Although the five people chosen to defend mankind in whatever apocalyptic battle is to come – Vera (Shantel VonSanten), Erin (Sofia Black D’Elia), Peter (Joel Courtney), Raul (J.D. Pardo), and Joshua (Jon Fletcher) – have no apparent ties, they share a common thread. All of the characters have some deep seated issues, despite being diverse in nature. Watching them reconcile what’s happening from their own separate perspectives, their different backgrounds coming largely into play at that time, may be the most enjoyable thing about the group meeting up in Houston.
Viewers already got a taste of what that looks like with the happenstance run in between Erin and Raul, who have seemingly already been paired up. There’s some obvious chemistry brewing, so it wouldn’t come as much of a plot twist if these two remain close throughout the season, or even become romantic – barring any major unforeseen act of betrayal. Other than that, the episode which moved at tortoise speed, kept most of the other characters estranged. Vera being the only other exception, and her encounter was with the bad guy, so it’s not quite the same thing.
The writers have already revealed that the Man isn’t the only one with special abilities (obviously, he’s fire retardant). Going right along with the theme, the good guys have some helpful “super powers” of their own to boast about. Erin was able to save her daughter with her healing tears, Raul saved his own life by reading another man’s thoughts, Joshua has visions of the future, and Paul has suddenly developed quite the upper body strength. This doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be able to call on them at will or that Vera will have anything less generic, but it’s clearly a built-in defense mechanism they now have. Individually none of these talents particularly stand out, but together it seems like they’d be a quite impressive combination.
It’s too early to lean entirely to one side or the other about the future of The Messengers since the pilot doesn’t offer too much in the way of substance. Judging by the slow pacing, the writers are going to need to speed things up or find a wow factor to gift viewers with fairly quickly or the show is going to last about as long as Cult (a mid-season flop on the CW back in 2013 shafted with the same Friday night time slot – does anyone even remember that show?). Still, there’s enough mystery here that something might hook viewers yet.
