There is a third possible outcome: 3. The show gets one season, but gets the cancellation early enough to slap together a finale which, though weak, at least provides some closure. (Last Resort.)
And I don’t think the kidnapper called the police. I think it was the same “concerned citizen” that sent the video of cop lady and her bro snapping the chain.
They had an approved protocol - something like “We’ll accept patients who had <x> level of the disease by <y> date” and the kid didn’t fit that protocol. The problem is that “<x> level by <y> date” didn’t fit the kid who had missed out on 5 1/2 years of disease progression. Frankly, a better reason to exclude the kid would be “he just went through this inexplicable phenomenon, so who knows how his reaction to this treatment would reflect the reaction of other patients” (and the proper response to that is “Fine - let’s not count him as part of the test, but still give him the treatment (since he’ll die otherwise)”).
Yeah, but there’s a lot of excess baggage in the plot and I suspect the writers may just be winging it.
I agree with this.
I liked it more than I thought I would. I was also a fan of The 4400, but I like that this involves just 190 people. The fact that there are odd connections among the passengers and crew is to be expected, but right now I’m still looking forward to discovering them all. And I really kind of liked the ending of the episode
with the plane seemingly blowing itself up after everyone was compelled to be there to witness it.
I thought that *was *the biggest reason why the main doc objected? Yes, at first he did the math thing, but I thought the main objection wound up being “nothing about this kid has been controlled.”
Tuned in for this, the first new network drama I’ve tried in two years. (The last one was This Is Us, where I lasted maybe 3 or 4 episodes.)
Maybe I’ve just lost touch with network dramas, but the overacting and cheesiness was through the roof, especially with the lead actress. It didn’t bother me all that much, but several times during the pilot it pulled me completely out of it as I winced at how badly they were hamming it up.
I’m kind of liking the plot device and the voices gag. For some reason, I found it really compelling that they’re hearing their own voices in their heads. Unless it completely falls off a cliff, I’ll try and stick with this. At least for the first season. I had a ton of fun with Lost for 3 or 4 seasons, followed by bitter disappointment for 3 or 4 seasons, but hey, the first season was great.
Not everyone. At very least not the leukemia kid, but I got the feeling that maybe only a third or half the passengers were there to bear witness.
First paragraph: That was the case with an excellent paranormal program called “Invasion” from a few years ago. IIRC, one of the main actors got another role, and the ratings weren’t quite high enough to warrant writing the person out of the show and continuing on, so they had an episode that seemed to wrap it up.
Second paragraph: You are right. Someone else witnessed the bolt being cut, and called the police.
The doctor in charge of the treatment protocol seemed VERY interested in money. There were some investment grants on the line, or something like that, and the kid in question, having been “uncontrolled” for several years, might screw up their results if accepted. So I think it was about the prestige and the money.
Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be precise when I said “everyone”; it’s entirely possible you’re correct. 
Maybe I’m too pragmatic, but I believe those are the first things I would worry about.
I’m glad the kid is getting a cure but I think the way it happens could have been handled better.
I’ll check it out next week and cross my fingers, hoping for the best.
I could be wrong. I thought the “strict compliance with the protocol” was the main reason, and the airplane stuff was waved away as “too complicated to explain to the review committee”
Episode 2 aired this evening. I won’t give away any spoilers.
If you missed both episodes and still want to check them out, Syfy is showing them later in the week.
But why would the voices stop when they let the dogs go? You would think they could be more specific.
No, not them! Set the other ones free!
Unless it was all a set up so the girl could come back with the detective later.
I’m already bored with the love triangle with the guy and his wife. At least I can fast forward through those parts.
Ha! Yeah, it does like a strange deus ex machina. “The dogs! You thought I created a wormhole and dragged you out in the middle of the night to let the dogs out! Sheesh! I should be talking to that smart doctor.”
I watched the first episode again. The protocol was something like “Only have the disease for 4 years” and the doctor said “This kid has had it for 7 years, so he’s out of the protocol” disregarding the fact that 5 of those years don’t count, since the kid just time traveled and all. Then the doctor explained that he didn’t want to break the protocol for any reason, because they were about to get rich when bought out by some big company. Seems kind of heartless to me.
The thing is, you have to look at the situation as a whole. There are THOUSANDS of children with leukemia, and likely HUNDREDS of them were trying to get into the drug trial. It’s not like the Dr. was saying, “oh, we could (potentially) help 50 children, but lets only give 49 a chance.” No, they were picking WHICH 50 of the nominees would get the slots. No doubt they had a whole bunch of parameters to meet – not just the ones they made explicit, like how long they’d been diagnosed and age, but stuff like not having any other conditions that could complicate and blur the results, maybe they need to insure a proper mix of blood types. Plus there are likely demographic concerns, like wanting roughly equal numbers of girls and boys, a suitable mixture of races and ethnic backgrounds, who knows what else.
But no matter what, the panel was picking a designated number to get the chance that this drug might help them. It could also be ineffective. It could make their condition worse. They don’t know, that’s why they run drug trials. And saying “NO” to all the rest.
So by this doctor insisting that THIS particular boy be included in the ‘get the chance’ group, she’s also causing some other boy/girl NOT to ‘get the chance.’ Wanting to save a kid you love, or at least have met, is understandable, but I bet whichever child will now NOT get the chance was equally loved by his/her family.
The doctor wanted to exclude the kid from the study because they “didn’t know what happened to him.” When pressed to bend the rules, he also expressed concern that any irregularities would jeopardize the business deal.
At the end of the episode, there were only 20 or so people gathered out of 190+.
Exactly 20, as it turns out.
I wasn’t aware there was a limit to how many people could participate in a medical trial. If that is the case, that would be a valid point.
Once again, I figured out whodunnit fairly early. This show is mildly entertaining (plus, Josh Dallas is yummy) but I don’t see how this can stretch out over 6-7 seasons. I’m betting it’s one of those that will be cancelled and the audience will get no resolution.
I think it would have been better as a limited series, with a definite end. Of course, we’re only two episodes in so who knows.