Lili Marquette returns to Earth in the company of a Jaridian. While Liam, Renee and Augur attempt to locate her, Sandoval tries to hide her arrival from the Taelons.
(Originally aired in syndication during the week of May 15, 2000.)
| Everyone! Strike a Pose! |
Zo'or: In other words, you have not verified their identities?Sandoval: No.Zo'or: Nor where they are currently holding the shuttle?
Sandoval: No.Zo'or: Has the word 'No' become your mantra, Agent Sandoval?Sandoval: No.[Sandoval looks chagrined] |
Liam: I bet you just love a good game of chess.Federov: What cultured Russian does not? So please, Major, impress upon your Taelon masters that I have trapped their knight and taken two pawns. Your move. |
Tate: Well, that was a nice serve and volley, boss. Just one question:where are you going to get a billion in gold?Sandoval: Same place Zo'or gets his. He holds the largest reserve of gold in the world. His only mistake was making me his accountant. |
Story by George Geiger, Cory Tynan and John Whelpley
Teleplay by John Whelpley
Directed by Brenton Spencer
GUEST STARS
Richard Zeppieri Tate
Dan Chameroy Vorjak
Garwin Sanford Federov
Roman Podhora Commander Kosygin
Lisa Howard Lili Marquette
WHAT HAPPENED
At a base in Antarctica, Sandoval watches the lights come up on a landing strip. Tate reports receiving a strong subspace signal. Sandoval orders him to transmit the coordinates of the landing strip.
A ship comes out of interdimensional space and is immediately struck by an energy blast. Sandoval orders his team to track the shuttle. Tate locates the ship and tells Sandoval, "We've got her." The shuttle crashed in East Rostok.
An armed search team arrives at the crash site. The downed vessel bears Taelon markings. One of the soldiers Commander Kosygin discovers something amid the wreckage. He orders a subordinate to "Call Chairman Federov! Immediately!"
The soldiers come under attack from an energy-based weapon. They return fire, and attackers escape on one of the search team's snowmobiles. (more
)
ANALYSIS
It is the nature of season finales to overload on plot. "Arrival" is no exception.
As a result, the most compelling moment in the episode -- the face-off between Liam and Sandoval -- passes far too quickly. After two seasons of close calls and suspicion, Sandoval now has concrete proof that Liam's loyalties do not lie solely with the Taelons.
It will be interesting to learn what Sandoval does with this information. He will be hard pressed to bring the information to Zo'or without betraying his own chronic disloyalty.
As for Sandoval's private agenda, if all had gone according to plan, he would have met Lili, Vorjak and the other Jaridians at the landing site. Aside from Vorjak's vague pronouncement that he would gain favor with the Jaridians for his efforts, what was in it for Sandoval?
What do the Jaridians offer that he can't get -- explicitly or covertly -- from the Taelons?
Thou shalt not . . .
Plot gluttony aside, "Arrival" highlights two of the Deadly Sins of hackneyed storytelling.
The chess game between Renee and Federov falls victim to the "I move one piece and put you in check, earning your respect by proving how gosh darned clever I am" syndrome. If the game or the underlying chess metaphor is important enough to include in the story, it's important enough to merit at least three moves' worth of play.
Even more damaging was the scene in which Liam and Augur tune into Lili's radio frequency just in time to hear her announce her location. To make matters worse, her radio goes dead mere seconds after she conveys this information.
The odds that Liam and Augur would make the intuitive leap to try the radio in the first place are astronomical. That they compounded that convenient improbability by tuning in at the precise moment they needed to defies all rational explanation.
Granted, adventure stories frequently involve coincidences like these, but it still requires a willing suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience to bridge the gap between the illogical dramatic situation and the way things happen in everyday life.
It is the writer's role to cajole that willingness out of the audience at every turn. It isn't merely enough to say, "Now that we've got them believing in aliens, they'll fall for anything."
Good storytelling is a contract that must be renewed from moment to narrative moment.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Will Da'an survive the birth of Lili's child? Will Lili? Is the birth of the child the first step toward a Jaridian invasion of Earth?
How much will Zo'or learn of these events?
How will Sandoval weasel his way out of this scheme?
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK
We begin the long, slow crawl through the summer hiatus with a rerun of "
advertisement
