The Sleepers mourn their losses after negotiations are a failure, meanwhile Sterling tests Simon's loyalties.Martinez assigns Sen. Lewis to root out White House moles, no matter where the trail leads.
Sean and Vicky close in on Dempsey, but it may be what Dempsey is expecting.
Epsiode Title - There seems to be some debate about what this episode is called as the NBC sites lists it as "The Breaking Point", but most other websites list it as "You Bury Other Things Too"
80 comments:
First! I know...Big Deal!
Hope tonight's episode warrants some discussion!
Hi maven!
I'm here! Good job being first, maven.It's a big deal! Hi SG.. good discussion about the last episode and I'm most interested in Dempsey at this point.
Hi Swan!
hi hi hi hi!!! wow, that was a bumpy ride!
Hi guys. Poor Simon.
Is that the VP talking to him?
Hi, JT! Yeah.. I like Simon too!
oh, maybe SG!
I'm glad he got away anyhow.
It seems like that's the way the VP went when he was sneaking out to meet Dempsey. It has to be someone who knows the security.
Me too Simon's my fave.
Ooo Blake is mad.
shades of 1984..taking dna samples of everyone covertly
The prez is going too far, IMO
So, this is the little neighborhood that we saw Thomas and the others, right? A gated community..
Wonder if we'll find out how Simon relates to Sophia?
And why did they come to Earth at all if they didn't want to displace the natives? Were they just checking it out, and got stuck?
I agree Swan, the Prez is cutting his own throat.
Yes that is Thomas' community.
I was wondering that, JT., seems they are maybe just really good friends.
They showed Michael a lot with that little speech of Sophia's. I'm sure he's thinking of his daughters and maybe even Sean.
Yep, JT.. they crashed when they were just on a mission to check out possible places for them to live.
Ahh Dempsey. Great archeological technique.
They need to make room for their 2 billion coming here.. let's see, that makes it so she has to get rid of 2 billion of us! Reminds me of Mittlewerk.. 30% survival rate, remember?
YAY Simon!
yep Swan.
yep, Yay, Simon! :)
Yes, I was about to give up on him-but Yay! There must be some nice uninhabited planet for the refugees somewhere!
Tapestry!
whoa.. do you think Dempsey is thinking about making Sean the next sentinel? It's all been a test?
A la Jacob? Could be.
Maybe Swan.
Yep, SG.. tapestry, like Lost. Somebody's weaving the thread of destiny and now we get to see what unexpected variables with free will get in the way of that. :)
Wholly Crap
Ha, the prez just said, let it go. also lost-like, LOL
no sean, don't do it!!! omg
holy or wholly, it's reminding me of 24 now.. crap!
NO!!!! poor simon!
I'm proud of Simon saying he'll never go along with genocide!
was that vicki's piece taken off the tablet and thrown into the fire?
wow, that hour went fast!
Hubby says he KNOWS I'm an alien. lol
Yeah I know bad spelling. lol
Yeah I think that was her piece.
They can't kill Simon.
Awwww, JT. And yet he's found a way to co-exist. ROFL!!
And when are the bad guys going to learn- don't leave someone you're supposed to kill alone to die, so that can be rescued.
I agree, SG.. they CAN'T kill Simon!
And oh- she answered the question- Simon is son # 2!
Simon is Sophia's son? I thought she meant he was like a son to her.. I'll have to rewind..
Dempsey saying that he comes from a long line of sentinels reminds me of the Templar knights
I wonder why he seems to be digging up the history of the Sentinels. He doesn't know?
I've thought Simon and Thomas were brothers for awhile. I can't remember the episode, one of the earlier ones, but Simon and Thomas were arguing and Simon shoved him down. Thomas said something like what can you do. It seemed like a brother thing to say.
Sounds like you're right, JT. I rewound and Sophia says, 'And today I've lost a second son'.
hmm, good point that Dempsey is digging up the history of the Sentinels. What does this mean?
Good thought on the Templar Knights.
Thanks, SG.. it came to mind but it's different here for sure. Dempsey seems to be following a particular protocol, following the scroll writings, etc. Maybe the serum he was trying to develop was to keep himself alive long enough to find his replacement? (which I still think is Sean)
Could be. There is something different about Sean.
At least there's no escaping that Sean was put out there right from the beginning as being important but we just never knew why, IMO.
Sophia spoke of loyalty tonight, but not about love. I think it will be Sean and Leila's love that will be the force to NOT let either species die. I think it's Simon's love still for the one who grew old without him that makes him not be able to be heartless when it comes to the human race.
Maybe Dempsey is looking for instructions on how to find his replacement?
rewatching.. you could get some serious whiplash from portal traveling, LOL.
Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking, JT.
If this is what's happening, does it take more than a blood-line to be a sentinel? Maybe all the player pieces on the tablet are representing those who are his descendants, but he's trying to pick the one who he deems worthy to replace him. He threw out Vicki's piece because he knew that she couldn't be the next sentinel after he saw her biggest flaw (that she killed so much, it didn't effect her anymore)? idk I'm assuming a lot here.
The whole theme of tonight's show seemed to be.. can you be strong and still keep your humanity intact.
Hey youalleverybody!
I've been pretty busy lately, but managed to watch tonight's ep. and finally have a little time to post.
Going into last weeks ep, I wouldn't have expected them to terminate Thomas' character in the middle of the season, but as soon as Thomas stopped being whiny and actually stood up to his annoying knee-capped GF, it was clear he was doomed. :)
So it seems the mysterious Dr. Dempsey is, by his own description, some kind of "Guardian" or "Sentinel" of the human race (or the planet Earth). There are subtle differences in meaning between the two: A guardian is one who has the care of the person or property of another while a sentinel is one who watches or guards (possibly for a specific event). This distinction may not be important since it seems Dempsey's role incorporates both functions, but the use of "Sentinel" here makes me again think of multiple timelines and wonder whether Dempsey's predecessors ever had to step in. Is there only one Sentinel/Guardian at a time?
As a Sentinel/Guardian, I wonder if Dempsey is himself human or a member of yet another humanoid species. I'm still waiting to see how they'll explain the similarity in human/Inostrankan DNA (if they do at all).
When the scroll appeared in Dempsey's safe after last weeks ep, I expected the writing to be Aramaic, Phoenecian or the rune alphabet from Dempsey's tablet, from what I can see, it's none of these. I got a pretty good look at the writing on the amphora in tonight's ep and that definitely looked like ancient Aramaic. The scroll itself is probably in some Guardian script only Dempsey can read, but was sealed in the amphora by humans who inscribed it in ancient Aramaic (which is why Dempsey was so cavalier about smashing the amphora). You wouldn't normally expect artifacts with ancient Aramaic writing to be discovered in France, but it plausible in this case since this was a hiding place for the scroll.
JT, Swan -- I think Dempsey is digging up Sentinel artifacts to gather as much information as he can to fight "them", Sophia's ppl. Dempsey may have gotten the formula for his serum from an artifact, and there may be more tech info in the scroll, as well as info about possible outcomes/timelines.
Hi OB-It makes you wonder why he does not have the information in the first place though. Maybe he became "active" when the aliens landed-and had to dig up the old knowledge, not used in awhile.
Which makes you wonder if maybe there had been some threat in the past that caused a sentinel to be active thousands of years ago.
SG, Swan -- I remember Thomas actually calling Simon "brother" (or maybe it was the other way around) in Ep2, when we saw them meet again for the first time in years to discuss the Avias passengers. It wasn't completely clear then whether that was meant literally or just a greeting.
I really don't get much of a motherly vibe from Sophia though. While she seemed pretty level headed at the beginning of this series, she's just lost one son (partly because of his own violent actions) and is ready to toss Simon to the curb simply because he disagrees with her.
Maybe Dempsey is dying and using the serum to stay alive long enough to finish his mission.
JT -- I agree, I think Dempsey was "alerted" when Sophia's ppl crashed in Alaska which signaled the beginning of the series of events threatening humans. The info may be too complex to be passed directly or taught to one Sentinel from the last and so was written down and hidden. The other possibility is that there was some problem with the line of Sentinels themselves, that one died before he/she could pass on their knowledge so wrote down the info instead.
Even though Thomas called Simon brother, I never suspected they were actual brothers until episode five where they were arguing about Thomas making the air plane passengers sick. Simon hits and knocks Thomas to the ground, Thomas looks up at Simon and asks What are you going to do to me? Huh?
For some reason that sounded like something a brother would say. Sort of like a dare. That's when I thought they were brothers.
I agree with what you guys are saying about Sean. While he seemed the boy-next-door everyman character at the beginning of the series, it's clear there is something special about him. Remember when we were discussing his dossier, and that something big happened to his parents (or at least his mom) when he was 10?
At first, all Sean wanted to do was save Leila and Samantha. When he learned the truth about the Inostrankans and that Leila was a hybrid he still just wanted the best for her, and went after Dempsey to expose and stop him for hurting Leila. But in tonight's ep, Sean told Vicky he "has nothing" so may be beginning to question his motivation/goals.
It was interesting seeing how Ritter played Sean "Bauer" Walker tonight, resorting to torture, recognizing how low he was sinking and being sickened by it, but continuing despite this to get the info he needed.
Demspey & Sean will come face to face soon. While Dempsey's methods have been condemnable, he'll make the case that protecting the human race has been paramount and will compare this to Sean's threatening Jarvis and torturing thick-french-accent-guy.
Swan -- I agree with what you said about Sean/Leila's love motivating him to see beyond the us-vs-them mentality. I'm not sure that Dempsey ever thought of Vicky as a prospective "Sentinel". I doubt Dempsey would have a problem with Vicki's unfeeling killing when he himself kills without a 2nd thought (that archeologist for example).
Not much to add to the conversation. The question is whether Dempsey is a human Sentinel or not...he does seem to be trying to keep himself around long enough to pass the baton...most likely to Sean. Just like Jacob, he seems to be testing Sean to see if he's the Candidate. He seems to reading the instruction manual on how to handle this situation now that earth is in danger. I agree that it was Vicky's piece that went into the fireplace. Doesn't seem to be many Candidates on that stone board.
I didn't get the feeling that Simon and Thomas were actual brothers. I felt that Sophia has always treated Simon like a son.
Swan, SG --Simon is my favorite character too! Simon and Sean are the only characters I like at this point, largely because I'm having trouble understanding the motivation of many of the other major characters. Simon is the only one who has the strength of character to see beyond an us-vs-them mentality.
I'm really not liking how many of the major characters are developing. POTUS spoke so highly of human rights at the beginning of this series and has quickly become so reactionary.
Sophia started out level headed, then seemed to be trying to deal with the consequences of Thomas' short sighted actions, but too quickly seems to have adopted Thomas' viewpoint and condemns humans for killing her ppl when her own son, Thomas, executed so many of their own simply for siding with Sophia/against him. And now Sophia is ready to cage Simon (at the very least) because he disagrees with her and resort to what amounts to genocide to make room for her people on Earth. Although I don't put a lot of stock in these promos, it looks as if Sophia may be ready to try to engineer a coup and throw in with Jarvis of all people.
I suspect Michael disagrees with Sophia too, but needed more time to get Leila to safety and gather more support before he showed his hand, so gave Simon up instead.
Virginia Madsen's character was so incensed by Inostranka that she went on Hardball to force POTUS's hand, but seems only too happy to trample over everyones rights now to help with POTUS with his covert DNA testing program.
The question I see that runs through all of this is how exactly do we define our humanity? Will we really have "won" if we have to completely compromise everything we thought of as right and decent to do so? Humans and Inostrankans are so much more alike than they are different. Ultimately, the key to saving either species may be to save both.
I wanted to get a closer look at the lettering on the scroll, so went back to Dempsey's office.
There are 2 new emails on his tablet computer. They don't really add much to the plot, they just confirm Henri (thick-french-accent-guy) sold Vicky and Sean out.
Hi all, just watched the episode.
Towards the end I had a Darth Vader / Luke Skywalker premonition with Dempsey and Sean.
The characters are shifting views / ethics quite a lot in these latest episodes apart from Sean who has motive for the change we have seen. It does make me wonder if that was planned or a later change to make things more interesting down the line.
I'm not convinced the first lady is the second alien mole, but she is definitely hiding something big. My guess is that it has something to do with their son, maybe he is the alien !
I wonder if Dempsey pointing to the sky when talking about "Them" is to point to the stars or a more symbolic heaven like place.
My view on the scroll is that the instructions for what to do have been sealed in there hiding place and Dempsey's mission was to do nothing until the appropriate time came. He then has to locate them and follow orders.
The question is was the scroll created with a prior knowledge of what was going to happen (i.e. the instructions travelled back in time), or are they some other sort of future prediction ?
For anyone that watches Time Team on Channel 4 in the UK, Phil Harding would be going bananas with Tony Robinson standing behind mouth wide open at the opening of the amphora :-)
Thanks for the notice about the Dempsey's Office update Ob, I've updated the in detail post.
Black Swan said... shades of 1984..taking dna samples of everyone covertly
Funny you should mention 1984, Truthseeker also mentions it on the post about the busses on the traffic camera footage
I just read that The Event is taking a break for a week ?
Can anyone confirm that ?
Great thoughts everyone! I think they mentioned that it would be back in two weeks after the show here in the US, Zort.
Neat idea about Sean maybe being the next Sentinal. Dempsey is getting a little long in the tooth after all, heheh. BTW, it was so neat to get an ANSWER from Dempsey about him being a Sentinal so soon, wow. Also, it annoys my friend how Sean keeps getting beat up and then hours later he's fine, so maybe when you're in the Sentinal bloodline (if Sean is) You've got some superhuman healing powers, heheh.
I agree with you all, that "blood test for everyone" is crazy and would not fly in real life without a whole lot of rebelious uprising from the masses.
Hey thanks for the comments on the tablet piece, I had no idea what that was about.
I agree with you Ob about how the characters have changed from their original psychological "template", that always bugs me in a show. Altho, it does show how going into a serious problem it can be a lot easier to keep to one's personal ethics, and then when things get desperate, how the situation seems to demand a dire change of strategy for survival purposes causing a person to go against their core morals. ???
Zort
Yes The Event will not be on this coming Monday but will be back net Monday.
They're having a special 2 hour Law & Order LA.
I don't think the Prez's wife is an "alien". They're trying to hard to get us to think that.
I think the VP is the one who helped Simon to escape the White House. It had to be someone who knows the security system well and I think that's the same way Jarvis went when he sneaked out to meet with Dempsey.
Will we see a 19 year old Dempsey at some point?
If he ages 'normally' (or what passes for aging normally on this show), and his character is the same age as the actor Hal Holbrook, he would have been around 19 when the Inostrankans crashed. I think we'll eventually see what he was doing at that moment.
Maybe Simon and Thomas *are* brothers. Maybe they are all brothers and sisters, and Sophia is their mother. Would explain why EVERY one of the Inostrankans are deferential to her and willing to follow her lead so often. Any other good explanations for how she came to be in power? It's been used before (like in V I think?) but she may be a kind of Queen bee with millions or billions of children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren etc.
Oh, and what was with Simon bumping into the Chief of Staff early in the episode as he was leaving the war room? They didn't have to include that. Did the Chief of Staff pass something to him, or hide something on him? It was just moments later that Simon found the cell phone taped under the desk (convenient that he happened to go into that office - it didn't seem like it was his). Was the person on the other end of the call the Chief of Staff?
What I don't entirely understand is how Sophia can "make room" for them while keeping the planet viable? Wouldn't any way that she wiped the human race out affect her people too? Or does she have some sort of biological agent that will attack that 1% difference?
And I gather that this group was really on sort of a scouting mission to find a planet for them? And it got aborted before they were finished due to the crash or something?
I also keep thinking that I'm supposed to be more sold on Sean and Leila than I really am. I like both Sean and Leila independently - I just don't quite buy that they're madly in love.
But then, I never really bought that Kate cared two figs about Jack and apparently she spent all eternity missing him so what do I know? ;)
As love stories go, I was much more impressed with Simon's doomed romance. Now, that one had me weeping.
The last two times I tried to comment, blogger ate it. I hope this goes thru!
Still lurking...
Yay, it worked!
I agree that Sophia might be a hive mother..that's a good possibility.
Why are they humaniod? I haven't seen any indication that they are only assuming human form, have any of you? I might have missed something.
Last short point: Perhaps Dempsey is same planet, but different nation, and he's been sent here to keep Sophia's group from escaping the doom of their planet. Yeah, it's a stretch, but we've seen weirder.
K
I assumed Sophia would wipe out humankind before bringing her people there.
How she would keep the planet viable is a good question. Maybe they can live with less than humans and it still be viable to them.
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