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”!
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Regards,
Celtica (Jen)