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Category: Lisa Vidal

The Event: “Arrival” Season Finale with Science and “Physics of the Impossible” Analysis!

Hello The Event fans,

We have seen Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) and Vicky Roberts (Taylor Q Cole) fight the billionaire James Dempsey (Hal Holbrook), who we thought was evil, but turned out to be from a line of people called ‘Sentinels’ who are here to protect Earth and its people from the Others.

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.

We saw them finally meeting Blake Sterling (Zeljko Ivanek) and Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) where they all joined forces to fight Sophia Maguire (Laura Innes), Raymond Jarvis (Bill Smitrovich) and the plan to kill everyone here.

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.

Aside of the Roche Limit, let us look at the Lagrangian Point

— 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!

Thank you for reading and visiting WormholeRiders News Agency.

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Regards,

May 26, 2011
The Event: “The Beginning of the End” with “Arrival” Sneak Peek

Hello The Event fans,

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.

Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) got to Blake Sterling‘s (Zeljko Ivanek) house and they both escaped in a stolen car. they surmised the best way to reach President Martinez (Blair Underwood) to get the antidote to heal him, is via the First Lady, Christina Martinez (Lisa Vidal).

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.

A Summary of the Book Of Enoch is as follows:

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”!

Thank you for reading and visiting WormholeRiders News Agency.

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Regards,

Celtica (Jen)

May 18, 2011
The Event: “Some Will Live, Some Will Die”!

Hello The Event fans,

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..

Despite Michael Buchanan’s (Scott Patterson) hardened character about the mission to bring his people here, Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) called him out on what he had become. Leila Buchanan (Sarah Roemer) also had words with him saying she did not recognize him…what he used to be… anymore..

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“!

Regards,

Celtica (Jen)

May 13, 2011
The Event: Strain!

Hello The Event fans,

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.

With President Martinez (Blair Underwood) taking a much firmer stance against Vice-President Raymond Jarvis (Bill Smitrovich) and the Aliens. Senator Catherine Lewis (Virginia Madsen) assembled a file on the First Lady; Christina Martinez (Lisa Videl), finding names of people that did not exist and dates that did not match up to her known history.

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.

Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) saved Vicky Roberts (Tayler Cole) from the fire at the Chateau De Perrault in Moretz, France. Upon reviving her from the smoke inhalation, Dr. James Dempsey (Hal Holbrook) made his presence known and told Sean it was time they had a little talk.

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!

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“!

Regards,

Celtica (Jen)

April 29, 2011
The Event Cut Off the Head!

Hello The Event fans,

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!

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“!

Regards,

Celtica (Jen)

April 23, 2011
The Event: You Bury Other Things Too!

Hello The Event fans,

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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Celtica (Jen)

April 8, 2011
The Event: Turnabout!

Heyla, The Event Fans,

Welcome to my review of season one, episode thirteen “Turnabout”. This was an excellent episode that brought back an old familiar friend, and introduced a new villain, of sorts. We received a few more answers, and were left with a lot of new questions.

1. President Martinez and Sterling
Turnabout begins with a disturbing dream sequence which reveals to us the state of President Elias Martinez’s (Blair Underwood) mind. In his dream, his Chief of Staff, Richard Peel, (Roger Bart) tells him that he cannot stop Thomas because he is too weak and soft, and The Army General (Blue Deckart) agrees with him, adding that he is afraid to take bold action and that he has trusted the wrong people.

And then Sophia is revealed sitting in his chair behind his desk. She tells him that they gave him a chance, but that he blew it, and then he suddenly finds he has been chained to a chair. Sophia explains that now they have no other choice but to execute him. Thomas suddenly appears to do the job.

When the president awakes from his dream he calls a meeting with his Chief of Staff, and The Army General, the two people who were just yelling at him in his dream. Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) is there as well, and so is the wonderful, Incredible Director Blake Sterling (Zeljko Ivanek).‭

Director ‬Blake Sterling did not like being in the hospital, even though he had not completely healed from his three bullet wounds and torture marks. He was being such a pain in the rear that the hospital staff kicked him out of the hospital, and sent him back to work.

I have heard complaints and comments from many folks about how unrealistic his being back to work was, however, I felt very glad that they did do this because Sterling is one of my three favorite characters and I would have missed him a lot had he been absent for the sake of credibility.

Martinez is harsh with his people about what happened at Inostranka. He calls the General incompetent, or at least he calls the army incompetent for having lousy security, but then Sterling responds that Thomas took an officer’s family hostage, so no one should be blamed for what happened. Martinez is not impressed with this excuse, and he orders The General to clean up his house or their next conversation would be about his resignation.

Then he gets a call from Sophia Maguire, (Laura Innes) who informs him that Thomas (Clifton Collins Jr) is planning to steal uranium rods from a facility in San Diego for use in his portal array. Martinez does not want to believe her. He trusted her in the past and had regretted it, so now he is choosing to not trust her and to think of her as an enemy.

But then, good old Sterling, who has grown much since the show began, tells Martinez how Maya (Clea Duvall), a good Inostrankan, had given her life for his, not because she liked him, but because she wanted him to stop Thomas. Sterling says that he believes Sophia only wants to stop Thomas just like she says.

Martinez does trust Sterling, so he reluctantly decides to give Sophia one more chance even though in his mind she has backed him into a corner once again leaving him only one alternative – hers. President Martinez and his advisors are afraid that if they do not move the rods that Thomas will cause nuclear fallout when he tries to portal them out.

So he reluctantly orders that the rods be moved to a research facility which is protected by a high electromagnetic field. If the rods are protected by electromagnetism then Thomas cannot portal inside. (This was why he could not portal anyone in or out of Inostranka).

Flash forward to later on in the episode, and the convoy carrying the rods is hijacked by Thomas, and robbed. They only used three trucks for the mission, one to carry the rods, and two to accompany it. No air patrol or anything. I have heard a lot of criticism for why the government would not assign more resources to this very important mission.

The only plausible answer that I can give is that the government thought that by assigning air support and fifty zillion trucks to follow this one hazardous waste truck that it would draw a lot of suspicion. They may as well as have put up a large banner proclaiming, “Uranium rods in here. Come and get them.” *giggles* besides if Thomas had not been setting a trap I doubt he would have found them. But at that point no knew it was a trap.

Simon was leading the convoy, and is thankfully not injured when the bullets start flying through his windshield. Thomas blew up a trick in front of them forcing them to stop, and when they do sharpshooters climb out of the drainage ditches guns blazing.

He gets in a few good shots, but unfortunately misses hitting Thomas. He does make an “amazing Houdini” like escape from the rod truck just before Thomas men storm it intent on killing him.

Sophia calls to let him know what happened, in case he did not know. He did already know and he reads her the riot act, accusing her of planning the whole thing and being in cahoots with Thomas. He is quite angry and embarrassed by this latest incident. His pride is hurt, and he feels weak again for trusting Sophia, which is why he refuses to believe her protestations of innocence or her explanation of being tricked.

He says that the only way he would believe her now is if she turned herself back in. Of course if she did she would likely be brutally tortured like the old Sterling suggested in an earlier episode. The weaker Martinez would not allow it, but I think this new stronger Martinez would.

They are able to trace Sophia’s phone call this time to the San Francisco area, and Martinez is told that the next time she calls they should be able to nab her exact whereabouts. He is gives the order to bring her in and says that it is okay to use deadly force if they need too.

When questioned about this change of heart by Sterling, who seems rather reluctant to relay it, Martinez replies that Sophia has played him for the fool for the last time. Meaning this is not just the end of the world as we know it – this is personal.

2. Leila and Samantha
Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) left Leila Buchanan (Sarah Roemer) in last week’s episode so that she would not have to choose between him and her father. I did not agree with his decision, but I think he was just trying to do the right thing.

Leila wanted to stay with her father, so that he could give her answers to all of the questions that she and we viewers have. Unfortunately Michael had to help Sophia with an important mission, and he did not want to risk Leila and Samantha Buchanan (Anna Clark) getting hurt, so left them with old friends.

These friends were Diane Geller (Gabrielle Carteris) and Diane’s husband, Carlos Gellar (Jose Zuniga). Diane is apparently a clean freak, as well as a sleeper because she ordered both girls to go upstairs to wash the road off themselves the minute they stepped in the door. She did not seem glad to see them at all, and I kind of feel sorry for the girls for having to stay there.

Diane and Carlos argued a lot because Diane sides with Sophia and Carlos sides with Thomas, and they mention something about how working with Michael Buchanan (Scott Patterson) is vulnerability for Sophia. They do not explain why this would be, but I am sure that there is much more to the story of Michael and Sophia. I will speculate more about this in their section of the review.

Carlos also asks Diane if she is aware of what will happen to the native population when Thomas brings all of their people down from the home planet, and when Leila, who overheard, asked what would happen Carlos said he would not tell her she would have to ask her dad.

I want to know this too! Is it simply an evolutionary thing? Could it be that our planet cannot handle both our people and theirs? Is extinction of one species or the other going to be the event? Although with their remarkable similarity to us I think they too evolved on earth. Perhaps something happened a long time ago that would have meant the extinction of everyone, but with half of them leaving the rest of us survived.

I am also wondering if the Inostrankan sleepers are having trouble reproducing. So far the only children that I have seen have been hybrids like Samantha. And in episode nine one of the sleepers mentioned one of the reasons why they wanted to stay was that they were finally settling down, finding love, and having children. I am excited to continue watching to see if these questions will be answered.

3. Sean and Vicky
After leaving Leila, Sean goes somewhere and enters a tavern. He sits down next to a girl (Megan Paul) to have a drink when her date arrives and makes a big deal out of her having spoken to Sean. He tells her it is time to leave, she resists him. This guy called Mark, (Erik Aude) is obviously a bully, and I hope this girl dumps him soon.

Sean does not even try to intervene on her behalf. He does not want any trouble. He simply gets up to leave and Mark the bully, who is embarrassed that his girlfriend stood up to him in public starts shoving poor Sean around, taking out his anger and aggression on a more acceptable target.

Sean had been through so much over the past few weeks, and was likely feeling quite awful about breaking up with the love of his life (finding out that she was half alien did not help, I am sure.) So after getting thrashed around by the big bully , Sean goes all ape and starts whaling back on the guy until the bar owner (Jaime Alvarez) kicks him out.

Sean next decides to go and visit his sister (Shay Astar). The door is locked and rather than knocking like a normal person he takes off a screen and crawls through a window into the kitchen. He raids the refrigerator because fighting makes you hungry, and his sister comes after him with a baseball bat.

She makes him a sandwich, but tells him that he cannot stay because he is still wanted by the FBI. Jimmy, her husband/boyfriend is on parole, and the rule is only one criminal is allowed to stay in the house at one time. (giggles)

Sean says he does not want to stay there he wants to go to Mexico and asks if boyfriend/husband can secure him a fake ID. His sister is relieved, but confused. Sean explains that he has been framed by some people who tried to assassinate the president that he did not murder anyone and that these same evil people out there experimenting on little girls and making them old. He does not mention aliens

His sister does not really believe his story, but she says that if it is true then he should not run away. He should stay and fight. That the Sean Walker she used to know would never run away. Sean is so inspired by his sister’s speech that he leaves her house and instead of going to Mexico he goes to Texas to break into Vicky Robert’s home.

Vicky Roberts (Taylor Cole) had gone shopping, and she was a nervous wreck, jumping at every shadow, just waiting for one of Doctor James Dempsey’s (Hal Holbrook) assassins to jump out at her to finish her off since she did not kill Vice President Jarvis (Bill Smitrovich) like she was told to do. An attractive male stranger (Jed Bernard) flirts with her over the cantaloupe, but instead of being flattered she is freaked out.

A little later she is taking her groceries out to her car and he sneaks up behind her, Vicky does not hesitate to take the guy to the ground. She feels a little silly when he tells her he was only trying to return a slip of paper that had fallen from her purse.

Her paranoia is rewarded somewhat when she returns home to find Sean hiding in the corner with a gun demanding that she help him find Dempsey, to demand answers, and I suppose to also get revenge for kidnapping his ex-girlfriend and framing him for murder.

We do not see Vicky’s mother or son. I wonder if they were out for the day. I do not think that Sean would harm them, but as mad as he is right now you never know. I think that if he were to ask nicely Vicky would agree to help him.

After all she does not like what Dempsey is doing any more, and she already asked Jarvis to spill the beans to the president. I am sure she was only helping him for the sake of her son, anyway. Are we going to discover one day that her son is one of them, or could he be another hybrid?

I am looking forward to seeing if Sean and Vicky can put aside their differences and troubled history to work together for the good of all humanity and for the good Inostrankans, too. Personally I think they make a hotter couple than do Leila and Sean, and I am hoping for them to get it on eventually.

4. Thomas, Hanson, Michael, and Sophia
Simon calls Sophia to inform her that Thomas murdered all forty-four of the Inostrankans who refused to follow him. Sophia is very sad to hear this, and she says now they need to kill him. That could not have been an easy order for Sophia to give, but she appears to be a very pragmatic leader.

I wonder what kind of a mother she was to Thomas? From the rain story she told in episode nine I get the feeling that she was pretty hard on him. I also get the feeling that Thomas was the alien version of a wimpy kid. Does Sophia have any other children or is Thomas it?

Thomas bought land and built a neighborhood where all of the Inostrankans he had rescued, fifty-one in total, could live safely, and work on finishing the portal array. I imagine that some of the sleepers who had joined his efforts lived there too.

We meet a man named Hanson (Jack Stehlin) who burned his face pretty badly at Chernobyl, Ukraine, when Thomas tried portalling uranium. Hanson is working for Thomas, helping him collect the materials he needs for his portal array by laundering money in San Francisco.

Sophia knows Hanson too, and she and Michael kidnap him. They want to know where Thomas is and what he is planning to do next. After being roughed up a fair bit by Thomas Hanson admits that Thomas is collecting fuel for the portal. I guess the portal works on uranium because Hanson says that Thomas is going to steal a lot of uranium rods from a nuclear reactor station.

Sophia replies that the security at a place like that would be impossible to get through, but Hanson convinces her that Thomas is going to portal into the facility and steals the rods that way. Sophia then does the responsible thing and calls the president to warn him.

She tells him about the portal and how it was what Thomas used to move the plane. I think she told him this hoping to try to rebuild his trust. Sophia came to like and trust President Martinez before the plane incident. I believe that he liked her too

A little later, Hanson is chained to a pipe in a back room of the house Sophia and Michael are keeping him in. No one is watching him, so he somehow manages to pull out a tiny communications devise out of his neck. It is red and it looks like a board game piece. Hanson stuffs it into his ear. It was sooo gross, but in a cool way.

Hanson uses it to call Thomas to tell him that Sophia took the bait, and the uranium rods are being moved. Thomas then orders Hanson to kill his mother, since we all know the coward could not do it himself. He has all these ambitions to be a leader, but in the end I know that he will fail because he does not have what it takes to truly lead.

His plan to trick his mother and to further alienate her from the president’s affections did work well for him. I suppose he is clever, if he is not strong. But if I was an Inostrankan I would choose to follow Sophia and not Thomas. If I was still a detainee I would have pretended to follow Thomas and then I would have acted as a spy for Sophia

Hanson is able to loose himself, and then he attacks Sophia, who is alone in the kitchen. He strangles her with a cord. Sophia does her best to fight him, but she is a politician, after all, not a ninja. If Michael did not arrive just in time to save her she would have died.

Michael shoots Hanson, killing him. While she is on the floor recovering she notices something in Hanson’s ear – the communications device – which tips her off that this was all a trap engineered by Thomas. Hanson trying to kill her may have also given her a clue, as well as his passing along Thomas regards. I consider the ear piece the icing on the guilt confirmation cake.

I never truly appreciated Michael’s character until this scene, but now I love him because he saved my Sophia. *giggles* It seems Sophia also took him for granted because earlier in the episode she thanks him and says that without him they would have never made it this far.

Was she only talking about their mission in finding Thomas or does she mean the plan in general? I wonder what is their true relationship to each other? Sophia felt quite betrayed by his actions with the plane. Did she feel that way simply because he is one of hers or did she feel that way because he was once much closer to her?

She was angry when Isabel betrayed her, but she did not act hurt like she did with Michael. She did not even want to go to him for help. Not to mention how snippy she was about his daughters. I am not sure that I see anything romantic in their actions with one another, but this is The Event, so anything is possible.

After Sophia learns that Thomas stole the rods she calls President Martinez. I thought she handled the call quite well. She tells Martinez that she will earn back his trust one day, but first she has to deal with Thomas. I have to admit feeling bad for her when the president was so mean to her. With so many characters it seems out to get her when all she is trying to do is keep everybody safe it makes me glad that has a few loyal friends like Simon and now Michael.

That is the end of this review, thank you for reading. The Event returns to NBC this Monday, March 21, 2011 with episode fourteen “A Message Back”. Be sure to tune in live if you are in the United States. If the title is any indication it is going to be a good one. In the meantime we include the complete episode “Turnabout” courtesy on NBC. Enjoy!

I hope you have enjoyed this review. As always thank you for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency.

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March 19, 2011
The Event: Inostranka!

Heyla, to all fans of The Event!

And welcome to my review of season one, episode twelve, entitled “Inostranka”. Of the two episodes shown for the mid-season premiere I was given my choice and I chose this one, although I really liked them both, and I was pleased to se e that a few of my many questions were answered. I would not want them to answer every question just yet, but I was pleased with the ones that they chose.

In episode eleven “And then there were more” Thomas (Clifton Collins Jr.) and his army of followers had snuck into the Inostranka facility and so episode twelve begins right where the story left off in the command center with Thomas taking over . Thomas commands Major Pearson to get on the radio so that he could pull the remaining guards of off their posts one patrol at a time. He was to tell them all to meet in the boiler room. Major Pearson asks why?

Thomas says that his men would be waiting there to disarm them. Thomas says that nobody needs to get hurt. Pearson replies that he is not letting Thomas take over the prison, so one of Thomas men cheerfully shoots him. Thomas tosses the radio to a different army dude and says he has been promoted. He then asks him to do what Pearson would not. He says I cannot. The order has to come from the major. Thomas tells him to order a code eight lock-down, which gets all of the guards to the boiler room like he wanted.

National Security Director Blake Sterling (Zeljko Ivanek) is still interrogating Inostrankan detainee Maya (Clea Duvall) She is getting tired of telling him the same thing over and over again, namely that her people are not the type to plan an invasion. She says that her people are moral and good and that they do not do things like that. Director Sterling does not believe her because she killed her boyfriend, William, on Sophia’s order.

Maya looks like she feels guilty about having done this. She says she will have to live with it for the rest of her life, but that bad things would have happened had William been allowed to speak.

Then Sterling shows her pictures of dead bodies from the plane crash, Maya says her people would never do something like that, Sterling tells her what Sophia said about Thomas and he asks her if it is really so hard to believe that Thomas could have done something like this, or that she and the rest of the Inostrankans could all be capable of doing the same. Maya does not know how to respond or likely how to feel or think. I believe her that most of the Inostrankans are good people who would never do anything like this. Thomas is an exception to the rule.

Corporal Bell (Lee Thompson Young, otherwise known as the famous Jett Jackson) comes in telling Sterling that a code eight has just gone out, which means that all detainees are to be escorted back to their cells and that all guards are to report to the boiler room, so that they, too, can be caught in Thomas’ trap. Obviously Bell does not know that it is a trap, he thinks that it is nothing more than a drill. Luckily Sterling refuses to go. He says he is the director of national security and that as such he does not have to stop his interrogation if he does not want to. He overrides the order given and tells Bell to go back to his post, standing guard outside the door. Corporal Bell complies and calls it in on his radio.

Thomas did not know that Sterling was going to be there, neither did the army dude who got threatened into helping him. He says that the dead major Pearson would have made those arrangements. Thomas agrees that it is a good idea for Bell to stay put. Thomas wants to make Director Sterling pay for what he has done to the detainees there, so he makes Mr-forced-to-cooperate army dude tell him exactly where Sterling can be found.

Maya is still claiming that her people are not a threat , the way I see it they are both half correct, and if they could each compromise on their stories just a little then they would have a complete truth that they could believe together, but neither one seems willing to do that. Maya asks Sterling what it would take for him to believe her, and he says at the stage we are in now I do not think it is possible for me to believe you. My thought then was why bother questioning her if he cannot trust anything she says?

Corporal Bell comes under attack by men wearing uniforms that he does not recognize using weapons that are not army issue. He runs into the interrogation room, slamming the door behind him. Director Sterling takes Bell’s side arm. The fake army soldiers break into the interrogation room but Sterling throws a chair through the window with the two way glass and they all three escape, he has Bell unlock Maya’s cuffs. Then Sterling hides behind the door of the room on the other side of the Interrogation room and shoots both of the fake soldiers through the shattered window. I was quite impressed with his aim.

Director Sterling only wounded the fake soldiers, one of them tells Sterling that they are here to free all of the prisoners because Thomas needs them, and that Thomas wants the director dead. The fake soldier lying behind Sterling shoots him in the back then Bell shoots that guy. Maya escapes, Bell wants to go after her, but Sterling prioritizes. He believes that Thomas must already have the place surrounded and does not believe they will leave there alive, however, he says they need to stop Thomas from leaving with the prisoners. Speaking of prisoners, Thomas’ soldiers release all of the Inostrankan prisoners from their cells.

At the white house President Elias Martinez (Blair Underwood) asks for a progress report. Do they know yet where message is heading? No. Has sterling learned anything new? They have not heard from him. Where is Michael Buchanan? Well, he escaped and Simon Lee (Ian Anthony Dale) is running point on the investigation. Simon, of course, knows nothing helpful at this time, though he suspect that Buchanan got to one of the guards, which means I must give him kudos because he is helping Sophia, as well as Michael and his family. If most Inostrankans are good, and Thomas is exceptionally bad then Simon is exceptionally good. At least in my humble opinion.

Senator Catherine Lewis of Alaska (Virginia Madsen) visits President Martinez in his office. She accuses him of lying to her about Inostranka. Thanks to the files she was able to sneak out of her late husband’s office she now knows that Inostranka is a prison and not a weather station like President Martinez previously told her. Martinez says the only way she could have gotten this information was by breaking the law, Senator Lewis thinks this is funny because he is currently holding people prisoner illegally. So they stand on common ground here, one cannot get one in trouble without getting themselves into trouble in the process.

The President says he understands her outrage, that he felt the same when he first found out but unfortunately he cannot tell her anything else because he says it is a matter of national security. She tells him that those two words are over used and that his administration has managed to rid them of any meaning. He mocks her for only having held public office for 2 weeks and for not having been elected and tells her to use her final ninety days in office to help the unemployed and the obese. He also says he will eviscerate her integrity the next time she questions his and then tells her to leave his office. I am not certain who won here, or who I wanted to win. I think they were both just doing the best that they could under the circumstances.

At Michael Buchanan’s (Scott Patterson) house? Sophia Maguire (Laura Innes) is there she makes tea for Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) and she says thank you to him for saving Leila’s Buchanan’s (Sarah Roemer) life. She introduces herself and tells him about the crash, what she wants and what Thomas wants, and about their people who are on the way. I think she tells him these things because she is hoping that he will help, but she does not want to ask him directly. She may hope that telling him that his world will be destroyed if Thomas gets his way will be enough to spur him on to action. I think it will, too.

Michael tell Leila that he and the other Inostrankans are from a planet that the humans call NGC253 – (why not give their name for it?) He claims they came to earth looking for a new home, but they were found, imprisoned, and hunted. Leila asks if she is human he shakes his head, says she is different even though she does not look or feel it. She wants answers; he promises that he will give them to her, but not now because they have to leave.

Michael then informs Leila that he wants her to come with him, but he says that Sean cannot come with them by Sophia’s orders. Sean cannot know any more about them than what he already does know. If he came it would put them all at risk. Leila says that she does not take orders from Sophia, and Michael explains that he does and that is that.

Thomas speaks to the prisoners. He announces that he has broken away from Sophia and everyone who comes with him must break from her too. He says they should all be free, that Sophia is free but still she asks them to stay. He says Sophia is asking them to put the needs of the humans over their own. Thomas thinks the humans should serve them. Plans are already being made to make a home for them there. He says if you still want to follow Sophia then stay here for another sixty-six years.

One male Inostrankan tells Maya who has found the others that they need to stay to show their solidarity to Sophia. Maya says they need to be smart, who knows what Thomas is going to do they should not turn their backs on him.

Sterling and Bell discover they have no outside communications; the phone is down and the base communicator is not working either. Director Sterling asks Corporal Bell if there is a failsafe, a way to lock down every perimeter. Bell does not have security clearance for it, but suggests that maybe Sterling does. From the command room Sterling is able to successfully reset the security system to put them into lockdown mode. The army dude who is still being forced to help Thomas is just opening the outside door when the lockdown falls into place; Thomas guesses pretty quickly what happened and he sends guards to the command room with orders to apprehend Sterling alive.

Sterling and Corporal Bell see Thomas’ guards coming for them on the monitors so they leave and make their way to the armory. On their way they discover that Thomas killed everyone who chose to follow Sophia. The Inostrankan who had advised Maya to stay was still barely alive he tells Sterling what happened. Sterling tells Bell this is not just a prison break it is a coup de tat. Then a few of Thomas soldiers find them.

Senator Catherine Lewis appears on “Chris Matthew’s hardball” to announce a top secret government program that she has just discovered in her own backyard. As she hopes the president is watching and he is not happy! He actually calls her while she is on a commercial break and as a last ditch effort he says that her husband, Bernard Lewis, knew all about the prisoners from Inostranka and he kept the secret because he knew it was the right thing to do; Martinez tells Catherine that if she truly wants to honor her husbands’ legacy then she will respect the secret that he kept.

She does not buy his argument and she says tell me who the prisoners are and when I go back on the air maybe I will start throwing softballs instead of grenades. But she says, if he does not tell her then she will blow Pandora’s box wide open. The clock is ticking, Mr. President she says, which it really was, she only had a few seconds before she had to go back on the air. The President caves and says, deal. So Catherine goes back on the air and does not say anything about Inostranka. The character played by (Roger Bart) congratulates Martinez on silencing Lewis in time. Martinez believes her silence is only temporary and asks god to help them all when the truth finally does come out.

Leila tells Sean in their bedroom that night that she has to make a choice. Sean says at first he will not leave her, but then Leila explains why he cannot come, and she says that she needs to go with her dad because he has answers. Sean tells her to go ahead, to do what she needs to. Then she says that he is a part of her and how can she choose between him and her father? Sean suggests that they go to sleep for now. He says that they can figure it out in the morning. Then they kiss.

Director Sterling and Corporal Bell are tied to chairs. Thomas tells Blake that he is getting his people out of Inostranka, and Sterling asks why he needs them when he has others coming. He says that they translated the message, and he asks how many are coming and when. Thomas hits him in the mouth. Thomas says I know you changed the code to the gate.

He orders Sterling to spill the new one so that no one else has to die. Sterling claims he has no idea what Thomas is talking about. Then one of Thomas’ friends starts hitting the director again in the mouth. Maya wanders by the command room and sees what is happening. Sterling challenges Thomas by saying that there is nothing he could do to him to make him talk, which I thought was quite stupid, but also brave.

A guard eagerly meets the challenge by pressing his fingers into Sterling’s bullet wound. Thomas tells Sterling that he took away the Inostrankan’s freedom, but now he was bound and determined to get it back for them. Sterling asks Thomas about the detainees he killed who were loyal to Sophia. Thomas does not want to talk about that so he tells Sterling to shut up, then his guard presses his fingers into Sterling’s bullet wound again.

Thomas tells the director that if the next words out of his mouth are not the code he would cover the room with Sterling’s blood. Sterling challenges him to do it. Thomas is about to shoot him when Corporal Bell speaks up and says that he has the code. Blake tries to get Thomas to not listen, but Bell shouts over him saying that he saw Sterling program it into the system. Bell really does have it and soon Thomas is leading everyone outside into the freezing cold snow, he has Sterling by the arm, perhaps to use for ransom or insurance?

Maya sits beside Sterling in the cargo ship, she unties his hands, saying that he must stop Thomas because what he wants will destroy Sterling and his people, but she pleads with him to believe that they all do not want this. She tells him to run, and he does run right past Thomas, Thomas shoots him in the back, his second bullet wound that day. Poor guy! He collapses in the snow. Thomas was going to shoot him again, but Maya shoves past him, so that she can run to Sterling to help him.

So Thomas shoots her in the back. Them someone tells Thomas that they have to go because the next shift of real army guards is approaching rapidly. They take off leaving Sterling alive, he crawls to Maya, and tells her to hold on because help is on the way, her last word is, “believe”. I hope that she just collapsed into unconsciousness and that she will be all right because I really like her character.

Leila wakes up to find Sean has left her. A woman goes to see Dr, Dempsey (Hal Hollbrook) to tells him that Sean and Leila were able to find and free the test subjects. He is quite calm about it. He gets up to play with this weird looking board with crop circles on it. He says that he is sure he and Sean will cross paths again soon in his wonderfully creepy classic villain way.

And that is where the episode ended. The Event returns to the US this Monday, March 14, 2011 with episode thirteen, “Turnabout”. Please be sure to tune in live because it is going to be awesome! In the meantime we include The Event episode “Inostranka” courtesy of NBC. Enjoy!

I hope you have enjoyed this review. As always thank you for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency.

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March 11, 2011
The Event: A Matter of Life and Death

Welcome back “The Event” fans!

With all our thanks to NBC Universal, here is a special treat! Behind the Scenes and an extended preview of of tonight’s episode “A Matter of Life and Death” We hope you will enjoy them as much as we did in bringing them here for you!

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS! Do not click play unless you enjoy sneak peaks and spoilers!

Below is a special Behind The Scenes look at The Event. As you will see the quality of the acting, direction, location shooting, cinematography as well as contemporary topics make this series more than enjoyable! After you have watched the extended promotional trailer and Behind The Scenes, we are sure we will see you all tonight after Chuck 9 PM on NBC!.
As always I thank you for reading, viewing and for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency. Please feel free to leave a spam free comment or question here. Or as so many of our visitors prefer, visit WHR on Twitter or Facebook with your comments or questions. We will answer them as soon as possible. thanks again! Best Regards, Kenn

October 11, 2010
The Event – Episodes Evaluated – Expect Establishment of an Edifice!

Welcome back “The Event” fans!

This review is not a recap of The Event episodes two and three. I do not favor recaps. Rather this review is an analysis exploring and evaluating some of the theories of the series tied to the storyline, how well portions of the story arc have been depicted, and what if any relationship The Event has with other series in the past. We will also discuss the quality of the acting, direction, location shooting, cinematography as well as topics anchored in the present which make the series more than believable.

For this purpose we will include select images courtesy of NBC for news analysis and review purposes as well as the promotional trailer for episode four “A Matter of Life and Death”. All told The Event establishes an edifice that is to be admired by Wormholeriders News Agency, so lets begin with a few images of the wormhole in The Event shall we?

However, be warned. Certain parts of the series are discussed in detail and should be considered as spoilers if you have not witnessed The Event for yourself. If you do not enjoy spoilers, you should stop reading now. But first lets feast your eyes on yet another couple of images of the wormhole or something most similar!

The Event is an up and coming series which has continued to reveal what effect aliens are having and have had on our world since their imprisonment some 66 years ago on Earth. With an obvious though not directly stated reference to the alleged UFO crash landing events in Roswell New Mexico circa 1947, The Event builds on that belief held by many on Earth. The Roswell incident has captivated many on our planet for over six decades. The Event dovetails this belief factor in today’s viewers very nicely in the opinion of this reviewer. This appears to be true much to the delight of millions of viewers based on recent ratings discussed at the end of this analysis.

Episodes two and three of The Event are analyzed in tandem herein because in the opinion of this reviewer the first three episodes actually act as a movie of sorts with the typical two hour duration. Some commented to me on Twitter that they could not understand what was happening in the pilot. I have watched the first three episodes several times and am convinced that they could be viewed back to back to back to help truly internalize the series single effect to date for those who where not clear on what occurred. Viewing in such a fashion helps sets the tone for what is to come. Fortunately for The Event fans, DVR technology and on-line viewing at NBC allows for just that!

On a side topic, for anyone to assume that humankind is the sole type of intelligent life in the universe is being naïve in the opinion of this reviewer. As recently discussed in our new WHR Science Series, our gifted science writer RedOne68 (Sandra) has produced two fine articles. One is on the subject of life elsewhere in the universe and one is about wormholes. You can read Sandra’s latest article on life in the universe by clicking this hyperlink.

The Event story arc strays from the Roswell incident in New Mexico events in a major way. In this excellent rendition of aliens among us, broadcast on NBC in the United States, the discovery of extra-terrestrials occurs on November 02, 1944 in the Brookes Mountain Range in Alaska (a real place from the real world), some three years before the oft reported Roswell incident. The Roswell incident looms tall amid ongoing, yet unproven, claims of a government cover up ever since 1947 by conspiracy enthusiasts, many of whom may very well be correct in such beliefs.

The basis for such lack of trust in governmental agencies far pre-dates current events and is therefore a solid cornerstone of The Event story arc which continues to be revealed in a series of flashbacks during episodes two and three. As previously mentioned in our first review of The Event, this is a time honored technique in story telling dating back to the earliest years of recorded human history, specifically in modern times as a technique in literature and film.

In episode two, we learn that that during World War 2, an “aircraft of undermined origins” crashed in a remote area of Alaska with 97 survivors not of Earthly characteristics. Being on a war footing, the United States military and “Intelligence” agencies quarantines the area, ‘apprehends’ the 97, but those are not all the survivors. The able bodied leave the crash site while character Sophia Maguire portrayed by Laura Innes prepares the wounded whom are to be interned. The question then becomes where did the others go and what are they going to do in our society?

Initial scientific observations conclude that the non-humans appear to age at a dramatically slower rate than humankind. How much slower than humans the alien’s age leaves open the potential (in the story) that the aliens may have been living on planet Earth for a very long time until the capture of the 97 in 1944.

Just how long the aliens have been on Earth remains to be revealed in future episodes. In the episode two, a briefing to President Martinez (Blair Underwood) occurs over 65 years later. During the briefing the topic turns to the aliens DNA which has been sequenced. This proves the early 1944 hypothesis that although quite similar to humans, they are in fact alien in nature, not of the Earth.

During the current day briefing which tracks the electromagnetic aspects of The Event, a flashback from 13 months earlier is played out that reveals photos from various decades illustrating the aliens whom have hardly aged in their 66 years in captivity by “Intelligence” and military divisions of the Unites States government. The current day President is astounded by these disclosures after the fact and asks “why” the aliens are being detained? Once again the real world ‘plausible deniability’ routine makes for believable story telling. Why? Many politicians throughout history claim to be unaware of various situations being managed by their subordinates.

During these sequences we also are afforded the opportunity to see more of the President’s cabinet in action including Bill Smitrovich (Thirteen Days, Independence Day, The Practice) portraying the Vice President, Raymond Jarvis. Politics aside, Bill Smittrovich’s role is quite similar to the actual reality of today’s White House with Vice President Joe Biden as the seasoned politician whom was to aid the younger Barack Obama as President. This parallel makes the story more believable by tying the plot to real world scenarios that the viewing audience can relate to.

In true to life revelations to the President, the intelligence and military agencies whom have been charged with detaining the aliens since 1944 state that the aliens have a “hidden agenda”. Well of course they do! Why else would they be detained? Or could it be that the governmental agencies suffer from good ole’ human paranoia? Well, we will leave that theory alone for the time being, but I can assure you that the “hidden agenda” is a most effectively implemented in The Event.

With the majority of the aliens in the series (apparently) located in a secure facility in Alaska known as Mount Inostranka, it is discussed that various other factions of the aliens are operating in our society and or have operated and infiltrated our society for many years. No doubt these are the individuals whom were not hurt and escaped the 1944 crash in Alaska.

How far have they are penetrated into our society or how long they have been here has not yet been revealed. However, we do know that at least one of them escaped the detention facility previously. Where there is one whom has escaped, there are likely to be many in the theory of The Event as I interpret them.

We then segue to the series protagonist Jason Ritter portraying Sean Walker in a Yuma Arizona hospital after learning that his girlfriend and fiancé’ Leila Buchanan, portrayed by Sarah Roemer, was not erased from the timeline but was instead kidnapped as a bargaining chip to force the father, Michael Buchanan (Scott Patterson) to crash the airliner into the press event to stop the disclosure to the general public about the alien presence here on Earth.

This aspect of The Event plot is reminiscent of a classic series “The Invaders” circa 1967-1968 where protagonist Sean Walker is akin to architect David Vincent portrayed by Roy Thinnes who knows the secrets of the aliens but is not believed by people he comes into contact with, at least not at first in both series. The Event does an awesome job in this regard.

The initial story arc in The Event is therefore one proven to be highly effective in the entertainment industry, particularly in science fiction; Various alien factions involved with our society in various governmental institutions, each with their own agenda at work. This of course must also delight conspiracy buffs who believe that our rapid advances in technology are due in part to alien knowledge being imparted to select governmental agencies operating Area 51 in Nevada.

Speaking of “The Invaders”, earlier this year SyFy ran “The Invaders” as an all day marathon for two days. I cannot help but believe that “The Invaders” marathon on SyFy was a test of the viewing audience, their enjoyment of this type of series, and whether or not the viewing public would ultimately accept “The Event”. Of interest is that SyFy recently ran “The Event” series pilot to expose their viewers to the series. Is this all a coincidence? Hardly. It represents a well planned market research technique (in my opinion) that NBC Universal should be complimented on.

Back to The Event; In the hospital after the crash of the airliner in the Arizona desert (subsequent to being transported in what I can only describe as a wormhole effect), we learn that the protagonist Jason Ritter who plays the character Sean Walker, has been framed for the murder of a passenger on the cruise ship where he and Leila Buchanan (Sarah Roemer) were vacationing.

In a bizarre but effective twist of plot, when he sincerely wants to disclose what is occurring to law enforcement, we find that he is wanted for the murder of an acquaintance on the cruise ship. Obviously some organization has the ability to affect changes to the computer records. Are they human or are they xenophobic alien factions? Could both be at play? My theory says yes, both are involved to some extent and here is why.

As the “The Event” tale unfolds in episodes two and three, we continue to see flashbacks to the happenings from the pilot episode. Specifically we learn about what the xenophobic factions here on Earth are willing to do suppress the ‘secret’ from being revealed to the general public. This includes attempts at mass murder to apparently extinguish the witnesses. These attempts fail. Quite deliberately by the way. More on that later.

As mentioned, the extent of their xenophobic activities also include kidnapping and murder to stop the truth of an alien presence from being revealed to the general public by the President portrayed by veteran actor Blair Underwood. The xenophobia is a two way street in The Event, human paranoid of alien and visa-versa!

To coin a phrase, the event’s revealed so far include when the President released the de-facto alien leader Sophia Maguire to make a public announcement which set off the entire set of spiraling story arc plot twists in the pilot episode. These flashbacks continue to fill in the story-line unabated through episode two and episode three.

Keep reading and that theory will be divulged or debunked depending on your perspective. During a one on one discussion between Sophia Maguire and the President, she discloses that it was they who saved his life in the first episode when the wormhole appeared in front of the jet airliner just prior to being used as a weapon of mass destruction. The President requests to know how the plane instantly disappeared from the viewing audience’s perspective and appeared in the Arizona desert as depicted above and below.

One theory is that the attack on the airliner (after being transported to the Arizona desert) may not be humans trying to suppress the news of aliens on Earth, but could in fact be aliens whom have infiltrated ‘black ops’ intelligence divisions of the United States government that do not desire their presence and or agenda to be revealed.

When Sophia declines to comment, the President informs her that she and her kind will be returned to the Mount Inostranka detention facility indefinitely. When Sophia declares that such would be a mistake, we are left wondering what else she knows and who of her kind are responsible for what happenings in The Event.

In our first review of the Event I discussed a changing in the time-line from the wormhole effect. I stand by my theory that changes to the time-line are occurring or being affected for as yet some fully explained reason. While apparently not the same type of time-line changes as in Eureka, Fringe or Stargate, nonetheless the movement of an airliner such a vast distance to save the President and all at the press conference is a change in reality with far reaching consequences affecting the President of the United States and perhaps our entire world!

As episode two draws to a conclusion, in a fateful and telling flashback ten years back in time, we learn that Agent Simon Lee (now on the President’s staff) portrayed by Ian Anthony Dale, is an alien when after a blood test he removes a synthetic vein from his arm used to trick the nurse and hence the blood test required for admittance to the Central Intelligence Agency.

This scene provides proof to the viewers that the aliens are in fact infiltrated into our government. Ironically it is agent Lee who is then tasked by Blake Sterling, the President’s advisor (Zeljko Ivanek) to root out all the aliens!

Instead Agent Lee meets with alien brother “Thomas” (Clifton Collins Jr.) who after a hug informs him that “they” have “plans” to use the passengers, give him coordinates, and that Agent Lee will find out what when he gets to the Arizona desert.

Upon arrival in the Arizona desert Agent Lee finds that all the passengers are dead, but were killed after the fact, not from the airliners crash landing! They were apparently killed by a sinister force while either trying to escape or when protecting loved ones during what appears to be their final moments alive on planet Earth.

Before we proceed, a few asked me why if I think so highly of The Event did I give it an “A Minus” grade in the first review at WHR? I focused on their opinions due to the fact that the ‘sell’ to the general audience requires three episodes to really “get” ones head around what is happening. Because of the extensive use of flashbacks to fill in the back story, some found it hard to follow. I heard these constructively critical comments and internalized them. Perhaps it is easier for me to “get” The Event from my acting and entertainment service background to understand that episodes one, two and three were more like acts such as in a well delivered stage play. Each is needed to provide a full single effect for the viewing audience.

Let us now briefly discuss the acting, direction by Jeffery Reiner, special digital effects team lead by Gary D’Amico, and location shooting. The ensemble cast is superb as has been the direction, the writing, the location shooting, computer generated graphics, and the cinematography by Feliks Parnell throughout the first three episodes. Show runner and creator Nick Wauters is to be complimented for assembling such a fine team. I expect my grade to change to a straight “A” once the series resumes in episode four “A Matter of Life and Death” after the setting of the foundation in the initial three.

Additionally the ensemble cast is supplemented with effective guest stars including D.B. Sweeney as “Carter” (24, Life as We Know It, and Jericho), Heather McComb as Agent Collier (Prison Break, Profiler, and X-Files), and Gabriel Olds as Agent Spencer (the Mentalist, Charmed and D.C.). The Event includes many other fine guest actors and actresses. It is these performances which help create the sense of realism that is The Event.

The bodies of the jetliner passengers from the wormhole transported airliner which suddenly appeared in Arizona appear to be dead! Despite the depiction of all the people massacred when attack helicopters used something, perhaps a nerve gas, a conspiracy is afoot! Appearances can be deceiving, yet in in the eyes of the President, when he arrives on the scene with his adviser’s, is that the passengers certainly look like the victims of a massacre.

Jumping ahead to the very end of the third episode, the victims are observed at the end of episode three in a hanger serving as a makeshift morgue. To our utter surprise and relief all are observed waking up from being “dead”! How in the world were the deaths feigned? We do not know. In any event, the scene and angle of filming is brilliant. Why else would people (humans) be resurrected from the “dead” if not for the purpose “Thomas” has alluded to to alien brother Agent Lee? What technology is being utilized to resurrect the dead, and who in our infiltrated government is responsible? Let’s move back a bit in the story to analyze the why shall we?

We quickly learn in episode three that there is a cover up of some sort. This enactment fits nicely with the viewers whom distrust government, a fact directly related to public sentiment in the United States and most of the world after the economic disasters of the past several years (for starters) . One of the passengers aboard the cruise ship is suspected by the protagonist Sean Walker of being part of the conspiracy. This character is later revealed in both name and deed. Later Sean is befriended inadvertently by Agent Collier whom begins to believe his fantastic story. Prior to that, thinking she has fooled Sean Walker, she calls for backup when he leaves the motel room.

In the meantime, the aliens or human xenophobic persons working the kidnapping once again resort to murder when a police officer is killed during a routine traffic stop. We then see that it is the same woman, Vicky Roberts (Taylor Cole) from the cruise ship. And guess who is in the back of the van? Yep, its Sean’s girlfriend Leila Buchanan!

Meanwhile our hero, Sean, has been thinking several steps ahead and observes his plan working. He secrets himself in the trunk of Agent Collier’s car to gain access to the computer room at her headquarters after also having stolen her netbook computer which she states will only work when logging in plugged directly into the network at her headquarters. This was a weak technical detail that caused me to keep my grade from straight “A” status through episode three. Today’s computer encryption technology allows a secure login from anywhere in the world. Perhaps I am being harsh with 30 years of computer experience?

Anyway, so far so good for Sean. However in the story he does not think far enough ahead and is captured. But not until he has attached the computer to the network, uses face recognition technology and uncovers the truth about Vicky Roberts. Agent Collier is there to see that there are literally no less than seven fake identity driver’s licenses! Based on the reality today of identity theft and bogus ID cards, this scene is more than believable, artfully depicted by the director in several cinematic sequences. It is obvious Agent Collier now begins to truly believe what Sean has been saying since the beginning.

Oh and I left out a ‘minor’ detail. The President calmly informed Sophia that of the 97 detainees, one would surely be willing to make a deal for their freedom if she was not willing to cooperate. Sure enough we return to this in episode three when alien “William” played by Omid Abtahi apparently turns on his race and his leader Sophia so long as his alien girlfriend’s freedom from the Inostranka detention facility is part of the deal. Much like any group in real life being detained, there is always someone willing to cut a deal to save themselves at the expense of others.

We will leave that fact of life where it is and return to a quickening paces of action in The Event. Our erstwhile hero Sean Walker and the lovely Agent Collier, who by now has figured out that some rather odd “black ops” are part of the equations is surprised when two “agents” from Washington D.C. show up unexpectedly at her field office to take custody of Sean. Sean sees the goings on through the blinds in Agent Collins office. A very effective cinematic sequence by the director placing the viewer in the perspective of the intended victim is utilized.

We flash to the poor kidnapped Leila Buchanan now being held in a shipping container bound for lord knows where. She briefly attacks Vicky Roberts and informs her that Sean will never stop looking for her.

Back to Sean and a shootout at the field office ensues when they are suspected of not being who they claim. What series of any type would be complete without a little gun play? The agents are of course fakes designed to eliminate Sean from the situation. The fight sequence is well staged and believable. One bad guy is killed and our hero Sean whacks the other. Agent Collins and Sean Walker escape in the bad guy’s vehicle to fight another day!

As we reach the conclusion of the third episode, turncoat alien William is killed by his Alien girlfriend “Maya” whom is delivered to him as “part of the deal” he made to turn on his own kind and leader Sophia. Reflective of most underground organizations, unfortunately for William, the girlfriend remains loyal to the alien cause and count of the aliens under government control in The Event is now reduced to 96 when William crumples after being stabbed to death by his lover. We know then that they are not immortal as William pays the ultimate price for his treachery.

We end this review where I started the analysis of episode three, the makeshift temporary morgue in a military hanger of unknown location. One by one the so-called dead passengers wake up from the dead in a display of alien prowess. The is the question that will be answered in episode four of The Event according to the trailers I have seen.

The Event returns this Monday evening October 10, 2010 on NBC at 9 PM (east / west) in the United States. Good news for the series is that “The Event” has also been announced for premiere in the United Kingdom. We suggest that you tune in to another epic science fiction series unfolding before our very eyes! Your support during the first eight episodes will affect ratings and whether or not we will be treated to more of The Event!

As The Event on NBC is preparing for its fourth episode, half of the episodes produced to date, the series garnered a recent 6.8 viewing rating from the trusted ratings firm Nielson’s. Quite respectable for a new series against stiff Monday evening competition. Nielson’s also provides ratings with time shifted DVR viewing as well as “live” viewing that more accurately reflects how well a program is doing and whether or not a series will survive. The audience for The Event may be considered niche by some in prime time standards, however science fiction series such as Star Trek and Stargate were also considered niche and are now entering their fifth and seconds decades respectively.

I for one am hopeful that NBC will order the back end of “The Event” season one in order to produce a full season of episodes. Why? Because the series (over the first three episodes), has struck a chord about the fascinating subject of whether we are alone in the universe and whether or not visitors have been here on planet Earth now or in the past.

Lastly, the fact that a major American network studio have ventured into the realm of science fiction for new prime time weekly episodic series is welcomed by not only many fans of this genre of entertainment, but by WormholeRiders around the world as well. Therefore we reiterate, tune in again Monday October 10, 2010 at 9 PM local to watch The Event live!

With that said, each episode also stands alone segueing the single effect to a purpose which is simple. The second and third episode effectively establishes the foundations of the story arc being depicted for the viewing audience. In subsequent weeks, now that the foundations have been established, we will resume weekly analysis of “The Event”. Courtesy of NBC we include the promotional trailer for “A Matter of Life and Death”

As always I thank you for reading and for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency. Please feel free to leave a spam free comment or question here. Or as so many of our visitors prefer, visit Team WHR on Twitter or Facebook with your comments or questions.

Best Regards,

Kenn

October 10, 2010

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