This week's episode of The Event reminded me very strongly of the Battlestar Galactica movie-episode "Razor". That story focuses on Admiral Helena Cain's theory of war: at one point, she tells new arrival Kendra Shaw that "sometimes we have to do things we never thought we were capable of, if only to show the enemy our will." This concept was at the heart of "Casualties of War" -- in war, sometimes you have to commit fully to inhumane acts in order to regain your own humanity.
The main plot focuses on a fully developed razor of war -- Thomas, a leader hand-picked by Sophia to be a sleeping dog inside America's fence -- and President Eli, a razor-in-training. Their conflict starts with the fates of the passengers of Avias 514 at risk. Thomas is unrelenting, almost eager to execute the passengers, but he reveals to Simon that he believes Eli will cave. But Eli doesn't cave -- instead, he flips the script: if the passengers of Avias 514 (who are all dying by some non-terrestial agent which only Thomas can cure, by the way) die, then Eli replies in turn by executing Sophia and all of the detainees at Inostranka. Flashbacks reveal the nature of Thomas's character: he's a soldier, through and through, and he'll follow his orders even if they're no longer coming from the same woman that he received orders from so many years ago. But this time, it's too much, and he caves. The negotiation is this: put Sophia on a train to him, and Thomas releases the passengers from their torment. So in the end, Eli gets what he wants -- but his wife questions whether or not he really would have gone through with his genocidal threat, and frankly, so do I.
The secondary plot, meanwhile, focuses on a tense conclusion to Sean's search for Leila. Just as Sean gets Leila's message from the police department, Leila discovers that the cops aren't all they say they are ("celebrating fifteen years this January" my ass). She makes another poor escape attempt (no, seriously, Leila is just bad at escapes -- or maybe her captors are just really good at coincidence) and is locked inside a room again. Sean arrives at the station just as his buddy gets him the location of Vicky's cell phone number -- which was just turned on inside that very station. But Sean has a plan -- he logically assumes, based on what he learned about Vicky's "son" Adam last week, that she obtained him through less-than-typical means, and uses this information as blackmail in order to safely get Leila out. It works -- Vicky lets Sean and Leila leave, and she covers for them and takes out all of her once-partners (save one, whom Sean, Leila, and FBI Girl kidnap for "further questioning"). Flashbacks reveal the mission in which she obtained Adam, showing her to be a solider willingly following orders, but unwilling to shoot a baby in cold blood. Like Thomas, she gives in -- some emotional connection prevents her from committing to her orders, just as Thomas was unwilling to have genocide on his hands via President Eli's threat.
I really dug this episode. It wore its theme will, executing a miniature version of "Razor" while using the show's previously established mythology to build to the all-important choices Vicky and Thomas have to make at the end. There was generally a lot of creativity in the writing and structuring of this episode, and much of my attention came from the emotional tensions rising between the characters as opposed to the adrenaline rush of a good shootout (only one this time, and it was in the police station in order to save Leila). A real show is starting to emerge here, and with news this week of a full season pickup, I hope there's as much narrative strength in the rest of the season as there was here in this episode.
In other words, "if you can be this... for as long as you have to be, then you're a razor."
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