A sheriff enters a mysterious juncture when she decides to take a young child to find him near a mysterious accident site. Things turn into a completely mysterious course because the child seems to be a memory of what happened earlier. Now, the investigation of these events begins where the woman rolls into a larger conspiracy than she imagined because of the child's identity and because of what happened earlier.
I don't exactly care what the "solution" or "twist" is in Emergence... Instead, I somewhat care about the main characters, which I don't think I've felt for an ABC sci-fi series since Lost. We'll see how long that lasts.
The pilot episode effectively sets up the mystery, while piling on new twists, building to suspenseful set pieces and more revelations about Piper's otherness. Even so, I can see why NBC, which developed the series, passed on it.
Tolman's performance is the best reason to keep watching - I hope her character can solve it soon. Network TV watchers are a lot more impatient than they used to be.
Time will tell if Emergence can forge its own path in terms of story, but in terms of characters, it's already something special and I think audiences should give it a chance.
ABC's Emergence looks like it could be a winning proposition. And even if the suspense and premise begin to sag, there's always Allison Tolman to keep hope alive.
