The Event: Difference between revisions

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* [[The Chosen One]]: Dempsey apparently believes that Sean is predicted to protect the world from Sophia's people.

* [[CIA Evil, FBI Good]]: Subverted in agent Simon Lee (played by Ian Anthony Dale), who seems genuinely interested in saving lives and is implied to be the person who leaked the files about the secret prison to President Martinez, although he is an alien and [[The Mole]]. Possibly played straight with Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Blake Sterling who kept the information from the President, though it's hard to gauge his motives without knowing who the prisoners are and why they're being held.

** Thus far {{spoiler|Blake seems to be in the dark as everyone else regarding why the aliens are here, thus his stated motive to keep them until they talk}}.

** Played with by the two FBI agents that capture Sean Walker. Though they don't believe a word he says, they appear to be sympathetic and not a part of any conspiracy. By the third episode, the female agent has been converted to Sean's side, by virtue of her field office and coworkers being shot up by baddies.

** Played straight with {{spoiler|Vicky, who was CIA agent once, until her boss framed her to cover his mistakes, which cost her a job and almost ended her life}}

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* [[Cut Short]]

* [[Damsel in Distress]]: Leila tends to be this although [[Action Girl|she can also kick ass when she has to.]] After her rescue she graduates to [[Action Survivor]].

* [[Dark Action Girl]]: Vicky.

* [[Death Equals Redemption]]: {{spoiler|Thomas, who sacrifices himself to save Sophia so that she can save their people}}.

* [[Defector From Decadence]]: Simon attempts to desert Sophia because of her new [[Knight Templar]] attitude. Unfortunately, {{spoiler|Michael sells him out, and he's dragged off and tied to a bed}}.

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* [[Engineered Public Confession]]: In the season finale, {{spoiler|Martinez tricks Jarvis into confessing to him that he was working with Sophia and poisoned Martinez. Martinez then plays the recording of that conversation to the whole cabinet, exposing Jarvis as a traitor.}}

* [[Establishing Series Moment]]: The disappearance of a plane in the first episode: the first indication that this is a sci-fi series.

* [[ET Gave Us Wi Fi]]: {{spoiler|Thomas' involvement}} allegedly helped to push ahead the development of the atomic bomb by several decades.

* [[ET Gave Us Wi-Fi]]: {{spoiler|Thomas' involvement}} allegedly helped to push ahead the development of the atomic bomb by several decades.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: According to Vicky, she decided to stop working for Dempsey, after she learned about {{spoiler|his experiments on children}}

* [[Evil-Detecting Dog]]: A dog on the street can tell something's not quite right about [[Human Aliens|Sophia]].

* [[Exposition of Immortality]]: The extraterrestrials look just like humans, but live much longer and age slowly. Photos of these characters taken decades ago, but still looking just the way they do now, are often the only clue the human characters get that reveal the true nature of friends and family members they thought they knew very well.

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: {{spoiler|Before the revelation that her planet was going to die and the death of her son Sophia was pretty benevolent. Now she's concluded that [[Humans Are Bastards]] and will do whatever is needed to save her people including wiping us out.}}

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: Subverted. Vicky gives Sean a sob story about having to kill her abusive stepfather, then five seconds later she tells him it was all a lie and that she was pretty much born the way she is.

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* [[Interspecies Romance]]: Revealed in a flashback between the [[Human Alien]] Simon Lee and his human lover decades in the past. Later we learn that quite a few got to the ultimate conclusion; {{spoiler|their offspring are the kidnapped girls.}}

* [[Ironic Echo]]: In 1x12, President Martinez finds himself having almost the exact same argument as he did in the pilot regarding the Inostranka prisoners, only this time with him on the opposite side.

* [[It's Going Down]]: {{spoiler|the Washington Monument in episode 15}}, as a last-ditch attempt by {{spoiler|Sophia to save her people}}.

* [[It's the Only Way]]: Practically Sean's [[Catch Phrase]], though President Martinez and others have used it as well. One episode had two characters utter the phrase, in completely separate situation, before the opening credits rolled. See [[Indy Ploy]] for what happens when they haven't come up with an "only way" just yet.

* [[Jigsaw Puzzle Plot]]: Absolutely shamelessly; see [[Anachronic Order]], above.

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* [[Knight Templar]]: At first it looks like Director Sterling is this. However as the series progresses his paranoia is looking increasingly reasonable and {{spoiler|Thomas, who ruled in Sophia's stead}} looks like the unreasoning extremist.

* [[Lady Macbeth]]: Isabelle

* [[Let's Get Dangerous]]: Both Sean and Leila are proving quite adept at this. President Martinez fits this as well (as of episode 15, when he started [[Character Development|to grow a pair]] and became more [[Growing the Beard|of an interesting character]].)

* [[Magical Database]]: Sean is able to access any information on Earth in record time, no matter who holds it, no matter how secret, no matter how protected, with his Macbook Pro and a flawless, extremely fast wireless Internet connection that apparently works from anywhere, including [[Planes, Trains and Automobiles]].

* [[Mayfly-December Romance]]: Simon bumps into this hard when he has to leave the woman he plans to marry, then encounters her by chance about 50 years later. She's old and suffering from Alzheimers; he looks exactly the same.

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* [[Took a Level in Jerkass]]: The President, in response to constantly getting jerked around by Sophia and Thomas and losing control of the situation, is becoming increasingly short-fused. He was willing to risk a nuclear meltdown if it meant catching Thomas, and isn't even considering diplomatic options anymore. By contrast, Sterling seems to be mellowing out, and is more willing to consider working with Sophia.

** Actually, What's happening is more of a constant effort to [[Break the Cutie]] (or [[Bullying the Dragon]], if you remember that [[What an Idiot!|the people involved are messing with the U.S. President)]], leading into a [[Justified Trope|quite acceptable case]] of [[Beware the Nice Ones]].

* [[Too Soon]]:

** Jetliner [[Suicide Attack]] as a weapon against the United States complete with screaming passengers. Obviously NBC's hope is that nine years is enough for this to just be a credible dramatic threat and not stomach-turning to most of the audience.

** The old warehouse collapsing in 1x6.

** The episode "Turnabout", in which the threat of a nuclear incident in Southern California is a major plot point, aired a few days after the massive Sendai earthquake in Japan that led to major incidents at several nuclear reactors. In a moment before the President gets updated on the situation, we see him in a meeting with a foreign dignitary... from Japan.

* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: The question of whether Simon survived a building collapse is abruptly answered by the next episode preview immediately following the scene.

** The first episode back after the hiatus between February and March had a trailer for rest of the season rather than the usual next episode preview.

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** And similarly, Sterling to President Martinez after {{spoiler|blowing up two buses full of Sophia's people}}.

* [[X Meets Y]]: It's been advertised as ''[[24]]'' meets ''[[Lost]]'' and been referenced as ''[[The X-Files]]'' meets ''[[The West Wing]]''.

* [[Xanatos Gambit]] / [[Kansas City Shuffle]]: In Episode 20, Shawn and Vicki stop one of Sophia's people from releasing a deadly virus into a shopping mall, {{spoiler|but another one of Sophia's people infects a bus evacuating the area, killing everyone and giving Sophia the information she needs to properly weaponize the virus}}. It's the former for the hidden bouns and the latter for the distraction.

* [[You Have Failed Me]]: Averted with {{spoiler|Sophia}}, who, even after numerous occasions where the heroes get the best of her subordinates, forgives them and immediately trusts them to complete equally important missions. Even those subordinates who betray her get every chance to prove their loyalty and come back to her group. Likely justified by the fact that she deeply loves all of her people and wants the best for them, despite her ruthless goals.