Episode Title: “Uneasy Lies the Head”
Writers: Gregg Andrew Hurwitz and Cameron Litvack
Director: Jeff Woolnough
Previously on “V”:
Following the death of her ex-husband, Joe “Krycek” Evans (Nicholas Lea), Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) was named the new worldwide leader of the the Fifth Column. But the other cell leaders gave her 24 hours to prove herself. So, while in Bangkok, Erica and Kyle Hobbes (Charles Mesure) broke into the apartment of Erica’s old obstetrician (a Visitor sleeper agent) and found proof that the Visitors had tampered with Earth children for years. They also discovered that Erica’s son Tyler, (Logan Huffman) was one of 29 boys genetically engineered to mate with Lisa (Laura Vandervoort), the daughter of Anna (Morena Baccarin).
Although Anna tried to get Lisa to mate with another young man named Rafael (Charlie Carrick), she remained loyal to Tyler and aroused her mother’s suspicions. Lisa also made an alliance with her grandmother, Diana (Jane Badler), who is secretly a prisoner within the mothership. Sensing that Lisa had become disloyal, Anna prepared to age one of her eggs as the new queen and tested the process on the daughter of Ryan Nichols (Morris Chestnut), who she deemed as expendable after he had completed his mission.
Story:
In China, one of the 29 breeding candidates is struck with a mystery illness and bleeds out spontaneously. Anna is alarmed that it isn’t an isolated incident and insists that steps be taken to protect Tyler’s life. Meanwhile, Erica unveils her new plan for the Fifth Column: to steal a DNA virus and smuggle it on board the Visitor ships when the last batch of live-a-boards arrive. To get the virus, her impossibly small resistance cell even strong arms boy scientist, Sidney Miller (Bret Harrison) into joining their break in at a research facility.
During the robbery, Erica shoots one of the guards after he gets a shot off at Hobbes. Formerly Father Jack (Joel Gretsch) is horrified… (HORRIFIED!) at her actions even though the guard was armed and wearing a bulletproof vest. Later, Jack gives her the stink eye while Erica can’t stop staring at Hobbes’ bare chest. Knock it off, lady! He’s not really Hugh Jackman! Back on the mothership, Lisa follows Diana’s advice and tells her mother that she will mate with Raphael. But when she gets Raphael into her room, Tyler shows up and proceeds to go caveman on Lisa and Raphael.
But before the appallingly written scene can continue, Raphael collapses from the same illness that got his counterparts and Tyler suddenly acts like he cares. On Earth, the Fifth Column receives the virus through multiple jets sent out worldwide. Erica personally infects a young man heading to the Visitors’ mothership by spiking his coffee. But once the man gets on the ship, he exhibits strange symptoms and collapses. Anna’s scientists realize that the Fifth Column must have spiked his DNA and came close to contaminating their DNA collection.
Anna orders the purge of any humans found to be infected and blames their deaths publicly on the Fifth Column. Despite the jaw-dropping failure, Erica declares it a PR victory because Anna said their name on TV. Meanwhile, Anna tries to have Ryan eliminated, but because her guards have no subtlety, Ryan easily escapes into the ship. He eventually approaches Lisa for help, who takes him to Diana. The former queen recognizes Ryan and tells him about a hidden escape pod. Diana also assures him that she can cure his child’s illness.
Diana also has Lisa contact the one other Visitor on the ship that she feels that she can trust: Marcus (Christopher Shyer). Down on Earth, Erica tries to call Jack, but he ignores her attempt to reach out. Fortunately, Hugh Jack… I mean, Hobbes, shows up at her door hot for her new militant side. He shares a few platitudes with her and… oh my God, they’re taking off their clothes!
Wow… that’s really clunky. I mean, they’re even having sex over the picture of Erica’s dead husband and Tyler!
Congratulations, “V”! You just gave us the most awkward and implausible sex scene in science fiction history.
Breakdown:
You know, I sometimes wonder if “V” is a show secretly written by aliens. Because at least that would explain the series’ seeming inability to create believable human relationships between any of the main characters.
When I came out in favor of eventually bringing Hobbes and Erica together, I didn’t mean after one week! The only reason I thought it was a good idea was that it could have led to some interesting character development as they got closer to each other. Look, people have cheap, desperate sex all of the time. It happens. But if two of your lead characters are going to do that, there should be more buildup to it than just rubbing hands together in last week’s episode!
I’m also having a hard time liking Erica in general anymore. If anything, she seems more selfish and arrogant than ever before. To a certain extent, I can understand her new ruthless side, but it’s not very convincing. I’ve made light of Erica’s past failed missions, but I don’t recall her ever failing this big before and then turning around with the nerve to argue it was a success! Also, Anna’s delusion that the Fifth Column died with Eli was pretty mind-blowing as well. Has the death of a leader ever stopped a terrorist group?
And for that matter, why is every resistance cell on Earth called the Fifth Column? That was the name of the Visitors’ resistance movement, so it doesn’t make any sense for it to be so commonly used by the humans. I’m also puzzled by the complete lack of splinter factions. Not to go all Monty Python, but where are the People’s Front of Judea and the Judean People’s Front? It’s asking a lot to make us buy into the idea that the resistance movement is in such close sync around the world that no one has gone off on their own. But then again, this is the show that treats Chad Decker like he’s the only newsman on Earth.
Special recognition has to go to the Tyler vs. Raphael scene, which may have been the worst written sequence in the entire series. In a complete reversal from last week’s show, Tyler suddenly decided he cared about Lisa again and tried to start a fight while shouting dialog that sounded like it was upper Disney Channel. Bad… bad stuff.
Against my better judgement, I still enjoy the Lisa and Diana scenes, as they may be the only two interesting characters on the entire show. There’s a bloodbath coming up in the season finale and those two are the only ones I want to see survive. I’m okay with killing off anyone else on the series.
Which is probably not the intended reaction for a program that may never get a third season or another chance to get its story into gear.
Crave Online Rating: 6.5 out of 10.
