Lisa: “There’s still a way we can win if you’re willing to take a risk.”
Oh, all right, Lisa, I’ll stick around for the finale. Actually, I’m impressed at how well the V Powers That Be are tying the loose threads introduced by various creative teams, turning the Visitors’ inconsistent behaviour and la Résistance’s general incompetence into central motifs. Their efforts are all the more commendable for the fact they lost two episodes mid-season. As a makeshift penultimate chapter, “Devil in a Blue Dress” takes some obvious shortcuts, but it does a great job ramping up the tension and highlighting key themes for the big conclusion next week.
V Is for Vainglory to Hide One’s True Agenda
My first thought watching “Devil in a Blue Dress” was, “Teehee. Anna is exposing her people’s big blue balls.” My second proved more pertinent: “Hey, Carrie’s back!” Then the writers booted her out of the story, which seems like a waste of a promising character, though I’m just happy my favourite human, Chad, is getting attention again. The reporter turned spy has been criminally underused all season, perhaps because he doesn’t fit this year’s theme of portraying the good guys as short-sighted morons.
Consider the way he uses his co-anchor to both discredit Anna and stay in her good grace. Okay, as usual, the thread’s execution leaves to be desired: after announcing her scoop, Carrie should have realised she doesn’t have a report or even a flashy graphic to present, and the idea of a journalist calling the Department of Energy to confirm a whistleblower’s identity has my face firmly in palm. Still, Scott Wolf deserves mad props for making me wonder (and care) which side his character favoured before realizing he was playing both at the same time.
V Is for Valid Point about Being a Nincompoop
This week’s action plot pays off nicely too. Despite the clever device of putting Dr Sydney “I’m Not Really Part of the Cast So I Could Croak at Any Time” Miller in the fray and the cool camera tricks used to convey his anxiety, I was ready to dismiss this latest caper, in which our heroes attempt to sabotage a blue energy reactor, as more pointless running around. I mean, woohoo, Ryan is pressing buttons on a floating screen: how exciting. Also, it seems to me one doesn’t need a big-shot science professor to, you know, open a box.
However, Erica’s justifiable meltdown puts the recent string of failures from la Résistance imbécile in a different light: what once was plot hole has become plot point. It occurs to me Agent Evans has surrendered leadership of the Fifth Column to a Visitor, making the entire human race a pawn in an alien civil war. This could lead to some serious anti-climax issues unless Diana screws everyone over, a possibility to which the writers have hinted with lines like, “The more I get to know you, the more I see you’re just like my mother.” Come to think of it, how do we know what she said about blue energy is true?
V Is for Veni, Vidi, in Cavus Vixi
As intrigued as I am with her character, Diana spends most of her thread setting up next week’s final confrontation, turning everyone against Anna and giving la Résistance a pep talk in R2-D2 vision. As such, I’ve little on which to comment for now, except maybe her subtly different hairdo and cleavage-free dress, both of which give the woman a more benevolent look. I suspect they’re what brought Marcus to tears, the big softy. I’ve missed Anna’s right-hand lizard or, to be specific, Christopher Shyer’s eerie rendition of him. I mean, the new guy is fine and all, but when I hear the name Thomas in a sci-fi context, I think of smiley-faced tank engines that transform into a super robot.
Bits and Pieces
- “Devil in a Blue Dress”. No devil (or soul talk). No blue dress. Just saying.
- This week’s most obvious symbol: Joe’s leather jacket, which Tyler puts on instead of his V ambassador vest.
- Why did Sydney build cardboard models of the mother ship and Concordia structure? I’m big on, “Show; don’t tell,” but this is getting ridiculous.
- There are 538 V ships surrounding our planet. Our thousands of astronomers, computer probes, and satellites have not spotted them because they aren’t sporting Sydney’s magical binoculars.
- I wish I’d kept track of the colour-coding this season. It’s starting to take its toll with the Visitors torturing an Asian woman so we can focus on Anna’s pain, which is white pain and therefore more important.
- Joshua is back to his old self, and all his recollections pertained to Lisa. Now that Erica and Kyle have consummated and subsequently ended their relationship, I have a new bow-chicki-chicki-bow-bow couple for which to root.
Quotes
As usual, let’s start with the winner of the Alanis Morissette Award for Outstanding Misuse of a Thesaurus:
Chad: “Anna. She’s the only reason I have a career right now. Can’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.”
Faulty analogy. Giving Carrie the scoop is tantamount to handing her a knife so she can slaughter the goose in your stead. Either way, you’re out of golden eggs, so a more apropos idiom would have been, “Can’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
Diana: “Her first emotion, pride, caused her to betray me.”
Carrie: “If scientists examined blue energy, for all we know, it could give off radiation that could turn us into brain-dead zombies!”
Don’t you come near The Walking Dead! You stay away, V writers!
Sydney: “You want it in terms a merc could understand. You ever stick a fork in an electric socket when you were a kid?”
Terms a merc could understand, not Casper the Ghost.
Ryan: “Did you know there’s two forms of blue energy? There’s inert and weaponized.”
You forgot stigmata mode.
Erica: “You have! Three seconds! To mmmmake us believe you!”
I guess even the best performers can have off days.
Kyle: “Once you’re in, you’re on your own, cowboy.”
That’s what she said.
Diana: “We must end your mother’s reign once and for all!”
This season of V might go out on a high note after all.
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