After a rather long hiatus, The Event picks up where last we left it—a message sent into space that has some incriminating invasion overtones. Martinez must deal with perky new Senator Lewis (Virginia Madsen), while Sterling is off to Alaska for more interrogations. The Sean and Leila plot does (finally) get wrapped up and maybe launch in some brave, new direction. At least a lot of key characters are now grouped together so we should have less wasteful scenes and maybe some direction?
This was a two hour premiere, which wasn't really necessary given the slow pace. In fact, when I realized that there was still another hour to go, I sighed heavily and had a glass of wine. When coupled with the lack of awesome revelations (aside from confirmation that they're aliens—that's about it), everything else has either been implied or anticipated and simply confirmed by characters. The only real curiosity comes with Dempsey, who always seems to serve up some weirdness that doesn't fit in with everything else.
Even the final half's action could have been edited for time (as much as I love writing out Inostranka multiple times). It seemed everyone was standing around with their arms folded waiting for stuff to happen...like me!
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| "You're an alien. Deal breaker. Sorry." |
The president and his advisers discuss the ominous message—Preparations are being made for your arrival, and the threat a larger force could be coming for colonization. Martinez's generals are all "We've seen what they can do. We're screwed!" Blake leaves for Inostranka to interrogate the detainees on the off chance they can provide more information this time.
Sophia directs Simon to search for Thomas' teleportation array in order to prevent him from bringing more of their people over. But Simon suggests they need more help, and that they approach another of their number to stop him—someone whom Sophia is reluctant to ask.
The array is in the Himalayas, and Thomas visits one of his people and delivers the module. There's concern they may not have the manpower to put their plan into effect given so many still remain loyal to Sophia. In the distance stretches a vast field that contains the portal large enough to bring everyone there.
Sean's all "Your dad's an alien!" but Leila doesn't believe it. They're not alone down there either, as a woman tries to make her escape but Sean intercepts her and demands to know everything with a gun to her face. All the test subjects were moved. All the girls are special (even Leila!)—special because of her father, who doesn't age at a normal rate. Sean gets all tough and threatens to kill her, so she manages to give up some details about where and how the girls are being moved, and Leila and Sean are off to intercept a white van.
Buchanan is being transferred to a facility in Virginia, but the van is attacked and he's kidnapped—by Simon. He brings him to a meeting with Sophia who is getting a bit tired of all her people she let escape just going off and doing their own thing, like having babies with humans. Buchanan apologizes for all that nasty plane crash business, too, and assures her he didn't know she'd be there that day. He had been transporting components to the portal array for Thomas given his job at the airport. The middleman he dealt with might be their way of finding him. But Buchanan wants her to help find his daughters. Sophia tells him he's not going to be asking for terms and he'll do as he's told, but her influence continues to wane, because he stands his ground.
Martinez meets a new Alaskan senator (filling in for her recently deceased husband until the election). She plans on running, but in the meantime she's stumbled upon something from her husband's things—an earmark for the Inostranka weather station expansion, but her inquiries have been met with obstacles in finding out where the money ultimately went. He assures her he'll have someone look into it.
Senator Lewis returns to her office to find it being secured by the sergeant at arms, given she does not have the security clearance her husband had. She asks to be able to retrieve some personal letters in her husband's desk of an embarrassing nature, which works, and she's able to make off with a folder called Mount Inostranka Project.
Sean and Leila catch up to the van, but when they pass it, the driver decides to go on the offensive and run them off the road, except he ends up hitting a tree. Sean knocks out the driver and Leila hears her sister inside. They're reunited—at last, thank God—and Sean tells a driver to call 911 while they take off with Sam. Their car won't start, which means running off through the woods. Sean then gets a call from Collier who's been contacted by Buchanan to set up a meeting with them (thanks to Simon providing information).
Meanwhile, Sterling arrives in Alaska and starts his interviews with Maya, who denies knowing anything about the message or an invasion. She says it's ironic given they were the ones who swore an oath to protect humanity. They're of peace. Always (oh, wait, that's V).
Thomas is also in Alaska, and secures the help of an army lieutenant, Greer, by threatening his family unless he does what they want. Lieutenant Greer is one of the men stationed at the detention center, and allows clearance for the entry of an army supply truck, then rigs the security cameras. Inside, Thomas begins the attack and kills the head officer, promotes Greer and gets all the guards rounded up in one location to be secured.
Senator Lewis has learned the truth (somewhat) about Inostranka, and confronts Martinez about running a detention facility, but he shuts her down pretty quickly about her lack of experience and security clearance. And, by the way, there's too many fat and uneducated kids in Alaska, so maybe she should be worried about that.
Simon and Buchanan are reunited with Sean, Leila and Sam. But Leila's not all that happy after what Madeleine told them and what they discovered on their travels. They return home for a big talk.
Sophia and Simon are waiting at the house, and she meets Sean. Over a cup of tea she explains they crashed there 66 years ago, and she's trying to bring them home. Her son Thomas is trying to bring more of their people there and that will destroy the world. Nothing new there.
Buchanan is filling Leila in too. NGC253 is the location of their planet (as if Leila's going to say "Oh...that star cluster!"). Life wasn't sustainable so they came to Earth to look for a new home, but were found and imprisoned. His group lived among the population, he met her mother, and just wanted to keep her safe. And, oh yeah, she's not human. And Sean can't come with them, or know any more about what's going on. She'll have to chose to come with him, or stay with Sean. End of story.
Sean doesn't want her to go, and he says he doesn't care that she's not human. Except, maybe he does because she's noticed he hasn't touched her since he found out. Her father's the only one who can answer her questions right now, so Sean says she should go. Good call.
Thomas tortures Sterling to get the code to open the doors, and the solider who helped him finally gives it up, and everyone is loaded onto a transport helicopter. Maya manages to sit next to Sterling and unties him. She assures him not everyone is on Thomas' side, and she tells him to run. Probably not the best idea, as he's shot in the back. Maya runs after to help and she's shot too. He seems relatively okay, though, but she dies in his arms while the helicopter leaves.
Leila wakes up the next morning and Sean's gone. He walks off down the road, a Leila-less life (hopefully) ahead of him.
Nosy Senator Lewis is on Hardball (!) about to reveal the existence of the installation. Martinez calls her during the commercial break and she says she'll keep quiet if he tells her who the detainees are. He reveals that her husband knew the truth, and decides to make the deal. So Lewis does a bunch of double-talk and avoids revealing the truth. Chris Matthews, like us, is disappointed.
Dr. Dempsey meets with the doctor who Sean terrorized (and I thought she was so dead for screwing up, but I guess not), and she advises the test subjects were released. He's looking down on a stone slab with criss-crossing carvings and some kinds of domino pieces. He picks one up as he talks about Sean and has a feeling that they will cross paths with him again soon. And he sets it down in a new spot.
Virginia Madsen is a nice addition, and hopefully she'll become part of the Martinez team. I don't really want to see her become a thorn in his side. The whole trip to Alaska was a useless McGuffin to get Sterling held prisoner...ultimately for what purpose? To tell Martinez what we already knew, that Sophia might be on their side after all?
The detainees are from another planet. So I'm really hoping we get an explanation of how they look human and can interbreed so easily. Do they have any other nonhuman abilities aside from living long? I had thought there might be some common ancestry plotline, but from what Buchanan says he's pretty adamant they're different.
So, an unnecessarily long premiere that could have been cut for pacing to make it a bit more interesting, considering there was no tension at all. All these supposed reveals were just things we already knew and it was the characters being brought up to speed, not us. After reviewing a season of V since The Event went on hiatus, I can at least give V credit for providing entertaining camp, but this two hour episode had me checking the clock every commercial break.
Sean's all "Your dad's an alien!" but Leila doesn't believe it. They're not alone down there either, as a woman tries to make her escape but Sean intercepts her and demands to know everything with a gun to her face. All the test subjects were moved. All the girls are special (even Leila!)—special because of her father, who doesn't age at a normal rate. Sean gets all tough and threatens to kill her, so she manages to give up some details about where and how the girls are being moved, and Leila and Sean are off to intercept a white van.
Buchanan is being transferred to a facility in Virginia, but the van is attacked and he's kidnapped—by Simon. He brings him to a meeting with Sophia who is getting a bit tired of all her people she let escape just going off and doing their own thing, like having babies with humans. Buchanan apologizes for all that nasty plane crash business, too, and assures her he didn't know she'd be there that day. He had been transporting components to the portal array for Thomas given his job at the airport. The middleman he dealt with might be their way of finding him. But Buchanan wants her to help find his daughters. Sophia tells him he's not going to be asking for terms and he'll do as he's told, but her influence continues to wane, because he stands his ground.
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| "This is a two hour episode. We have time for tea." |
Senator Lewis returns to her office to find it being secured by the sergeant at arms, given she does not have the security clearance her husband had. She asks to be able to retrieve some personal letters in her husband's desk of an embarrassing nature, which works, and she's able to make off with a folder called Mount Inostranka Project.
Sean and Leila catch up to the van, but when they pass it, the driver decides to go on the offensive and run them off the road, except he ends up hitting a tree. Sean knocks out the driver and Leila hears her sister inside. They're reunited—at last, thank God—and Sean tells a driver to call 911 while they take off with Sam. Their car won't start, which means running off through the woods. Sean then gets a call from Collier who's been contacted by Buchanan to set up a meeting with them (thanks to Simon providing information).
Meanwhile, Sterling arrives in Alaska and starts his interviews with Maya, who denies knowing anything about the message or an invasion. She says it's ironic given they were the ones who swore an oath to protect humanity. They're of peace. Always (oh, wait, that's V).
Thomas is also in Alaska, and secures the help of an army lieutenant, Greer, by threatening his family unless he does what they want. Lieutenant Greer is one of the men stationed at the detention center, and allows clearance for the entry of an army supply truck, then rigs the security cameras. Inside, Thomas begins the attack and kills the head officer, promotes Greer and gets all the guards rounded up in one location to be secured.
Senator Lewis has learned the truth (somewhat) about Inostranka, and confronts Martinez about running a detention facility, but he shuts her down pretty quickly about her lack of experience and security clearance. And, by the way, there's too many fat and uneducated kids in Alaska, so maybe she should be worried about that.
Sophia and Simon are waiting at the house, and she meets Sean. Over a cup of tea she explains they crashed there 66 years ago, and she's trying to bring them home. Her son Thomas is trying to bring more of their people there and that will destroy the world. Nothing new there.
Buchanan is filling Leila in too. NGC253 is the location of their planet (as if Leila's going to say "Oh...that star cluster!"). Life wasn't sustainable so they came to Earth to look for a new home, but were found and imprisoned. His group lived among the population, he met her mother, and just wanted to keep her safe. And, oh yeah, she's not human. And Sean can't come with them, or know any more about what's going on. She'll have to chose to come with him, or stay with Sean. End of story.
Sean doesn't want her to go, and he says he doesn't care that she's not human. Except, maybe he does because she's noticed he hasn't touched her since he found out. Her father's the only one who can answer her questions right now, so Sean says she should go. Good call.
Thomas tortures Sterling to get the code to open the doors, and the solider who helped him finally gives it up, and everyone is loaded onto a transport helicopter. Maya manages to sit next to Sterling and unties him. She assures him not everyone is on Thomas' side, and she tells him to run. Probably not the best idea, as he's shot in the back. Maya runs after to help and she's shot too. He seems relatively okay, though, but she dies in his arms while the helicopter leaves.
Nosy Senator Lewis is on Hardball (!) about to reveal the existence of the installation. Martinez calls her during the commercial break and she says she'll keep quiet if he tells her who the detainees are. He reveals that her husband knew the truth, and decides to make the deal. So Lewis does a bunch of double-talk and avoids revealing the truth. Chris Matthews, like us, is disappointed.
Dr. Dempsey meets with the doctor who Sean terrorized (and I thought she was so dead for screwing up, but I guess not), and she advises the test subjects were released. He's looking down on a stone slab with criss-crossing carvings and some kinds of domino pieces. He picks one up as he talks about Sean and has a feeling that they will cross paths with him again soon. And he sets it down in a new spot.
Virginia Madsen is a nice addition, and hopefully she'll become part of the Martinez team. I don't really want to see her become a thorn in his side. The whole trip to Alaska was a useless McGuffin to get Sterling held prisoner...ultimately for what purpose? To tell Martinez what we already knew, that Sophia might be on their side after all?
The detainees are from another planet. So I'm really hoping we get an explanation of how they look human and can interbreed so easily. Do they have any other nonhuman abilities aside from living long? I had thought there might be some common ancestry plotline, but from what Buchanan says he's pretty adamant they're different.
So, an unnecessarily long premiere that could have been cut for pacing to make it a bit more interesting, considering there was no tension at all. All these supposed reveals were just things we already knew and it was the characters being brought up to speed, not us. After reviewing a season of V since The Event went on hiatus, I can at least give V credit for providing entertaining camp, but this two hour episode had me checking the clock every commercial break.
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