V S1E8: We Can't Win

"Because once they're dependent on it, we can turn it off. "

Come on, V. We're still here and still in it for the long haul but you're giving us precious little to work with. We enjoyed the energy of this episode and the feeling that things are ramping up, but the thing is, things have been ramping up for a while now. It's time for something to actually happen. We need to see the 5th Column accomplish something worth getting excited about. Sure, they caught one turncoat 5th Column-killing human, but as victories go, that seems like a minor one. Especially since a dozen 5th Columnists died in the process, including one very annoying red shirt.

We're tired of hearing how important everything is and how "from hear on out, blahblahblah." Do something, bitches! We don't consider running around an amusement park at night to capture some guy who isn't even a V to be all that exciting.

Meanwhile, on the V ship, Vs talk quietly of very important things in computer generated hallways, while in Geneva, Anna makes pronouncements.

Actually, that's not quite fair. We enjoyed seeing the master politician side of Anna. It is, after all, the whole point to her character. Watching her manipulate the kindasorta UN and its Secretary General is putting the character to her best use. And it's good to see that there are some high-ranking people out there who aren't buying what she's selling. It remains to be seen if that Secretary General guy is going to be a recurring character but the possibility intrigues us.

But even that UN (kinda) scene had its issues. Anna whips out her magic marbles, an unknown energy envelops the room, and no one reacts with fear or anger, nor do they ask any questions. Apparently it's just accepted that the world will adopt this new alien energy source about which they know nothing. Come on now. And why was Chad standing in the middle of the room barking questions like it's a press conference? We like the directions this show is taking, but it kinda drops the ball in pointing us in those directions, if that makes any sense. What we mean by that is, we need to see Anna slowly work her wiles on the world, but the results don't always seem normal or believable. People simply wouldn't act that way if they were faced with these issues.

We didn't hate the episode (Morena Baccarin simply never disappoints, even when the material is weak). In fact, we really like the way the Val storyline is playing out. We wanted to call her an idiot for running to the very last place she should go - the V health center - but how would she know? She obviously still hasn't figured out what's growing inside her. Next week's episode looks to be a good one in that regard. That's what we want. Get us there. Val's pregnant with a V hybrid. We've known that for 8 episodes now. It's about time we started seeing some repercussions of that.

We also like the fact that Chad, despite his doubts, seems to be going all in on his V support. In fact, we liked the way it was presented. His new found loyalty comes from a combination of sexual attraction (how about that little Anna wet dream? Figures he gets off on the kinky stuff), personal ambition, and an honest belief that he's helping the world. He clearly fears Anna - the secretary general's query as to why a "visitor" would be looking to gain political clout obviously shook him - but apparently he's willing to push them to the back of his mind for all the reasons we mentioned.

Let's see, what else... Oh, Teen V Lisa is falling hard for Tyler, another intriguing development. Somehow, we don't think this makes her particularly trustworthy. If she's gaining human emotions, then fear of her mother remains at the top of the list. In fact, we think Joshua's playing with fire by holding that information over her head. Something tells us it's a very bad idea to get between Anna and Lisa.

We don't have a rating system here at T Lo, but if we did this episode would rate about a 6 out of 10. It's going in the right directions, but it's dragging its ass on getting there. We're hoping for some major fireworks next week.

Random thoughts:

* Anna is fabulous even when she's killing someone. All we could think while she was choking the life out of Chad in his wet dream was, "Her eye makeup is flawless."

* Tyler angst. Yawn. Get over it. He's so irritating we'd probably tell him to get over it if he was on fire. He's like an anti-empathy field. And that "sex in space" scene was bizarre. Didn't need the soundtrack.

* It's good that we're meeting other 5th Columnists, but could the next one be not so annoying?

* What do we all think the deal is with that other FBI chick? They're playing her kind of mysterioso. Potential ally or enemy for Erica?

[Photo Credit: ABC TV]

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Labels: V Season 1, V Series