We’re catching up to the finale of V!
Cylon- er, secret V FBI Agent Malik briefs Erica on the “Fifth Column” attack on the V girl. Erica’s pretty astonished to realize it’s Lisa, she is beaten badly, has a “V” carved into her cheek, and, oh yeah, Lisa’s a V. Erica and Malik show Lisa some mug shots, and she identifies Hobbes and another man as her attackers. Anna and Joshua go to visit her, shocking Erica that Lisa is Anna’s daughter. Erica and Anna meet, Anna playing distraught mother. Erica watches her closely. Tyler and Lisa have a tearful reunion. As they talk, Joshua introduces himself to Erica and tells Erica that Anna beat up Lisa, and that Parker and Hobbes have “answers” and she needs to find them.
They have a press conference, pointedly shutting out Chad Decker. He is greatly concerned. Anna says that the V are leaving because of the cruel treatment the humans have given them. Chad frets and offers to help, Marcus tells him he’s just a journalist, his job is to report news, not editorialize. Chad does an impassioned editorial, telling people that the Vs saved his live, and people had to get behind the Vs, “Show the world how much Anna means to you.” This causes the governments to promise to go after Fifth Column if the V stay. Anna finally lets Chad in, and he calls her on manipulating him. She asks for his Fifth Column contact, telling him he’s already compromised his ethics once when he editorialized his story.
Hobbes figures out that he has a link with the other man that Lisa fingered, Lawrence Parker, a weapons engineer. Someone tried to hire Hobbes to kill him four weeks prior to the Vs arrival. The FBI try to go after Hobbes, but Erica pushes them to Parker. Hobbes suggests using Tyler to find out more info. Erica refuses. Hobbes finds Parker and steals his hard drive, telling Erica where the apartment is (not telling her he’s stealing the drive). Jack, Ryan, and Erica go to Parker’s. He tells Erica that people are after him because of an organic compound to slow global warming, but it causes a deadly virus on amphibians and possibly reptiles. The FBI show up and Erica gets information of Parker’s fellow scientists before they show up, then arrests him just as they break in. Erica finds that the other scientists are also missing. Erica tries to get Lisa to tell the truth, but Anna exerts her subtle threats and forces Lisa to finger Parker. The V take him.
Lisa asks Joshua that if the close-to-hatching soldiers are allowed to hatch, will they destroy the Fifth Column? Joshua says they will. Anna sends out Bliss to make the other V stop worrying about the Fifth Column, and we see Lisa balk a little at the power.
Tyler and Erica bond, and Erica says she was wrong about the Vs, and he should get closer to them.
Hobbes shows his mercenary colors as he calls Marcus to deal, offering Parker’s research in return for his cleared name, and a pile of cash. Marcus drives away.
Commentary: Perhaps it’s because it’s the penultimate episode, but the various open threads were slightly irritating. We didn’t see Chad’s answer when Anna demanded to know his contact, and we don’t know what Marcus will do with Hobbes’ offer.
I’m starting to think that Anna got her “how to deal with humans” information from that old book, The Rules, advising women how to play hard to get in order to land a husband. She whispers to Lisa, “The less you give them, the more they want.” She plays hard to get with the world at large, with Decker in specific, and it works quite well.
Chad is such a cute little puppet. He sees his strings, resents them, and still dances as Anna tells him to.
I loved Erica’s caving at the end, when she finally realizes she needs to use Tyler to get closer to the Vs. I greatly disliked Elizabeth Mitchell’s character in Lost, but I’m loving her performance in V. She’s got the tough exterior, but still manages to show a wide range of emotions, especially when she is dealing with her son. But I do have to admit that I hope the issue of Tyler’s parentage comes back soon, and that it wasn’t just a plot point to drive Tyler from Erica to Lisa.
Ryan has been downplayed in the last few episodes, with Valerie gone, and there are some non-plot-essential discussions in this episode where Father Jack tries to counsel him, and Hobbes says to let go of emotional ties in wartime, or else they’re used against you. Ryan’s worried he won’t have the strength to ignore Anna’s Bliss, but at the end he manages to turn away from it, a picture of Val in his hands. While he’s doing this, his phone bleeps that her water broke.
Back to Lost comparisons: one reason I stopped watching was that everyone knew Ben Linus was a master manipulator, and still they let him play them. Even when he used the very obvious tactic of saying, “he’s treating you like a second in command. You gonna let him do that to you?” I’m a little worried that the clever way the V play the humans in this series will get old, especially when it comes to Decker. Wake up, puppet-boy!
Can’t wait for the season finale, truly.
Mur Lafferty is an author and podcaster. She is the host and producer of the Tor.com Story Podcast and I Should Be Writing and the author of Playing For Keeps, among other things. You can find all of her projects at Murverse.com.
