NEW!: V (2009) 1:9 - Heretic's Fork

Overall: 7.3

The character work is pretty good here - even excellent in spots - but I do wish the writers would allow Father Jack to be a little more recognizably Catholic.



Plot Synopsis:

The official recap can be found here.

Writing: 8.5

This episode does two things that are very impressive. First of all, it allows Ryan to suffer the consequences of his lies of omission. If Val had reacted to the revelation of Ryan's true identity with equanimity and accepted his offer of protection with little protest, that would've struck me as terribly false. Fortunately, the writers shock us by going in the opposite direction. Val's explicit refusal to forgive Ryan is harsh, but it is entirely organic.

Secondly, in Jeffrey Barnes, the episode presents an insightful snapshot of our post-modern, industrialized civilization's peculiar attitude towards suffering. I say peculiar because at other times in history, people seem to have generally accepted that pain is an inevitable feature of the human condition. The writings of my Church's saints, for example, are rife with quotes praising the salutary effects of suffering. Only now, in the days of modern medicine and rising life expectancies, do we question pain's spiritual value. And that, readers, makes us far more susceptible to the sweet - and spurious - promises of material messianism. In Jeffrey Barnes, in short, the writers have finally given the Visitors' admirers a deeply credible motivation - something that until now was noticeably lacking.

Acting: 7.5

I'm afraid I have little to say this week about the performances. Elizabeth Mitchell and Logan Huffman still fail to impress, but the rest of the cast does decent work.

Message: 6.0

Alas, Father Jack's Catholicism is not as vigorous in this episode as I would prefer. The relevant teachings of the Church are pretty uncompromising: you cannot use morally illicit means to accomplish a good - and yes, that means you can't torture people. The human resistance is, of course, in a terrible situation - a situation in which torture is an understandable temptation. Indeed, the question of where we draw the line when it comes to the treatment of uncooperative enemy detainees is a question I've personally grappled with as a faithful Catholic and as a military brat who is all too aware of the very real threat of international Islamofascist terrorism. But I find it very troubling that all Father Jack can do in the end is walk out of the room and allow Hobbes to have his way. I was hoping the good cleric would raise a much bigger fuss.

In a similar vein, I am disappointed by Father Jack's response - or lack of response, rather - to the great question that Jeffrey Barnes - and the series in general - lays out before us so poignantly, namely: why do we suffer? Father's Jack's impotence in the face of this deeply human cry is likely to mislead. It gives the impression that the Catholic Church has not thought through this mystery -- and that is simply not the case. Paragraphs 309-314 of the Catechism draw upon the wisdom of the saints and the totality of the Biblical story to address the scandal of physical and moral evil. Said passage states that God has often brought great good out of terrible evil - the ultimate example, of course, being the crucifixion of Jesus Christ - and that at the last trump, the workings of God's Providence will be made manifest to us. The Catechism also implies that God created a seemingly imperfect universe because there is something of value to be found in Creation's "journey" towards perfection.

To Barnes, then, I would say that, as a Catholic Christian, I can't definitively tell him why his daughter's suffering should be a part of God's plan, but I do know that suffering has historically inspired artists, writers, musicians, and saints, leading to works of charity and/or genius that have uplifted the human race - and that a complacency born of comfort has often led to a decline in virtue and talent. I would also point out that, as a Catholic Christian, I do not believe I am alone in my suffering; in fact, I believe that God once came down to Earth and took all the pain of fallen human nature upon himself - that whatever torment I may feel was magnified a thousand times over in our Lord's Passion. God understands, then, what we are feeling because He too has felt it - and then some. And finally, I would add that, as a Catholic Christian, I have hope that one day, I will understand what everything means - and that anything that happens happens for my ultimate good. A person of faith may have trouble explaining why we suffer, but an atheist certainly can't explain it in a manner that edifies the human spirit (sure, an atheist may claim that he is "satisfied" with the conclusion that suffering comes from the randomness of undirected nature, but John Adams, no doctrinaire papist, hit upon the true implications of a belief in a Godless universe quite succinctly when he remarked that, should it be shown that there is no "future state" - in other words, no eschatological purpose to our existence - our only right response would be suicide by opiates) - and he is equally incapable of explaining everything in the world that is good.

Now, I'll grant that this answer will not satisfy everyone, but let's not pretend that the Church is entirely mute on the subject. Let's try to do some research instead.