To give credit where it is due, I have to say that I really like this revamp of “V”. I only vaguely remember the original series but so far I think that the new version is an improvement on the original, and not only because of the vastly improved special effects. The storyline is strong enough to keep the interest of the general viewer, not just sci-fi heads like me, and the characters are well-conceived.
Although “V” may not make the same kind of splash that it did years ago, it absolutely fits into the mainstream of current television programming.
The title of this week’s episode refers to the rather nasty-looking instrument that the somewhat sadistic Hobbes (Charles Mesure) took pleasure in using upon the Visitors’ human assassin, Barnes, but it could have just as easily been called “It’s All About the Hybrid”. Val (Lourdes Benedicto) and Ryan’s (Morris Chestnut) unborn “mongrel” (as described by High Commander Anna) has become “the most important thing in the world”, according to the benevolent Visitor physician Dr. Perlman. Finding and destroying it have become the Visitors’ top priority, while Ryan, and by extension the Fifth Column, are just as committed to preventing that. A blind man could see that the hybrid’s birth will be the dramatic climax of whichever season in which it occurs.
The various sub-plots support this new focus on the hybrid, from Ryan’s revelation of his true self, to Anna’s (Morena Baccarin) acceleration of the “extraction procedures” from the humans participating in the Live Aboard program, to Hobbes’ use of torture to obtain the information that allows the Fifth Columnists to save Ryan and Val from the deadly Visitor “Soldier” dispatched by Anna. The writers have done a good job of ensuring that the other threads that run through the series are given airtime without taking away from the main hybrid plot.
Lisa (Laura Vandervoot) is still giving the appearance of support for Anna’s policies, but she clearly has feelings for Tyler (Logan Huffman) that are affecting her loyalties. Anna has stated again that she trusts Lisa’s judgment when it concerns Tyler, but her tone rings false, as if she is only playing along to see what Lisa is truly up to. Perhaps she suspects that Lisa really did not pass that empathy test. Tyler and Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell) do not fare any better in their decaying relationship, especially once he suspects her of turning Lisa against him and his participation in the Live Aboard program. It doesn’t pay to be in a family or a relationship on “V”! Just ask Ryan who is left behind at the train station by Val and Dr. Perlman after all he has gone through to protect her and their baby.
Another theme that I appreciate is showing the reality that good people can do bad things for good reasons- that the end justifies the means. In Episode 8, Father Landry (Joel Gretsch) shot Barnes to prevent him from killing Erica, even though just touching a gun goes against his values. This week, even though he at first stops Hobbes from torturing Barnes, when Erica gives her tacit approval to do whatever it takes to get information from Barnes, Father Landry does not even voice opposition as she leads him out of the basement.
Barnes has become something of a sympathetic figure, since he has explained why he became the Visitors’ assassin, but at the end of “Heretic’s Fork” Hobbes leads him into the wood to a certain death. I just hope that the writers do not take the easy way out and allow him to be spared by a timely intervention or a promise to join the Fifth Column. The human race is at war, although ninety-nine percent of the population does not know it yet, and in war people die and no one is 100% guilty or 100% innocent.
I can even understandable how Chad (Scott Wolf) could be Anna’s willing mouthpiece considering that the Visitors fulfilled their promise to heal his brain aneurysm (on television of course!) and that he is probably in love with Anna (forget about the snakeskin under that perfect complexion and who wouldn’t be?). The question is how far will he go in investigating the Fifth Column for her and will he end up like Barnes?
Until the next episode, ‘Long Live the Fifth Column!’
