Episode Report Card LuluBates: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT V is for Vendetta
By LuluBates | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 11.10.2009
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.
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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 next. Erica thinks they fight fight fight and try not to die. Just then they see a shuttle leave the Vs' mothership and land next 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...
