History Series / TheEvent

** [[spoiler: Really, Sophia? You honestly think that teleporting another planet into orbit near Earth is a ''good'' idea? So the precipitating earthquakes that have been felt worldwide wasn't a clue that such a thing would cause massive tectonic instability? Nor the fact that this will cause large tidal waves that will devestate coastal regions? Remember, this is the very planet you apparently want to ''colonise'', why are you ''breaking'' it?!]]

* ItsTheOnlyWay: Practically Sean's CatchPhrase, though President Martinez and others have used it as well. One episode had two characters utter the phrase, in completely separate situation, [[BeyondTheImpossible before the opening credits even rolled]]. See IndyPloy for what happens when they haven't come up with an "only way" just yet.

None of these incidents are "The Event".[[hottip:*:Nor are they [[SpellMyNameWithAnS "THE]] [[LuckyCharmsTitle EV3NT"]].]]

** Jetliner SuicideAttack as a weapon against the United States complete with screaming passengers. Obviously NBC's hope is that nine years is enough for this to just be a credible dramatic threat and not [[YourMilageMayVary stomach-turning to most of the audience]].

* GenreSavvy: '''''James Dempsey'''''. Let's see, he understands that Martinez will be a good President, but further predicts both his and Sophia's shifts to WellIntentionedExtremist. Even better, he ''successfully identifies Sean as'' ''TheHero'', lures Sean in by putting his partner in [[UnresolvedSexualTension UST]] in a {{deathtrap}}, and then offers him anything he needs to save the world. [[spoiler:When Sean [[Determinator refuses to forget about chasing Dempsey]], Dempsey kills himself so Sean will move on to [[BiggerBad the true threat]]]].

* DisneyDeath: Agent Lee, initially. But [[IGotBetter he got better]].

* FoeYay: Sean and Vicky.

* TheQuisling: The Vice-President (though he comes across as TheChamberlain).

* RedHerring: subverted. There were some facts, which could prove that [[spoiler: President's wife]] is an alien. However it turned out that her family just had problems with law. Then in the end of the final episode [[OhCrap she called alien planet home]].

* {{Cliffhanger}}: Assuming the series isn't renewed for a second season, then it ends on one hell of a cliffhanger - [[spoiler: Simon reveals that his people [[AncientAstronauts used to live one Earth before humanity]], a terminally-ill Leila is revealed to be pregnant, Martinez's wife is revealed to be an alien, and, oh yeah, Sophia has the alien's homeworld ''teleported into Earth's orbit'']]. At least they knew to end the season/series with a bang.

* XanatosGambit / KansasCityShuffle: In Episode 20, Shawn and Vicki stop one of Sophia's people from releasing a deadly virus into a shopping mall, [[spoiler: but another one of Sophia's people infects a bus evacuating the area, killing everyone and giving Sophia the information she needs to properly weaponize the virus]]. Its the former for the hidden bouns and the latter for the distraction.

* PresidentEvil: Raymond Jarvis [[spoiler: after poisoning Martinez and ascending to the Presidentcy]].

* OhCrap: Jarvis has a moment bordering on VillainousBreakdown in the season finale [[spoiler: during his EngineeredPublicConfession]].

* ObliviousToLove: Its implied that Vicky has an increasing attraction to Sean, who on the other hand, repeatedly has no idea why she is still helping him.

* MagicalDatabase: Sean is able to access any information on earth in record time, no matter who holds it, no matter how secret, no matter how protected, with his Macbook Pro and a flawless, extremely fast wireless Internet connection that apparently works from anywhere, including PlanesTrainsAndAutomobiles.

** [[spoiler: in episode 15, Thomas - in order to save Sophia and their people.]]
** [[spoiler: Dempsey... sort of. After seeing that Sean and Vicky were so determined to kill him that they didn't care about stopping Sophia, he killed himself so that they wouldn't be preoccupied with stopping him anymore.]]

* GrayAndGrayMorality: The US Government built a secret prison to detain the aliens until they gave the whole story, but the aliens themselves are no paragons of morality ether, especially Thomas' faction which has apparently decided to go the AlienInvasion route. Meanwhile their are powerful people behind the government that apparently want to augment their lifespans by studying the very long lived aliens and keep it all in the shadows, killing anyone that opposes them. The only really "good" characters are Simon, Leila, and Sean (though Sean seems to be drifting more into [[SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes Type III antihero]] range), while the only truly [[CompleteMonster evil]] character is Dempsey, and even he is pretty [[AffablyEvil affable]]... [[spoiler: and as it turns out, even Dempsey only did all the evil things he did to stop the alien threat, or so he says]].

* EvenEvilHasStandards: according to Vicky, she decided to stop working for Dempsey, after she learned about [[spoiler: his experiments on children]]

* FridgeLogic: If Sophia's people were able to [[spoiler: transport their entire planet away from the supernova and near earth without simply destroying both planets, why did they have to rid earth of its population? Why not simply live permanently alongside earth?]]
** The planet appears to be in pretty bad shape. The real question is why they think they need to [[spoiler:kill most of the humans to make room for a billion aliens? That's less than two decades of human population growth. Just put them in Central Asia or Canada.]]

* CIAEvilFBIGood: Subverted in agent Simon Lee (played by Ian Anthony Dale), who seems genuinely interested in saving lives and is implied to be the person who leaked the files about the secret prison to President Martinez, although he is an alien and TheMole. Possibly played straight with Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Blake Sterling who kept the information from the president, though it's hard to gauge his motives without knowing who the prisoners are and why they're being held.

* GenreSavvy: '''''James Dempsey'''''. Let's see, he understands that Martinez will be a good president, but further predicts both his and Sophia's shifts to WellIntentionedExtremist. Even better, he ''successfully identifies Sean as'' ''TheHero'', lures Sean in by putting his partner in [[UnresolvedSexualTension UST]] in a {{deathtrap}}, and then offers him anything he needs to save the world. [[spoiler:When Sean [[Determinator refuses to forget about chasing Dempsey]], Dempsey kills himself so Sean will move on to [[BiggerBad the true threat]]]].

* InMediasRes: The pilot episode begins with shaky news camera footage of the president's address as the jetliner hurtles towards it.

* PresidentMinority: President Elias Martinez (played by Blair Underwood) is Cuban, referenced by Sterling the DNI while he tries to dissuade the president from his decision to release the prisoners from their secret prison. Also seems to be a President Personable.

** The episode "Turnabout", in which the threat of a nuclear incident in Southern California is a major plot point, aired a few days after the massive Sendai earthquake in Japan that led to major incidents at several nuclear reactors. In a moment before the president gets updated on the situation, we see him in a meeting with a foreign dignitary... from Japan.

** [[The planet]] appears to be in pretty bad shape. The real question is why they think they need to [[spoiler:kill most of the humans to make room for a billion aliens? That's less than two decades of human population growth. Just put them in Central Asia or Canada.]]

* GenreBlind: Jarvis' one weakness. He is an excellent manipulator, constantly makes everyone swallow his BlatantLies and keeps up his flawless act ''even when he is called out on it'' - but in the finale he falls for one of TheOldestTricksInTheBook. [[spoiler:"You have no proof that I poisoned you. And that I am working with Sophia. For the sake of those of you who will later hear this inevitably recorded conversation, I will repeat: I p-o-i-s-o-n-e-d Martinez, and later sold you all out to the aliens. Did you get that? Are there any questions?"]]

* GenreBlind: Jarvis' one weakness. He is an excellent manipulator, constantly makes everyone swallow his BlatantLies and keeps up his flawless act ''even when he is called out on it'' - but in the finale he falls for one of TheOldestOnesInTheBook. [[spoiler:"You have no proof that I poisoned you. And that I am working with Sophia. For the sake of those of you who will later hear this inevitably recorded conversation, I will repeat: I p-o-i-s-o-n-e-d Martinez, and later sold you all out to the aliens. Did you get that? Are there any questions?"]]

* PlotHole: In the pilot episode, how did Sean know what Michael was about to do, let alone when and where? He had no inside information whatsoever at that point, including the existence of Inostranka or its residents.
** Viewers were led to believe that the flashbacks which had been part of the regular narrative would explain, eventually, how Sean got from the cruise ship Leyla was abducted from to the plane in the pilot, which implied there had been nine days between those two scenes. Since the later episodes dropped that technique, it was left hanging

* ThirtyGambitPileup: There are some serious plans going on in this show.

* [=~E.T. Gave Us Wi-Fi~=]: [[spoiler:Thomas' involvement]] allegedly helped to push ahead the development of the atomic bomb by several decades.

* [[{{Ptitlecfsf2rvb}} It's the Only Way]]: Practically Sean's CatchPhrase, though President Martinez and others have used it as well. One episode had two characters utter the phrase, in completely separate situation, [[BeyondTheImpossible before the opening credits even rolled]]. See IndyPloy for what happens when they haven't come up with an "only way" just yet.