So The Event got of to a slow start. This episode is as slow as the one that went before it, but the difference is that we begin to learn about the characters and the capabilities of the enemies they are facing.

The episode focuses on Leila and how she disappeared. Sean and Leila met a mysterious and slightly too friendly couple on a cruise and things just went downhill from there. We also get an insight into Sean and Leila’s relationship and we also learn that Leila’s entire family was kidnapped, and her father forced to fly the plane at the Presidential compound in Miami.

Ah yes, the plane. Well it turns out that it wasn’t vaporised or anything like that – it landed in the desert in Arizona with most passengers safe and sound. That is, until the ‘rescue’ team arrive. By the time the CIA arrives on the scene, each of the survivors is dead, lying on the ground around the plane, Leila’s father among them. Sean made a hasty escape from the plane, only to be falsely charged with the murder of someone on the cruise ship and arrested.

As well as this, we learn that the President is struggling with his decision to announce that there are extra terrestrials living among us… Oh yeah! Sophia and her fellow inmates are not from our planet. When they landed in Alaska in 1944 many of them escaped federal custody and have spent the last 60 years living as humans. The President was about to announce this when the plane was flown at him. When the CIA decide to start hunting down the civilian aliens they put Agent Lee in charge – not realising that he is one of the very prey they are hunting.

Ok, so we are beginning to learn more about the world of The Event. We know that Sean is being framed by the people who kidnapped Leila, Sophia is back in jail and many people are not what they seem. The only issue here is, again, do we care? We now know that there are aliens on the planet, and their DNA differs from ours by 1% – but instead of the show telling us where they are from, or who they are, it decides to focus on the mystery surrounding what they want.

It’s a shame that they show didn’t tell us more about Sean and Leila before she disappeared, it would have allowed us to identify with this woman and perhaps actually care that she is missing. Due to the way that her story was told, while we are interested, we just don’t care. As for Sean, he is trying to carry the drama of the show on his shoulders, but because of the way the show is put together, it’s not really working for us.

While we got a whole load of answers in this episode – how long the aliens have been on the planet, how many of them there are, how they have been treated – we still don’t know why they have targeted this planet and these people, and time is fast running out for us to emotionally engage. As for what The Event actually is… It could be the aliens landing in 1944 or something much more sinister that is yet to come… So far, who knows?

GS Reviewer: Brogen Hayes