'The Event' Season 1, Episode 10 Recap (VIDEO)

['The Event' - 'Everything Will Change']

When you title an episode 'Everything Will Change,' you're inviting a host of skepticism. When you're 'The Event,' you've already got plenty of skepticism aimed at you, so why not promise a game changer in the final episode before the show returns at the end of February? Very little substantially changed, although the show did manage to finally tie the Sean/Leila story more firmly into the rest of the show, along with perhaps showing us onscreen what the title of the show means.

Thomas's long-distance phone call to wherever "home" is for Sophia's Crew, did expand the show's scope in a fairly compelling manner. It wasn't quite first contact, insofar as "aliens"/alterna-humans are already here, but it did push the show from merely "extraterrestrials walk among us" into "extraterrestrials might be coming to put a hurt onto us." The former is unnerving, to be sure, but the latter is downright terrifying. That's not to say that the end results will play out that way, but at least the scenario is a possibility.

E.T. used a Speak n' Spell to call home, whereas Thomas used hidden funds and the cooperation of tribal nations in a fictitious country to do the same. That being said, while it's fun to think about the possibilities inherent in that message, we still have next to nothing to go on in terms of trying to even hazard a semi-decent guess. We know that a few hundred of these entities landed in Alaska in 1947, but we don't know how, why, or whence. It seems like their arrival was the result of an accident, but it's unclear if that accident was mechanical (i.e., their version of the flux capacitor overheated) or mathematical (they tried to jump to another point in our timeline but, like Bugs Bunny, didn't take that left turn at Albuquerque).

Not knowing where they're from complicates knowing why Sophia would be so against Thomas asking the intergalactic AAA for a lift home. Ostensibly, she's a pacifist amongst well-meaning, but at times warlike, people (sounds like a civilization you know?). Getting back is Priority One, but she's not willing to return by any means necessary. Minimizing knowledge of their presence on Earth seems to be one aspect of her approach, and returning without help from the rest of her people from Parts/Places/Parallel Universes Unknown seems to be a secondary part. Sure, she enjoys the tea ceremonies from her home planet, but isn't a blanket fan of its entire culture.

Perhaps Thomas's plan isn't merely to go home, but in fact to use Earth as the new world for his people to populate. Simon Lee had mentioned previously that their world had no oceans to speak of. And those that met at what several online writers referred to as "Inostranka-Con" last week seemed to enjoy life on this planet just fine. Leaving didn't seem that high a priority, and while Thomas may have worked on one level to free the 97 prisoners in Alaska, he also enjoyed the creature comforts that come from living here as well.

But those creature comforts have a cost, and part of that cost includes having a photographic record of just how well Thomas and Company fare in this particular neck of the space-time continuum. The Sean/Leila plot has moved along with the approximate speed of continental drift, but at least some part of their role in the overall conspiracy came into focus this week. The girls in James Dempsey's experimental floor deep below Willow Brook Behavioral Hospital weren't simply chosen due to their age, but due to their unique genetic makeup. Essentially, they are all hybrids: Parented by one human and one "other" to produce a specialized entity later exploited by Dempsey to create his Fountain of Youth-esque serum.

Perhaps we can now forgive Leila Buchanan for never quite reacting in a human-like manner: She's literally not human! So all's forgiven, Leila. Okay, not really, but at least knowing that Michael Buchanan escaped from Inostranka along with Thomas unites these stories thematically, if not narratively. This still doesn't explain why Dempsey's crew fears Sean Walker the way that vampires fear Van Helsing (or why Michael Buchanan was investigating his own darn crash landing along with Madeline Jackson, which REALLY makes no sense now), but at least gives this story an eventual "in" should it ever reconnect with what's going on in Washington, D.C.

Now, did all of this constitute a satisfying cliffhanger, or merely just another series of shocking final moments for the sake of shock? It's a bit hard to judge this episode based on an intended break, as the three-month hiatus wasn't exactly in play when the writers of 'The Event' scripted this particular episode. The reveals in Willow Brook certainly won't stoke interest throughout the winter months, but Thomas's S.O.S. certainly marked the end of one part of the show's overall story and started a new volume. It just remains to be seen whether or not anyone will want to read on when the show returns next year.

Will you be there when 'The Event' returns next year? Or have you already tuned out the show's signal? Leave your thoughts on the show's first block of episodes below!

'The Event' airs Mondays, 9PM ET on NBC.