V, Episode 4 (It’s Only The Beginning): A Taste of The Bliss

I usually enjoy flashback scenes that start episodes, because they are invariably shot to make it look like something totally shocking and unexpected has happened.  However, if you’re any sort of action/thriller fan, this one was way too easy to figure out.  Georgie lies crumpled on the concrete of a parking garage with a gut wound, and Ryan shoots at Erica.  Since there hasn’t been any indication of either Erica or Ryan being villains so far, you know Ryan isn’t shooting to hit Erica.  He’s obviously shooting at a bad guy behind her, which is confirmed 30-some minutes later.

The parking garage scene is certainly important, though, if extremely predictable.  Georgie’s displays his V-rage (he wants to kill, violently and painfully, every one of them because they killed his family), we find out how V infiltrators commit suicide if compromised (eating a pill that causes them to combust, leaving nothing but ash), and Erica discovers that Ryan’s a V.  She takes it pretty well after only a few minutes of discomfort.  However, when Ryan allows her to ask him questions about his V-ness, Erica asks two.  Two questions.  About a dude she just found out is from another freaking galaxy.  If it were me, I’d still be asking questions: “how many suns does your planet have?  Does(do) the sun(s) ever set?  If no, what did you think about Earth sunsets when you first got here?  Did you think the world was ending every time it got dark hahahaha!  Do you even live on a planet?  Did you all pick up intelligible transmissions from Earth?  Maybe Two and A Half Men, or any Nickelback songs?  If so, thank you for not destroying us immediately.”

Ryan gets some other interesting news, in the form of impending parenthood.  Now, given that lots of Vs have been here for a long time, this can’t be the first hybrid baby, but there is no mention of others.  It’s probably going to look creepy but kind of cute, if it doesn’t tear its way out of Val’s womb.  I also wonder how such a thing is bottle- (or breast-) fed, and when it can move from soft, pureed foods to live rodents.  There isn’t yet a Spock guide for that as far as I know.  It also turns out that Val has a cardiac condition that the can supposedly be fixed at one of the V healing centers.  This should set up a interesting conflict for Ryan, between his distrust of the Vs and their medical interactions with humans, and the prospect of potentially saving the life of the woman he loves.  Let’s hope the show explores some of these morally complex themes and doesn’t take the easy way out.

Chad Decker is also conflicted about the Vs.  He doesn’t completely trust them, and thinks he might just be playing them the way he wants to.  He’s already given himself props for helping sway public opinion enough to make visas for the Vs politically palatable.  However, while filming a segment on the V healing centers and undergoing a scan for the camera, he is told he has a latent medical condition that will probably result in his death within 6 months.  A second opinion from the human medical establishment won’t tell him anything; our technology, of course, is too primitive.  Should Decker believe the Vs and allow them to heal him?  He owes them a big favor if so, which would compromise his journalistic integrity (though we’re not sure whether it’s based on principle or the opportunity for job advancement).  If not, there’s a chance he dies awfully soon.  It’ll be interesting to see what he does with this, and what humanity does in general with the amazing V healing centers.  Do we believe everything the Vs tell us, essentially putting faith in alien diagnostics and preventive/corrective/palliative care?  I wager that we do.  If so, we owe them big favors.

Erica, Ryan, Jack, and Georgie, the current members of the Fifth Column, have their doubts about the Vs’ magical heal-o-matic vitamin supplements and one-stop salubrity shops.  They uncover a V plan involving non-salubrious human experiments, and an attempt to sabotage the human flu shot.  Naturally, they blow the whole warehouse operation sky-high.  The loss of an such an important tactical asset disturbs Anna, who’s got a lot on her plate.  She has to root out a murderer (Dale was re-killed in the last episode by Joshua, a high-ranking mothership member of the Fifth Column—and not the only one), crush dissension in the ranks, and reassure her people on the ships and hidden around the globe that everything will be fine and all is forgiven.  She gives them all the gift of The Bliss, which involves her getting naked and entering a column of light, speaking softly and Jesus-y, and sending out some major opiate vibes.  It makes sense now why Cyrus, a former Fifth Column member turned V informant, wanted to be “reconnected” to V society so badly in the last episode.  Anna also directs her daughter, Lisa, to “turn” Tyler (Erica’s son) to the Vs, which she does by taking off her clothes (this works with most teenage boys).  Anna and Lisa agree that Tyler is to be the One, but for what?

This episode’s title, while accurately if vaguely summing up what has happened so far, mirrors the production of V itself.  Though marred by production stoppages and major personnel turnover (along with some super-annoying characters and crappy dialogue), the first four installments showed us that even as a remake, there’s still surprise, originality, and life in the “alien invasion” theme.  It was indeed only the beginning, and an auspicious one at that.  Let’s hope it’s not the end.

(V airs Tuesdays at 10:00p on ABC.)

V, Episode 1 (Pilot)
V, Episode 2 (There Is No Normal Anymore)
V, Episode 3 (A Bright New Day)
V, Episode 4 (It’s Only The Beginning)
V, Episodes 5-8