V S1E10: Hearts and Minds

"Don't worry, daughter. We'll get him back."

Well, the good news is last night's show was definitely ramped up and things definitely happened. Unfortunately, it ended once again with an only slightly shifted status quo (instead of the major status quo shift we're increasingly convinced the show needs) and all of the action arose, as it normally does, because every character was really stupid and Anna was the only smart one.

Joshua stupidly continues to wander around the ship speaking into his little telemarble every time he hears a bit of juicy V gossip. Now, we don't have a lot of resistance fighting on our resumes, but even we know you restrict that kind of contact to only the highest priority messages.

Lisa stupidly thinks she can wander around the ship, showing compassion to random humans and trying to lie to her mother. Her mother! Honey, that's not a woman you lie to.

Ryan stupidly thinks that all communiques directly from the Vs are 100 percent vetted and accurate, just because.

Jack stupidly thinks they can fight a war and not kill anyone who isn't a lizard. Jack is the stupidest of all. He also stupidly thinks it's a good idea to feed information to the one human who spends the most time with Anna. Brilliant job, padre.

We're being all kinds of bloggy-snarky, but we really did enjoy this episode for all its tension and twists and turns, even if the 5th Column is quickly turning into The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. By the end of the episode, due solely to their bungling, the public is even more devoted to Anna, an anti 5th Column FBI task force has been formed, with Erica heading it along with her new partner, the as-we-all-suspected V sleeper agent, Malik; Fr. Jack is now on pretty much EVERYBODY'S radar, and Hobbs is a prime suspect in the bombing. Well done, revolutionaries. You're making it very easy to root for you.

Although we have to admit, they needed to start pushing against the status quo and a lot of these developments bump the tension up nicely. We've complained in the past that we wished these characters would give up their fairly comfortable lives and go underground, but the task force thing really works as an interesting development. Erica sure has lousy luck in partners, though. How many Vs are in the FBI and why do they all wind up as Erica's partner sooner or later?

Let's see, what else? Ah, yes. Sexual tension enters the group via Erica and Jack. "It's like The Thornbirds in here." We wish they hadn't gone such a cliche route, but we're happy for a little characterization and some complexity to the relationships. Besides, who can resist Fr. Jack and his skin-tight jeans? For a celibate, he sure likes showing his bulge off a lot.

We thought the show opened up some interesting questions but kinda dropped the ball in the end. "YAY! We DIDN'T kill any people!! Because that would be WRONG." Look, it's a war. That means killing. Jack and Erica are coming off a little naive here. Also, why wouldn't Anna just put humans on the ship instead of skeletons?

As always, Morena Baccarin is the main reason to watch the show. She can do silent, restrained lizard rage that's absolutely terrifying. "Your grasp of human emotion is impressive." Even when it's a pretty good episode, as this one was, all things considered, her performance still outshines everyone else's and elevates the show. "Break her legs." What the hell was Lisa thinking?

To which we add the other perennial questions: What is so frigging important about Tyler? What the hell are they doing to humans? And why? Why is a lizard so much better at public relations than a bunch of so-called freedom fighters? In fact, why AREN'T they fighting a public relations war, since that's obviously the battlefield Anna's chosen? Skin a V and upload it to YouTube, morons.

Oh, shut up, Tyler.

[Photo Credit: ABC TV]

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Labels: V Season 1, V Series