The creative team behind “V” continues to impress, each week turning out an episode that seems better than the last. “Hearts and Minds” balances action with an examination of how the main characters think and feel about the courses they are pursuing. Philosophies and ideologies have met the reality of war.
After Episode 10, the Fifth Column is officially a terrorist organization, which must be somewhat hard to stomach for a former U.S. Army chaplain and an FBI agent. For all Ryan’s (Morris Chestnut) empathy that has allowed him to fall for a human and to support the human cause, he is positively bloodthirsty when it comes to murdering his own kind. And Hobbes (Charles Mesure) is just Hobbes. The growing dichotomy within the four-person cell has come to a head. Ryan is tipped off by Joshua (Mark Hildreth) that High Commander Anna (Morena Baccarin) is sending down trackers to find those who stopped her “Soldier” from capturing the hybrid and the attack he plans on the shuttle that will be transporting them is the focal point of this week’s installment.
Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Father Landry (Joel Gretsch) are uncomfortable with the idea of blowing up the shuttle and Erica questions Ryan closely about the certainly that no humans will be harmed before she finally agrees to the mission. Both of their faiths in the Fifth Column are shaken to the core before Anna’s deception is revealed. Father Landry unwittingly gives information to the snake (the human snake anyway) Chad (Scott Wolf), who is truly trying to infiltrate the Fifth Column, by warning him about traveling on a shuttle on the day that the attack is planned. By passing this intel to Anna, she is able to set up the Columnists by stocking the shuttle with dead human bodies.
Down in the doldrums after believing that humans were aboard the shuttle, Landry is on the verge of betraying the Column to the FBI after he is brought in for questioning, until Erica is able to tell him about Anna’s ruse. However, the way that she gets Kendrick (Roark Critchlow) and Sarita (Rekha Sharma) to leave the two of them alone and Landry’s ability to quickly invent a “believable” story to cover his actions that were caught on video ring less than credible to the viewer. As does the way that Ryan was able to destroy the other video evidence and escape from the storage facility with Kendrick only seconds behind him. Still, I think that the building disconnect between the Column members that is threatening to break their alliance is one of the great subplots of “V” and gives the series a dramatic element of realness.
Poor Erica has more problems coming, even though at least she has reconciled with Tyler (Logan Huffman) for the time being. It seems that Kendrick is losing trust in her and we now know (as I suspected) that her partner, Sarita, is a Visitor and very much in Anna’s camp.
Things are not much better for Lisa (Laura Vandervoot) either. She has had to completely alienate Tyler to protect him from the Live Aboard program, walked in on a procedure being performed on a human woman that looks both horribly savage and lethal, and as the episode ends, is assaulted by Anna for her “failure” to bring Tyler aboard and to give him a greater incentive. Clearly the High Commander either shares none of her daughter’s empathy or suspects Lisa has disobeyed, as she then orders that Lisa’s legs be broken and it be blamed on the Fifth Column. Anna seems to really be on top of her game- having made it appear that the Columnists have shot down a shuttle filled with humans, tricked the FBI and other law enforcement agencies into pledging their assistance in destroying the Fifth Column, and caused world leaders to be extremely concerned about the possibility that the Visitors are considering leaving Earth- however she doesn’t yet know how that there are Fifth Column among her closest subordinates actively plotting against her. Ain’t that a shame?
Wow, all this excitement and not even a peep about the hybrid. See what a difference a week can make! Anyway, can’t wait to see if Anna goes through with her plan to sacrifice Lisa to frame the Fifth Column.
Fifth Column Forever!
