Lower Decks

The Visitors, now freely able to move around American cities, continue their “friendly” invasion of the Earth.  Meanwhile, the resistance against the Visitors actually makes some progress as main characters meet each other.  Throw in an appearance by the Fifth Column, and you have an episode of V that actually moves the story along quite nicely.

One of the themes that the writers on this show seem to be shoving down our throats is the idea that our heroes can’t trust anyone.  It’s symbolized in the first episode with the revelation that Erica’s partner was a Visitor double agent.  In the second episode, Father Jack and Erica both realize that their worlds are not as trustworthy as they were before, and there is reason to believe that both are surrounded by Visitor sleepers.  Heck, Erica can’t even trust her own son, who enjoys a nice make out session with the (surprise!) daughter of the Visitor’s leader.

But the one who’s getting the short end of the straw is Ryan, who is finally revealed to be a member of the Fifth Column.  Fans of the original series will recognize the organization of Visitors that fights against the “main” Visitors, and it was nice that they carried that over into the new series.

Last week, Ryan went to get his arm stitched up by a fellow resistance agent, only to be drugged and threatened because of his friend’s fear of being caught.  This week, he goes to find his old “right hand” in the organization, only to find that his friend has been betraying the Column by handing traitors over to Anna.

But the episode actually ends when we get our first real look at the resistance of the show, as Jack, Erica, and Ryan (along with George, the leader of the warehouse meeting from the Pilot) gather together in the same place.  It was a pretty nice sign to see, considering we really hadn’t see much of a resistance building so far.  I was beginning to wonder if they were ever actually going to do anything about the Visitors.

But they all seemed to do something helpful in this episode.  Erica is called to work with a Visitor security agent in response to a death threat made against the Visitors.  And while she gains entry to a restricted area of the building and seemingly gains the trust of Anna’s second in command, all she really learns is that the Visitors’ jackets are also cameras.  I was a bit disappointed that she didn’t see anything else, perhaps even the “true form” of one of the aliens.

Jack makes a bold move himself, trying to track down George.  I thought it was interesting that he’d do such a thing, especially since he’s been afraid to do much of anything so far.  It’s good that he’s actually facing his fear of the Visitors head on, carrying his own weight as he put it.  Hopefully we’ll see more of his growth into a heroic character.

As far as the Visitors go, they make a couple moves to gain public favor.  As Anna states to the captains of the other ships, one of the greatest weapons the Visitors have is public opinion.  And when the wife of a man killed in an accident caused by the Visitors’ arrival begins protesting against Anna and her people, the V spin doctors go to work.

And while her subordinates don’t really understand the reason to go after one woman, Anna definitely seems to get it.  I wonder if they’ll ever explore how Anna has such a great understanding of the human people.  Has she been on Earth before?

I did think that it was a bit odd that people were so convinced by the widow’s sudden change of policy.  I would assume that people that don’t trust the Visitors would immediately assumed that she’d been brainwashed by the alien menace, but public opinion of the Visitors rises nonetheless.  I’m not sure that’s the kind of thing that would really work, but maybe it just worked on people that were undecided.

Then there was the assassination attempt that Erica stops.  And while it was fairly obvious that the gunman was a Visitor himself, I found it pretty interesting to note Erica’s reasoning behind helping the Visitors.  Because she knows that a human killing a Visitor would give more reason for people to empathize with the aliens, and that’s exactly what she didn’t want.  It was a good move by Erica, even though the failed attempt still garners sympathy for the Visitors.

Although I have to wonder if, according to Anna’s plan, the assassination was supposed to take place.  If so, perhaps the intended target (Anna’s aforementioned second in command) had no idea.  A future ally of Erica’s, perhaps?

But the most interesting development comes in the form of Dale (Erica’s former partner), who was revealed to be healed in the previous episode.  A Visitor doctor revives him, trying to help him put his memory back together so that they can understand what happened during the attack.

And Dale quickly regains his memories from Earth, including the assault on the warehouse from the first episode.  But the joke’s on him as the doctor reveals himself to be a Fifth Column agent, who promises to seek out Erica as an ally.

From the way Ryan described the group, it seemed like the Fifth Column was in a form of extreme hibernation (if not completely dead).  But the idea that an agent is on the Visitor’s main mothership seems to speak against that.  And if there are friendly Visitors on the motherships, it almost evens out the playing field of this “sleeper agent vs. sleeper agent” war.

All in all, I was pleased with the movement of the episode.  Hopefully, the resistance continues to move after next week’s “fall finale”, and the promo seems to indicate that something big will happen.  One thing I’m kinda interested in learning is the plan for Tyler, especially after learning that Lisa is Anna’s daughter.  I wonder if it will be the conception of human-Visitor hybrid, which would be another carryover from the 1980s series.

Either way, all the characters seem to be coming together, and the show is starting to form into what it will be for the rest of the season.  Hopefully next week’s episode does enough to grab the fans, since there will apparently be a hiatus for a couple of months.  If not, I’m not even sure the Fifth Column will be able to save V’s prospects for a second season.