Emergence: A Mysterious, Magical Child

Strange events surround a young girl in this family-friendly series.The lights flicker on and off, while the digital clock on the bedside table begins flashing unrecognizable symbols. Suddenly, the power goes completely out, and the sound of a large crash is heard from the beach nearby.This is how ABC’s new mystery drama series Emergence begins, leaving the audience and Jo, the police chief of Long Island's Peconic Bay, wondering what could have caused this. Jo leaves her father, Ed, and daughter, Bree, at home and goes to investigate the crash site. When she arrives on the beach, she finds a government team already going through wreckage. They tell Jo that a small plane crashed, and that there were no survivors. But out of the corner of her eye Jo spots a young girl hiding behind a small sand dune. Jo attempts to question the girl, but soon discovers that the girl has no memory of who she is or how she got there. The girl quickly bonds with Jo and refuses to go to the hospital without her. At the hospital, the doctor reassures Jo that the little girl is unharmed and aside from her memory loss she is in perfect health.Moments later, the girl goes missing. Jo goes back to her police car to put out a call for the little girl, until she notices that the rain on the window begins running sideways and the lights of the car begin flashing on and off. The little girl reveals herself to be sitting in the back seat, and the strange occurrences stop. Jo brings the girl home, and she becomes fast friends with Bree. Bree decides the girl needs a name, so after some deliberation they decide to call her Piper. Jo gets a call from the police station that Piper’s parents are there and are looking for her. Jo leaves Piper at her home and drives to the station. She talks with the couple claiming to be Piper’s parents, but realizes that something doesn’t feel right. She asks them to show her pictures on their cell phones of Piper to prove they are her parents, and the couple become agitated. Jo steps out of her office for a moment and the lights flicker, when she returns to her office the couple have vanished. She also finds out that the group involved with investigating the crash weren’t actually the organization they claimed to be, and that they completely removed all evidence of the crash site. The deeper Jo investigates, the more questions she has -- and at the center of it all is a little girl.Emergence does depict violence, but is not an overtly violent show. In one scene, Piper is kidnapped by an unknown person. The car suddenly crashes into what seems like an invisible wall and completely flips over, causing the kidnapper to die, and leaving Piper shaken up but uninjured. In another scene, Piper takes a box cutter blade and uses it to cut herself behind her ear. When she finishes, she pulls out futuristic looking computer chip that resembles the symbols being shown on the electrical devices. Foul language was not an issue, with only one or two instances of the word “damn.” The program contained no sexual depictions or descriptions. Parents should be aware of the infrequent occurrences of violence, and the fact that this show may be too intense for very young children.I’m intrigued by the mystery surrounding Piper and the crash where she was found. I guess I’ll have to wait and see if the truth will be revealed.