The Inostrankans kinda don't appear on 'The Event'...
What's it about?
Martinez interrogates Michael as he reveals the people who wanted him to do the assassination attempt were going to call it off, but a call from someone told them to go through with it. He also reveals the call was made mere minutes after a meeting Martinez had about the press conference. After looking through phone records, they discover Jarvis, the vice-president, was in on the attempt. Meanwhile, Sean is shot by one of the men who survived the explosion, forcing Leila to kidnap a doctor to perform surgery on him. Vicky is ordered by Dempsey to kill Jarvis, however she lets him live and tells him to confess. The men sent out by Martinez capture Jarvis, but before he could reveal who gave him orders, a car explosion goes off, supposedly killing him. Dempsey is then shown looking in the mirror soon after taking a medicine for his coffee,his face shifting to a younger version of himself.
Review
I'm still playing catchup on the reviews, it's bad and I have WAY too much work to do but we'll get there in the end. It's only Monday today so the next episode isn't on until tonight so this should be online before anybody gets to see what happens next.
'For The Good Of Our Country' is a very interesting episode of 'The Event' for perhaps very different reasons than I would normally compliment the show. This week the Inostrankan people don't really appear (or do they? But that's a completely different story.) There's no Sophia or Thomas. To be honest there's not a whole heap of Sean either as Leila on the bulk of the action in their storyline.
In no way did this harm my enjoyment of the episode, in fact it made it all the more interesting as we got to see how this show might work if the primary protagonists had been drastically different to those we are used to. There are a lot of interesting moments where we flash back to events (pardon the unintentional pun) that took place in the pilot episode and to see them now knowing what we have learnt in the last eight weeks makes for an interesting new perspective on the action.
This episode also gives some more secondary characters a chance to shine beyond that which they normally would, as I've mentioned Leila plays a larger part in this episode but also Vice President Jarvis who kind of gets the treatment that Simon and Sterling have in recent weeks and the exposition of his scenes forms the bulk of the action which unfolds this week.
Through his story we get to tie up what sadly could not be classed as lose ends but definitely classed as some story threads which come together to give more of an overall look at who is working behind the scenes to manipulate all the major players in this universe. On a side note which I won't discuss at length... what the hell happened at the end?
We're clearly edging towards a big bad to aim for in the post Christmas episodes and I'm as yet unsure how I feel about this. On the one hand this gives us a focal point for the series and I'm sure along the way there will be much to learn about his background (which is surely obvious?) and how he came to be in the position in which he now sits.
On the other hand this could also be a bit of a pitfall for the show, part of the mystery which I have enjoyed through this first half of the season has been the lack of a figurehead for the bad guys. We've had Sohpia as the leader of the Inostrankans but she has been nothing but morally ambiguous at the best of times. The lack of a villain hasn't taken away from the piece at all, in fact I would argue that the lack of such a character has worked well.
If the writers can balance him out in to a Joss Whedon kind of villain and not characterise him into a Bond villain who constantly sits in his chair then I will stand behind them on the decision to move in the direction in which they seem to be moving.
Dipping back in to the secondary characters I was a bit critical last week of the decision by Sean and Leila to dive in to hunting for Samantha without pausing for a moments notice, I guess this week I forgot all about that as they shifted somewhat in to the background.
In the meantime however Leila definitely stood out from the crowd and proved that she is in no way the defenceless girl you might expect for somebody who has the spent of the season thus far in captivity. Her character might not be breaking too many boundaries in terms of characterisation and I have very definite suspicions that she may be an Inostrankan herself (without being aware of it) but she definitely held her own this week and I'm glad that she has been given the chance to show there's more to her character than expected.
For one of our more predominant characters, namely President Martinez, there's a definite sense that as the weeks go by there's a mounting pressure on him to react and each week I feel adequately happy that he hasn't done anything either overly generic or obvious. Blair Underwood is perhaps the unsung hero of 'The Event' and I hope that he eventually earns the recognition he deserves for helping to construct a very interesting version of the President in an industry that can pride itself on purposely caricaturing the role.
We've only got two more episodes left before the long winter break so I think we should prepare ourselves for a few shock revelations and made even... dare I say it... an EVENT!
Next week...
Dempsey sends his people after Sean and Leila as they try to find Samantha. Meanwhile, Sophia tries to deal with those of her people who disagree with her agenda.
Overall
Story 3.5
Character 4.0
Weirdness 3.5
Overall 3.5
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