In the beginning of the episode, a bunch of peace ambassadors were killed and strung up like Mussolini. Erica was called to the crime scene and started unmasking them frantically, hoping that they weren’t Tyler. Sadly, it was another fake out. Tyler was alive and ticked. He ransacked Father Jack’s church and spray-painted a V on the church wall for revenge. Erica found out because Tyler dropped his phone in the church (that he was using to video tape his vandalism). She cried and said, “This is not the son I raised.” Umm, where have you been, Erica? Your son has always been a little weenie.
Erica got a new partner that she used to be her friend. Her new partner thought that Father Jack was involved with the Fifth Column, due to all the confrontations involving him. Erica and her partner went to question Father Jack, and Erica told her partner that this was the first time she had talked to him in a while. Her partner dug up surveillance of her meeting Father Jack and touching him on the arm just a few days ago, so he knows she is lying. And he is investigating her (that’s why they brought him in). Erica would never suspect her old buddy. We like this storyline…
The Fifth Column found the anti-V terrorist, Eli Cohen. They teamed up with him once Eli revealed that he knew that the V’s planned to breed with the humans. His wife and son had been experimented on by the V’s. Together, they came up with a plan to catch the people who killed the peace ambassadors and used them as scapegoats for Malik’s murder. Erica led the FBI to Eli Cohen’s cabin in the woods (the standard living arrangement for a terrorist) where Malik’s nasty body had been conveniently placed.
Chad and Anna headed off to the Vatican to get the full support of the Catholic Church. Anna figured out that one of the Cardinals was a Visitor who was sent years ago to research the source of human emotions for Diana. He told Anna that the soul is immortal. Anna took him back to the ship, but he would only give his information to Diana, his true queen. He told Diana (in front of Anna) that the soul was the greatest blessing the Visitors could attain. Anna said that she would torture more information out of the man in order to find out how to destroy the soul. So, with the Cardinal’s blessing, Diana bit him on the neck and killed him. Anna said, “Congratulations, mother. You just killed your only ally” and walked off.
Anna asked the Vatican to bar all priests from speaking out against the Visitors in any way. Ok, that’s a scary, totalitarian, and completely wrong thing to ask. When the Cardinals turned her Hitler-esque request down, Anna flashed some blue energy around a statue and threatened them. She said that if she performs enough miracles through her science, the people of the world would shun Catholicism in favor of worshipping her. But rather than trust that truth and faith would win out, the Cardinals caved for fear of losing their power and influence. Chad reported that the Catholic Church had now forbidden all anti-V rhetoric. Father Jack vowed to continue speaking out against them. By embracing the age-old (yet still powerful) theme of standing against evil and censorship, and by giving us someone to put Erica in serious hot-water, the show made us care, for once.
Episode Grade: a solid B
Yes, I, too, was disappointed that Tyler wasn't among the fallen; still, there is hope as the character from the 1980's "V" that Tyler plays in this series died very badly. Here's hoping for small favors...
ReplyDeleteThe whole Catholic angle was pretty cool, even though the Cardinals do not have the power to issue that kind of decree; only the Pope can do that through a Papal Bull. Small error; the Visitor with the Cardinals was a priest and not an actual Cardinal. Cardinals wear that red cap and more elaborate vestments. Too bad he died as he seemed an interesting character.
Good to see some heavyweight actors join the fold in Jay Karnes (Erica's partner) and Oded Fehr (Eli Cohen). Karnes plays a recurring character in USA's "Burn Notice", but I loved him in "The Shield". Fehr was a magnificent villian in Showtime's "Sleeper Cell".
Here's hoping for more of the same from this show as I was giving up any hope that it could salvage itself.
YES. We will accept a regular death (bullet in the head, whatever). But a bad death would be nicer.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we guess the jig is up. The Catholic blogger missed this episode and didn't participate in the post. This nonCatholic writer doesn't know a Catholic Cardinal from a bird.
And there's no way they could let an interesting character live on this show!!