Overall: 6.7
This series has yet to live up to its full potential. In this episode, however, a few moments towards the end make us cackle with glee. What can I say? Sometimes we are entertained by the strangest things.
Spoilers after the cut.
Plot Synopsis:
Picking up where the last episode left off, this episode begins with a shot of Father Jack being taken to a V healing center.
We then switch to Erica's. Erica is in the process of trying to track down her wayward son when she is suddenly attacked by the same individual who stabbed Father Jack. After a fierce struggle, Erica manages to stab the V in the heart.
Meanwhile, Valerie is starting to experience some very unusual side effects from her hybrid pregnancy. For one thing, her appetite is virtually insatiable. For another thing, she is already feeling the movements of her baby despite only being at six weeks gestation. Nervous, Valerie tells Ryan that she has moved up her routine prenatal appointment. Ryan tries to reassure her, but even he looks a little scared.
Erica calls Ryan over to her place. Ryan identifies the V Erica killed as the guard from the warehouse they torched and tells her that the guard was likely trying to clean up his mess before reporting to Anna. Erica is eager to go on the offensive against the V's, but Ryan thinks circumspection would be best at this point.
On the mothership, Tyler is undergoing a mysterious procedure. Lisa informs Anna that Erica has been calling Tyler's cell nonstop, and Anna tells her to ignore Erica until they get what they need.
Erica shows up at the V center determined to bring Tyler home. Tyler, however, refuses to go with her. He assures Erica that he is safe and suggests that Erica's fear stems from distrust of the V's. Of course, Erica can't acknowledge this with the V's standing all around her, so she lies and says she's only angry because Tyler stayed out all night without contacting her. Tyler declares that he's not a kid anymore and promises Erica that he'll be home for dinner. Erica tries to grab Tyler and discovers that she's been talking to a holographic projection.
Chad Decker reports on the destruction of New York's flu vaccine supply. Anna is perturbed. She tells Marcus to hand the FBI a scapegoat. In the meantime, she intends to raise an army to defeat the Fifth Column.
At the V healing center, Father Jack is injected with R6.
Ryan, meanwhile, takes a vial of R6 to his own V doctor for analysis. While there, he talks to his doctor about Valerie's pregnancy. The doctor is shocked; as far as she knows, cross-breeding is not possible, but she figures faith and nature has somehow found a way. Ryan worries that with her heart condition, Valerie will not be able to endure such an unusual pregnancy; his doctor is more concerned about what Anna will do when she finds out.
Speaking of Anna, at this moment, she is giving marching orders to Joshua: the V's are to continue administering R6 to the humans who go to the V healing centers. Joshua points out that many humans are afraid to go into their centers. Anna, however, plans to use a familiar face to foster trust. That face, of course, is Chad, who is himself leery of making use of the V healing center to take care of his future aneurysm. In fact, he goes so far as to consult with a human specialist, who finds nothing on Chad's CT to suggest that anything is wrong.
At the FBI office, Marcus presents evidence indicating that a mercenary named Kyle Hobbes was responsible for the explosion that destroyed the flu vaccine supply. Erica knows this is absolutely phony-baloney, but the mention of Hobbes gives her a crazy idea. Showing Hobbes' file to Ryan, she suggests that they use Hobbes to recruit for the Resistance. Ryan asks how they can get in touch with this man, and Erica says that Hobbes' last known address can probably be found on Dale's hard drive.
On the mother ship, Anna shares a meal with Chad. She asks him why he has not aired his story on the V healing centers and also asks him why he has not availed himself of their services. Chad expresses doubt that anything is wrong with him. Anna basically tells him to run the piece on the healing centers or else, though as you can imagine, she is more subtle in her approach.
Meanwhile, Georgie finally tracks down Father Jack and bustles him out of the V healing center.
Erica and Ryan catch up with Hobbes. Erica tells Hobbes that he is being framed by the V's, but Hobbes scoffs at the very idea. To prove the truth of her claim, Erica calls the office and informs them of Hobbes' location. Then she tells Hobbes he can either go with Erica and Ryan or get snagged by the FBI. Evidently, Hobbes chooses the former, for when the FBI arrives, he is long gone.
Back on the mother ship, we learn that the V's have been scanning Tyler's personal memories. Lisa remarks that Tyler's memories are difficult to interpret, and Anna explains that this is so because human memories contain emotion as well as information. Lisa wonders aloud why the Visitors' memories aren't like that, and Anna responds that their memories are more efficient. Just then, the search of Tyler's memories turns up something useful: Erica's divorce. They let Tyler go back home. Anna tells Tyler before he leaves that he should tell Erica not to worry - that she will not lose Tyler like she lost Tyler's father.
At the church, our budding Resistance cell tries to convince Hobbes to join the fight, but Hobbes is interested only in making some money. Ryan then shows Hobbes his true, lizard eye, and Erica asks Hobbes if he's curious to discover why the V's would want to frame him. This seems to shift Hobbes' attitude.
Later, Erica and Father Jack talk. Father Jack admits to Erica that he feels like something inside him is changing, but doesn't reveal that the V's injected him with R6. Erica says that they are all changing and points out that she has just made a deal with "the devil" (Hobbes).
Ryan's V doctor, meanwhile, has finally finished analyzing the R6 and has discovered that it contains a chemical tag. We then switch to a V surveillance center, where a group of V's are looking many people over on floating screens. On one screen, the image of Father Jack appears.
Chad has finally broken down and agreed to run the piece on the V healing centers. He has also agreed to be healed by the V's. Anna is pleased. Then Marcus tells her that Hobbes has escaped the FBI. Anna decides to get on with building her new army. She selects a strapping young soldier for a purpose that at this point is unrevealed.
In the meantime, Tyler finally comes home. He admits to Erica that he has joined the Peace Ambassadors program and shows her his uniform. Knowing that she is being watched through the patch on the uniform, Erica carefully responds by saying she is just afraid of losing Tyler. Tyler assures her that she will never lose him - he's simply growing up. Lisa watches all this from the mother ship.
Valerie is still having trouble containing her enormous appetite. As a matter of fact, towards the end, her cravings take a turn for the weird. While discarding some food, she discovers a mouse that has been ensnared in a trap and seriously considers devouring it. Just then, Ryan arrives. Valerie tells Ryan she is freaked out by her new desires, but she also tells him she believes her baby is a miracle. Ryan agrees.
At the very end, Anna mates with her selected soldier, then proceeds to eat him to provide her eggs with nourishment.
Writing: 7.0
As suggested above, my co-author and I feel largely indifferent about this script. I appreciate a long term arc as much as the next person, but even while setting things up for future episodes, you should still provide the viewer with some sense of satisfaction - some sense of short-term closure. J. Michael Straczynski does a good-to-excellent job of balancing the need to lay the groundwork for the future with the need to tell a relatively self-contained story; V's writers have yet to strike such a balance. As a consequence, what we get is an episode with a "middle-book-of-the-trilogy" feel - an episode built from a group of seemingly disjointed moments. It's difficult to really connect with the events and characters on screen when they are presented in this manner.
There are isolated things we enjoyed about this episode, however, which accounts for the slightly above average grade. We were greatly entertained, for example, by Valerie's sudden craving for mice, as it reminded us of the original series. We also loved loved loved the revelation that the Visitor queen eats her mates. After that moment, we erupted into applause and cheers that I'm sure woke all our neighbors.
Acting: 7.0
There is something missing in Elizabeth Mitchell's performance this week that I can't quite put my finger on. On the other hand, Morena Baccarin continues to do an awesome job in her role. Her facial expressions, body postures - even her blinking - perfectly calls to mind the movements of a lizard. It's deliciously eerie. Also impressive are Lourdes Benedicto's facial expressions as she contemplates swallowing that mouse. The mix of desire and revulsion she conveys here is just fantastic.
Message: 6.0
You know what worries me, though? The fact that there seems to be chemistry developing between Erica and Father Jack. I can't be too punitive with the marks on this one because nothing explicit has been done with this as of yet, but the way these two interact is definitely a matter of grave concern. Message to the show runners: we don't need yet another thinly veiled attack on priestly celibacy.
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