So, last night we were introduced to The Event, and its twisting turning plotlines.
Let’s start at the beginning, well, make that whatever the beginning is since the show flings time around like Lost on steroids. First off we’re greeted by the very same font that was used by 24 to flash the names of the actors on screen during the beginning of each episode. After that we’re thrust into the lives of numerous characters, all with vague plot lines that have them doing weird stuff that we have no idea about. They talk cryptically and in low voices, “They’re going to tell them about…dun, dun, dun….The Event.”
The President of the United States is called into a meeting with his team of advisers and seems to be discussing the release of Guantanamo prisoners. They talk about closing down a “facility” with “detainees” that have been “wrongfully imprisoned.” Turns out the detainees, at least one of them anyway, knows what The Event is, but they’re speaking as cryptically as everyone else.
Another young man named Sean finds himself in love with a young woman named Leila, and wants to propose to her. They head out on a cruise. Before he can propose to his love, a cry of help comes from the distance. Him and his girlfriend rush over to see what’s going on and find a man calling for help because his girlfriend has slipped off a cliff and is now about to drown in the ocean.
Yes, all of this connects together, although I have no idea how it will. The Event feels eerily like Lost with its flashbacks and flashforwards, even going so far as to give us a big “Whoosh!” sound as we fly back to the present day.
So what’s The Event? I have no idea, and it seems like something that we’ll never find out exactly what it is, when it will happen, or if it has already happened.
The problem with these types of shows is that they tend to languish in storytelling limbo, especially if the show continues to get renewed year after year. Why would they tell us The Event, if the show will continue on and on? Or maybe The Event, isn’t the only one and there will be bigger and better ones later on.
My biggest problem with The Event is it seems way too plot-based. We’re supposed to care so much about finding out what’s going on, that we don’t care much about any of the characters we’re introduced to. That’s what Lost did so well, there was an overarching mythology to the whole story that was fun to find out, but without the intricate character arcs and the writer’s ability to link individual characters to the happenings on the island, I would have never been so invested in that show.
BIG SPOILERS AHEAD! ONLY READ IF YOU WATCHED THE EPISODE!
So, let’s talk about the juicy secrets. We have an elephant in the room… in the form of a giant wormhole that swallowed up a commuter jet headed to kill President Underwood at his Coral Gables retreat. What I want to know is why everyone, including the president, were surprisingly reserved about a gigantic jet being sucked into a blue glowing orb in the sky.
President’s child: “What happened?”
President Underwood: “I don’t know.”
How it should have went.
Everyone that saw it happen: “What the @#%@! In the name of everything that is holy, what just happened? The 4400 have come to NBC.” Followed by at least a couple people fainting. I mean, come on.
So in short, what do I think is happening? Aliens…or people from the future trying to correct the past. Those are my two theories for now. Anyone else have some theories about what in the world is going on? Why a plane was sucked into a wormhole? And how in the world did Sean get with Leila? Seriously, she’s just out of his league.
