What I’m Watching: The Event

The Event: Season 1, Episode 20 “One Will Live, One Will Die” (F)

The amount of testing, preparation, and betrayal that goes into this repopulation is rather staggering and tiresome, I have to say. It’s almost as if these alien bad guys are trying to get caught. I do appreciate that this is the best use of Leila the series has presented, as a guinea pig designed to spread the virus thanks to her very unique human-alien DNA. The whole scene at the mall was rather embarrassing, and to think that Sean Walker of all people can essentially take down aliens who have been alive for hundreds (or thousands, who knows?) of years is more than a bit of a stretch. As Jarvis continues to receive direct calls from Sofia on his personal cell phone and command military executions that rival Martinez’s acts in stupidity and senselessness, it’s hard to decide which of this show’s plotlines is more lamentable. To have Jarvis bomb a compound which, according to him, houses traitors that he personally has decided are worthy of assassination, against the advice and express wishes of his staff, is a good contender for the least credible award, but I think the prize goes to the First Lady, who, once upon a time when this show was going in a different direction, was actually a secret alien! Her collusion with Blake and Simon is completely inconsistent with that entire storyline, which seems to have been all but forgotten. There’s nothing I hate more than a pointless flashback which serves to provide no new information and only inspire gasps of “gotcha.” And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this show, it’s that it’s very easy to encrypt cell phone calls and almost as easy, if not a bit more time-consuming, to decrypt them.