The Event – 1.03: Protect Them From The Truth

“Do you know how many people use ‘password’ as their password?” – Sean

Some more stuff happened this week.  Sean escapes the custody of the FBI agents that arrested him and tries to sneak into an FBI office in order to track down information about his girlfriend’s kidnappers, only to get caught and taken into custody again.  Some federal agents try to seize him after they realize he may be connected to what’s going on with the aliens, but he manages to escape with the help of one of the FBI agents (who starts to become suspicious of the federal agents after they, y’know, try and kill everyone at the office).  One of the alien captives agrees to spill the beans about the aliens’ schemes and the whereabouts of the aliens who aren’t captive, only to get stabbed to death by his girlfriend moments before he can say anything (in order to ensure the safety of her people).  Also, Sean’s girlfriend, Leila, kinda gets knocked around a bit by her captor, Vicky.  Not much really on that particular plot thread, but I guess it’s nice to know that she’s still alive or something.  Oh yeah, and the passengers of the plane that disappeared were presumed to be dead (their unconscious, unmoving bodies found in the middle of the desert where the plane crashed), but it turns out that every single last one of them is alive and is regaining consciousness at the end of the episode.

I say all this with a certain amount of detachment and brevity (summing up an hour’s worth of activity into about 3 sentences), but the truth is, I’m still having a lot of fun with this show since last week.  The intrigue and the mystery and the suspense have been kicked up a notch ever since the plane so mysteriously disappeared from the Miami sky, and it’s kept me excited and wondering what will happen next.  However, I am beginning to realize that after spending so much time time providing a decent amount of background in the pilot episode, we’ve been going through some pretty shallow waters in the pursuit of keeping viewers watching the show week after week.  It’s been a lot more exciting than how it started out, but it’s beginning to feel like we’ve been running non-stop without taking a moment to catch our breath.  Besides Sean, the only characters we’ve really spent any amount of decent time with so far is the president and Sophia, both of whom have spent most of their time standing off with each other.  We have a decent amount of semi-interesting characters to play around with, but other than the predicament they currently find themselves in, we don’t know a whole lot about them.  Leila taunts Vicky by claiming that Sean will never stop looking for her.  Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but it doesn’t add a whole lot to his character.  He loves his girlfriend, he’s a good and kind-hearted man, and he’ll never give up.  Wow, that’s like... every generic action hero ever!  Sean’s a likable guy!  Let’s find out a little bit more about him and what makes him tick!  We get a few hints, like when he saves the very same FBI agent that arrested him in the last episode from a fiery car crash at the beginning of this episode, but overall we spend most of the time running or dealing with the current plot twist.  It’s a minor complaint from a show that is being billed as a big suspense thriller show anyways, and we’re way early in the show’s run, so it’s not like it’ll never ever be addressed, but it’s what was running through my mind as I watched the latest episode.  I’m going to start complaining if we go into the winter hiatus and we still barely know anything about our little main character, but for now, I’m just bringing it up as a point of interest.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, this show so far seems a bit like 24, providing us with constant twists and thrills to keep us invested, rather than perhaps something like Battlestar Galactica, which did a fantastic job melding both the suspense and the deep character storylines (well, for the first couple seasons anyways).  And that’s not necessarily a bad thing at all.  I loved 24!  Maybe this is a show that just deals with suspenseful twists and turns designed to keep the viewer excited and guessing.  It’s working so far; who’s to say that it shouldn’t keep working?