Emergence: Season 1, Episode 1 Review – IGN

A mysterious, government-controlled island, a crash-landed ship, and a young survivor with no injuries or memories. With Storm Area 51 making headlines last week, ABC’s new conspiracy thriller series Emergence debuts at an interesting and most fitting time.

The mystery of Emergence centers around Piper (Alexa Swinton), the only survivor of a Long Island beach plane crash: who is she, where does she come from, and perhaps most importantly, what is she? In interviews, show creators Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas said Emergence draws influence primarily from the works of Steven Spielberg, name-dropping Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.

Though both showrunners were resistant to confirming whether or not aliens are for sure what’s behind the curtain in Emergence, it’s not hard to form that opinion based on the pilot episode. There’s glitching symbols on a TV screen, a shady organization at play, and hints at extraterrestrial technology.

Emergence draws aesthetically from the famed director, at least. There are scenes where items quiver then clatter to the floor due to some unseen force, and a power grid suddenly goes dark before coming alive again. Though common conventions of the sci-fi genre, these nostalgic cues work to the show’s benefit, adding just the right bit of intrigue to an episode focused primarily on a family drama.

Though Piper is the core mystery, what’s just as central to Emergence is likely Plum Island, referenced just briefly by journalist Benny (Owain Yeoman) as the origin of the plane. Dubbed the East Coast’s Area 51, Plum Island is a real place off Long Island’s shores, home to a federal facility that studies infectious animal diseases.

Swathed in secrecy and under the control of DHS since 2003, Plum Island is a popular conspiracy theory magnet, with many believing it’s the home of animal-human hybrids and biological weapons. Does that mean Piper is either of those things? Possibly. The episode could have stood to have even one more line hinting at Plum Island’s lore; without viewers having that background knowledge, it feels like Emergence misses including an important hook in the premiere.

For another show featuring a kid with extraordinary abilities, check out the trailer for Netflix’s Raising Dion:

With so little known about Piper in the pilot, Swinton’s performance is key to selling Emergence. Similar to her distant relative Tilda Swinton, she nails an otherworldly stare that cements the idea that Piper really is strange, maybe inhumanly so. Swinton’s final scene in the episode is easily the most arresting, as it potentially turns everything we learned in the episode on its head and hints that Piper is not just a confused little girl. It also doesn’t hurt that Emergence features Fargo’s Allison Tolman as Police Chief Jo, who finds Piper on the beach and ends up illegally sheltering her. Together Tolman and Swinton feel like ABC’s answer to Stranger Things’ Chief Hopper and Eleven, and if anybody is going to elevate the show into something truly interesting, it’s the two of them.

Where Emergence drags a bit is when the sci-fi storyline takes a backseat to Jo’s family drama. Jo lives with her father Ed (Clancy Brown), daughter Mia (Ashley Aufderheide), and now Piper; occasionally they see Bree’s estranged father Alex (Donald Faison). While separately these are all excellent actors, together they don’t quite click yet.

The centering on Jo’s family ultimately makes Emergence feel like a very personal and small-scale story; whether or not that will nicely complement the larger sci-fi storyline remains to be seen. At the very least, it feels like the pilot episode could’ve shuffled some of the family dynamics into later episodes, and spent a little more time reeling viewers in primarily with the Piper and Plum Island mystery. I worry viewers may tune out of Emergence early as a result, before they’re able to get into what sounds like a truly intriguing central plot.