89 replies to this topic

[TWoP Dietrich]

TV Guide sez:

Martinez confronts the traitor; Sophia sends Simon on a mission to determine if her suspicions about Thomas and Isabel (Necar Zadegan) are justified; Sean and Leila battle Dempsey's mercenaries.

[hollyhox]

I’m gonna go make me some candle tea. This episode picked up right where the last one left off, but the aliens are hanging out having tea like nothing happened! Sean had some unbelievable back-alley surgery and then ran around a few hours later, but at least he had surgery. Thomas’ girlfriend couldn’t have gone to a hospital in the time since she blew away her knee. But she’s barely even hobbling with her cane. I give up. But seriously, does the candle in the teacup have any significance? Did it heat the cup, sterilize it, or something? Seems like it would just make your tea taste carbon-y, burnt, and gross.

OK, while Sean was injecting the goon in the cornfield, you can see Leila turning her head away from the camera and laughing. Now, I don’t blame the actress. This is some really stupid shit, and I certainly don’t take it seriously. But the director couldn’t do another take? The editor couldn’t use a different shot? It has never been more obvious that they just don’t care.

“Cancer of the balls. Is that painful?” Lady, you’re asking a fellow woman how balls feel. Leila doesn’t know, and neither do I. If this show had ever shown a funny side before, I might have laughed at that. But it just felt bizarrely out of place in this show.

Stupidest part of the show, when Sean and Leila were in the elevator:
Sean: “Tell me that guy wasn’t just crazy.”
Leila: “No, everything that has led us here has checked out.”
It all checks out! It really does! Leila said so! Boy, we must be really dumb for picking this show apart every week, because IT ALL CHECKS OUT!

I’m hoping that noise they heard from the satellite is the brown note from South Park.

[AimingforYoko]

ET's it is, then.
I loved that look by Sean, at the end: "What does this mean?" "It means I've been banging an alien. That's what it means."

[dives]

I'm on the West Coast, should I bother watching tonight or just stream it on the website tomorrow?

[hollyhox]

I'm on the West Coast, should I bother watching tonight or just stream it on the website tomorrow?

Well, would you rather be disappointed tonight or tomorrow?

[SycoraxRock]

If Thomas and Isabel don't want to go back to their home planet then why send them a message?

Unless, it's..."Earth is great. Wish you were here. Speaking of which, you should all actually come here and take the place over! You'll love it."

Edited by SycoraxRock, Nov 29, 2010 @ 10:19 PM.

[AimingforYoko]

If Thomas and Isabel don't want to go back to their home planet then why send them a message?

I assume, if things suck at home it's an invitation to come down and party.
This ep actually made me feel better, because I thought Leila might be the stupidest human around, but now we know: She's not human!

[MichaelFi]

Leila is an idiot. She never noticed that her father never aged since she was a kid.
The Vice President is threatening to reveal the existence of the aliens if prosecuted. Wasn't the President considering revealing the existence of the aliens anyway?
I'm not sure what Thomas is planning. Why does he think that contacting the aliens' homeworld will keep them from leaving?
So Dempsey IS taking the serum so that he can age. Why does he need it if none of the other aliens did?

[Gambie]

Just when you think an episode will answer some of the questions, it creates a thousand more. I seriously think the writer's all contribute a few lines and they put them in a hat and then randomly pull them out and assemble the storyline.

Edited by Gambie, Nov 29, 2010 @ 10:32 PM.

[SycoraxRock]

So Dempsey IS taking the serum so that he can age. Why does he need it if none of the other aliens did?

Maybe he wanted to live a more 'public' life and needed to appear to age? People would notice if he didn't so he has done all of these experiments on children so that he can create a serum to age like native humans?

(Who am I kidding? Much like the writers I have no idea.)

[juneboy44]

Okay the very first scene with everyone having the tea sitdown? Simon did not have cast on. Last week he had a cast on his right arm. So its magically healed after a week?

Jason Ritter is hot!

I still do not understand why big nose girl did not take that last one bullet she had from last week and kill Sophia? Why injure yourself when you can kill your biggest enemy/threat?

Just when you think an episode will answer some of the questions, it creates a thousand more. I seriously think the writer's all contribute a few lines and they put them in a hat and then randomly pull them out and assemble the storyline.

I'm just glad that they got rid of those stupid flashbacks. They were fuckerbitching annoying!

Oh and what about the dead body in the fields? How are Sean and Leila supposed to get out of the basement of this place without getting caught? Simon can go and have a computer hard drive checked without having a reason? Using government funds?

I loved that look by Sean, at the end: "What does this mean?" "It means I've been banging an alien. That's what it means."

LMAO!

So the show is on hiatus till January right? So we have to put up with this superhero show? Oh just bring American Idol already!

Edited by juneboy44, Nov 29, 2010 @ 10:50 PM.

[ottoDbusdriver]

If Michael Buchanan is an alien, Leila and Sam are part alien.

If Paul Stern is an alien, that means his daughter is also part alien.

Were all of the kidnapped children from at least one alien parent ?

Since Dempsey is taking the injections to age, he is obviously a 1%er as well. If he's responsible for the attempts on POTUS AND VPOTUS, but he's not working with Thomas, exactly how many 1%er factions are there ?

Wouldn't Michael already know about the Inostronka facility -- from shared information at all the regular meetings of the 1%ers at hotel ballrooms around the country over the past 60 years ? Which pretty much blows a huge hole in Madeline's story that Michael discovered the Inostronka facility when his plane was off course in Alaska and flew over it, and then he started investigating it. Please.

Was the satellite nothing more than a glorified 'ET Phone Home' moment ? And it made a loud noise -- how exactly did that sound travel through the vacuum of space to cause the annoying noise on the earth's surface. That was just disappointing in its stupidity. It would be even funnier if the signal the 1%ers sent home was the alien equivalent of "Hi. This is your Captain speaking. Please stay on the line for a unique opportunity ......" that robocallers regularly make to my home phone.

Okay the very first scene with everyone having the tea sitdown? Simon did not have cast on. Last week he had a cast on his right arm. So its magically healed after a week?

It was confirmed last week that the timelines in Washington and Atlanta were kind of in sync -- maybe it took longer than a commercial break to drive from Atlanta to Tulsa. If less than 12 hours transpired, Simon should still be in a cast, and kneecap girl should be in the hospital getting her gunshot wound treated (after typically waiting in the emergency room for 8 hours or so). Maybe the 1%ers have a really, really good health care plan.

ETA: spelling counts

Edited by ottoDbusdriver, Nov 29, 2010 @ 11:22 PM.

[DEM]

If Michael Buchanan is an alien, Leila and Sam are part alien.

I thought Samantha was adopted/fostered. Was that a lie (Michael's lie)? Is she some other alien's child?

Which pretty much blows a huge hole in Madeline's story that Michael discovered the Inostranka facility when his plane was off course in Alaska and flew over it, and then he started investigating it. Please.

I'm going with the hypo for now that once upon a time Madeline stumbled upon Michael's papers and he had to create a cover story.

So where is Fakistan -- I mean, Omala -- that the U.S. has no bases within two hours of it? I take it in this universe we're not currently blowing up shit in South Asia?

I was sadly disappointed in Sophia this week. (Hey, she's my hero for this show. I have to have one!) Why no surveillance of Thomas and Isabel?

Best Unintentional Comedy Moment: Sean & Leila popping up from behind that dumpster.

Edited by DEM, Nov 29, 2010 @ 11:57 PM.

[Cardie]

Although it would not be cliched enough for this show to use, I'd love it if the satellite signal caused the home planet to go boom. That's one way to make sure your evil bitch mom doesn't make you go home when you've been enjoying Planet Med with plentiful water and much wealth for 66 years.

[hollyhox]

Wouldn't Michael already know about the Inostronka facility -- from shared information at all the regular meetings of the 1%ers at hotel ballrooms around the country over the past 60 years ? Which pretty much blows a huge hole in Madeline's story that Michael discovered the Inostronka facility when his plane was off course in Alaska and flew over it, and then he started investigating it. Please.

Totally. I guess maybe he could have invented the story of how he discovered Inostranka so that he could tell her about it without revealing he's one of them. But why would he want to tell that crazy lady about it at all? If it's revealed, there's always the possibility that he could be found out, so why take that chance? Oh, yeah...because the writers suck.

[patriotickid]

The signal could have been anything. It could have been a warning against Sophia and company's attempt to return. Thus stranding them on Earth.

[basiltherat]

Leila, go back to your home planet . . . now!

"Cancer of the balls" was a laugh-out-loud moment --- the crazies made more sense than Our Pitiful Heroes.

Why do the 1%ers leave incriminating photos (conveniently in reverse chronological order) around wherever they go?
Why photos at all when they are all on the "Friends and Aliens" plan?
Why another Fakeistan? (thanks, '24"!)
Why another evil corporate entity (also used in Flash Forward)?

Really, Leila has some serious baggage under her eyes; she really must be a Holbrookian.
Sean, leave her in the nuthouse!

[lovesduncan]

So the show is on hiatus till January right?

Actually, it is on hiatus until February 28. Its asking a lot for all of us to come back after 3 months.

Yes, too many questions were raised tonight...and I could care less about some of the possible answers.

So, why was Dempsey's henchman chasing after Leila? To inject her with the serum and make her "age unnaturally"? Why didn't this happen when Vicki was holding her hostage at the beginning of the season?

Thomas and his not-so-hobbled girlfriend went thru all of this trouble to launch a satellite that sent a message back home. And he didn't tell Mama Sophia about this because...? Didn't he say that millions would die because of this action? Because of a satellite message? Thomas was an intriguing character when this show began but not so much any more. He has become as boring as every other character.

So Leila didn't notice that her father never aged. Doesn't say much about her powers of observation.

Now I'm really confused about Michael's purpose in this story. Who forced him to pilot that plane? Dempsey?

Edited by lovesduncan, Nov 30, 2010 @ 12:12 AM.

[dives]

But why would he want to tell that crazy lady about it at all? If it's revealed, there's always the possibility that he could be found out, so why take that chance? Oh, yeah...because the writers suck.

Simon wanted to warn people about The Event, and I'm pretty sure he leaked the existence of Inostranka to the President. Perhaps Michael had the same idea, that if people found out about Inostranka and started making noises, the detainees would get released. Of course, none of this makes any sense because I don't know anybody's motivation. So far as I can determine, Sophia's plan after the crash was to get as many people away as possible, and deal with the "natives" later. And even though they could get rescued anytime...let's assume post-1970, they stayed so people wouldn't suspect they were powerful. But why were they here in the first place if they're supposed to go back home? Why stay cooped up for 66 years twiddling your thumbs and infuriating various administrations from Truman onwards? WHY?!

I still can't believe Murphy got framed up. I'm mostly mad because he was the only character on the show who wasn't a total idiot...and he was rewarded with a briefcase to the head and getting tortured.

Bring back Tony Todd!

Edited by dives, Nov 30, 2010 @ 1:09 AM.

[Alphapenguin]

I'm simply astounded that the suits at NBC's parent company allow this weekly car wreck to continue while Caprica, becoming more compelling each week, gets the ax. If they gave a rat's ass about their viewers, the positions of these two series would have been reversed.

NBC balks at a series that demands some intelligence, but they don't hesitate at shoving steaming piles of crap onto the lowest common denominator of the viewing public.

Edited by Alphapenguin, Nov 30, 2010 @ 12:58 AM.

[Coco27]

How the hell i sat through 10 episodes of this show will always remain a mystery to me. I guess i should blame the slow fall season, the fact that Fringe is always on hiatus or that i must have a thing for Mr. Ritter. I don't know.

This show is a storytelling mess.

Edited by Coco27, Nov 30, 2010 @ 12:51 AM.

[funcrunch]

Everyone on the forums who correctly guessed that Leila and Sam are alien half-breeds gets a point!

Sean's look of revulsion (hopefully?) at Leila at the very end made up for all of Leila's lousy acting. Almost.

Otherwise, the show was a disastrous mess as usual.

- "Maimed" gal walking fine and dandy with a cane and a slight limp.

- Sean occasionally remembering that he was shot recently, and thus briefly holding his arm in a stiff manner.

- Papers in the hospital being singed in just the right places so important names on labels and photos still came through intact and readable.

Current bets on whether this show actually comes back in February?

[BoobTubeJunkie]

I’m curious about how many of us who continue to torture ourselves every week with this awful show also self-flagellated with NBC’s dreadful Persons Unknown. There are similar elements: dragging out of mysteries I have stopped caring about, pretending to give answers while actually presenting a whole new slew of ridiculous questions, plotlines and characterizations that continually contradict themselves (often in the same episode), bad guys who are part of an all powerful corporation, timelines that don’t make sense, and a lead female actress who can. not. act. And in the early episodes of PU, there was even some theorizing that it was aliens.

I watched all the episodes of PU, because I was promised answers by the end (a huge marketing lie by NBC). But I think I’m done with this one. I was intrigued by the first few episodes and I kept tuning in after it became painful to watch hoping they would turn it around. If this is the best they have to offer me for the fall finale, I see no reason to come back in three months.

[CK17]

OK, while Sean was injecting the goon in the cornfield, you can see Leila turning her head away from the camera and laughing. Now, I don’t blame the actress. This is some really stupid shit, and I certainly don’t take it seriously. But the director couldn’t do another take? The editor couldn’t use a different shot? It has never been more obvious that they just don’t care.

I know, right? You can see her laughing and giggling in 3 different shots. How can that happen in the first place and then get to air. Just brutal.

Funnier than cancer in the balls. So they're in the writers room and bring up cancer and decided to go with in the balls? Seriously?

[dives]

It'll be back, I think. I just cannot imagine The Cape being any better if it was held for midseason, and The Event was thought of as the stronger show.

I kind of wonder why I watched the past ten episodes, besides Zeljko Ivanek. If everything in the first half of the season had been condensed into 5 episodes, it probably would've been better. I mean, they could've just had a scene where Vicky attempts to kill Sean while snorkeling and fails, which would solve a lot of problems. Sean gets back to the ship to tell the police someone tried to kill him, finds out he's been erased, runs off, [redacted], plane is warped, he escapes, gets heatstroke, steals a car from Yuma and runs, etc. Eliminates the whole DB Sweeney subplot, gives a reason that the mercenaries are chasing Sean in the first place (they didn't finish the job before). No Winnebago-ex-Machina.

You can also remove Sam and just have Leila be kidnapped and taken to whatever mental institution-- the subplot with the little girls can start there, we can learn more about how the nonhumans differ from us biologically, and mirror the girls being detained with the nonhumans and passengers being detained. Or keep Sam, if you want to have Leila and Sarah work together or something. Whatever. You can still have your explosions with Sean, your crazy ladies appearing and disappearing, your mercenaries spraying bullets everywhere, but at least now Sean (and the audience) knows who he's running from, and he has a goal besides "reassure Leila." Leila for her part has a goal of "escape without getting experimented on."

Finally you can have the FBI looking into a spate of mysterious shootouts in their Yuma office, and have Sterling et. al. want to bring in Sean Walker for questioning regarding the assassination attempt. This way you've got two crews getting in each others' way, the FBI constantly getting thwarted by the mercenaries/Dempsey, and Sterling (or someone in the FBI) realizing that some other corporation is messing with them and trying to keep them from Sean, and also murdering lots of people. This would set the Dempsey/Jarvis story into motion with Jarvis freaking out about Michael Buchanan being interrogated and Sterling getting suspicious, and you can put in a little more Smitrovich trying to cover his tracks.

For the nonhumans: I don't really know what to do about this since I don't know why they left their home in the first place. I would say first to make all Sophia-interrogation scenes take place with Sterling rather than Martinez, because there is no bloody reason for Martinez to be doing this when he has a million other things to do. But within the scenes, maybe reveal more information like...oh, I don't know, she comes in peace, they crashed by accident, we mean you no harm, we want to live amongst you peacefully since we can't get home ever again. Any story will do. Enough to give Martinez a reason for feeling so strongly they should be let out. Even a PR move-- "I'm the president that made first contact!" would work. I don't care. And this is a weaker idea, but maybe make Thomas more shadowy-- like we just see this Mysterious Figure and we don't know if Sophia knows about him or if he's part of Dempsey's group or what, putting in some misdirection with wondering maybe the nonhumans are behind Dempsey's conspiracy. Replace his scenes with stuff within Inostranka in eps 1-4-- medical stuff, detainees talking with each other, etc., and then finally do the reveal of Thomas in episode 6 so we realize the nonhumans and Dempsey are two different entities, and furthermore that they've totally infiltrated our society anyway. Then Sterling can do the long con with Murphy and Simon, and finally discover that the VP is behind it all in episode 8 while tracking phone calls or something like that.

There, I have solved The Event. Any suggestions?

Was there ever an explanation for why Sterling left the compound? Obviously Jarvis did because he didn't want to die.

Edited by dives, Nov 30, 2010 @ 2:03 AM.

[shapeshifter]

I'm simply astounded that the suits at NBC's parent company allow this weekly car wreck to continue while Caprica, becoming more compelling each week, gets the ax. If they gave a rat's ass about their viewers, the positions of these two series would have been reversed.

NBC balks at a series that demands some intelligence, but they don't hesitate at shoving steaming piles of crap onto the lowest common denominator of the viewing public.

I agree except: Are you saying that the lowest common denominator of the viewing public actually accepts this show? Surely all intelligence levels of viewers are aware that they have just watched an hour of crap.

[BeenHere]

Blake, Mr. President

How could the government not know about the missile? Is this government so stupid? They spent 66 years with the 1% prisoners and got nothing out of them. 66 years! NOTHING! 66 years!

They have to be since Sterling cast aside his reasonable doubts about Simon just because the DNA came back positive. As if his people would let him be revealed like that. How stupid can he be? Simon's background doesn't add up, he hasn't aged, he was always visiting Sophia and having unrecorded conversations, he was the first person on the crime scene and this was before they were given information of where Sophia had gone to meet Thomas.


Sophia, Thomas, Simon

I am so tired of people healing so fast on this show. How can Isobel be walking after what happened last night? LAST NIGHT!!! I won't even mention Sean's stupid healing abilities that permit him to run around like he is that alien boy from The Arrival.

Sophia recently came out of jail and now she knows everything Thomas has been hiding. Why doesn't she know about Dempsey? Why not ask Thomas who tried to kill her and Mr. President? Why didn't Thomas investigate this?

Were Thomas and Isobel in Peter's office because it looked like it.

Thomas prevented Simon from staying with Violet. How did he let Michael settle down with girlfriend's mother and why were the 1% talking about having families with earthlings when it wasn't allowed?


Michael, Sean, girlfriend

How can Michael be one of them and not know about Inostranka? Didn't he accidentally find it while flying? Isn't it the reason he took the pictures? Are they gonna claim he got amnesia after the crash?

The writers are just making it up. They change the story every episode with out thinking of the whole picture. What's the use of girlfriend being a 1%?

For Christ's sake, can girlfriend stop saying Sean's name in that whispery voice of hers.

Kill the two stupids. Sean has been ruined by girlfriend. Kill them both if this show wants to survive.



Episode 10 and we still got no clue on what the EVENT is!

Edited by BeenHere, Nov 30, 2010 @ 3:10 AM.

[BoobTubeJunkie]

dives, I’m pretty sure you’ve now put more thought into this show than all the people in the writer’s room combined. And I totally wish I’d been watching your show instead.

[vicc1978]

"Episode 10 and we still got no clue on what the EVENT is!"

of course we still got no clue. the showrunner said that we we'll find out at the season finale.

[suzysite]

The writers are just making it up.

Well, to be fair - that's kind of what writers do....