'V': Choose your masters

Does V stand for Visitor? Is it Victory? Or even Vengeance?

That seems to be the question pondered by the season finale of ABC's sci-fi drama "V," recently renewed for a second season. Although the series won't return until midseason (at the earliest, November), the writers left us with quite a few cliffhangers to think about in the meantime as alliances fractured, sides were taken, and a new threat to the planet was unleashed by a vengeful Anna, in the throes of her first real human emotion.

Given the way that the season ended, with more than a few plot twists thrown into the mix, I'm extremely glad that ABC is giving "V" another shot next season. This week's episode ("Red Sky"), offered quite a few surprises as Erica managed to get aboard the mother ship and throw a major wrench in Anna's plans ... only to have Anna bring about hell on Earth itself as the sky above every city on the planet turned crimson.

It was a fantastic sequence that effortlessly mirrored the pilot episode, which depicted the Visitors' arrival on Earth as mother ships descended on 29 of the planet's major cities. Here, we're once again treated to the site of Visitor ships hovering above Los Angeles, Florence and other cities, but with an eerie red backdrop that signals a major turning point in the shadowy war between the humans and the Visitors.

This week's episode also saw some unexpected new alliances and the disintegration of others as each of the characters had to decide which master they would serve, choosing whether to follow their heads or their hearts, knowing that it could be the most important decision of their lives ... as the fate of two races hangs in the balance.

'V': A picture is worth a thousand words

This week's episode of "V" proved just how far Visitor High Commander Anna is willing to take her game. 

She's playing for keeps, with the future of two species hanging perilously in the balance, and she's clearly willing to use anyone in order to advance her master plan, even her own daughter Lisa, whom she brutally attacked at the end of the previous episode.

The Visitors, after all, don't naturally have what we tend to think of as human emotion, making it quite easy for Anna to nearly murder Lisa in order to further her own ends. Given that those ends happen to be the continued survival of her people, it makes it a little easier to see just why everyone is expendable -- the humans, other Visitors -- in order for Anna to achieve her "noble" purpose. 

After all, these are not human beings that the Fifth Column is fighting. They're cold-blooded reptilian aliens who don't understand emotional constructions like love. In that sense, Anna is diametrically opposed to Erica. While they are both mothers and both fighting for their people, there's a real emotional core to Erica that's wholly lacking from Anna, and the truth of that difference has a ripple effect over everything that happens in this week's installment.

'V' and Sympathy: Previewing Tuesday's episode

Tonight's episode of "V" brings together two unstoppable forces of nature.

With only two episodes remaining before the end of the season, ABC's sci-fi drama "V" has been quietly building to an ultimate showdown between Visitor High Commander Anna (Morena Baccarin) and FBI Agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell).

Representing the two sides of the Visitor-human conflict and the shadow war going on between the reptilian aliens and the Fifth Column determined to even the playing field, these two have yet to come face to face. Until now.

Here are four things to look forward to with tonight's episode of "V." (Beware, minor spoilers abound.)

Anna and Erica face off. Tonight's episode sees the two mothers square off as they meet each other for the first time. The scenes between Anna and Erica crackle with electricity; the two women don't so much as regard each other as they do circle one another with the majesty and fury of mother lions. As for what brings them together, I'm not saying, but it plays off of last week's final scene involving Anna and her daughter Lisa's legs. Ouch. 

Also look for a fantastic scene in which Baccarin's Anna subtly echoes Erica's body language and for a real moment of intense clarity between the two adversaries. The gloves are coming off, boys and girls.

'V': We're terrorists now

Where is the line between a terrorist and a freedom fighter?

It's the question at the heart of this week's episode of "V," which found the human resistance force coming apart at the seams while Anna unveiled her most draconian plot yet.

The Fifth Column has been mostly reactionary thus far, preferring to use sabotage rather than outright warfare against the Visitors, but this week the Fifth Column took the battle straight to the Vs, blowing a Visitor shuttle right out of the sky. It wasn't meant to be an act of defiance or the opening salvo in a slew of attacks; rather the Fifth Column saw an opportunity to safeguard their identities and protect themselves when they learned that Anna was sending a shuttle full of Visitor trackers to seek out the parties responsible for felling her soldier.

But Anna is a crafty one and, thanks to Chad Decker whispering in her ear, she was all too aware of the Fifth Column's plans. Instead of sending down those trackers, she filled the shuttle with human remains, resulting in a terrorist attack that painted the Fifth Column in a very bad light indeed and damaged any possible goodwill they could have had with the humans.

Score one for the Visitors.

'V': Unleashing a soldier of war

If that's what one Visitor soldier is capable of, imagine what 1000 will do....

The threat of the Visitor soldiers intensified this week on "V," as Anna learned about the existence of Ryan and Val's unborn hybrid child and set out to have it destroyed lest the Fifth Column use it to create a race of emotionally integrated half-breed super-soldiers.

While Anna is concerned about the hybrid baby's potential to do the Visitors' master plan serious harm, I have to wonder if she didn't miss an important beat here. After all, they could slap some synthetic skin on the kid once it is born and hail it as a symbol of unity between the Visitors and the humans. Or maybe that's just me, looking for some spin.

Regardless, the unborn offspring of the two races was on everyone's mind this week as Anna sent off the first Visitor soldier to track down Ryan and Val and locate the half-lizard baby, while they attempted to evade Visitor forces and escape to safety via the Fifth Column underground railroad (and day players the Thompsons) ... while the members of the resistance force sought to track them down as well by trying to extract information from the captured human sniper they picked up last week.

'V': Electric blue, or the politics of tragedy

Several characters bring up an important point in this week's episode of "V," namely that, by its very definition, a visitor is someone who drops by for a limited period of time before leaving again. 

However, the alien Visitors who have arrived on Earth seem to have no such inclination. 

These Visitors appear to be here for the long haul, conquerors rather than visitor-tourists. It's an important distinction that High Commander Anna would like to keep buried. But appearing at the World Progress Forum, Anna's words and her gifts of technology reveal another sliver of her plan.

Every gift, after all, has a price, and Anna, after all, is no fool. Encountering resistance at the WPF, she sees opportunity in the heart of tragedy. A natural disaster in a nation called Timbal leads her to offer assistance in rebuilding the country's fragmented infrastructure by using alien technology: the clean, sustainable energy known only as blue energy, the very same energy that powers her ships.

So what does Anna hope to achieve by fixing the planet's problems? She wants to give humanity a taste of what the Visitors have to offer and, once they're hooked and utterly dependent on the loaned technology, cut them off completely.

'V': May day, or everyone has a breaking point

John May lives.

This week's episode of "V," written by Gregg Hurwitz and directed by Jonathan Frakes, answered some questions about the life and death of the enigmatic Fifth Column founder John May, the first of the Visitors to cast off Anna's influence and embrace his emotions and humanity.

It's been suggested over the last few episodes that living among the humans contaminates the Visitors ... at least from Anna's perspective. A logical, rather than emotional race of beings, the Visitors have closed themselves off from emotional responses: from the feeling of the wind in their hair, the smile of a child, a lover's embrace. But those who live among the humans, who open themselves up to the possibility of feelings, bridge the gap between Visitor and humans. It's as though the proximity awakens long-dormant sensations within them.

Anna, however, views this as weakness. She goes so far as to say, "Love is the greatest flaw of the humans." But it's that very emotion that stirs something powerful within John May, something that compels him to throw off his programming, to deny Anna's bliss, and to embrace his emerging self after discovering his "true north": the love of a woman and his love for her son, James.

So what happened to John May and why does his name infuriate Anna? Let's discuss.

'V': A call to arms

The war is finally getting underway.

Or, at the very least, the opening salvo in what promises to be a particularly brutal battle between the Visitors and the members of the Fifth Column, as both sides have made it clear that they have a lot more to lose than just their individual lives.

This week's episode of "V" offered a more detailed look at the members of both the human resistance fighters who have banded together to stop the growing threat of the Vs and the Visitors' own Fifth Column freedom fighters who, having lurked in the shadows for far too long, are finally standing up to Anna.

If there was a single theme for this week's installment, it's the nature of sacrifice: what a parent will give up for the safety of their children and what one friend will do for another, even at the risk of one's own life. 

I've spoken before about how the enmity between these two warring races isn't personal but is instead a Darwinian survival of the fittest, with the planet itself as the spoils for the victor. 

While Anna might seem to be the consummate villain on the surface, the decisions she is making are, at their heart, what she believes to be best for her people's continued survival. But the price that they'll have to pay is a lack of emotion and individuality.

'V': Deliver a villain and a hero will present itself

Welcome to the war, indeed.

ABC's sci-fi series "V" returned Tuesday night with a feeling of newness. Since the first four episodes of "V" aired in November, the series has undergone a series of metamorphoses, not least of which includes former "Chuck" writer/producer Scott Rosenbaum coming on board to handle showrunner duties on the series.

Under Rosenbaum's watchful eye -- and his pen, this week -- "V" already feels more fresh and vivid than it did in its initial outing last fall. There's a tighter pacing, an ominous feeling of dread hanging over the action, and some new characters who were introduced this week. There's also a certain tension that's been ramped up here, resulting in a new beginning for the series that jolts as much as it welcomes.

This week's episode found Jack rushed to the Visitor healing center after his stabbing; Erica fending off an attacker in her home; Tyler revisiting some fond memories; Val dealing with pregnancy-related cravings; Ryan investigating just what the Visitors' vitamin supplement R6 really is; Chad debating whether to pursue medical care for his "future" aneurysm; and the resistance reaching out to someone extremely dangerous in order to gain an advantage over Anna.

It wasn't exactly the gang sitting around and eating fugu for an hour or so.

'V': Previewing the sci-fi series' return

They're back.

ABC's sci-fi drama "V" returns Tuesday night with a new time slot (10 p.m.), a new showrunner (Scott Rosenbaum, of "Chuck" and "The Shield") and a new emphasis on providing the audience with some concrete answers rather than treading water.

We previously caught up with showrunner/executive producer Scott Rosenbaum and Morena Baccarin, who plays the alien queen Anna, for details about the next eight episodes and were teased with "rodent desire," multiple pregnancies and lizard anatomy, but I didn't think that we'd see many of these things actually play out in Tuesday night's brand-new installment. (Hint: Some, but not all of them, do.)

ABC and Warner Bros. on Monday released a screener for Tuesday night's episode ("Welcome to the War"), which amps up the tension and pacing in a way that the first four episodes of "V" didn't quite manage to do.

So why should you tune in to "V" Tuesday night? Here are five reasons.

Warning: Minor spoilers ahead!

(1) It's a great jumping on point ... with a little help.

Even if you missed the first four episodes of "V," everything you need to know can be summed up right here. The Visitors arrived on Earth with a message of peace but have a plan to take over the planet. While many people welcome the Visitors with open arms -- especially after they open a series of healing centers that can cure the sick -- not everyone is taken in by their propaganda, including FBI counterterrorism agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Catholic priest Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch). The Visitors are led by the seductive and deadly Anna (Morena Baccarin), who has a plan that involves R6, a chemical compound that is going to be placed in the human vaccine, and Tyler (Logan Huffman), Erica's teenage son who has already fallen for Anna's sultry daughter Lisa (Laura Vandervoort). 

‘V’: Morena Baccarin talks about Anna, the Visitors’ plan and lizard anatomy

 We were just starting to get a clearer understanding of why the Visitors arrived on Earth and what their plan was when ABC’s sci-fi drama “V” went on hiatus in November. Since then, the show has seen some behind-the-scenes shake-ups, with Scott Rosenbaum (“Chuck”) coming on as executive producer and show runner, and it will return to the lineup on Tuesday evening, in a new 10 p.m. time slot behind “Lost.”

We spoke with Morena Baccarin (“Firefly”), who plays Anna, the Visitors’ Machiavellian leader with a killer wardrobe and a plan for the human race that doesn’t involve peaceful co-existence, despite her message of peace.

“I don’t know that the humans would necessarily feel sympathy for her,” said Baccarin of the coolly ruthless Anna, whom she said is trying to do what’s best for her people.

In the following one-on-one interview, Baccarin discusses what viewers should expect from the next eight episodes of “V,” Anna’s upcoming arc, what it’s like playing a mother to someone just a few years younger, snacking on rodents, why Anna doesn’t want to get her shoes dirty and more.

Warning: minor spoilers ahead.

How are these next eight episodes of “V" different from the ones that aired in the fall?

I think the fall [episodes] were more about setting up the story and figuring out what the show was about. These eight episodes get deeper into the character development. There are a lot of reveals about the Vs, who they are and how they operate. I think a lot of people are going to be shocked.

'V': Showrunner Scott Rosenbaum teases 'rodent desire,' multiple pregnancies and more

They’re back.

ABC’s sci-fi series ”V” returns at the end of the month with new episodes, a new time slot and a new showrunner in former “Chuck” and “The Shield” writer Scott Rosenbaum. He assumes creative oversight on the Warner Bros. Television-produced series.

“I do hope that it’s not only a visceral, fun action ride,” said Rosenbaum of his vision for the series, which returns March 30 at 10 p.m., “but also, hopefully, intellectually challenging.”

We caught up with Rosenbaum for a one-on-one interview to discuss his plans for the final eight episode of “V” this season, the relationship between Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Anna (Morena Baccarin), the possible hybrid baby on the way, what’s coming up and much more.

Warning: Spoilers abound!

How are these next eight episodes of “V” different from the four that aired in the fall?

Every single episode of the show now, starting with Episode 4, there will be three or four huge, oh-my-God, wow ...  I-didn’t-see-that-coming [moments]. ...  I’m one of those TV viewers where I want to get information. I want to learn more about the Vs. I want to learn about why the Vs are here. I don’t want to wait 25 episodes to find that stuff out. ...

You’ll learn more about the Vs anatomically in my first episode back than you did in the first four episodes and get an understanding of how they work, why they’re different. Everything is like that. The plan, why they’re here. We’re really going to dive into that kind of stuff. ... That first episode coming back, just in Acts 5 and 6, there’s four huge reveals, just in two acts of that show alone.