Old melted face girls, zombies, aliens, ridiculous plot holes — so what does The Event have in store for us this week? How about some contrived plots and a chase scene in a cornfield? Oh yes, all of that and more, dear readers.
This week sees the main season’s arcs grind to somewhat of a halt, with the plots spinning their wheels and moving the chess pieces around the board before we get to the 1.10, the fall finale, next week. Jarvis is still unconscious so he’s got no information to give up yet, Sean and Leila go on the hunt for a girl who has escaped the clutches of Dempsey, and Thomas and Sophia have some son-mommy issues while retrieving a component from a wibbly-wobbly alien safe. The big picture hasn’t changed a great deal, but it does set up some interesting things for the finale.
But first, some gripes. Oh, how I love them gripes. Gripe number one, the ridiculousness of the little girl (Abby) escaping from Dempsey. How, exactly? Did she suddenly turn into Sydney Bristow and karate chop her way out? Dempsey doesn’t strike me as someone so sloppy that he’d just leave a back door open, and we’ve seen he has plenty of security on his payroll. That she not only managed to escape but also got all the way home just makes a mockery of Dempsey’s operation. They quickly go from powerful, malevolent bad guys into cuddly, useless Magoos. If it’s revealed next week that Abby was released deliberately to lure Sean and Leila out, I will happily eat my words. But I don’t hold much hope for that.
Gripe number two, why didn’t Isabel just shoot Sophia at the end? I don’t buy the whole “one bullet won’t kill me” spiel — wasn’t Thomas just planning on killing her with a shot to the brain? It’s not like we’ve been given any on-screen evidence that Sophia has some kind of super-powered bullet resistance.
On the plus side, we at least got a long look at the relationship between Thomas and Sophia, and the large meeting at the start showed just how revered Sophia is within her people. I don’t think the character has really shown us just why she’s so beloved, but that’s typical of The Event so far — the characters really haven’t been given enough depth yet.
Still, we did get more action, suspense, chills and and thrills. The show continues to be massively unpredictable and inconsistent, which can be both a plus and a minus at times. You lower your expectations and then the show finds ways to impress, but just when the pace is ramping up you get episodes that slow the story down to a crawl. Hopefully the fall finale next week drops some big bombshells that suggest the 2nd half of the season will be worth sticking around for. C+
Maybe you should discuss the show in our forums, or I’ll chase you through a cornfield.
