
For months NBC has been telling us what the Event isn’t but last night we got some clues to what the Event is.
The newly elected President learns 97 detainees have been held for years by the CIA at a secret base in Mount Inostranka, Alaska.
He argues that they must release the detainees because “It’s not just about protecting the rights of the few. This is about protecting human rights. Now, these people may not be Americans but we are.” This seems to discount theories of aliens but when the President visits the facility, he says he wants to see the research labs, suggesting that they may be more than human. Adding to the mystery, these non-Americans clearly have American accents.
In one of many flashbacks we see an agent Simon Lee informing their leader, Sophia, that they’ve recaptured one of the detainees named William, who thinks he can bargain for his freedom with information about “the Event.” Sophia tells Simon to stop him but Simon disagrees, “Don’t you think we should at least warn them so they have time to prepare. There’s a new President in the White House, Martinez. He’s a good man. I think he would help us.” Sophia replies that presidents have never helped them before. This confirms that they have been detained or on the lam for quite some time, which may explain the accents. Sophia tells Simon if “our people out there are having doubts, I need you to reason with them.” Our people, not my people. Not only are there more of them living among, but Simon is apparently one of them.
An assassination attempt on the President via an airplane crash, presumably by people who do not want the President to release the detainees, is thwarted by a wormhole that intercepts the plane to which Sophia proclaims “they saved us.” Whoever they are they are (time travelers, aliens, gods), they’re arrival is the Event.