Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Event: Season 1 Episode 15 - Face Off


Well friends, when a show is bad I'm happy to talk about it.   Laughable plot lines and acting?  Yep, I'm gonna talk about it.  But, when a show steps up its game and shows us the potential that it has should it be renewed, well I'm going to talk about that too.  FINALLY, The Event showed signs of hope to me.  One could argue that the 14 episodes of build up is what led to a satisfying episode such as this.  And yes, for the most part, they would be right.  But it's such a shame that an episode like this, one I would say is the best episode yet, has come after so many have abandoned the show.  Is NBC even considering a renewal at this point?  It feels like deja vu all over again with Flashforward a year ago.  The best episodes came after the LONG hiatus and the ratings had no chance of improving.  The retooling or just phase 2 of their story is just what the doctor ordered to get The Event out of its stale redundant funk. Sean and Vicky's paring?  CHECK!   EBEs vs. Government and sympathy on both sides?  CHECK!   Dempsey out of his office and doing something interesting?  CHECK!   Plot moving forward more quickly? CHECK!  Suspense and excited to see what happens next?  Put another oddly shaped V into that box too.   Nothing further I can really add to this except that if you had considered not getting back into The Event after the hiatus, maybe you want to check it out again before it rides off into the sunset.   Let's move on to the recap!

So this episode was entitled Face Off.  You can't think of that title without thinking of that movie where John Travolta and Nick Cage switched faces and became the actual personas of their nemesises (some movie concepts just don't age well, do they!?)  Anyway, this episode had NOTHING to do with that!  Indeed it had to do with the standoff between Martinez and Sophia ans the EBEs were trapped in a church.     Meanwhile, Sean and Vicky continued on their pursuit of Dempsey in France.   And Dempsey, well, let's just say things got a little more interesting there!

Sean/Vicky vs. Dempsey 

Sean/Vicky
So, the episode kicks off with Sean and Vicky right where we left them.  They were fleeing the the scene from where they threatened the Vice President.  Naturally, this chase only took up a small fraction of the episode since video game developers know the ins and outs of Washington D.C. and can split up with the expert, steal a van, and drive to the exact spot where Vicky would have fled to.   Maybe they already had their exit plan mapped out.  But the van?  Was that theirs?  So confused.  And where did Vicky get the change of clothes?  Seemed like it was in the van but who knows?  I guess people aren't supposed to argue when there's a scene of Vicky getting dressed on camera.  It didn't look like Sean was complaining.  That half-breed human/alien thingy is a distant memory!  








So, we saw this coming last week.  They got FRANCE as a lead last week to where Dempsey was heading.  Sean wants to go after the man.  But, at least they realistically explained how they were able to do it.  First, he continued to blackmail Vicky with the viral video of Vicky's child (sounds creepy when you say it that way).  Vicky seemed to just want to be left alone but it wasn't hard to convince her to stay on board.  She called in a few favors and got them on a private jet heading to wherever in France.  (I forget the town, but I'm not gonna worry about those details for now)  



Guess what!?  They didn't just magically arrive in France!  There was actually a scene of them on the plane!  That's all I ask for folks.  Just one scene of them traveling.  And actually, we got 2 traveling scenes. We even got one with them driving to their destination wherever they went in France.  But Vicky made one request of Sean and it was for her to see her son.  She talked to her mother and son via video chat.  They were made aware of some terrible news stateside, but we'll get there later.  
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The 2nd traveling scene.  This seemed to be the first moment where there may have been a little flirtation going on.  Vicky was checking Sean out as he was sleeping and then an alarm woke him up.   Something about suppressing that blackmail video from going viral.  Vicky had a one liner about "still going to hang that over my head?"  It kinda seemed like she was indicating that they're way past that in this forced relationship. 





They get to their location.  Vicky has a contact in France and she goes around to look for another way in.  The French brigade comes in after Sean and threaten to take him out.  He says he's with Vicky.  And for a second, we feel like Sean has been duped by Vicky.  But no sir!  Vicky came to the rescue and it was time to drink some wine!!  Well, time for this French dude and Vicky to reminisce on some previous missions and drink wine while Sean just chilled with his glass of water.  I'm sure he was determined to find Dempsey, but he didn't lead on to those 2.   



Not even going to pretend to understand the mission they were telling Sean about.  All I know was "it was our target!!!" (cue laughs)   We did find out that the mission was a CIA mission though.  Yes Vicky was CIA prior to working for Dempsey.  Hmmm   Turns out she got burned by one of her superiors to cover up one of his mistakes.   Vicky went off the rail and nearly ended her life.  Ahhh nothing like a nice tragic history to humanize a girl and make her a romantic interest for Sean Walker! 



Anyway, Vicky leaves the room for a bit and seemed a little upset.  The French dude wondered how Sean got Vicky to help him as he is not her type and he's not a professional.  Sean says he's blackmailing her.  And the big line is that Vicky would not do anything she didn't want to do.   So the question we are left with is, does Vicky have some kind of feelings for Sean?  Or does she have an ulterior motive to helping Sean?   Time will tell, but that's all we got from them in this ep.



Dempsey
Meanwhile, Dempsey is getting into all kinds of crazy stuff this episode.  He is in France somewhere, and we must assume not too far from Sean and Vicky.  But then again, it's only FRANCE.  It's a fraction of the size of the USA and we have seen how quickly Sean can get around that country!   But anyway, Dempsey had some archaeologist guy digging out some kind of cave and they brought some artifacts they found into a tent at the dig site.   Here's what we learned. 
  • A dozen limestone amphoras have been unearthed.  The archaeologist said they were eerily similar to those that housed the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were a collection of texts from the Hebrew Bible found in the 1940s.  (hmm the 40s, just happens to be when the EBEs arrived to town).  

  • Preliminary results suggested that they were created between 2000 and 1900 B.C.   Dempsey argues that they're quite older than that.  Hmm, how would he knows?  Was he around then or does he just know his EBE history?   He plays it off saying that he was making an uneducated guess but we know better.
Think there's any significance to the ring on the right hand? 
  • One amphora is inscribed in a language that is unknown.  (the language of the EBEs?)  
  • Then the archaeologist said something to upset Dempsey.  He said wait until you see the pictographs on the face of the "chamber".   Oh boy, he wasn't supposed to go in there!  The man said he couldn't resist and was the only one who entered the chamber.  Dempsey explained that it was unfortunate and if he had more self control he might have lived long enough to tell his children about it.  Pulled out a gun with a silencer equipped and ridded himself of the pesky artifact digger!   Woaaa, Dempsey ain't messing around! 


  • Next we see Dempsey heading into the cave with one of his cronies.  He said that no living thing has been into the cave for thousands of years.  
  • Then they get to the chamber and there is a crazy pictograph on the wall of deer, a giant being in the center with a triangle tattoo and then a bunch of beings around the giant being with what I can only say appear to be ALIEN shaped heads (you know, what we have always pictured alien heads to look like).   


  • Here's where I eat some crow.  Dempsey referred to these beings as Guardian "ANGELS".    "Every civilization, every religion has its own concept of the guardian angel and what its function is here on Earth.  Every civilization and every religion they are reduced to metaphor.  symbols.  When in fact they are very real."   




There it is.  Angels folks.  Angels.  I have to give major props to our regular commenter on the TV Addicts Blog, AuStarWars who never gave up hope on some kind of version of angels being involved on this show somehow.  Once they went full on alien, I doubted that we'd ever be returning to the concept of angels.  But if you do recall, in those early episodes when we REFUSED to believe aliens was the answer we did throw out the idea of these EBEs being fallen angels and that the APOCALYPSE, end of days, would be THE EVENT.   I'm not saying that will be the case, but this certainly puts a nice new twist onto things.

Oh yeah, and Dempsey has that triangle tattoo on his arm!!  Just like the man in that pictograph.  Does that symbolize that they are the same person?  That Dempsey was indeed here years ago?  AUSTARWARS had mentioned weeks ago (and I liked his theory then too) that maybe Dempsey was some kind of Pharoah who ran into the EBEs the first time they arrived on this planet and was given some of the YOUTH formula to live for thousands of years.   Heck, maybe he IS one of the EBEs.  We had brought that idea up too.   The EBEs age very slowly but they DO age.   There is a chance that he has just lived for thousands upon thousands of years and is nearing the end of his life and is just trying to borrow enough time for what is coming.   To PREVENT the Event?  or to help it along?  I have no idea.  But he was trying to stop the President from exposing these people.  Trying to stop the exposure of ANGELS to the people of Earth?   Well, are we really supposed to know they exist?   Are they actually Angels in the spiritual sense or just man's interpretation of what they THOUGHT angels were?  

Time will tell, and if this show doesn't continue on I hope they do provide the answers.  Very interesting stuff and much much more exciting than just flat out aliens.  While I disagreed with our accurate commenter on the ANGEL ANGLE (like that?), I'm certainly glad we're moving in that direction. 


Face-Off
And thus the standoff begins between Sophia/Thomas and the new and improved (questionable word) President Elias Martinez.   This was a very intense standoff indeed.  Looking back, perhaps the fact that the EBEs were trapped in a church for a majority of the episode was no coincidence.  The chess match went back and forth on this one, so let's just highlight some of the important stuff that happened. 
  • Leila had only 2 lines in the episode.  Or at least it felt like only 2.  IMPROVEMENT!  Michael saw her and wondered what she was doing there.  "You promised me answers and I got tired of waiting!"   Michael: "My bad"    Whew, now that THAT's over. 

  • Sophia struggled with fighting Martinez vs. trying to find a diplomatic resolution.  But she knew it was too late due to Thomas's prior battles with the government.  He made sure it was impossible to have a peaceful negotiation.   Martinez gave a 10 minute ultimatum to surrender or they would be invaded.  



  • Sophia and Simon have a quick phone conversation. Simon tells her that Elias means business but Sophia insists she cannot surrender.  She tells him that their planet is dying.  I love how she says "I'm sorry you have to find out this way."   Is there really any perfect situation where telling someone that their planet is dying will feel better!!? 
  • Sophia contacted their Portal Guy and he said the uranium rods were not quite loaded and ready to go yet to transport them all out of harm's way.   But they did have something else they could do.  Sophia warned the President to stand down.  Elias did not take the bait and lived to regret it.   


  • Yep, the preview we have seen over and over and over again.  The EBEs caused some kind of earthquake focused on the Washington Monument, and took the thing down!   Just like that.    Several fatalities, many injured, numbers still coming in.  Martinez reported to the public that D.C. was invaded by terrorists.  How long can they keep this under wraps? 




  • Sophia demanded 3 buses to transport her people out of the Church to wherever they needed to go or else they'll flatten the entire city.  Martinez allows it not seeing any other options.
  • Sterling has another idea.  He pieced together where he had seen Thomas before Inostranka.  Yep, he ran into him at the hospital where Simon was being tested.  Finally, they realized that Simon actually IS the mole.  Maybe, they could tell from deciphering his phone conversations with Sophia that he may not actually be a bad person to have on THEIR side in the end.  But for now, they are keeping it under wraps that they know who their mole is.   


  • Meanwhile at the Church, the people are preparing to board the buses.   I forgot to mention that Michael brings up his history of observing man over the years.   Leila objected to taking down the Washington Monument and Michael insists that they didn't want it this way.  They would have locked them up for the rest of their lives (even Leila).   He insists that humans will always be against their very survival.  They are the monsters and Leila needs to accept her place as one of them.  Every generation of man has proven that they will always be untrusted and hunted.   Thomas brings up a similar argument to Sophia that humans are short-sighted and hostile.  Angels judging man?  Aliens judging human's readiness for a shared existence on Earth?   Man's perception of God judging man?  (I'll let AUSTARWARS go crazy in the comments.  He has already emailed me with his full thesis on this subject)    



  • One nice thing to see was Thomas taking a backseat to Sophia to allow for the EBEs survival.  His gal pal with the bum knee wasn't too thrilled with this and he told her basically to shove it.  NICE!!  Of course, this was all a setup for what was to come.  

  • At the White House, the phone call between Sophia and Simon that was decrypted also indicated that taking down the monument was the last of their power for now until they were able to recharge the portal.  Threatening more damage was a bluff. 
  • Elias, against everyone's better judgement, wants to END THIS now!  He orders the military to take the buses out.  ALL of them.   The chopper fires a missle at bus #1 and blows it to bits.  GONE!  Woa.   Thomas puts in a call to PORTAL GUY, they only have enough juice for 1 bus full of people.  Of course, Thomas is the only one of the people we knew on Bus #3.  But he decides to take one for the team, for the survival of their race.  He says Sophia is their best shot and gave the coordinates to send her, Michael, Leila, bum knee girl off to safety.  And in the end, Thomas becomes a martyr for his people.  Bus #3 drives ahead of Bus #2 (which Elias is aware has Sophia on board).   The chopper fires away and takes out Bus 3.   RIP Thomas. 








  • The last thing we see is a portal opening up, Sophia's bus driving through it, and some kind of sonic boom (just like we saw with the plane in the pilot episode).  And just like that....it was gone. Good thing Martinez didn't tell Simon they knew he was the mole yet! 



Now THAT's what I'm talking about folks!  Solid solid hour of THE EVENT.  This is a show that I could sink my teeth into every week and be excited to do so.  Hopefully, the rest of the show will be at this pace or at least on this path of revelation.  I feel like there could be lots to discuss in the comments this week, so I won't waste much more time.  We'll see if any positive reviews that come from this episode will influence more people to jump on board, but I doubt it.  But, if they make the ride to the finale exciting, then maybe that's all we can ask for!  Be sure to check out my END CREDITS to what other blogging efforts I am currently working on and also looking forward to.  Also, check out my recap over at www.TheTVEvent.com for additional discussion.   Hope you enjoyed my ramblings as always and I'll see you next week!  


End Credits

  • Follow me on Twitter for any future blog postings and any interesting news I find. @TVAddictsBlog
  • Fringe has made Friday Night the best night on TV!  Be sure to tune in at 9:00pm EST.  My recaps go up over the weekend.  
  • I'll definitely be there when The Walking Dead returns, but that's most likely in the fall! AMC has been reairing the show though so if you ever catch it, you can find my recaps at the link. DVD/Blu comes out in March as well.
  • Other Shows I'm watching right now (and might comment on time permitting): Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, V, Modern Family, Cougar Town, Big Bang Theory, The Office, Community, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Smallville and others that I won't mention out of embarrassment!
  • Upcoming shows I'm looking forward to:
    Game of Thrones (HBO) - Winter Arrives April 15th (I just picked up the book to prepare!)
    Terra Nova  (FOX) - Pilot moved to air in Fall 2011 with rest of season 1
    Breaking Bad (AMC)
    Alcatraz - with Jorge Garcia in lead role
    Odd Jobs with Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn (This has been put on hold.  Both Emerson and O'Quinn have other shows this fall that I will be checking out.)  
  • I know it's sometimes looked at as a blemish on my beautiful blogging record, but I am still watching American Idol and couldn't resist my lack of commentary any longer.  I've resumed for the live rounds, so feel free to check it out! 

16 comments:

AUStarwars said...

Overall I thought the episode was excellent, and I just want to say four words I TOLD YOU SO…Mike, thanks for all the props..so now that’s off my chest let me espouse some wisdom and theories, which at this point, how can you not look at with authority ;-)

Here was my old theories, come to life:

You can see my long comments here: http://www.tvaddictsblog.com/2010/10/event-season-1-episode-6-loyalty.html

Few things:

1. Sean and Vicky was awesome..maybe it’s just that she is ridiculously hot (look again at the screen cap you have half way down…I mean do I need to say more?), but I think two things can be gleaned from this. I know feel that Dempsey may be like Sean is now, fell in love with an angel and did everything to get her back, and then got more involved in the overall conspiracy (albeit 1000s of years ago), so you have some nice symmetry there. Theory on Vicky is that she worked for the CIA when the Sec. of Defense’s father was head of the CIA, so he burned both his son (the wife thing) and her..thats why she went rogue..it would just tie the characters together better..it’s not integral to the plot, but does tie the characters together.

2. Dempsey..no matter what he “was” back in the day, and with that tattoo it really seems like he was either one of them (who went rogue, making him a “devil” or fallen angel to the rest of them)..I still believe he operates in shades of grey, ultimately a good guy in the “defend Earth” sense, but uses any means necessary to do it..like you know, sucking the youth out of hybrid children lol…at this point he basically he IS the CSM (Cigarette Smoking Man), working against the angels for years, sure for his own reasons, but ultimately for the good of humanity…I understand I refer to X-Files a lot, but its hard to argue with the depth and genius of the show when comparing to later shows in this genre (The Event, Fringe, parts of Lost, etc.)…overall how they take his character will be dependent on really how far the writers and producers really want to grey the character of Dempsey and show the Angels as being truly “evil” or have the whole show operate in shades of Grey (like X-Files)..remember its all about “a certain point of view” (as Obi-Wan once said)

3. I don’t think they should have shown the Washington Monument being destroyed before last night, it was a great visual image that should have waited for the episode itself to be spoiled imho.

4. In terms of the whole concept of man being “evil, warlike, and not ready” from Michael (the Archangel, notice he was in Korea, wars..) I believe:

Man basically doesnt understand their place in the world or how to correctly "worship" the angels, remember, not every society in human history has "worshipped" gods, there are just as many end of days type of gods as malevolent ones...im sure the reasons they originally came to Earth were to see if man was ready for their technology or whatever..and we have proven time and time again that we are not...but we have interpreted to mean "we need to worship G-d" or whatever, but in reality it just means we need to be "good people" in order to gain enlightenment, which is basically their new technology…

There is also the whole hybrid issue which is basically them trying to corrupt our species in order to be better in the world/universe ahead of schedule, since one would assume they have a higher propensity to understand their technology/travel interstellar/whatever


I could talk longer but I’ll let you all comment…

Anonymous said...

Mike,
That was quick, good job.

1. Vickey getting more screen time is all good. I wish they wouldn't keep her in such dark surroundings--hiding everything. Sean is just not in her league. As I pointed out last week, Leila could become history. Especially now that we know Michael's not so hot on humans right now.
2. The bus scene with the helicopter was VERY weak for lots of reasons, such as where was the police escort and a chopper taking strafing runs. The CGI was over the top like it was in Alaska.
3. I've always believed Dempsey to have either been directly or indirectly involved with the origins of these things.

Richard

Mike V. said...

yikes...it's not like I didn't expect that! lol Let's start with Richard.

@Richard - Thanks! I guess it was quick, but I post these recaps pretty much at the same time every night! lol around 12:30am, sometimes 1am. In comparison, I worked on LOST blogs from 10-2am, then woke up at 5 and tried to finish by 8am to go to work. INSANE!

1.) Yeah, they could easily kill off Leila unless they focus on her "SPECIALNESS" because she's a half-breed. But, if they want to stay true to the pilot episode, they probably will try to pair up Sean and Leila at some point in the future. Of course, with the show probably not getting renewed, we'll never see that anyway! lol

2.) A friend of mine mentioned that the bus scene was cheesy for different reasons. Why would it take so long for the helicopter to get off 3 shots and destroy ALL buses? They were on direct orders from the President of the United States! Of course, I retorted with, this is a show where a video game developer is an action hero! lol As for the CGI, I don't think we can expect it to get much better for their budget and for a TV show. Even LOST got slammed for its CGI on the submarines and stuff. The scene looked fine to me. I thought the Washington Monument collapse was pretty impressive for television.

3.) Not sure about being involved with ORIGIN of the aliens (as in witnessing the creation of their race on their home planet). I assume you mean their origin on Earth. I think we have all speculated that Dempsey has been around for quite some time and is very knowledgeble about them if not one of them. And has had prior interactions with them on a previous visit or WAS part of the crew that came to earth on a previous visit. etc...

Mike V. said...

@AUSW - no problem on the props. When it's deserved it's deserved! Agreed that your theories are holding up so far so we'll see where they go from here! (if I have time later I'll re-read your comments from ep 6) But for your numerical comments, here we go.

1.) I may or may not have intentionally captured certain screenshots to reflect said ridiculousness lol OH wait...Are you thinking it was Sterling's father that burned Vicky? Is Sterling the Secretary of Defense? I can never keep all of their roles straight. That's a pretty good point. A nice flashback could tie that all up nicely.


2.) Well, if you want to talk about a guy who does bad things for an ultimate good, there is a comparison to LOST. BEN LINUS, Jacob, etc... Fringe, there's Walternate and Walter. So that definitely is more than just X-Files. But you make a good case for Dempsey here. We'll see if it plays out! Ahhh yes...the "certain point of view" from ROTJ. In other words George Lucas saying "yeah...I didn't have this planned when I wrote A New Hope, and wasn't yet sure when I had Luke and Leia kiss, but I couldn't think of anyone else that would be fitting for Yoda to say "no, there is another" so I just went with it!! And I even admitted to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse that I made it up as I went along too!" Ahh good times. I'm sure the show will operate in shades of grey too. LOST worked well in that area, X-Files I'm sure did too. Fringe is doing a solid job with it right now.

3.) Agreed. I lightly mentioned it in the blog but meant to be a little more adamant about that. It would have been very shocking if they hadn't shown it. Then again, NBC was stuck between a rock and a hard place. They put THE EVENT on a 3 month hiatus....how do you try to draw viewers back in? Well, I guess you have to show your most exciting and earth shattering scene to draw up some anticipation. So, I can see why they did it. Of course, I don't think it helped!

4.) The Archangel Michael was in the Korean War??? Is that in the Bible? LOL J/K Nice comments on Alien's perception of Humans and Human's perceptions of aliens/angels.
Good points both AUSW and Richard. Anyone else going to jump into the ring? lol

MJ said...

It wasn't their van - they showed some guy loading or unloading it as Sean took it he yelled about it. But good point - where'd she get her clothes from ??

So the archeologist wasn't allowed in the chamber but this other guy can go in with
Dempsey ? Not a lot of sense there !

Yup - we discussed angels and end of days months ago. Think we even referenced the
Movies The Prophet and Fallen too around good angels and bad angels.

So you are going with the assumption that since Dempsey is a Guardian Angel then the
EBE's are too ? I'm not so sure they are the same thing.

While the stand off was quite exciting I feel that they made all the major characters
very erratic. Sophia was always about peace and discussion and in a second did a complete
360 and blew up the monument. I mean - she made that decision in a second ! And Thomas
then also did a complete 360 about who should lead their people. Felt fakish to me.

I caught something last night, but I don't remember the exact dialog darn it. But
I noticed that the EBE's do not seem to say our people or your people when talking to eachother - they say the people when referring to the group. Thought it was strange.

About tme they figured out Simon was with them all this time ! LOL

The thing that annoyed me the most was that they did not have power to beam out over 100 persons from the church, it would take hours to get that power. So they knock down the monument. Then an hour later they have enough power to beam out a bus full of people ? Come on now !

I've ignored all the kvetching and joking over them traveling across the country so quickly
because it didn't mean anything to the story really. But this was just blatantly
bad story telling.

And I'm pretty sure the Pres told them to take out bus #2 with Sophia on board, and am
sure that the chopper pilot could clearly see that bus 3 then overtakes # 2 - so
the pilot still should have taken out the bus with Sophia. DOH !

Think the general was giving orders 1 bus at a time which explains why the pilots weren't shooting more quickly. The order was take out the 1st bus. Then take the 2nd - which was then switched with Thomas's.

Thought that Ms. Limpy was on Thomas's bus though

Mike V. said...

@MJ -
Yeah I didn't think it was their van because of that very reason, which is why I was confused that she had a change of clothes! So bizarre

With the chamber thing...I think Dempsey was mad that the guy went in there BEFORE him. He said if he had shown some patience or something like that he would have lived to tell his kids about it. So, while I agree it was silly for him to bring this guy with him it was kinda explained lol

Agreed on our previous angels discussions.
I was going with the assumption that Dempsey was referring to the EBEs as guardian angels and that Dempsey is either one of them or something different. But you could be right...Dempsey could be the angel and the EBEs are just aliens lol

I don't want to have done a complete 180 overnight on THE EVENT, and I know I'm gonna sound like it...but in Sophia's defense, she was given a 10 minute ulitmatum to surviving. It seems like her defense mechanisms went into place and she had to defend her people. She expressed her disappointment with having to resort to that immediately afterwards and blamed Thomas. She worked for 66 years to try and develop a peaceful solution to their issue and Thomas threw that all away. Now, Thomas turning to be a martyr so quickly...I guess that's true...but it seemed that what we learned last week with the "message back" that Thomas was truly sincere of wanting Sophia and him to be on the same side. It seemed like that news totally changed his way of thinking. But i dunno
Hmmm...didn't notice "the people" thing. I'll have to keep an ear out for it next time!
Totally agree with the Simon thing. There is no way ANYONE could be THAT smooth for 66 years and not get caught lol (or however long he worked for the gov't)


I thought about the power thing too...and it's a good point. But they WERE loading the uranium rods....so maybe they had a certain amount of power already, used that....but that "minimal" amount of power was nothing in comparison to what the uranium rods can do. It's a stretch but I'm trying! lol

I really didn't think the Sean/Vicky stuff was too bad. It was bad in the fact that they got to France and barely discussed trying to find Dempsey which is the whole reason they're there. But other than that, I thought there was some interesting back story provided.


Good point with the choppers. I agree that THAT scene was a little rough lol Makes sense that the generals were giving the orders 1 bus at a time too. Don't know about Ms. Limpy but if she was on that bus then GOOD RIDDANCE! :)

Not sure why I was able to let the stuff slide on this episode vs. previous ones. lol I think my wavering opinions on THE EVENT will go down as an enigma in the end! lol

Anonymous said...

1. The orders to shoot were always something like the Prez saying "take them out" With the Gen saying take them out. The helo was in motion like a strafing run--they don't do that on these slow movers. Too many things to pick apart in reality. I think the only reason they made it drag out in agony was they needed time for the info on the portal to go back and forth, set it up and Sophia to say goodbye to Thomas. Hollywood stuff. The limping girl was on Thomas's bus. Leila, Michael and Sophia are together.
2. I agree the Sean and Vicky stuff wasn't bad and she seems to be able to act. Interesting that Leila's getting much more screen time and yet Leila is a higher billing. I'm not complaining. Was it my imagination or did they try to get some shots of Leila looking sexy with different lighting, camera angles, make up, etc?
3. Just to clarify, I don't think Dempsey was one of the original aliens as far as their planet. I'm not convinced he's an actual alien. The tatoo he has certainly ties with the painted object on the wall and yet he doesn't communicate with the aliens. I go back to his board and moving people around playing them like pawns. With that in mind, he seems to exhibit more personal power than the aliens who need technology.
4. Agree that the power takes a long time then when the buses are moving it's there all a sudden--hard to swallow.
5.Interesting that this show, with inferior production, bad story lines, being likely canceled, etc gets more comments than Fringe??

Richard

Mike V. said...

Richard

1.) Thanks for the clarification. Agreed that they unrealistically dragged it out to get all of that communication back and forth with portal guy

2.) I think at this point, you just gotta go with what works! Didn't notice the "Sexy Leila Angles" too much. I think they just preferred to show her walking around with no dialogue instead of WITH dialogue! lol

3.) Yeah, I figured that's what you mean, just wanted to be sure! I think it could still go either way. He is actually one of them or he just has known about them for a long long long long long time (and has interacted with earlier inhabitants)

4.) Covered this already. We're all on the same page even if I tried to justify it!

5.) I think there are 2 reasons there is less commentary on the Fringe recaps.

a.) Most people that read these recaps came from the LOST Addicts Blog. And of the people that made the move to this blog, I think more people were willing to give a NEW show a shot rather than catching up on Fringe, if they didn't watch it already.

b.) As I have mentioned before, while there are some overlying mysteries on Fringe, I still don't think there is much to discuss outside of what has already been discussed. It's not like LOST or THE EVENT (which attempted to model itself after LOST) where new questions are arising every week. It's usually all geared towards the same questions on Fringe. And most new questions that come up, are answered within the episode. I know we disagree on this but that's just how I see it.

Also, relatively speaking, the commentary on either of these shows is MUCH less than what the LOST blog used to see. I'd love a little more discussion, but WOW that LOST blog got intimidating for me! Trying to keep up with those comments was a full time job in itself!

AUStarwars said...

What if Dempsey is the Large godlike figure in the middle of all the angels? So essentially they were sent here to stop him or work "for" him? I think thats another option, though I still believe he is either a fallen angel who lost his actual immortality or is that "pharoh" or priest figure that was human to begin with and is ultimately good...im not trying to just throw things out there and say in end "see my third theory was right all along lol"..but just adding more for thought

AUStarwars said...

I looked up "archeological digs in France Mountains" and came up with a big Neanderthal dig site...and then found this:

"A Campanian ignimbrite volcanic super-eruption around 40,000 years ago, followed by a second one a few thousand years later, has been hypothesised as having contributed to the demise of the Neanderthal, based on evidence from Mezmaiskaya cave in the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia [58][59] Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis of a specimen from Mezmaiskaya Cave is radiocarbon dated to be about 29,000 years BP and therefore from one of the latest living Neanderthal individuals."

now..mention of Metachlorians aside...these Erruptions sound a lot like it could be the first EVENT on our world..just sayin...

Mike V. said...

AUSW - Hmm, I definitely pondered the "godlike" aspect since he's so much bigger than the "guardian angels"....but if they were sent here to work FOR him, why would they be at odds with him with the assassination attempt? If they were sent there to stop him then why would Sophia be working for 66 years to try and get home and Thomas be working for 66 years to try and take over Earth? And why does NOT ONE EBE ever mention Dempsey!?!! Because it's meant for a later reveal? Maybe. Why would Dempsey's people have kidnapped Michael (according to you...the ARCHANGEL)?

Fallen angel losing immortality is an interesting aspect. But I still think that the EBEs do AGE....just very slowly. That's why I like the idea that he's a very very old EBE. But I also like the idea of him being human and able to live for thousands of years too. (pharoah or not)

Interesting with volcanic eruptions and stuff. I think they just need to get it over with and tell us with the damn event is! Not one person has mentioned it in a a long time! LOL It's supposed to be the whole point of the show!

MJ said...

Yikes - I just assumed the aliens were not angels since they are saying their home world is dying. If they are angels that means heaven is dying. Don't like the sound of that.

I think the show finally had some momentum and excitment and that is why it's easier to overlook the gaping plot holes.

Just thought that since Sean is a fugitive and may or may not have even had his passport with him that it was foolish to just hop on a plane to a foreign country with a person he does not trust. Just saying.

Mike V. said...

@MJ - This gets into AUSW's idea that it's only man's PERCEPTION of Angels not Angels in the spiritual sense. I still don't like the use of the word "ANGELS" for this then because it gets too confusing. Case-in-Point, both you and I now went right to the spiritual realm. I know I contested previously with the ol' Star Trek 5 question "what does God need with a starship?" lol AUSW does a better job trying to explain his thoughts than I can so just look above in the comments lol Or read our argument back in episode 6's recap that he linked to. I'm not saying he's right but based on the stuff revealed in this episode, he has a better chance of being right lol

Agreed - as long as I'm entertained more than I'm laughing, then the show is doing its job!

Good point on the Sean fugitive thing (which they pretty much have thrown out the window). I think Sean thinks that this blackmail thing he has going on has Vicky doing whatever he wants. And hey, maybe it does!

MJ said...

AH - kinda like SG1 with the ancients - were wer ready for that technology and would we do good or evil with it.

Mike V. said...

Sounds about right...of course I can't compare as I never watched any of the SGs! lol

Mike V. said...

HBO released a 15 minute sneak preview of Game of Thrones. Ironically, it's of the 22 pages I've read so far. Looks amazing!! Not sure if I'll get a chance to recap this one right off the bat but I'll definitely be tuning in. Gotta pick up the pace on the reading too.

Game of Thrones Sneak Peak

Warning: !hat is shown is pretty graphic, so you might want to be careful where you watch!

Haven't watched The Killing on AMC yet but I've heard good things. Hopefully tonight before THE EVENT starts.