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‘V’: Ignorance is bliss

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You wanted some reveals? You got them with this episode.

The Visitors clearly have an endgame for their invasion of Earth and they’ve proved themselves quite adept at using our strengths against us, manipulating the media and our hopes and fears.

And they’ve clearly got a lock on surveillance, monitoring hundreds of live feeds in order to keep track of their own agents in the field as well as the human peace ambassadors they’ve recruited by some cleverly concealed cameras within the Visitor uniforms.

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This week’s episode of ‘V’ found the Visitors applying for, as well as receiving, visas allowing them to move about on U.S. soil unrestricted. At the same time, various plots came to fruition as the human resistance gained a few new members and Erica was forced to work alongside the Visitors to stop an assassination attempt.

The third episode of the series definitely kicked up the pacing after last week’s relatively sluggish installment, delivering more than a few intriguing twists and revealing some more information about the Visitors and the Fifth Column, juggling an assortment of characters in a compelling and interesting fashion.

While I’m not quite sure that I would have given Father Jack access to the FBI mainframe and left him alone in my house, Erica does just that. But her uncharacteristic trust in Father Jack does pay off, as he was able to track down Georgie Sutton using the files she swiped from the office. (Or rather Georgie was able to track down Father Jack after he left his card.) I love that Jack is just as willing as Erica to get his hands dirty, and it’s a nice change to see a priest in the thick of it, placing himself in harm’s way alongside a federal agent.

Georgie, we learned, has a personal stake in fighting the Visitors, after they wiped out his entire family. So his efforts to sabotage their invasion definitely stem from a very personal place, making him extremely dangerous. His relationship with Ryan has taken a major turn now that he knows that Ryan is a Visitor, but he’s still willing to bring Ryan into the mix and introduce him to Jack and Erica. Very slowly, we’re seeing the formation of a new Fifth Column, a human-Visitor resistance force that’s committed to combating the invasion but would appear to be little more than an isolated quartet.

Or are they? Erica’s sleeper agent partner Dale came aboard the mothership this week, albeit with post-traumatic amnesia as he was unable to recall just who attacked him and saw his ‘true face’ at the warehouse. Working with a white-clad Visitor, Dale was able to reassemble his memories in a construct of the FBI (where he reveals that he was not the only Visitor in the bureau) but rather than allow him to seek vengeance against Erica, Mr. White (as I’ll call him for now) drugged Dale and revealed that he’s actually working for the Fifth Column. Very, very interesting...

We also learned that the Fifth Column has a mythical hero of sorts, the enigmatic John May, said to be its leader. Whether May is a fictional entity or a flesh-and-blood one (or a scales-and-flesh one) remains to be seen. Ryan invoked his name at Cyrus’ restaurant after Cyrus attempts to betray him in order to be ‘reconnected.’ Reconnected to what? I’m not sure. And Cyrus spoke about Anna’s use of ‘bliss,’ which intrigued me. Is it a form of mind control? Is it physical? Or is she able to disseminate this bliss via the airwaves? Is that why the media is so important to her? Hmm...

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Just what happened to Cyrus? Perhaps I’m crazy, but it seemed as though his body had been reduced to little more than ash by the time Anna’s right-hand man Marcus responded to the alarm that Cyrus triggered. Is this what happens when you truly kill a V? Just as interesting is the information that Dale has been a sleeper agent for nearly 20 years, which shows just how long the Visitors have been planning this large-scale invasion. They’re willing to use any and all methods to achieve their goals, even going so far as to concoct a fake assassination attempt and defuse a potential PR disaster in an effort to achieve public sympathy. (Very canny, that Anna.)

But the real surprise came at the episode’s conclusion as Erica’s son Tyler and Visitor Lisa nearly hooked up in his bedroom, only to be interrupted by Erica. Despite catching her son nearly in flagrante delicto, Erica was none the wiser that the beautiful blond in question is actually a Visitor, one with a very distinct plan for her son. Lisa, meanwhile, informed Anna that Tyler was ‘the one.’ And, oh, Lisa just so happens to be Anna’s daughter, something I never suspected until she walked through that door and stood in front of Anna. (Call it a hunch.)

Just what do the Visitors want with Tyler? What is their plan for him specifically? Does it involve human-Visitor cross-breeding? Who is John May? What is bliss? And what will happen next week before ‘V’ takes a breather for a few months before it comes back in March? Head to the comments section to discuss.

— Jace Lacob (follow my musings on television, food and more television on Twitter at @televisionary)

Related:
‘V’: Upsetting the apple cart
From The Others to the Visitors: Elizabeth Mitchell talks about battling the otherworldly on her new ABC series ‘V’
Complete ‘V’ coverage on Showtracker

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