Chris’ comments appear in square brackets.
‘The Event’ – Episode 5: “Casualties of War” http://www.nbc.com/the-event/
Cast
Sean Walker
Leila Buchanan (Sean Walker’s kidnapped fiancée)
President Elias Martinez
First Lady Christina Martinez
David (son of President)
Sophia (E.T. and liaison to President)
William (E.T. defector) Maya (E.T., partner of William)
Claire (FBI agent)
Blake Sterling (Aid to President)”
Agent Lee (E.T. CIA agent – presumably a ‘white hat’)
Erica Bartlett (CIA agent, formerly “Vickie Roberts”)
Mount Inostranka (Alaska E.T. detention facility)
Avias Airline downed Flight #514
Thomas (renegade E.T. from Alaska)
Hospitalized flight survivors show signs of latent physical panic and psychological trauma. Mr. Buchanan repeatedly asks a hospital staffperson, “What is happening?!?”
1:30 — Presidential briefing with hospital neurobiologist overseeing the flight survivors, who suggests the survivors may be under biological and cognitive attack, possibly E.T. delivered.
2:50 – Thomas (E.T. ) calls the President, insists that all 96 E.T. detainee’s at Inostranka be released, or all passengers will die.
3:50 – Flashback to 1944 at Inostranka: Sophia asks Thomas to leave site of plane crash. (This scene shown in a previous episode I believe.) Thomas leads injured E.T.’s away from crash site. Intact abandoned shelters are found by Thomas and Agent Lee. Thomas shown with a deep commitment for ensuring the wellbeing of his fellow E.T.’s.
7:00 – Blake advocates sacrificing flight survivors.
7:40 – Agent Lee calls Thomas (E.T.) during a break from the President’s briefing, and pleads for Thomas to reconsider his threat to kill all passengers. Thomas remains insistent on carrying out the conditions of his demands.
8:37 – Leila at police station. Older officer walks out of main office to meet CIA agents in hallway.
10:04 – 5 year flashback. Vickie Bartlett shown on a CIA-ordered killing mission. (Clearly a trained assassin.)
11:37 – Shawn calls his friend Rick for help, asks him to track a number.
12:48 – Shawn picks up Leila’s message while driving through Texas with Claire. Shawn calls Leila back. Leila suspects the officers are malicious. Tries to escape and fails. Thrown into a locked room.
16:30 – Flight survivors still panicking and tormended. Hospital aids perform shock therapy on Buchanan.
17:30 – President with First Lady, mulling over flight victims together. First Lady accuses Elias of sounding like Blake. Elias dismisses First Lady in a heat.
19:20 – Thomas and President on phone call together. President refuses Thomas’ demands and calls his bluff (threatening to kill Sophia and other E.T.’s in return).
20:25 – Flashback to 1945, New Mexico. Thomas found by Agent Lee, and accused of abandoning everyone (E.T. survivors). Thomas tells Agent Lee he is accelerating scientific knowledge of nuclear fission with Manhattan Project.
22:00 – Blake meets with President, presents him with a termination protocol built-in to Inostranka, which he recommends using against E.T. detainees. President finds the idea barbaric.
[Here the President is seen playing both sides of the line; wearing the ‘dark hat’ – to the degree that even Blake is convinced of his allegiance to his cause. To what degree the President retains his moral feeling for the E.T.’s remains an open question at this point. ]
24:00 – President orders Blake to re-engage the termination mechanism.
24:40 – Sophia admits to Agent Lee that Thomas is a different person today. Tells Lee to insist to Thomas that he release the antidote immediately that will neutralize the flight survivor’s symptoms. Lee does so; Thomas refuses. Face off between Lee and Thomas (Lee hits Thomas to the ground), before walking away.
26:50 – CIA agents confront Leila before Shawn arrives. Leila and Vickie have words; Leila triggers a sensitive spot in Vickie.
27:00 – 5 year flashback: Vickie Roberts seen with her handler after she says she has killed a baby on her last assassination assignment. Her handler ensures she is under his command. Vickie returns to her mother’s house, where the surviving baby is now hidden.
29:30 – Shawn pulls up to police station, where CIA agents lie in waiting. Shawn talks to his friend Rick again by phone, who drops intel that Vickie is inside the precinct. Shawn and Claire argue briefly before Shawn decides to “send a message” inside with his phone: a picture of Vickie’s son (the rescued baby) sent to Vickie. He threatens to distribute the picture virally if she doesn’t allow him to leave the precinct with Leila. Shawn then enters the building armed. Vickie has her gun aimed at Shawn, before turning it against all members inside the precinct. Massive shoot-out between Shawn and Vickie against police precinct. Vickie lets Shawn escape with Leila.
35:22 – Vickie calls in to her superiors and explains that Shawn took Leila and killed everyone else (clearly lying). She notices a bloodstain on the sidewalk where an agent she had supposedly killed is no longer lying; clearly worried she will be outted for killing the policemen and women.
36:00 – Thomas and President on yet another call. President calls Thomas’ bluff. Thomas asks for Sophia’s release only. The President agrees.
[Has the President just managed to use his position on both sides of the line to creatively synthesize a meeting of worlds between E.T.’s and humans not otherwise available (however imperfect and risky)? Is this also a reflection of Obama’s fundamental and uniquely difficult role at this time?]
38:50 – President and Sophia on phone: President orders Sophia to reign Thomas in.
39:20 – Antidote administered to flight survivors.
39:40 – Sophia released into the light of day as flight survivors awaken peacefully, free of their former disruption.
40:20 – Sophia escorted onto a subway, which she boards alone.
40:55 – First Lady and President in Oval Office; First Lady asks Elias if it didn’t work out, would he have murdered the detainees? First Lady clearly displeased with President’s non-response.
41:56 – Sophia alone on subway in a state of complete uncertainty.
[end]
[Once again, ‘The Event’ seems to restore the viewer to a host of unanswered questions in a context of complete uncertainty. (This, in place of V’s solidified agenda of presenting E.T.’s as negative predators.)
We are shown in several different instances how one person must wear two hats in order to function in the corridors of hardened power (whether that be the President or CIA assassin Vickie (who has a sudden change of heart).
The overarching depth of ambiguity in the context of a presiding shadow-government stands out once again. I can only appreciate how ‘The Event’ seems itself to be the mini-series equivalent of Obama himself: a placeholder to withstand the transition from the old 3d world of force and control to the unknown world of the new we are now poised at the threshold of breaking through.
How the story in ‘The Event’ will unfold further is not nearly as interesting to me as the context and tone of ambiguous uncertainty that sets each scene.
I think we are being given something essential to recognize amidst the otherwise seemingly throwaway drama in all of its twists, turns and heightened sense of jeopardy.
What ‘The Event’ seems to me to be about most is in leading the viewer to question the reality of the world we actually inhabit through the reflection presented by this otherwise seemingly mundane miniseries.
I do think it is trying to present an accurate reflection of current events, and quite possibly for this very purpose.
How does one address the mind-set of U.S. citizens at this difficult moment in time? One way is to create propaganda. Another way is to create a facsimile of propaganda that is actually its opposite. This is the quality of truthfulness that I can’t help but suspect ‘The Event’ is pursuing. There are too many hairline moments of human trust being tested for it to merely be functioning as another piece of pulp distraction.
Final thought: The fact that Vickie suddenly came to Shawn & Leila’s defense at the end of episode 5 is as powerful an image as the flight survivors waking up en masse at the end of episode 3.
Vickie is clearly an image of a mind-controlled assassin (Illuminati or otherwise). What kind of message is being delivered to the viewing public by having her suddenly betray her controllers and serve her deeper feelings? For those individuals raised in mind-controlled families, I can’t help but think that this image could be singularly liberating to a pronounced degree.
I will continue to stay tuned to ‘The Event’ for now…]
