Image Credit: Jeff Petry/ABCMore things happened in the season finale of V than in every other episode of the first season combined. That’s a good thing. V definitely needs to inject some adrenaline into its reptile heart, now that it’s won the “hey, it’s more popular than FlashForward” sweepstakes and will be coming back for a second season. You could still argue that about half the characters in the main cast are extraneous, but you have to admit that the cliffhanger ending left you just a little bit interested in seeing where they take things in season 2.
The gist of the episode, I think, came down to three death scenes:
1. RIP, Pregnant Girlfriend
Lourdes Benedicto is a fine actress, but she had exactly two things to do on V: be pregnant and look anxious. I’m not sure if the creators were planning to do more with her character. (At one point, she randomly turned out to be Tyler’s shrink. Tyler and Val: two bad tastes that go bad together!) But even though her plotline proved to be an epic time suck this season, her death scene was still shockingly blunt and amoral. After delivering the V-human baby hybrid, she caught a quick look at her child. Her face was a mix of horror and confusion. Before she could even fully react, Anna stuck her with a death scalpel.
Tough, pulpy storytelling — and a great palette cleanser. In one fell swoop, the show eliminated an extraneous character and added an added a hopeful new depth to Ryan. If nothing else, we know he’s not going to spend another season agonizing over Val. And even if we didn’t get to see little Ryan Jr., our one sneak peek at his tail was Eraserhead-icky.
2. RIP, Doctor Joshua(?)
I’m about two seconds from starting a Facebook group called 1 Million Strong in Support of Firing Everyone on V Except for the Actor Who Plays Joshua. Mark Hildreth nails a feeling of emotions deeply repressed beneath a blanket of all-encompassing paranoia. He makes you believe that the Vs are genuinely everywhere.
The show tends to play pretty fast and loose with just how technologically advanced the Vs are: sometimes they seem practically omniscient, but they apparently haven’t heard of security cameras. In one of last night’s truly groan-inducing lines, Hobbes built Erica a secret telephone bomb, and claimed, “Even alien technology won’t pick this puppy up.” Hobbes, I don’t care if you can fit three hundred pounds of muscle into that tight black T-shirt. How the heck do you know anything about what alien technology can or can’t notice?
So it was nice to see that the Vs actually do possess the basic surveillance equipment of ’50s-era Soviets, and were actually able to catch Joshua and a co-conspirator. (Of course, nobody noticed when Lisa slipped into the medical bay to free Joshua, but whatev.) But it was wrenching when, in an attempt to keep Erica’s Fifth Columnist status under wraps, Joshua insisted that she shoot him. It was a great death scene, but I was worried this was yet another example of V‘s Alan Tudyk Syndrome: the show’s uncanny ability to kill off its most interesting characters, until only Father Jack remains.
3. RIP, Soldier Eggs
Morena Baccarin is awesome on the show: she manages to add a hint of sensuality and royal joie de vivre to a character who’s semi-purposefully emotionless. She hasn’t had a whole lot to do so far besides order people to do things, kill those people when her plans go awry, and then tell Marcus something to the effect of: “Perfect. Now that my plan has failed, my real plan can begin.” So it was a thrill to see her massive breakdown when she discovered her dead soldier boys.
It’s always seemed to me that V is a bit too straight-laced. Not every show needs to force you to question which side’s good and which side’s evil, but V so far has been mostly about plucky rebels fighting an evil Empire. It grew stale around episode 4. You want to see characters act passionately, even rashly, and not just keep doing everything for the greater glory of mankind or visitorkind.
In that sense, Anna’s final actions practically feel like a reboot of the entire series. She decloaked her armada and turned the sky red. (I assumed this was a reference to the Red Skies Effect from Crisis on Infinite Earths, but some quick research indicates that it might actually be an homage to the Red Dust bacteria from the miniseries V: The Final Battle.)
When you get right down to it, the “battle” this season has taken place entirely in the field of public relations: both Anna and the Fifth Column try to use the press for their own ends. As my colleague Benjamin Svetkey pointed out, the show is already a reactionary fable-nightmare, so it could be fun to see them really ramp up the media satire to Paul Verhoeven levels. But I’m excited by the notion that, next season, the battle might actually be, you know, a battle.
Oh, and in the penultimate shot of the season, we got the most welcome surprise of all: Doctor Joshua is alive! Viewers, Santa Claus does exist!
What did you think the season finale, viewers? Will you give V another looksee when it returns in the Fall? Were you happy to see Val go? And could we please never have another episode composed entirely of characters walking through CGI sets? The freakin’ holodeck looked more realistic.
Side note: When Father Jack gave his sermon a song played on the soundtrack that sounded remarkably like John Murphy’s theme from 28 Days Later. About two seconds later, over the Red Skies montage, a track played that sounded remarkably like John Murphy’s theme from Sunshine. I’m not sure if these were just musical homages, or if they actually borrowed the respective soundtracks, but either way, it added a ton of emotion. Makes me wish V had a slightly more eclectic soundtrack.
Okay I watched and it was mostly fun! The plot (how they destroyed the soldier eggs) was proposterous! Also Chad walking around the ship and peering into the secret experinent room unchecked. But I mean the point of “V” is to suspend your disbelief (at least I think). I, too, am curious what their plans are for Joshua. That was the more interesting of the cliffhangers to me. Sounds like Lisa is “his queen”. So, okay, I’ll watch the 13 epsiodes next season. Why not?
The “queen” comment surprised me because I didn`t think Fifth Column is fighting to replace one queen with another. I don`t even know what they are fighting for, except that they are good because we are told they are.
Joshua and Lisa chemistry is scorching and I just hope they won`t make him evil because she supposedly likes Tyler. Like some lame love triangle. Lisa and Joshua belong together. Tyler can hook up with Renesmee, er, Valeryan. Speaking of that creature, anyone thinks (s)he will be a substitute for unhatched egg soldiers or something? Superpowered hybrid like in the original?
Maybe Lisa’s biggest battle will be internal–when you fight with the queen, how do you avoid becoming the very thing you seek to destroy?
A lot depends on the one thing that we do not know: what do the Vs want? Why did they need to come to earth to begin with? Are they, in fact, doomed? Or will Lisa gain the ascendancy by brokering the one deal that can save V-kind while sparing humankind?
Glad I’m not the only one that recognize the Lisa/Joshua chemistry! So glad he’s alive, and would really like to know 5th Column’s agenda. They get rid of Anna, and someone more evil could pop up.
And laugh-out-loud on the Renesme comment! All I kept thinking about when the baby was born was the original miniseries (lizard baby popping out of the belly) and “Pretenama.”
Joshua and Lisa definitely caught my eye, especially in their last scene together. Maybe it’s the glances the actors give to one another or something else. I thought the producer hinted in his commentary that they were going to interact more in season 2. Hopefully he’s telling the truth
Lisa and Joshua have AMAZING CHEMSITRY. Tyler is so annoying I hope they kill him off soon.
Joshua and lisa united against Anna would be awesome!
I want to see Lisa and Joshua togehter.
I hope they won’t kill him off. He’s a great character!
The shot of Erica jumping through the CGI doorway to escape the CGI blue explosion hurt my soul.
Hmmm… I do CG and didn’t notice it being that horrible watching in Standard Definition. I’ll definitely keep watching, and not just to see the three most attractive women on TV.
Yes, I squealed in bitter pain. They could have done a much better job. And, wtf was with that lame line? “Here is to your chrildrens future Anna!” it didn’t even sound like here. Most of the episode before the ‘splosion seemed rushed and B-list. But, the last 10 or 15 minutes made it AWESOME. Definitely coming back for more.
I’ll be back next season, although I personally would have preferred ABC keep Flashforward. I think the characters on that show had more depth.
Just once, I want someone to call the V’s aliens. It’s what they are! Use the word!
I agree because calling them V’s makes me think of vaginas.
Yeah, Flashforward was awesome.
Agree. Calling them “Visitors” is lame. Makes them seem like distant relatives, not aliens.
Well, in the original miniseries, “V” didn’t stand for visitors, it stood for “Victory.”
I’m glad that Jack said that in his homily (although I HIGHLY doubt his congregation would walk out on him, even if they disagreed.) And as a quick aside, I am SURE the Pope would have taken a stance on what the Vs were, and also HIGHLY doubt they would want priests to be accepting of the Vs.
Yes, that whole angle rings ridiculous. Plus, I was amazed that Erica embraced Father Jack’s defiance for anyone to see…kind of undermines the undercover progress she made with Anna just hours earlier.
Then again, the weird Red Sky would have to change some V perceptions among the earthfolk…they must be thinking WTF?
Congrats to RDM…one of sci-fi’s best directors.
Well, maybe the current pope wouldn’t, nor the last one. But Paul VI? No telling. Actually, I’m not even sure about the current pope (Benedict XVI). He might be many things, but he’s no Innocent III.
The point is that you never know with popes, these days. Of course, the series writers clearly haven’t thought the matter through–they’re portraying the Catholic Church as if it were just another set of lukewarm wishy-washies that are accepting of anything that somebody with a slick PR team dishes out. And they might very well be right about the current pope–or not.
Or maybe the series writers didn’t want to go into the whole pedophile-priest thing, which would be the obvious thing for the Vs, probably through surrogates, to embarrass the Church with. Here’s an ironic thing for you: one of those molestation targers gets picked for Live Aboard and then finds out that whatever some randy priest might have done to him when he was a kid, getting put into an Iron Maiden loaded with a thousand spikes aimed at the eyes makes that look like harmless horseplay.
Sorry about that–I meant to say “targets.” That’s what I get for typing too fast.
I was really surprised that the old priest didn’t end up being a “Visitor”. In one of the episodes they talked about how the Vs had infiltrated positions of power. So I assumed the old priest was one of these infiltrators. I mean come on….why else would he embrace the Vs so tightly?! Heck maybe even the Pope has been replaced!
@GemDragon — The experience of our current political system tells us that one doesn’t have to be an actual enemy affiliate in order to be an enemy sympathizer. Father Travis is a dupe, and worse than that, a dupe who doesn’t want to admit that he’s wrong. Now he might still be revealed to be a V, but I think it much more effective to leave him as he is: a dupe trying to avoid admitting a mistake.
Remember: the Vs also have their human collaborators, trying to play the “if you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em” game.
Well, right now only a handful of people know they aren’t human. Anna alluded to it, surprisingly herself. I always thought the idea of looking like us was to pretend to be us, but it was just to avoid having to overcome our “fear” of people who are too different.
Well apparently the last two episodes of our favorite show, Flashfoward, are supposed to knock your socks off and take your feet with them!
Yes, I will keep watching because this show is great! Very entertaining.
I AGREE DARREN: More happened in this episode and I hope they keep the momentum. They need to be more like “Chuck” and just keep moving the plot action forward, even if it makes them shift the show. American shows (like Flashforward) hedge their bets and slow the pace in order to get picked up again, but the hedged bets and slow pace make pick up LESS likely. Ironic, no?
And can we just add that Joshua is also the cutest character?
Finally, the best moment for me was the glimpse of torture in the ship that the journalist saw — but it needed blood. What the original miniseries had that this one needs, is a touch of real deep horror.
I don’t recall explicitblood on the original mothership…I recall blowtorches, conversion chambers, and huge quantities of body bags, and of course rodent swallowing.
No allusions yet in this reimagining as to whether these Vs feast on us or not…
I believe that has already been explained. The Live Aboard participants are not supposed to remember any of the things that happen to them. The problem is that, while the Vs can blot out conscious memories, they can’t do a thing about the subconscious. Result: a Live Aboard participant confessed to Lisa that she was having nasty nightmares. Lisa followed the secret corridor and watched what was happening. That caused her to tell Tyler that they were finished–she wanted to keep Tyler out of the Iron Maiden.
And that’s when–and maybe why–Anna struck her so violently and then ordered her legs broken.
Big mistake. I’m sure that it seemed a good idea at the time. But Erica’s demonstration of genuine empathy had its effect, though delayed.
Result: that mass abortion.
But the immediate point is: would obvious blood prove difficult to “heal”?
And that still begs the question of just what the Vs are looking for.
I liked the finale, & I’m glad Joshua is alive. I will be watching again next season. Lisa has become a more interesting character too.
I like it too! Its a fun, and interesting show and it was a great finale, The characters just get more and more interesting, as good as the plot is, it seems to be a really character driven show
The show in now dead and will not be in Tivo for next year.
I agree, the show did make a comeback and glad that I stuck with it (though it could still be better) — thrilled that Joshua’s alive! — and I noticed that the music sounded like 28 Days Later — and will watch again once it returns in the fall – but still po’d that FF got cancelled!!
I much prefer FlashForward.
And the CGI on V looks rushed and cheap. Gets old, fast.
V started off with a great pilot, mediocre episodes followed and somewhere it picked up its stride, the last few episodes have been GREAT!
I’m back next season, I just hope more people show up.
I hope that they’ll use Flash Forward’s budget money to make the spaceship scenes look less horribly fake.
ITA. Those spaceship scenes make me cringe….so FAKE looking.
Thanks for this recap! I was very mad when I thought Joshua died, he was one of the few remaining characters that I like. For real, start that Facebook group and I’ll join. Joshua rules!
I was glad they didn’t try to top the classic sci-fi moment from the original “V” where Robin Maxwell gave birth to the alien twins, which scared the bejeezus out of me when I first saw it in the 4th grade.
The ending did rouse my curiosity though. Very interested in what the red sky is all about (I was also reminded of the climatic red dust battle at the end of The Final Battle). I’ll be watching whenever they bring it back next year.
The birth made me think of Robin’s birth scene and the red sky reminded me of the red powder as well.
I liked the homages to the earlier V as well.
I’m wondering if Season 2 will bring some actors from the original in guest roles.
for me, this show is all about the awesomeness of Morena Baccarin at this point. “what’s happening to me?” “it appears you’re experiencing human emotion” the Anna freakout was delectable, adding Lisa’s mischievous smirk, priceless. hopefully they have some better plan for Joshua than just interrogate and kill him again.
I loved that we got Lisa’s smirk so we know she isn’t second-guessing her decision to fight against her mother. I love the idea of her in the Fifth Column. And I would TOTALLY join that Facebook group. I’ve loved Joshua for a while now. He’s the one in the most beneficial yet also most dangerous position.
Morena Baccarin navigated that meltdown perfectly…this girl has got the goods…hopefully Emmy is watching!
When I saw Joshua revived and Marcus greeting him, the first thought I had was “Marcus is 5th Column”. Kinda makes you go “hmmm”.
Me too! I have always felt like We have been waiting for the other foot to drop on Marcus. Certainly there has to be more to him that just right hand man to Anna. Having him be 5th column would be really cool. But on the other hand, he might just as well have been reviving Joshua to torture him for information. Time will tell!
After I watched that last scene with Joshua being revived and Marcus saying welcome back I was
wondering will V be back. There are so many shows
that I have grown attached to that have been cancelled.
Last year it was Life on Mars now Flash Forward!! At
least they kept V.
if you go back over the first few episodes, everytime anna discusses her plans with marcus and joshua in the same room, the scene always ends with marcus giving joshua a look. the look always struck me as “find some way to stop her” or “its only a matter of time until we can stop her”. I have always thought that Marcus is 5th column. that last scene where joshua is revived kind of confirms it for me. i’ve read people’s comments on hulu, saying that Marcus was saying “welcome back” in a sarcastic kind of way. i went back and watched it again. That is a mighty warm way that he says that line. Like “i’m gonna wake you up because your important to the cause” or “you’ve done your job beautifully and here’s your reward.
comments?
I thought immediately that Marcus brought Joshua back to torture and interrogate, but I suppose it’s quite possible that Marcus is truly a double agent for the fifth column. It is definitely intriguing to me, a wait-and see development. I wonder, though, if Anna successfully “blissed” Ryan. And would someone PLEASE blow Tyler up? He’s painful to watch.
I agree thought the same thing
No idea what’s going on with Marcus, the guy who used to be on Xena (Hobbes?), and also that woman who used to be on the 4400 that Hobbes occasionally meets with.
First off, I know how delicate SciFi fans are, so I’m not going to spend too much commenting on little things that happened inlast night’s finale, but to the EW writer, Darren Franich, WHERE EXACTLY ARE YOUR GETTING THE NOTION THAT THE V-HUAMN HYBRID BORN LAST NIGHT WAS A MALE!? As fas as I could tell, the baby’s sex was never identified, tail or not.
And my other biggest gripe about the V season overall was the lack of scale time, I mean REALLY! And the producers kept promising some big moment homage to the original when Diana ate the mouse, was that supposed to be the blink & you missed it Soldier eating the dead animal in the woods at the opening of last night’s ep!? Thats justa question, i’d personally like answered, cause I watched every episode and NEVER saw that m oment which was alluded to in mutliple interviews I read about V. I’d like an answer about that particualr scene before even considering what can & will happen in Season 2.
I think the interviews referring to the rodent homage used the term “rodent lust.” I thought that happened when pregnant Val having a craving for the dead rodent in the mousetrap. True they didn’t show her actually following through, but . . .
I never thought I’d hate the actress that plays Anna, loved her in Firefly/Serenity – but man, it takes a great show to make me want to jump in the TV and punch her in the face. The look on her daughters face when she had her meltdown was sly and priceless too. Look forward to next year, even though I liked Flashforward too. Wish they would have given them another shot
I’m SO GLAD Joshua is alive! After Erica shot him “dead” I vowed not to watch next season, but now I will be tuning in. He is definitely the most interesting character on the show. Sometimes I feel like this show is trying hard NOT to be sci-fi. Examples – never using the word “alien”, not showing us what the baby looked like, etc. But it is sci-fi. Next season, embrace it!
Why embrace it? The human characters are behaving exactly as real people will. I can’t stand classic sf that forces people to do melodrama when it’s not called for. The terminology they used is part of what makes this show believable. Don’t lose that.
I AGREE!!
What about Marcus? Is he fifth column??? He sounded so happy when he woke Joshua up! Right before knowing about the eggs and all…
Well… I was hoping he was :p
Hello?!? How did no one catch this? MARCUS PLAYED EVERYONE, including Anna! He manipulated all the chess pieces (Chad Decker, Hobbes, the Fifth Column, even Lisa, with cute Joshua as his cohort) into gaining control of the invasion (one always sensed his exasperation with his queen’s approach to the project, under that mask-like veneer) and essentially tricking Anna into unleashing her ships and destroying the planet! It was especially clever how he got her to perform this while screaming “Vengeance!?!?!!” as an accutely HUMAN reaction to the murder of her soldiers. Marcus never had much patience for her infernal screwing around with that ridiculous PR campaign she was on to win hearts and minds…
All right, so Marcus played Anna for a fool, and pushed her into a blood-and-flames action.
But does he really know Lisa half as well as he thinks he does?
Here’s what I’m wondering: Is Marcus Fifth Column? Why else would he revive Joshua?
Oh, and SO glad that the hotness that is Mark Hildreth will be back. And with any luck, there will be more excuses for him to take his shirt off.
Probably to interrogate and skin him so they can learn as much as possible about the Fifth column.
I know, that shirtless hospital moment was short right? Only one possible explanation: straight male camera man.
Mwahahaha! Did you rewind and pause the DVR, too?
I don’t figure Marcus for Fifth Column–though I wonder what he wants with Hobbes, and why he never told Anna anything about his meeting with Hobbes.
Joshua is alive because Erica quite sensibly shot him on the left side of his chest, knowing that his heart is on the right-hand side. She found that out when another V tried to kill her in her home; the V talked too much before she finally got the drop on him. If her shots had found their mark on Joshua’s heart, she would have been blown right there–because how is she supposed to know (a) that Joshua is really a V (Anna said he was human) and (b) anything about the difference between V and human anatomy?
I’m sure Marcus wants answers from Joshua.
I’m also sure that Lisa wants to save Joshua.
Aha, maybe that explains why Erica seemed genuinely distressed when Anna told her Joshua was a human in a V uniform; Erica was afraid she had actually shot him in the heart!
As for Marcus, he seemed slightly smug when he calmly informed Anna that she was experiencing human emotion. Even if he isn’t 5th Column, I don’t think he approves of the Vs staying on Earth. He might have an entirely different agenda than either Anna or the 5th Column, and be using both of them at once. My little theory, at least.
MJ–I think Marcus is aiming at the royal purple. “The Queen is dead; long live the King!” Except that the Vs behave somewhat like social insects, sometimes, and social insects never have kings (except for termites, and I gather that the termite “king” is a figurehead, anyway).
But that’s the trouble with suppressing emotion–you don’t know how to deal with it. I detect in Marcus an overweening pride–so much that he doesn’t even “get” that he’s experiencing emotion, too.