her. She hears him say he disagrees and says she is grateful for his honesty. Sophia doesn’t like this option either.
Sophia clarifies that they are facing the destruction of their race and it is her duty to take whatever action is necessary to make sure that doesn’t happen. She then says he’s always been loyal and has been an asset to their people. She has him swear to her to remain loyal.
Leila and Michael are in their house arguing about Leila being watched. She is sounding like any daughter and asked why all this was happening and why she was bing so protected. Michael tells her they’re Sophia’s orders. Leila is quiet for a minute and continues “How long do you plan on staying here? How long do you expect ME to stay here?” Michael looks at her to answer – as a knock at the door sounds. It is Simon, and Michael takes him outside. Simon is very upset at Sophia’s plans for humans here. Even pointing out to Michael that if anyone should be against this, it is he. Simon tells Michael. “Your wife was one of them, your daughters are half…” Michael tells him “I don’t need a lecture on my family tree”
Simon then tells him “I’m leaving, and want you and Leila to come with me. We can tell the government. With what we know, they could know, we could save lives” He glances back at Michael’s door seeing Leila and asks him “What kind of world do you want her to live in?” Michael points out that if they do this, there is no going back. They will be labeled traitors forever.
Simon agrees. Michael tells him “We’ll go with you.” Vicky and Sean drive through the French countryside and follow Henri’s directions to the stone wall.
They turn in to find no Chateau, but instead an ambush. Jeeps with security men show up.
and a shoot out ensues. Sean keeps most of them busy, yelling at Vicky when she is approached. After all this, Sean got away, Vicky was captured.
Next, we see Dempsey looking over the scroll with a little magnifying glass.
Vicky is then brought in to his study. She is none too gently seated by the ‘escort’.
Dempsey, looking up from the scroll, greets her. Dempsey tells her he hopes her trip was worth it.
She says “My trip’s not over till you’re dead! Someone needs to put you down!” But Dempsey maintains his civil demeanor “It may be difficult for you to understand this, but we are on the same side. The truth is, Miss Roberts, I am part of a long line of people… Sentinels… who’ve been given the task of securing us against …” As he points upward; “Them”.
Vicky repeats “Them?” Dempsey nods to her. Then he changes the subject, asking Vicky what she can tell him about Mr. Walker. “What type of connections does he have? How did he co-op you into joining him in this…crusade?” Vicky asks Dempsey why he cares so much about Walker. Dempsey seems almost impressed with Sean’s ability to surmount obstacles that Dempsey has put in front of him. “Very curious” he states and finishes; “However, it’s…becoming clearer. Part of the uh, Tapestry”.
As he turns back to the scroll on a large table, he instructs the henchman “Kill her.” and goes back to his study of the glyphs.
Henri comes home, walks through his door to be struck soundly by a shovel to his head. Sean is there and next we see Henri tied up to a strong chair. Sean asks him where Dempsey is. He tells Henri they were ambushed and Vicky has been captured.
Sean tells Henri “you’re going to tell me, exactly what I want to know, or you’ll wish you were dead”.
Back at the White House, Martinez and Senator Lewis are discussing the implementation of the testing. She has a friend in the CDC she knows she can trust, who has been planting reports about a drug-resistant strain of Tuberculosis
.
This will look like a possible epidemic and make it easier to enact the testing for the Sleeper DNA. Martinez asks here where they are with the staff and those who have been asked to sign the agreement to get tested. If one did not sign, they were ‘threatened’ with a mandatory quarantine. Sen. Lewis tells him there was one who did not sign it, The First Lady.
Martinez said they did not need to test Christina. Sen. Lewis started to argue, but he looked at her directly and said “You want to cross my wife’s name off that list”
Sean is not what I would think as a professional torturer, but he does a good job at making Henri feel pain. A hard strike to one hand and Henri screams, cries as Sean is apparently being sick.
However Sean is resolute in getting the info he wants from Henri and ultimately gets it when he hammers the mans’ hands, Then readying to strike Henri dead.
Next, we are in the sunlit streets of the Others’ Community. Simon is loading water, a bag and other supplies into his car, and checks a gun to make sure it is loaded. Michael comes up his driveway and they chat a little.
Simon asks if they are ready. Looking around Simon asks where Leila is. “She’s not coming” Michael replies. “You can’t leave her here alone” says Simon, but Michael states “She won’t be alone.”.
Simon knows something is up. His face changes and he seems to understand just when two ‘Others’ show up and try to arrest him.
Simon resists and is beaten to the ground as Sophia calmly walks up to the group. “Is this your idea of Loyalty? Turning others against me?… You lied to me Simon”.
Simon is allowed to stand, as Sophia comes closer, saying “We’re adapting to changing circumstances. This is how a species survives”.
Simon tells her “What you’re talking about is killing hundreds of millions of innocent people” He looks like he is about to cry with the horror of this prospect.
Sophia looks at his face and asks “What about your people?” She continues “We’re going ahead with the plan. If you aren’t with us then you’re against us” Simon tells her “I’ll never go along with genocide” Sophia looks a bit sad as she says “And today I’ve lost a second son”.
She then tells the security men “Take him”. As they escort him to the car Simon is calling to Sophia saying “This is not who you are!!” Leila walks out of the her house and watches Simon being put into the car and taken away.
Sophia looks at Michael and say “You did the right thing”. Michael replied “I know”.
Back in France, Dempsey is taking notes about the scroll he is studying.
He pauses and walks over to the odd, lined table.
He picks up one of the little stones that seems to indicate a person (Maybe walker? Could be Vicky?) and tosses it lightly into the fireplace, watching the flames lick the wood and the stone.
The scene then goes to what could be called a guest house where Dempsey’s henchman is dousing the place with Petrol and Vicky is bound and gagged in an ajoining room as a fire there is getting closer to her.
The Henchman lights a match and starts the petrol he just poured alight and walks out. We see Vicky struggling to get way. She seems to fall from the screen into the flames.
The pale, cream colored walls of the White House are lit and Martinez walks through the main hallway past a door where he sees Christina instructing the housekeeper about a dinner menu. She looks up at him and smiles slightly.
He smiles a bit in return, then he walks on out of camera.
This has indeed been a story! We now know “The Others” plan a massive housecleaning of our planet by killing humans to make room for their people to take it as their own. Before everyone gets all heated up, place this in a bit of role reversal. If it were US landing on a less advanced planet and our earth was soon to become a chunk of space-dust, would we not do the same thing? Sometimes, through history, we HAVE done things like this, albeit on a nation to nation level. I liked what Simon asked Michael outside of the house; “What is ‘enough’? a third, two-thirds? When is it enough?”
I can’t help but wonder what if they’d been freed say, fifty years ago and started to gradually bring their people here. Would we have noticed? Would we have cared? Perhaps the blow of a mass-invasion can partly rest on our own heads for keeping them detained until it was almost too late. I do see on Twitter that some people criticize the writers and a slow plot. They think perhaps it is just ‘Boring”. I do not think it is ‘boring’, but for a Science Fiction program… perhaps it is just too ‘Human’ and not ‘Alien’ at all in many regards.
Note that next week, NBC will not have an episode of The Event, due to a special screening of Law and Order programming. The Event will return the following week, April 18, 2011 9/8 Central. In the meantime here is the episode in its entirety for your enjoyment!
As always we appreciate your visiting our news sites at WormholeRiders News Agency. Please feel free to leave a spam free comment or a question here. I will respond to your comment or question as soon as is possible.
If you prefer, you may also click the social media icons below to share this news article or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit the WHR on Facebook or me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story and or on See You on The Other Side“!
When we left the last episode, The Aliens had been told that their world is going to be destroyed by a Supernova and their race is in eminent danger of being wiped out entirely if they cannot bring thousands of them here to Earth through what they call a ‘Portal Array’.
Because the rebel Thomas hijacked uranium to power their Portal Array the government now sees them as being of less than peaceful intentions. This resulted in the Cathedral being surrounded by Military on President Martinez’s orders to capture the aliens -Alive or otherwise. Vicky and Sean escaped from the Ambassador Hotel where they had forced a face-to-face meeting with Raymond Jarvis. Jarvis informed them that Dr. Dempsey had departed for the Jura Mountains in France that day and the Secret Service were in hot pursuit.
This episode opens with Vicky Roberts (Taylor Cole) and Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) running through the streets of Downtown Washington DC with the Secret Service in pursuit. They made their escape and are now at a vehicle, changing from their gala formals into normal attire, trying to find a way to get to France and find Dempsey.
The Cathedral is surrounded and there are more military showing up in preparation for what is to come. A Titan Satellite is placed above the scene. Blake Sterling and Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) are speaking about what to do now. President Martinez orders a mass-evacuation of the surrounding blocks of the Cathedral under the guise of a hostage situation by a White Supremacy group.
President Martinez orders that Sophia be contacted on a secured line. They check the church schematics to see what their options are, such as emergency exits, hallways and so on for tactical purposes.
Martinez no longer believes Sophia and her intent of a peaceful resolution to the question of disclosing the alien’s presence. She is speaking with President Martinez and I notice how she is no longer informal on his name. Now she is calling him by the proper “Elias” and her voice becomes more measured in speaking to him. President Martinez gives her ten minutes to surrender, or he “Will make you regret ever leaving wherever it is you came from!”.
Next, we see some of the aliens being armed by Thomas as an irate Sophia tells him that they need access to the portal to get their people out of there.
Thomas explains he is waiting to hear from Gerard (John Prosky) through a security protocol, but he would rather die fighting.
Next, Sophia and Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) are talking on cell phones as Sophia breaks the news to Simon about their planet’s fate. Gerard phones and cannot use the Portal to transport 188 people out. The fuel needed is too great. Sophia asks him what they could do with the portal.. One of Sophias’ people opens fire on a recon unit he sees at one of the church windows.
President Martinez is enraged at the news about the shooting and Sophia tries to tell the President the shooting was not supposed to happen. Elias doesn’t believe her and in a sense ‘hangs up on her’. She then orders Gerard to “Take it down”.
Back in the war room discussions about what to do are now interrupted from a huge earthquake. This leads to calls for evacuations, concerns for the safety of the President and his family ensued, but President Martinez did not want to leave the White House. He was pushed out by others in the room as we watched the fall of the Washington Monument.
President Martinez and his people return to the War Room when Blake Sterling (Zeljko Ivanek) tells hem the Washington Monument has been destroyed. President Martinez then issues a state of National Emergency. “Washington D.C. has been attacked by a terrorist group” is to be their story for the public. Sophia lays it on the line to Martinez.
Either he complies with their orders for buses and a jet at LAX, or the Capitol will be destroyed. President Martinez orders their troops to ‘stand down’. He seems to know he is up against some serious tech of which he knows nothing about.
Sean and Vicky are observed in a private Jet heading to France. Sean lets Vicky speak to her mom on his laptop.
Vicky learns about the fall of the Washington Monument from this video chat. She is shocked at this development and asked if they are alright. Her Mother says they are, and asks when she will be coming home. Sean signals she’d better leave the video chat, so Vicky complies and talk turns back to Dr. James Dempsey (Hal Holbrook) . What could he want to do in the Jura Mountains?
Sean is researching Dempsey’s interests and why he would be going to France. He finds that Dempsey has an organization called the “Phoenix Foundation” and they have an archaeological dig going on in the Jura Mountain range. Vicky wonders what a guy involved in Big Pharmaceuticals would be after. Sean says he doesn’t know, but Dempsey’s spending a fortune to find it.
We are then taken to a scenic view of the beautiful Jura Mountains in France.
Dempsey (Hal Holbrook) arrives to the dig site. His lead Archaeologist is showing their finds to Dempsey. “We’ve Unearthed nearly a dozen Limestone Amphora” The archaeologist says proudly, “Eerily similar to those that house the Dead Sea Scrolls.” The young man goes on to say one Amphora was painstakingly inscribed with a language which is unknown to him.
Dempsey is told that by preliminary results, Carbon 14 data suggests the amphora’s ages at about 2,000 and 1900 B.C. Dempsey then says “Oh, well, they’re much older than that” During the Archaeologists’ enthusiastic description of the carvings, the young man says something about the pictograph on the north wall of the chamber.
Dempsey becomes highly upset. Angrily pointing out his specific instructions were that NO ONE breach that entrance. After making sure no one else saw inside the chamber, . “This is unfortunate. if you had exercised a little more self control, you might have been able to live long enough to tell your children about this.” as he brings out a gun and kills the Archaeologist.
Next, we see an aerial overview of the Cathedral in Los Angeles. Many trucks with troops filling the surrounding streets.
Sophia stands inside, looking almost ‘angelic’ with the rays of light coming through the window into the choir area. Thomas is coming to speak to her.
He is trying to say he understands what Sophia is feeling, but she says he does not know what she is feeling at all. They quarrel a bit as to which way was right, and Sophia blamed Thomas for not taking a peaceful, diplomatic route with the government in their fate. Thomas looks out the window at troops standing on landings of neighboring buildings.
“Me?” He exclaimed “Look at Them! This is who they are! Violence! Violence is the language that they understand!” Sophia tells Thomas “You are the one who pushed us into a violent confrontation!” Thomas then cites how all through history, humans have proven to be selfish, short-sighted and hostile. But he softens as he tells Sophia he isn’t perfect, he’s worked hard for sixty-six years to unite their people while she was locked in a cell. Sophia tells him “All you’ve done is unite our people in a rhetoric of fear! You expect me to be grateful for that? Sorry, but I did expect more from you” Thomas comes closer to her, and says “Change is never easy, Sophia… There’s always a cost” Sophia looks up at Thomas and tells him “Leadership requires discipline, sacrifice … The ability to make your people believe in the impossible… No one said anything about ‘Easy’.” Thomas bows his head to her and she reaches out, they embrace, as if coming to terms with what has happened and where to go from here.
Unknown to Thomas and Sophia, Isabel (Necar Zadegan) stands off to the side, watching. It appears as though Isabel is not pleased on seeing the two reconcile! I believe she had hopes of being in leadership with Thomas, with Sophia out of the picture.
Back in the War Room, President Martinez is speculating about what the alien’s power source is, its’ capabilities and so on. Blake Sterling enters, asking to speak with him….alone. General Armbruster (Blue Deckert) asks Martinez “Sir? What do we do?” Martinez replies “Give ’em the buses” as he walks out with Blake. In the hallway, Blake tells Martinez “There may be an opportunity to exploit” And continues to tell Martinez that he’s seen Thomas before Inostranka.
Blake recalls seeing Thomas at a medical facility where Simon Lee was recovering. They had ordered a DNA test on Simon, to prove he was human and Thomas had been there, wearing a lab coat. Blake surmises that Thomas posed as a lab tech in the blood bank. Martinez finished this saying “He switched Simons’ blood sample out for human.”. Blake goes on to say Simon’s phone calls are being monitored and that Simon is using encrypted technology for this.
They are trying to decrypt Simons’ phone conversations. If they can succeed without Simon knowing about it, they can possibly get a step ahead of the aliens. Now we are in a computer room where a tech is trying to decrypt Simon’s calls. They have captured the more recent calls to Sophia and are trying to unscramble the conversation.
Simon Lee is on the phone to Sophia asking her how could she do this? He is upset at the loss of life and destruction he has seen. He is angry at all the years undercover that he did for her. Because he believed in the mission… the Peaceful Mission. Sophia said she had no choice as Martinez had his military men moving in on their people
Simon asks Sophia why the Portal wasn’t used to get their people out of the church, and Sophia tells him there wasn’t enough power to do that. They used what little fuel they had on the monument. Sophia tells Simon the ultimatum she gave President Martinez was a bluff and that they are -for right now- completely defenseless. At this time, this discussion is not known to the President or his staff.
La Cluse-Et Mijoux, France on an open road, Sean and Vicky are in a car going to a safe house to meet with someone only known as ‘Henri’. Sean’s laptop sounds an alarm and this tells Sean to enter the code he is using to stop the information of Vivky’s mother and son from going viral. This is Seans leverage on Vicky to force her to help him in the quest to find Dempsey.
Vicky is very closed off about herself and Sean asked her if that makes her uncomfortable if people know about her. She said “No, it makes me feel vulnerable and THAT makes me uncomfortable”. Sean and Vicky arrive at a run-down ‘Chateau’… More like a farm house and it looks disused.
Vicky knocks loudly, four times and said she is going around to the back. Sean stays at the front, trying to peer into the house, and Henri sneaks up over him and has Sean at gunpoint.
Vicky returns to stop any trouble, Henri is happy to see her. Apparently Vicky and Henri worked together on another job with the CIA a while back and at a table filled with wines and food, the two reminisced about the past job. Vicky goes to get another bottle of wine, so Henri takes this opportunity to ask what is he doing with Vicky? “You’re not an Agent? You’re not even her type.” He laughs. Sean says “Well.. I’m blackmailing her…” Henri throws his arms up, laughing “AH! Leverage!”
We also find out Vicky was never reimbursed for that job, and another agent used her to cover up his mistakes. Could be why Vicky is the way she is as well… Being “Ripped-Off” by anyone could do that to a person.
We are now back in the Cathedral and Leila (Sarah Roemer) is looking sad and confused, sitting on a step when Michael Buchanan (Scott Patterson) comes and sits with her. Leila asks her father “How could you?” in reference to the fall of the Washington Monument. She sees them all now as Terrorists. Michael tells her they have to get away or their people will be locked up. That SHE would also be locked up. He tells her she must accept her place among their people.
Leila says that their people are monsters. But Michael is telling her “No, Leila, THEY are the monsters. no matter what we do, they will forever be against our survival, every generation of humans have proven this to be true. We will always be unwelcome and we will always be hunted” He pauses and says “The unknown is always a threat.”
Dempsey is in a deep part of the dig site, going into the chamber with a companion. Dempsey says “I assure you, no living thing has entered these caves in thousands of years” as they walk in.
Gradually, we see a wall pictograph of smaller beings around what appears to be a very tall humanoid figure. Dempsey looks at this in awe, saying “Aren’t they beautiful?” Dempsey’s voice is thick with emotion. I love Hal Holbrook, he plays this character so well!
“What are they?” Whispers his companion. “They’re Guardian Angels” Dempsey says as the camera pans over the figures on the wall. “for what?” asks the companion. Dempsey replies; “Every civilization, every religion has its’ own concept of the Guardian angel, what it represents, what its’ function is here on Earth… yet every civilization, every religion they are reduced to metaphor …symbols… when, in fact, they are very… very… real.”
Dempsey then gets a small smile on his face as he approaches the wall of these images and reaches to it. We then see his face, filled with wonder. The camera tightens in on a triangular image on the picture, and a tattoo of this same design on his arm. Dempsey’s eyes grow wide in awe. I wonder if this could well be a reference to the Nephilim, an ancient people referred to in the Hebrew Bible. The Nephilim were the ones who fell in love with the Daughters of Man and rook these women as wives and Mothers to their offspring. In other words, we are descendents of these ‘unearthly’ beings. Other cultures site the Anunnaki in ancient Sumerian carvings in much the same way.
Now we see three buses arriving to the cathedral on dark, city streets, complete with Police escorts.
They pull up to the doors and inside the cathedral, Sophia addresses her people. “I know that you’re all afraid. But right now, more than ever, we must stay calm. controlled, We must show Martinez and his soldiers that we are true to our word! Ignore their guns. Ignore their ignorance. We are in this together … A new day’s upon us and we will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever.”
Sophia then delegates the three buses to David, Michael and Thomas.
As the aliens leave the Cathedral, Isabel (Necar Zadegan), Thomas’ companion, bitterly tells him “It should have been you up there.” She is angry that Sophia is now back in control of their people. Isabel apparently had big plans for herself and Thomas. She does not seem to like the idea of following. it seems as if she wanted Thomas and she both to lead their people. As the aliens board their respective buses, the decryption process has been successful. Simon and Sophia’s earlier discussion is clarified and President Martinez hears Sophia say she had been bluffing and that they were actually ‘completely defenseless’.
Enraged, he orders the complete take out of all the aliens. “By any means necessary!”. Blake is hesitant about this order saying it could result in All-out War. Martinez reiterates the order and walks out.
All the aliens leave the Cathedral to board their respective buses. Then as the buses are in transit, Apache helicopters are seen by those in the buses. Sophia tells Thomas to get a hold of Gerard and see where things stand with the portal. Anything that he can do… Michael asks how Martinez could put Washington at risk. Sophia tells him “He knows…. Somehow, he knows”
Martinez is watching the surveillance of the buses and says resolutely “This ends…Now.”
Back to a shot of the Apache gunship above the buses, and a missile is fired from it to the buses. The first bus, assigned to David, bursts into a ball of fire. Seeing the destruction on the screen in the war room, Simon catches his breath. He has just witnessed the killing of several of his own people, my heart was sad for him.
Thomas is on the phone with Gerard, asking what he can do. “I have enough power to move one bus. That’s it” is Gerard’s reply. Sophia tells Thomas it is over and that they will have to surrender. Thomas says “No! There’s nothing more important than the survival of our people, and you’re the best chance we’ve got!”
Thomas ultimately maneuvers their buses so that his is the target, saving Sophia’s bus for the Portal’s transportation. Sophia is upset but Thomas uses her own words “Leadership is discipline….Sacrifice” Thomas disconnects from communication and orders that his bus gets past Sophia’s. The waiting Apache gunship fires and the missile hits home blowing Thomas’ bus to pieces as Sophia and the others in the other bus watch, some crying out in horror.
As Sophia’s lone bus now continues past the burning carcass of Thomas’ bus, Sophia looks over in pain at what remained of the bus and all her people within it.
She seems to either not notice or not care there is a blue haze surrounding their bus as Gerard activates the portal. Sophia catches her breath as they disappear into the wormhole.
In my opinion, this episode was very descriptive of the way we as a species are and have been through time. We do tend to shy away from those people and things which are different and ‘Unknown’. Of course, sitting in front of our TV’s watching a show like this, we can either cheer the aliens on in their justifiable outrage at being strung along for sixty-six years and feel they deserve freedom and the same things we would hold equally dear.
They have been promised their freedom. There are also others who would say that the aliens are up to no good and would cheer President Martinez on in his feelings of having been ‘deceived’, in his quest to “Take ’em Out”. Other viewers may not cheer for either side, but may well adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach.
This leads me to wonder how we would react if that day comes. If extraterrestrials ARE known to be among us. In ships or through portal arrays, that they have arrived. If disclosure by the leaders of nations around the world occurs, what would we as a people do? Would we perhaps see them as our ancient forefathers did, as “Angelic” or “demonic”? Perhaps not. we are technologically advanced enough to not be dazzled by their portals or their ability to defy current laws of physics.
I for one, would like to think we have the intelligence to see what the newcomers would want. That we would give them a chance and not jump to the conclusion the aliens are here to destroy us and start fighting them. I would like to think we too, could be known as “Advanced” enough to try to be open minded and not lie to them as it seems these aliens have been.
The Event Returns Monday April 04, 2011 with “You Bury Other Things Too”. In the meantime, please enjoy “Face Off” courtesy of NBC!
As always we appreciate your visiting our news sites at WormholeRiders News Agency. Please feel free to leave a spam free comment or a question here. I will respond to your comment or question as soon as is possible.
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Thanks to Kenn for video and image embedding for my feature article and many thanks to you for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency. I will be back in the near future with more analysis for Team WHR from San Diego Comic-Con 2024!
