Having dazzled us last week with extravagant spaceships and enticingly exotic ETs, V’s second episode scaled back the pricey pseudo-cinematic ambition and shifted to a more sustainable gear–a Trust No One paranoid thriller like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, tailored for a culture coached to worry about sleeper cells in the suburbs. (Be honest: How many of you really sweat that?) V’s second episode left me disappointed me, but not so much to diminish my interest or my belief that there’s a really good series somewhere in here. Elizabeth Mitchell can make me believe in anything–even when she’s given clunky lines and suspect motivations.
The Visitors–embodied by Morena Baccarin’s inscrutable Anna–continue to be a metaphor and mystery worthy of parsing and theorizing. My take: Anna is sincere about wanting to bring peace, love and universal health care to the world–but her advisors are conspiring against her. And has the subject of V’s much-discussed political subtext shifted? Forget the Obama allegory. After last night, I’m now wondering if Anna = Naïve Commander-in-Chief and her chief deputy Marcus (Christopher Shyer) = Hawkish Vice President Who’s Puppet-Mastering His Boss From His Secret Torture Chamber Bunker. But the most encouraging development –and here’s your SPOILER ALERT IN CASE YOU HAVE NOT YET WATCHED TONIGHT’S EPISODE–was the apparent return of allegedly dead Dale, aka Erica’s treacherous, lizard-in-disguise partner, played by the marvelous Alan Tudyk. In the second episode’s final scene, we saw Dale popping back to life. But was that truly Evil Alien Dale–or could that have been a Human Good Dale, abducted long ago by the V Conspiracy as part of their invasion prep plans? I’ll have some more thoughts about how to read that that climactic beat when my full recap posts in a few hours (UPDATE: Click here for Jeff Jensen’s complete V recap), but for now, rejoice–Alan Tudyk Lives!–and start the conversation in the boards below.
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Tonights episode was much better than the pilot in that it didn’t move too fast.
In the original “V”, the main gal was named Diana and she played charming but was evil to the core. I expect the same from our sweet little Anna.
I will have to try watching the Show after Tequila shots like Jeff did….
First of all the topical commentaty continued as Anna assumed a fawning media was her best bet and yet it is the “fair and balanced” two sides arguing like Fox often does that disarms people’s suspicions, that go off when the sales job is too good. (anyone in the White House watching this?)
Our two aliens are clearly a female Obama and Rahm Emanuel the take no prisioners (eat them alive) chief of staff.
And Allen Dale who woke up had the scare from where he was wacked last week.. so he isn’t a long lost good allen.
Next week try sniffing glue before the episode.. tell us what you see…:)
This episode was pretty good. I liked that the pace was a bit slower than the rushed pilot. I also was happy that Alan Tudyk’s character is still alive.
Only thing I didn’t like about this episode was the part with Tyler punching some kid and the V girl he’s crushing on getting mad at him. That was lame. Seemed like something out of a crappy teen soap opera.
I don’t like that Anna is the leader. Diana was not the leader, but she wanted to be. I’d like to get some insight into the power struggles within the Visitors.
Anna and Dale are totally evil. Deal with it. And whether or not Anna is really the leader or just the beautiful mouthpiece remains to be seen. I like Erica but her parenting skills suck. She only says one sentence a day to her kid, no wonder he wants to hang with v’s.
Elizabeth Mitchell is the most overrated actress in the history of television.
The apologists are already excusing her mediocre acting by blaming it on the writers and their “clunky lines”.
The writing is solid. Some of the actors and actresses are making us root for their characters. Others, like Elizabeth Mitchell, are phoning it in.
Harsh.
Personally, I think V is a mediocre show with a great cast. I won’t be watching, but mostly because I want Liz Mitchell, Morena Baccarin, and Alan Tudyk to be working on better projects.
I do appreciate that ABC is employing half of the Firefly cast, though!
I agree with your opinion of Mitchell. I am a huge Lost fan, but I have always found Mitchell’s acting painful to watch. I didn’t like Juliet and I am not a fan of Mitchell either.
OMG..I thought I was the only one. I don’t get her appeal at all.
While I’m far from her biggest fan, the dialogue is a little “clunky”. The overall writing of the series is great but some of the lines come off cheesy.
“TRUST NO ONE! NO ONE, DO YOU HEAR ME!”
I almost cringed at how obvious it was he was about to trust someone.
Elizabeth Mitchell rocks, and is one of the best actresses on TV. She’s so out there with this character, but with one glance tells youe exactly what Erica is thinking. She’s brilliant.
I think the writing is kinda sucky, but, and that’s a bit BUT I’m interested in the charcacters, and the storyline. I actually liked this episode much more than the pilot because it was very character centric. I’m attached to these characters. I just hope it sustains raitings though this arc and we get to see a really awesome executive producer at the reigns for the following nine episodes. This show has the cast, and storyline to be a major hit.
You can always tell what Elizabeth Mitchell is thinking…which is this “I have to squint my eyes so it looks like I’m doing something really serious right now.”
I dun care what you say. All I know is that I want to have amazing Alien sex with Anna. I don’t care if she is a lizard.
Are they putting something in the water? Why do all the nations in the world promptly welcome an alien force with huge spaceships menacingly hanging over big cities? Wouldn’t a more likely response be to mobilize the armed forces of every nation?
Please.
I agree with your take on the new V series,I agree that the worlds nations would be stupid to to promply welcome aliens without first investagating them.And with all those hugh spaceships hanging over us.
i think the idea is that some of the politicians approving/pushing the immunity are v’s, right??
Ding!
I’m thinking that the Dale at the end of the episode is Evil Dale….because he has the same scar on the side of his face where Erica hit him with that metal bar.
Pacing was much better tonight. I want to see a full-fledged REPTALIEN!
I remember watching the first series and when Jane Badler ate the guinea pig…I just freaked out. How are they gonna beat that?
P.S. Tudyk had a cut on his head…was that from his wound last week or was it a brain implant…hmmmmmmmmmm!
I hope the Dale character becomes a recurring role. And as far as whether he’s Good or Evil, the alien could have left the body some way and it could be Good Human again. Either way, I’m tuning in next week.
No one said the V’s took possesion of human bodies, I assume they just replicated human features in order to blend.
This episode was boring. But hey tortured dude… do you call that snake-boarded? Anyways, nice package.
“Nice package”–that made me LOL.
I thought the same thing – it’s like, pan up and larger, larger, largest … shift to chest …
The previews to next week’s episode pretty much clarify whether or not it’s good or bad Dale.
V is as good as Battlestar Galactica was. It’s also as good as Lost.
LOL. Are you high, Claree?
V is as good as Battlestar Galactica was. It’s also as good as Lost.
I love both of those shows, but lets not get ahead of ourselves or ridiculous. It has potential but those shows are the two best of the last several years. V has a ways to go.
Like last week, I watched screeners of the episode that lacked previews for the next week–so I did not know at the time of writing that the previews basically clarify the Tudyk/Dale mystery.
I loved this episode! I like the idea that they can trust no one- I think it makes the show successful. And while some of the writing is a bit unbelievable, it sort of fits the classic sci-fi genre, so I’m hardly bothered by it. I’m very much hooked. I’m also excited to see the results of the FBI files about people who’ve reported Visitor-related cases. Either Juliet and the Priest will find a strong, determined underground coalition to fight the V’s, or they will end up with a bunch of crazy UFO lunatics, and it’ll be more of an underdog situation… kind of like Glee meets V!
YARGH- my former comment should say “suspenseful” instead of “successful”
Morena Baccarin (Anna) is the only one who is rising to the occasion in V. If not for her, I fear I would have already given up after 2 eps. As a BG fan, I’m interested to see what they do with Rekha Sharma. She’s already been a Cylon so I hope they’re not predictable. But she does play evil well.
Amen. The casting of Sharma really drives home the “trust no one” theme. She’s already played one sleeper agent, so it’s not a stretch to think she’s now playing another.
I’m hooked and can’t wait for the next episode.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Rekha Sharma is a visitor since she played a cylon on BSG.
I mean this show already got Morena Baccarin, who played an alien leader on Stargate SG-1, and Laura V, who was Supergirl on Smallville, as aliens.
I agree with this review totally– I think even if this episode wasn’t extremly juicy, the show is worth watching in te long run. And I LOVE Elizabeth Mitchell, so I basically think anything she plays in is worth watching.
Just like Flash Forward, V’s first episode had me quite excited but the second fell off considerably leaving me meh about the show. Thankfully there are only two episodes left but so far its sustainability feels suspect. Maybe that’s why they replaced Scott Peters as the showrunner before beginning the second series.
Dude, you are so niave. Anna is evil. Dale is evil. There is no good Dale. There is no good Anna. There is nothing, seriously, even the tiniest bit sincere about Anna.
What I’ve been wondering this whole time is how long Dale has been evil. I mean, was he truly an alien for 7+ years or did the V’s choose him at some point specifically because he was an FBI agent.
I don’t know what some of you guys were watching but tonight’s episode was really suspenseful and intriguing just like the pilot. I mean, not every episode should have crazy cgi and effects. They need to develop a significant plot and storyline and I think that was the basis of this episode. I’m definitely hooked.
The only problem with V is that it seems to be on for only 3 minutes at a time with a 10 min commercial in between.
Dude what are u watching? The opening of each episode of V has been 10 minutes long with no commercial breaks. They make up for it in the last 15 minutes. Maybe u are just enjoying it so much u think it’s only 3 minutes
It couldn’t have been human Dale at the end of the episode. His face had scars where the FBI agent bashed his head open to reveal the lizard underneath.
There is no “Human Dale” people! It’s a skin they wear like a costume. They can’t even regrow it, it has to be patched.
Seriously, are some of you watching the same show as me???
Give the show a chance. I think it’s got some great storylines in development (how long have the visitors been here? who’s a lizard and if they are, are they evil?). I like the idea of some real people being switched out with lizards unknowingly too.
I actually liked this episode better than the pilot.
The pacing was a lot better. They took more time to let the story unfold and let us start connecting with the characters.
It isn’t great but its a good show.
I agree it isn’t great …YET. It’s building up to that point. I’m interested in all the main characters except the teenagers. I think all the main cast Elizabeth, Scott, Morris, and Morana are AWESOME. It’s got a great plot, and I think the new show runner will make a difference. If it can maintain it’s ratings until we get to the next nine episodes and the new show runner pulls through it will be on the air for several seasons I think.
I did like this one much better than the pilot. I’m kinda surprised you guys didn’t. The Pilot was way too faced paced for me, but I sitll like it.