V, 1.9 - "Heretic's Fork"
WRITERS: Angela Russo Otstot & John Wirth[SPOILERS] Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell) is asked "name one thing [the V's] have done that's bad?" twice in this episode, and fails to give any response. I still don't see why she can't tell her own son Tyler (Logan Huffman) about what the V's are up to, and I certainly have no idea idea why she couldn't tell a V sympathizer that they're blackmailing humans to do their dirty work, sending drone-bots to kill rebels, or injecting people with a drug that enables them to be tracked. In fact, there are still plenty of core problems with V's premise, and to keep a show like this going the writers have to keep finding ways for the rebellion to act like idiots. They should skin the corpse of a V and broadcast the tape, to at least make it known the V's are lying about their very appearance, right?
DIRECTOR: Frederick E.O Toye
GUEST CAST: Lexa Doig, Mark Hildreth & Charles Mesure
The thrust of the story involved trying to exctract information from the human sniper they caught last week, who it turns out only agreed to kill Fifth Columnists out of gratitude for the fact the V's cured his daughter's paralysis. I actually like the idea of the V's securing the loyaly of humans in this way, as there's a thorn morality behind it. Ryan (Morris Chestnut) also helped Valerie dampen the R6 tracker fluid she was injected with at the V clinic, so she can no longer be traced by the V's (why not do the same for Father Jack, huh?), and I liked the idea that Anna wants to destroy Valerie's alien-human hybrid because its existence will encourage the Fifth Column to breed a generation of hybrids to fight against her. If she's so worried about that happening, I assume she knows a hybrid child will grow rapidly and reach adulthood within weeks of its birth?
As another nod to The Sarah Connor Chronicles (a show V tends to resemble in many ways, perhaps because a few T:tSCC writers are on staff) Anna also sent a "Soldier" to kill the pregnant Valerie. This felt like a good idea when it was first mentioned, as one thing V lacks is a sense that the aliens are something to fear physically, but the resulting Terminator-esque warrior was very uninspired. He was little more than an average guy in black combats with lizard-y eyelids, "super vision" that looks like he's staring through a goldfish bowl, a kind of visual sonar, and the ability to shrug off getting an axe swung into his chest. All very clichéd and boring.
Overall, I like how the V's are securing loyalty by curing people's sicknesses (Chad's successful brain surgery seems to have persuaded him to side with the V's, the assassin only killed "terrorists" because the V's gave his daughter her mobility back), and the situation with the hybrid baby gives the show a readymade arc to follow -- as I'm sure the finale will involve Valerie giving birth to her baby. The rest was standard mission-of-the-week fare of middling quality, but there was enough progression to keep me watching. I'm just frustrated that every character beyond Anna and Ryan are so dull, and it's becoming increasingly apparent that V's premise means nothing about it can surprise the audience. Aliens have arrived to take over the world through kindness that will turn to malevolence once they're ingrained in society and have mankind dependent on their technologies, all while a feeble rebellion kicks at the giant's shins. Is that something that has longevity in this day and age?
Asides
- Did you know that actor Joel Gretsch is married to Melanie Shatner, making him the son-in-law of William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk?
- Ever notice that the V mothership's corridors are shaped like vaginas?
