In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Father Jack and Agent Erica stick around the Pier of Death debriefing (and most likely jonesing for a shot and a cigarette) when the Vs arrive to clean up the massacred mess. Erica tries to call 911, but the Vs intercept the call and Erica and Jack make the unwelcome realization that there is no help except for a baseball bat.
Erica tries to convince her annoying teenage son, Ty, not to get involved with the Visitors, but it is too late. He's knee-deep in the organization and hoping to get balls-deep in an actual Visitor. On his first day as Peace Ambassador, he throws a punch (at a human, natch) and gets canned. Mom would be so proud.
Ryan, the rebel Visitor, doesn't dump his girlfriend, Val, but proposes instead. She snooped for her engagement ring, but he is hoping she won't snoop inside his bandage and find his reptilian skin. He tracks down another rebel V to help fix his arm up, but ends up getting drugged for his trouble. The rebel checks out Ryan and, unfortunately, Val, proving to Ryan that if he loves her, he needs to leave her. In the immortal words of Pee Wee Herman, Ryan needs her to realize that, "He's a rebel, a loner. There are things about him she couldn't understand, things about him she shouldn't understand."
The Vs have some fancy fashion technology that would make any of the Real Housewives jealous. Similarly, they have no souls and no qualms about backstabbing or doing whatever is necessary to get their way. The Vs also have some seriously scary torture technology, too, which they are using on a human they captured at the warehouse meeting. I am sure the Real Housewives would happily use it on each other.
Erica's partner is missing and a full tribunal is called to look into his disappearance. Erica answers the committee's questions as honestly as possible without actually telling the truth. Everyone suspects her, but she plays the my-partner-is-missing card and goes off to pretend to investigate. Erica tries to maintain that her partner went commando and was investigating on his own, but her boss has a recording of her anonymous 911 call. Yeah, the one the Vs intercepted. He knows, she knows. But he pretends the call was intercepted by the FBI and Erica pretends her partner was a traitor who was working with a terrorist cell. While Erica knows she killed her partner after finding out he was a V (and he tried to kill her), the Vs have realized he was just "mostly dead". Nothing that a quick visit to Miracle Max's shop on the mothership can't cure.
Meanwhile, Tory from Battlestar Galactica has landed on V and, really, does anyone trust her? Not when she is working for the "Visitor Threat Assessment Taskforce." Couldn't she get a nice job as a love interest on Two and a Half Men? She shows up at Father Jack's church to investigate the man who was murdered by the Vs and, much to Erica's horror, trusting Father Jack ends up handing over the photos of the suspected Vs to her. Father Jack realizes his error, and renews his desire to fight, so Erica swipes some paperwork from the task force to help recruit to their cause.
Chad Decker, intrepid reporter, is kicking himself for not asking Anna the hard questions. And when he realizes that the nation is still divided on the Visitors, he decides to, you know, actually do investigative journalism. He sets up a pro and con panel on whether the government should establish Visitor relations. He leverages an uptick in the V approval rating to even the playing field. So when the U.S. government votes to establish diplomatic relations with the Vs and Anna calls to thank him. Chad thinks he won this round, but the Vs don't take losing very well.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then read our guide to the A to Z of V. And check back soon for the full recap!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!If you are just joining us, WE are not alone, but you are. The number of people who watched this show last week was astronomical, so you are a bit late to the game, but you can read the full recap here. And then we won't mock you too much for missing out on zeitgeist moments. So it is the night of the massacre and Agent Erica and Father Jack are debriefing each other and engaging in a little talk therapy on the steps outside the warehouse where all their brothers-in-arms were just slaughtered. I would have run a little farther, but I am not an FBI agent and I'm sure there is a tactical purpose to staying within spitting distance of a mass murder site. Agent Erica actually seems to be treating the conversation as a de facto confession and I bet priests get really sick of that happening to them. It's like dermatologists who are asked to look at strangely shaped moles in the middle of a dinner party. Erica just can't get the image out of her head of slamming a piece of rebar into her partner's face, even if he did totally deserve it and turn out to be an alien. Father Jack doesn't really know what to say about that, so he just asks what they should do . Erica thinks they fight fight fight and try not to die. Just then they see a shuttle leave the Vs' mothership and land to the warehouse. Erica is pretty sure they are there to clean up the blood and guts. Don't the Vs have, like, Martian slaves to do the scut work for them? 'Cause cleaning up a slasher site is pretty bottom of the barrel work for an advanced lifeform. Jack pulls out his cell phone because "they have to do something" and calling 911 seems reasonable. Although I would argue that if you sic 911 on the Vs you are sending a whole bunch of first responders to their dooms. Erica grabs Jack's phone out of his hand because the call has to be anonymous. So she runs to the pay phone and calls. She doesn't use a fake voice or anything, but I'm not an FBI agent, so I am sure there is a really good reason to sound just like yourself while placing an anonymous call. She also doesn't wipe down the phone with an antibacterial wipe, which is pretty hardcore. Erica's call goes straight to Visitor HQ and they seem to trace the call using their advanced technology and right quick send a Death Ball (pretty much like this one from the best-movie-ever Phantasm) to off them. Too bad for the Death Ball, Erica was a pinch hitter in Little League. She smashes it to bits with a bat (or pipe) like it's a piñata and she's a pudgy eight-year old. Then she looks around to dish out some more. She knows the call was intercepted and traced, but Jack doesn't think it is possible. Erica gets really close to him (way too close considering he's a priest) and reminds him that anything is possible. Her partner was a reptile and she didn't know it! Anything is possible and anyone can be a V. She tells Jack to go home, act normal, and pretend like none of this ever happened. He doesn't get it, but Erica needs to come up with a plan. In the meantime he shouldn't trust anyone. Got that? Trust No One. Now where have I heard that before...
Erica heads home and finds that her useless prat of a son is MIA again. She hears something downstairs and picks up a baseball bat to Sammy Sosa it to death. She almost nails her son in the face (eh... he probably deserved it) and he is startled enough to pretend to care when she begs him not to get involved with the Vs. As he goes upstairs, she shouts, "I love you" after him, but obviously he doesn't respond. She really should have smashed him in the noggin and then pretended it was an accident. Once upstairs he unpacks his new Visitor Junior Peace Ambassador uniform. What the Webelos aren't good enough for him? Traitor.
Over at the church, Father Travis (as if anyone that old is named Travis) watches a news report discussing whether the U.S. will vote to establish diplomatic ties with the Vs. A decision could come as early as today. The reporter claims that establishing ties will be based in large part on the recommendations of the Visitors Threat Assessment Joint Task Force, which is a joint effort of the FBI and probably the Visitors themselves. Father Travis turns to Jack and says that establishing ties is a great step and then he tells him that the police stopped by to talk to him about the man who was stabbed to death there yesterday. Father Jack looks like he wants to tackle Father Travis, pin him, and check under his scalp for reptile skin, but the requisite number of Our Fathers if he is wrong is daunting.
Contrary to what I said in my recap, Erica does not live in a townhouse. She lives in what the real estate agents call a detached house with a yard and multiple floors and a porch. Where is this house supposed to be? Does she commute to New York City from Kansas? Anyway. She's in the shower finishing up an attempt to wash off the smell of reptile. She opens the shower curtain and is faced with her dead ex-partner holding a gun to her beloved son's head. The dead guy reminds her that she left her gun in his car and she reminds him that she doesn't like her son that much, so he turns the gun on her and fires... unfortunately, it's just a dream. It's not that I dislike Erica it's just that a dream sequence is so cliché. Anyway, the phone rings and even though she is in the shower and could probably electrocute herself, she answers anyway. (See? Hardcore.) It's her boss and he wants to know where Dale is. Erica is all breathless and shakey and her boss doesn't seem to notice or ask why she answered the phone while in the shower. The boss demands that she come in right away, because Dale is missing.
Ryan and Val lie in bed and recount how great last night was. I'll assume they spent the evening playing Parcheesi, eating shrimp cocktail, drinking tomato juice, and rubbing each other's corns. What? They aren't married yet. He promises that tonight he's going to hide rings all over the house for their game night. She asks about his arm and he jumps into the bathroom to see whether the gash healed overnight. Nope, you can still see the lizard skin peeking through. He looks concerned.
Chad Decker is still smarting over his one-on-one interview with hot alien Anna. He really wanted to ask her at least one question that cast the Vs in a negative light and it's not fair that she made him look all Connie Chung on national television. His producer (or maybe his writer since she is wearing quirky glasses) can't figure out why Chad is beating himself up over the interview. If he had played hardball, Anna would never talk to him again. And over 80 million viewers watched him last night. Chad corrects her, 80 million watched Anna. Yes, Chad, I'm sure they all averted their eyes when you were on the screen. I know I did!
Speaking of Anna, she is onboard the ship and like a lady or an advanced alien creature with an eye for fashion and a manifest destiny handbag, she is trying to pick an outfit. She has a closet full of holograms of her in various dresses and is flipping through them trying to find just the right look. OMG, if this is the advanced technology they promised to share with the earthlings, we are so going to have our lives improved! Her executive assistant is worrying about whether the U.S. will normalize ties with the Vs, but Anna is not worried. She stops flipping through her dresses when she lands on a kimono and tells her assistant that she this look simultaneously expresses a love of tradition and the lure of submission. When he suggests that she might be looking for something more in the line of I'm-going-to-eat-your-kidneys and enslave-your-hamsters, she glares at him with her unblinking eyes because he still doesn't understand humanity.
Underneath the watchful eye of the Vs mothership, the FBI's New York office is hard at work and apparently Agent Erica has taken several hits of brown acid because everyone is staring at her and moving in almost slow motion as she warily walks the halls, flinching whenever the lights get too bright. She spies Dale's aggrieved wife at the office. Her boss waylays her in the hallway and only due to her years of FBI training does she manage not to shoot him and then curl up in a ball and start whimpering when he surprises her. He explains that Dale didn't come home last night and he didn't call so obviously time to convene an entire panel of investigators to get to the bottom of his disappearance. So I guess FBI agents don't have the same timeline as missing plebes, namely, we'll assume you're carousing with unicorns until proven otherwise or 48 hours elapse and then we'll bother looking for you. Or at least that's what I've learned from years of watching Law and Order. The boss leads Erica into a room where an entire Inquisition panel of ten investigators is lined up on one side of a long table. The High Inquisitor asks her to take a seat. It's a good thing she's on so many drugs, or she might be intimidated by all this. Instead she smiles sheepishly (as in like a sheep) and settles down.
Oh, I forgot to mention that one of the freaky faces in the FBI crowd who was harshing Agent Erica's mellow, was none other than Tory from Battlestar Galactica, who may be one of the least trustworthy faces around. She works for the Visitor Threat Assessment Joint Task Force and she is dispatched to the church to ask Father Jack about the man who died there yesterday. She explains that the victim was on an FBI list because he called them dozens of times over the years about alien invaders. Now that the Vs have proved they exist, the FBI has to follow up on all the quacks. Cut back to the Inquisition. Agent Erica explains that she and Alien Dale were working together last night, got dinner, and then he dropped her off. Father Jack is facing his own Inquisition at the church, but he's Catholic, so at least he's had practice. Tory wants to know if he had ever seen the man before. Meanwhile, Erica swears that Dale didn't do drugs or drink, which was seriously a bummer for her, because you know between the divorce and the kid, sometimes a sister wants to throw back a few and Dale was a total Par T. Pooper. Father Jack explains to Tory that people stop by to see priests all the time. It's what they do. She asks if the man said anything about the Visitors and Father Jack hedges and says he seemed really scared. How many Hail Marys is it going to take to clear up that little lie from your celestial permanent record? Erica is asked about marital problems, which she claims didn't exist, and then is asked whether she was the marital problem that didn't exist. She flatly answers that Dale is like a brother to her. That doesn't answer the question, Agent Evans. Didn't you ever read Flowers in the Attic? The boss gets a phone call and Erica interrupts her own Inquisition to ask her boss what is going on. He explains that they found Dale's car. I guess she's not really a person of interest, because she gets to go investigate the car. When they arrive on the scene, she stares at the address and tells her boss that it turned up in one of their terror investigations. Maybe Dale was investigating by himself? As the boss mulls, Erica dashes to Dale's car to retrieve her badge and gun. Her boss almost catches her in the act of shoving the gun into her pants, but she covers by unearthing Dale's cell phone and handing it over.
Over in Japan, Anna shows off her Japanese language skills. Simultaneously she is in Mexico speaking perfect Spanish. I guess intergalactic travel gives you a lot of time for those Rosetta Stone courses. Her enormous face is shining down on the people of Tokyo (and frankly it doesn't look out of place among all the other oversized billboards) and Mexico City and thanking them for establishing diplomatic ties with the Visitors. She is waiting patiently for the people of Moscow, India, and the United States to make the same move. Until then, they are at peace, always. Intrepid boy reporter Chad Decker doesn't buy it. Not because he thinks Anna is a reptile in cloned human skin, but because he's still ticked off. His writer/producer approaches him with the latest national poll numbers. Seems America is almost evenly split on whether to normalize ties with the Vs. Chad blames himself for not asking the tough questions when he had a chance. I agree, this is totally Chad's fault. He concocts a scheme to rectify the situation and to get Anna begging him for an interview. It sounds like he got in touch with his inner Blair Waldorf.
Ryan and Val also live in an enormous apartment. But I guess we don't know what Ryan does for a living and with his V skills maybe he works in tech or engineering or something profitable (read: not writing). Val hands him her ring back. She wants him to give her the ring in his own time, because she's mad at herself for mistrusting him anyway. He takes the ring back and heads to Jersey for his meeting.
Jackass Tyler is wearing his super awesome jacket of the future as he reports for his first day of duty as a Junior Peace Ambassador. His chunky friend Brandon (the one with the head injury) tags along for another chance to ogle the hot Visitor chicks. The Vs have managed to build a Visitor visitors center in the brief time they've been here. Hopefully they can teach us a thing or two about speeding along construction and building permits. The respect garnered by Tyler's uniform allow him (and Brandon) to waltz past the guards (or they just greeters?) at the door of the facility. They enter the facility and Lisa the reptile with the hot blonde skin wrap greets them as old friends. She knows a sucker when she sees one. She straightens her uniform, flattens her hair, checks out her breathe and marches over to ooze some run-of-the-mill plaisanterie about how good Ty looks in the uniform. While most people would brush off it off as meaningless, as a teenage boy, Tyler believes it as V gospel. And when Lisa promises to help chuckleheaded Brandon jump to the head of the Peace Ambassador Class, Tyler is in love. Boys are silly like that.
Father Jack has doubts about lying to the Visitor Threat Assessment Joint Task Force. He seeks the advice of Father Travis who advises against mentioning the dead man's rantings and ravings about the Visitors -- he doesn't think Jack should upset the apple cart. He's sure Jack did the right thing by not reporting it. While I don't think Father Travis's position in life is worthy of Visitor infiltration, maybe we should just pin him down and check just to be sure.
Back in Brooklyn, Agent Erica is revisiting the scene of her crimes, in fact, she is standing in the exact spot where she beaned her partner with rebar, revealing his lizard underbelly. Her boss finds her and demands that she answer the question she avoided before namely, why he never heard of their terrorism investigation before. Erica explains that they thought they had a mole, because somebody kept tipping off the suspects and Dale must have gone to investigate alone. The boss gets in her face and wants to know why Dale wouldn't involve her in the investigation -- didn't he trust her? Agent Erica changes tact, she gets in her boss's face and overacts that she has had ENOUGH with the questions and the insinuations. She stares at him despite being two inches from his face and reminds him that it is her partner and her friend who is missing. He musters all his Stella Adler training to tell her to get out there and find him. Something happened to Elizabeth Mitchell's acting between this week and last. She just seems off and I know her character is supposed to be off, but as an FBI agent shouldn't she be trained to look less guilty and act more natural?
Up on the mothership, the Visitors have themselves a naked man. Boys (geckos?), you may not have Tim Allen on whatever desolate planet you are from (and, really, it must be desolate if it does not have Home Improvement), but here on Earth we all know from this sage not to stand too close to a naked man. You Vs should learn that lesson if you are going to fit in here. Because the U.S. would never normalize relations with naked people or the people who stand near them and Tim Allen is second only to Jesus in quotable quotes. The Vs have taken a prisoner from the secret warehouse meeting and they have stripped him naked (or nearly enough) and are using the powers of the mind to torture him. He thinks a bunch of snakes have been artfully arranged on his torso and, if he knew anyone's names, he would talk. But the snakes aren't real and apparently the Vs aren't going to use their advanced technologies to improve this guy's life at all. His inability to name names ticks off Anna's executive assistant. He has a blurry photo of the secret meeting, but if he can't put names to the fuzzy faces, he will never know where to send his Christmas cards.
Out at Al's Garage in Jersey, Ryan isn't looking for Al at all, but Angelo. The guy under the car swears he doesn't know an Angelo, but Ryan knows better. He pulls the guy out by his feet and stands him up. Angelo told him to never come back, Ryan smiles and said he missed him too.
Back in New York, the Vs mothership looms heavily on the skyline. I mean, can't they pull up a bit so they don't seem so ominous? They are blowing away their cover with their inability to not lurk. Erica walks into her office and is shocked to see Father Jack there. I know this because she does not manage to play it cool even a little bit, but rushes up to him and positively shrieks, "You're a priest and you're in my office and you're like trusting people!" She stage whispers to him to find out what he is doing there and then they make concerned eyebrows at each other while the woman from Visitor Threat Assessment Joint Task Force watches and then she fights him for the pictures of the suspected Visitors that he is going to hand over. The woman from the Task Force guesses that they know each other and doesn't at all seem satisfied by Erica's insistence that they just met and doesn't really respond to her question about what the priest is doing there. The two women get in a staring contest until the Task Force lady shuts the door. Subtle, Erica, really subtle.
Outside the Visitors Visitor Center, a protest is being waged seems some people don't like the pretty all-American aliens. Really do the Vs come in any flavor but California Girl? to the protestors stands Tyler handing out pro-V pamphlets ('cause nothing says worship us like pamphlets -- it works for Jesus and Lyndon Larouche!) to all comers. Lisa who has to remain inside the gates of the compound, sees Tyler hard at work spreading the good V word and smiles at him. He slo-mo smiles at her too. Later he shows her pictures of his bike and some pizza because that is the best way to impress any girl no matter what planet you are from. Lisa awkwardly flirts back and takes a self-portrait so he can do what all teenage boys do with pictures of hot girls. You know, show it to their moms; minds out of the gutter, people! The protestors have finally noticed some of the Junior Peace Ambassadors are to them and have picked a fight with fatheaded Brandon. Tyler rushes to his friend's defense and punches a protestor in the face. Lisa no likey.
At the Jersey garage, Ryan is getting his arm repaired by Angelo. It involves something that looks like superglue and a big old shot. While the cut heals itself, Ryan tells Angelo about re-joining the fight and about his love for an earth girl. Angelo can't get involved. To really force his point home, he drugs Ryan and runs.
Back at FBI HQ, Erica walks Father Jack into the hallway before she yells at him about turning over the photos of the suspected Vs. Because I'm sure no one would eavesdrop in the hallway that is five feet from the office or would think it was strange that Agent Erica was yelling at a priest. In her new favorite move, she gets three inches from his face, flares her nostrils, and reminds him that she clearly said not to trust anyone. This does not go over so well and the priest yells at her for abandoning him and then he reciprocates and walks off in a huff. Maybe a minute and a huff. Heh. Erica's mood is not improved when she is immediately hailed into her boss's office. He can't figure out why Dale would go into that warehouse by himself and he wants to know why she is lying about last night. She swears that she is not lying, but even to my untrained eye she totally looks like she is lying. She needs to watch The Usual Suspects or The Crying Game or read James Frey or listen to Milli Vanilli to really get into this whole lying liar thing, because she is really lousy and should never play poker. Her boss sets down a tape recorder and plays her 911 call from yesterday. It is clearly her voice and proves that she was clearly at the pier yesterday. It might also prove that her boss is a V or is working really closely with them. Erica gets up from her chair and thinks really, really quickly on her feet. She claims she suspected Dale was working with one of the terrorist organizations, so she followed him to the warehouse, but didn't want to call for FBI backup if she was wrong, but called 911 instead. But it didn't work, because 911 never showed up. Her boss says that call never went to 911 dispatch, because the DEA tapped all the phones in the area trying to trap a smuggling operation. Erica jumps on this tidbit because of the DEA is tampering with 911 calls the vast conspiracy is bigger than she thought. Dale is a traitor and she will prove it. The boss blinks twice for yes and Erica runs out of the office to put out the fire on her pants.
Meanwhile, Chad Decker's conniving scheme to get the Vs in the palm of his hand involves a... pro and con panel on his television show. Chad has a pro-V advocate pitted against an anti-V activist. That's not a scheme, it's a Sunday talk show and you, Chad, are no George Stephanopoulos. Up on the mothership, Anna and her assistant watch in horror as someone says bad things about them and then someone else says good things about them. How could Chad be so cruel? Gah... Blair Waldorf could have done a lot better than this pathetic plot.
Erica goes to find Father Jack at his church. She wants to apologize for walking away from him, but he's not really interested, which seems unseemly for a priest. Erica then non sequiturs that she can't stop thinking about all the people Dale lied to: her, their friends, his wife. The idea that Dale was married startles Jack. I guess in the Catholic Church's view of marriage, an interspecies alliance is probably up their with same-sex marriage. I wonder if the Vs can produce offspring with humans? Jack swears he is done with the V resistance. He just wants things to go back to normal, but Erica reminds him that there is no normal anymore and he is the only person who has passed the Skull Test. Jack doesn't fall for it. He needs to help his parishioners, not the entire human race.
Agent Erica goes over to talk to Dale's wife. She explains that they went through his phone records but couldn't find any calls to her. Did they live in a loveless lizard marriage? His wife reveals that Dale had a separate phone for personal calls. Handy that she brought her highlighted phone bill to the coffee shop where she is meeting Erica. Of course, I always carry around at least three months of utility bills on my person at all times. Erica sees that two numbers are repeated again and again. Erica asks if Dale has been acting odd in anyway, perhaps related to the arrival of the Visitors? His wife's not sure. Dale was always sort of cold-blooded and unblinking, it's hard to tell what it was related to.
Speaking of cold-blooded and unblinking, Ryan is blinking on the floor of the garage where he passed out when Angelo drugged him. He stands up groggily, but Angelo is gone. Ryan limps out.
At FBI HQ, Erica lays out the evidence for her bossman. The number on the phone records his wife provided are to a dead-end untraceable number. He would call that number twenty or thirty minutes before the FBI raided. Erica tracked it case by case and every time they were about to make a raid, Dale would make a tip-off call. It's pretty good proof and the boss believes her. Erica doesn't think Dale will ever show his face again.
Ryan rushes home to Val, but she's not there. His phone rings and it is Angelo the literal drug pusher. Angelo explains that he can't trust anyone and he needed to check Ryan out. Their apartment is so big that Ryan is still looking for Val while he talks to Angelo. Angelo thinks that if Ryan loves Val he needs to get as far away from her as possible to protect her from the bad guys. Ryan thinks he can protect her better if he stays close, but Angelo recites a stalker's survey of information that he gleaned from the magical Google about Val and freaks the tuna salad out of Ryan. He wouldn't hurt Val, but the Vs would and if he can use Google, so can they. Ryan looks anxious.
Speaking of anxious, Tyler is practically peeing his pants because the guards won't let him into the Visitors Visitor Center and Lisa won't talk to him. She caves and explains that "the Council" wants to kick him out of the Ambassador program for conduct unbecoming a Junior Peace Ambassador. He doesn't understand so she puts it in smaller words: No fighting in uniform. He is so distraught that he has disappointed the lovely Lisa, but there is nothing she can do -- it's up to the Council. She bids him farewell leaving him standing at the gate looking forlorn (and blue balled.) At least he has her picture.
In the hallway of the mothership, Chad is getting the old what-for from the secretarial pool. Chad doesn't abide getting chastised by people below his pay grade, even if they are leaping lizards who could totally be making him see snakes if they wanted to. When Anna finally arrives, they don't move into an office or conference room or anything. Instead she glowers at him and he calmly explains that his panel was totally rigged in favor of the pro-V side. He did it for them! Now the public trusts him because they think he is balanced and fair when really he is completely pro Visitor and he votes. He lifts up his lapel to show a small V pin. Well, not really. He explains that he can't influence the government, but he can affect public opinion. And if Anna would bother to look at the insta-polls she would see an uptick in public opinion surrounding the normalization of diplomatic ties with the Vs all thanks to him. GIVE HIM A FRENCHIE ALREADY, LADY! He did this to help them and it was a freebie. The time they want his help, it will be on his terms. He walks off, leaving them wanting more. Which is all good, but someone has to fly the space shuttle back to Earth. He is going to be so embarrassed when he has to walk back and ask for the keys. Back on earth, Chad announces that the U.S. government voted to normalize relations with the Visitors. This means that a limited number of Vs are going to be granted visas that will give them the right to travel within the United States. He cuts live to Anna who is broadcasting her enormous face down over Manhattan. Broadcasting your face shows a lot of confidence in your skin care regime. Hopefully they will share their advanced pore reduction technology with earthlings, too. She is humbled by the generosity and faith shown by the American government and it will be rewarded. Pretty sure that means you will be eaten last. Down on terra firma, Father Jack and Father Travis are watching television and Father Travis praises the government's move. Father Jack can't believe Father Travis is such a dipshit. At the television studio, Chad Decker strides proudly away from his desk when his phone rings. It's Anna. She just wanted to thank him. Then she hangs up. There was nothing more to say. Chad stares at his iPhone trying to figure out if he just dropped a call or whether that was really all she had to say. She's SO playing hard to get.
Erica leaves FBI HQ and is surprised to see Father Jack in his civvies waiting for her. They walk and talk and Father Jack explains that when he heard that the government decided to allow aliens to walk freely, he felt sick to his stomach. Erica agrees. Father Jack continues that he knows they can't win the war knocking off one V at a time. Erica stops him, "We?" Yep, Father Jack has fallen off the do-nothing bandwagon and reenlisted because after the announcement of diplomatic relations, he is terrified to do nothing. Erica points out that he has now sworn twice in her presence. Oh don't worry Erica, I have no doubt you two will be kissing it out by the end of the season. Erica pulls out a giant stack of papers that she swiped from the Visitor Threat Assessment Joint Task Force. It is a list of every single person who ever called into the FBI about an alien threat. She's pretty sure they can find some compatriots on that list.
Val is home safe with Ryan. Her therapy business is taking off because of the Visitors. Ryan shows her his almost-healed scar. As they sit on the couch, Val notices that one of their photos is upside down. When she picks it up a piece of paper falls out with a name and an address. Ryan picks it up and looks contemplative. Val responds with suspicion when he claims it is just a guy he used to know. But she's always suspicious so it's a total snooze fest. It's a guy he used to know -- in the diamond business! He distracts her with kisses and she totally falls for it.
Erica knocks on her idiot son's door and finds him pretending to be hard at work. She stupidly thanks him for keeping his promise about staying away from the Vs. Like, how does she know? She's been out all day. And it's only been a day, why thank him now? Anyway he smiles up at her. The second she leaves he flips on his phone and looks at the picture of Lisa. A single tear runs down his cheek. Downstairs, Erica opens up a confidential file on her partner. She shreds Dale's picture and starts reading. Up on the mothership, Dale's body is lying -to naked on a table. He opens his eyes.
Get the inside scoop on V's behind-the-scenes turmoil from star Joel Gretsch (who happens to be William Shatner's son-in-law).
Lulu Bates a.k.a. Melissa Locker is a writer and radio producer living in Brooklyn, U.S.A. She misses the hairstyles of the original V series. You can follow her insights on Twitter @woolyknickers.