'The Event' Recap: Alien Negotiation

Episode 5 of The Event begins in the quarantine facility where the passengers of Avias flight 514 are being held. The passengers are quickly devolving as the mysterious extraterrestrial illness that afflicts them takes hold. Bloody and panicked, they scream for help as the opening credits roll.

At the While House, President Martinez and his staff discuss how best to handle the situation. As a doctor explains that the passengers will die within 24 hours if a cure is not found, the President receives a call from Thomas. The leader of the rogue aliens repeats his demand that all of the alien detainees be released. In return, he will send an antidote to the poison killing the passengers. However, if the President refuses to comply, Thomas will execute further plans to kill even more Americans. President Martinez struggles with the decision, even though Blake Sterling advises him to let the passengers die.

A flashback to the 1944 crash shows that Thomas had wanted all of his people to stay together and fight against whatever earthly forces came upon them. Sophia had rejected this idea and charged Thomas with the task of someday reuniting his people and helping them return to their planet. However, Thomas quickly discovered that human technology was nowhere near sophisticated enough to allow him to build a ship that could bring them home. In order to help human science advance at a faster pace, Thomas then began working as a researcher in the national laboratory that would later harness the power of nuclear fission, and oversee the Manhattan Project and the creation of the nuclear bomb.

Back in the present, two hours pass, and Thomas calls again to hear the President’s decision. Martinez refuses to release the detainees, and instead tells Thomas that if even one sick passenger dies, the American government will execute all of the aliens detained at Inostranka, starting with their leader Sophia. As they wait for Thomas’ decision, Sterling notifies the President that a “termination protocol” is already in place at Inostranka and it will take a mere matter of hours to make it ready for the mass extermination of the aliens. The President tells Sterling to prepare the protocol.

At Inostranka, alien-in-disguise Simon tells Sophia about the negotiations between the President and Thomas. She tells Simon to order Thomas to release the antidote, but when Simon relays the message, Thomas refuses to follow her orders any longer. The deadline passes, and three more minutes tick by. Thomas finally calls and still refuses to release the antidote. They seem to be at a stalemate, until Thomas proposes a final compromise. If President Martinez releases Sophia, he will release the antidote. The episode ends as Sophia boards an empty subway train on her way to Thomas, and the passengers receive the antidote and begin to recover.

Meanwhile, Leila awaits Sean’s call in the Snyder police station. Sean and Agent Collier are still attempting to find Vicky through the emergency cell phone number they received from her mom. Sean calls Rick, a friend and former colleague, and asks him to trace the number. Unfortunately for Sean, the cell phone is switched off and untraceable. Sean asks Rick to keep trying as he buys a charger for his dead cell phone.

Sean is relieved when he finally gets Leila’s message from the police station. He calls back immediately, as he and Collier change course and head for Snyder. However, soon after the call, Leila notices that the pictures on the screen saver at the police officer’s desk don’t look like the officer. She looks down and sees blood on the carpet, becoming more and more suspicious of the officers. As she tries to make her escape from the bathroom window, Leila is captured and forced into a back room.

In a flashback, we learn that whatever organization Vicky works for once ordered her to kill an entire family. However, when she discovered that there was a baby in the house, she rescued the boy and secretly began to raise him as her own. After the job, she was forced to tell her employers that she killed the boy, and from then on could reveal his existence to no one.

In the present, Sean and Agent Collier arrive outside the police station. As Sean prepares to get Leila, Rick calls to tell him that Vicky’s cell phone has been turned on, and she is currently in the Snyder police station. Sean realizes that a trap has been set for him. He sends Vicky the picture he took of her son in the last episode, telling her that if she doesn’t allow her to come in and get Leila, he will let the picture go viral, revealing that Vicky had disobeyed orders and saved the child.

Sean enters the station, protected by Vicky, who kills all of the other officers. Outside, Agent Collier shoots and captures Vicky’s partner, Carter, as she, Sean, and Leila make their escape. In the end, Vicky believes Carter to be dead, and she tells her superiors that FBI agents raided the office.

To see what happens next, catch the next installment of The Event, Monday at 9:00 on NBC.