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[Lord Anubis]

Yeah, that was their mid-season (potential end of season) cliffhanger. She and her boyfriend found a pile of files someone tried to burn, and it turned out they were all about the aliens (??) hiding on Earth.

They were sifting through, looking at one half-charred file after another, and they find one with a photo of her father from a few months ago. And here's another one of him a year or two ago.  And in the '90s.  And the ''80s.  And the '60s.  And...

 

So, at least we know how the two story threads tie together now...

[Licorice Lain]

They were sifting through, looking at one half-charred file after another, and they find one with a photo of her father from a few months ago. And here's another one of him a year or two ago.  And in the '90s.  And the ''80s.  And the '60s.  And...

If I had bothered to make it that far in the series, i would have thrown my remote at the TV.

[Lord Anubis]

But you didn't, so you have no idea what led up to it.  And now your remote-throwing just looks petty and immature.

"Someone told me Bruce Willis was dead the whole time.  That sounds like a stupid movie.  Did you pay to see it?  Well, I'm glad I didn't.  I would've walked out..."

 

[Matthew]

They were sifting through, looking at one half-charred file after another, and they find one with a photo of her father from a few months ago. And here's another one of him a year or two ago.  And in the '90s.  And the ''80s.  And the '60s.  And...

Geez, I remember that now.  I enjoy watching this and am kind of baffled at my inability to recall where things left off... let alone the names of any of the characters

The only one I'm fairly certain of is named "Mr. President."

[Lord Anubis]

Yeah, I still can't name the President or his chief assistant (the harsh, bald guy) who finally wised up.  It's a bit sad that I can't remember the names of the main character and his cute girlfriend.

My lady and I are still enjoying it, but still for the same reasons.  It's a compelling mystery, but that's it.  The show still has the same flaws.  Not one of these characters means a damned thing to us, and they're being left so vague at times I can't see a reson why they matter.  Nobody screams "irreplacable," either as a lead character or just within the framework of the story.

If Sofia died in the next episode and got replaced by her never-before-seen-or-mentioned sister, Sonja, would it really change anything? 

[Matthew]

If Sofia died in the next episode and got replaced by her never-before-seen-or-mentioned sister, Sonja, would it really change anything? 

Um... I would like the actress better.
(sorry, her personality has always grated on me )

[Lord Anubis]

 

[Matthew]

In terms of characters, I think Agent Lee and the President's bald flunky are the standouts.  They both show potential, though still unrealized.

[Lord Anubis]

My lovely lady and I were watching this last night.  It's become an ongoing study in "when good storytelling goes bad."  And it's on between Chuck and Castle.

Anyway, we had a little joint epiphany.  One of the big problems it's got (aside from the complete lack of engaging characters) is it's telling us too much.  It's shifted the balance from mystery to withheld information, and that's just annoying. 

A good 30-40% of the cast knows exactly what's going on and what the alien plan is and how they're going to carry it out.  They're just not tellling us--the audience.  So they end up having lots of conversations that sound like they know the room they're in has been bugged and they don't want to say anything incriminating.

"We're going to have to do it."

"You mean...?"

"Yes.  Just as we discussed."

"But what about--"

"I've considered it.  I think the potential risk to our people is acceptable."

"All the risks?"

"Even back at the beginning, we knew something like this might happen.  We can't back out now because we don't like the options that have been forced on us."

 

How much cooler would this show have been if we never saw the alien side of it?  Yeah, they could still be in scenes, but only in scenes with the human cast.  If we didn'tknow if they were good, bad, or just as divided as us?  If we never knew Lee was an alien until the humans found out he was an alien?  So suddenly it's only the Jason Ritter storyline and the Whit House storyline-- each with an extra ten minutes or so per episode to work with.

There's a ranty blog post in here... 

[Matthew]

I think you've hit it on the head.  Another thing that irks me is the flip-flopping by Sophia and the President.  They've both gone from the calm and measured approach to a panicked "the other side is evil, let's kill them all" in record time. 

I was okay with it when it was just the President.  I figured that he was a weak character with a strong facade.  The attack on the busses was WAY over the top, IMO.  It would have made much more sense to use a roadblock, an overwhelming number of troops, and arrest them.  What happenes was criminal and I'm surprised that there aren't any characters pointing this out.  Now Sophia is getting all blood-thirsty and it feels so forced.

I did like nerdy main character's horror at torturing his prisoner, and cute brunette assassin has some interesting character potential.  I suspect they're heading toward a romantic encounter, which would be a predictable set up for conflict with cute blonde fiancee.  And I didn't care for the Hal Holbrook character's revelation of his ancient secret soceity seems really lame.

Maybe this is why I'm having trouble remembering names.  The characters don't really have consistent personalities; they just say and do things that are going to drive the plot to the next shocking surprise.

[frank]

How interesting.

I just watched the first three episodes.

It's a good thing no one I know was guarding the temporary morgue when all the dead people started waking up.  We'd probably have recognized it as a zombie plague and started shooting.  I was really worried about that happening.

Maybe that's how episode four starts.

You know what?  I've gotten so tired of seeing the climax of an episode and then jumping back in time to the start of that day.  I mean, come on!  The plot device was old before the first season of whoever did it first was over.  And it just keeps spreading.  (Would you know where this seed was planted, L.A.?)

But maybe I'll go ahead and watch this for myself.  Nothing in this thread has spoiled it for me, yet.

[Matthew]

***spoiler alert***


The season finale was dramatic, but it also leaves me with several questions.

First... how did they do it?  If it was unclear that the teleportation technology would be able to shift several billion people then moving the whole planet seems out of the question.  It's a little like saying "we're  not sure that we have enough power to move the fish bowl, so we're just going to move the shopping center that it's in instead.

Second... why is there a problem any longer?  In fact, why has there been a problem at all?  Maybe there's not enough room on earth for humans and aliens both, but letting the aliens bring their own planet kind of solves the space issue, doesn't it?

Third... wouldn't bringing a planet with a mass and gravitation similar to earth;s into orbit around us mess up the earth-moon dynamic  pretty seriously.  Even if there aren't any collisions, the tidal forces should have caused tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, and catyclismic weather that would have wiped out most life on both planets.

[Lord Anubis]

Apparently it's still up in the air if this coming back or not.  My lovely lady has heard that the Sci-Fi... sorry Syfy Channel has made them a tentative offer for a four part miniseries to wrap things up.

My take on your questions, Matt...

First, they kept saying for ages that it was this big deal to fuel "the array" that transported things. It felt to me like it wasn't so much what the array was capable of, but what it was capable of at its current power levels.  Every time they'd teleport a bus or something, it'd knock all the levels back down to zero again and they had to start over.  So the issue was more are we going to be able to get this thing to power level X in time to save our world.

Again, just how I understood it.  Very well could have the whole thing backwards.

I think points two and three are kind of linked.  There are going to be massive earthquakes, floods, etc.  Sophia pretty much said so.  She was trying to wipe out humanity a a mercy killing, rather than make the whole planet suffer through what comes next.

I would guess that the homeworld is probably dead.  The same radiation that was endangering the people would've wiped out animals, plants, bacteria--the whole biosphere.  But now that it's out of harm's way it's probably an okay place to wait until things settle down a bit on Earth.  Then we transfer everyone down there, the homeworld breaks up (or gets sent away), and voila...

Inherit the Stars-- the updated, aggressive version. 

[frank]

Apparently it's still up in the air if this coming back or not.  My lovely lady has heard that the Sci-Fi... sorry Syfy Channel has made them a tentative offer for a four part miniseries to wrap things up.

My take on your questions, Matt...

First, they kept saying for ages that it was this big deal to fuel "the array" that transported things. It felt to me like it wasn't so much what the array was capable of, but what it was capable of at its current power levels.  Every time they'd teleport a bus or something, it'd knock all the levels back down to zero again and they had to start over.  So the issue was more are we going to be able to get this thing to power level X in time to save our world.

Again, just how I understood it.  Very well could have the whole thing backwards.

I think points two and three are kind of linked.  There are going to be massive earthquakes, floods, etc.  Sophia pretty much said so.  She was trying to wipe out humanity a a mercy killing, rather than make the whole planet suffer through what comes next.

I would guess that the homeworld is probably dead.  The same radiation that was endangering the people would've wiped out animals, plants, bacteria--the whole biosphere.  But now that it's out of harm's way it's probably an okay place to wait until things settle down a bit on Earth.  Then we transfer everyone down there, the homeworld breaks up (or gets sent away), and voila...

Inherit the Stars-- the updated, aggressive version. 

Seems as plausible as anything about this show.  So.  The President's wife is one of them. 

I'd suppose that if a biological extermination was possible, it would remain so.  That sort of attack would do the least damage to the rest of everything else on the Earth.  If a livable planet is what's wanted, that would be the way to go.