Hey! I just noticed that the "Previously on THE EVENT" caption doesn't have a backwards E. See, even the show itself thinks it's dumb. And that might be the first thing the show and I agree on.

We start by watching Thomas's end of that conversation with President Martinez. As you remember, it ends with Thomas threatening, "I don't need to hear your excuses. Or this time, people will die." He means the people who were on Avias Air 514, and he probably means that this time they'll stay dead. Unless we need another Shocking Swerve Cliffhanger, I guess. Anyway, since Thomas is threatening to kill 183 people in cold blood, I guess we are to consider him a bad guy.

Speaking of those 183 people, the caption that places them in the Bio Quarantine Facility in Fairfax now calls them "Avias 514 Victims." That means that all of them are pasty and hyperventilating and they're being shot with that desaturated digital effect that makes them strobe if they move too fast. The effect is that of a crappy, low-budget horror movie made in the last five years. That Air Marshal from the first episode demands to know what's going on, but he is ignored. Also ignored: everyone else who asks the same thing. Including Michael Buchanan. Everyone's sick and freaking out. Have we established that? Good! Let's move on.

A Situation Room. Probably in the White House. The president is being told about the disease, which is affecting neurological systems and cognitive functions. All they know is that according to blood tests, it's neither viral nor bacterial. So naturally it must be of either foreign or extraterrestrial origin. They have no treatment plan and figure that none of the Avias Air people will be alive by morning. Suddenly! Thomas calls. He actually called a few minutes earlier, but it takes a while for an untraceable call to make it through to the Situation Room. He tells us what's going on, in case we missed both the Previouslies and this scene we're watching now. "I assume by now you realize the 183 passengers aboard flight 514 do not have long to live," he says, on his way to making a specific offer: he'll turn over the antidote (there's an antidote!) if the president releases Sophia and the detainees. He actually says "meet my demands," which seems like a good way to make the president think of you as a terrorist. I mean, he could spin it like "I believe these innocent passengers may have fallen victim to a side effect of the teleportation. I'd be delighted to save their lives if you did this thing for me." But no, he's straight-up saying the passengers will all die if his demands aren't met. The president declines, and Thomas gives him two hours.