Episode Report Card M. Giant: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Lock Up Your Daughters
By M. Giant | Season 2 | Episode 10 | Aired on 03.15.2011
Up on the mothership, Diana has changed from her long red dress into a long white dress and is being escorted down one of the nonexistent corridors by Ryan and Joshua. Ryan answers a call from Erica telling them to get off the ship, since Lisa didn't do it. Why are any of these people surprised at that, let alone all of them? Ryan and Joshua want to abort, but Diana's not about to go back to her cell. "I am the rightful queen, and I will not allow my daughter to destroy our species. Gather my people!" We don't see Ryan and Joshua's reactions, but I'm sure they're thinking, "What, we're people-gatherers now?"
Down at the warehouse, Anna and Lisa step forward to meet Erica, who puts a brave face on it. Chad calls Anna over for an on-the-spot live interview so Erica can pull Lisa aside and see what she has to say for herself. Lisa says she couldn't do it. "All that preparation, humanity in the balance, and that is your answer?" I understand Erica's frustration, but her plan sucked. Lisa tells Erica that Anna's changed. "I saw it in her eyes. We can trust her." Erica asks, "What if you're wrong? She is merciless!" Lisa says, "No more merciless than you've shown you can be." She gives Erica back the blanket and walks off with the Ann-tourage. That had to hurt. Because, you know, Erica's fear of becoming her enemy blah di blah.
Diana walks to the center of a domed auditorium inside the mothership, smiling beatifically at the V subjects gathered between the radiating runways. Ryan and Joshua are there as well. Nice gathering, boys. "Hello, my children. It is your mother, Diana," she greets them. She wastes little time denouncing Anna and rolling out her own plan: "The human soul is a gift. We must embrace the soul. Embrace humanity. Together, humans and Visitors can live side by side in peace." Of course it's even more obvious than usual that this is a virtual set, not just from the computer-generated crowd but also by the fact that Diana's voice sounds like she's speaking in a living room. How about a little reverb? She raises her hands, and everyone bows as she continues, "Your rightful queen has returned to lead you on a new beginning. From this moment on--" And just then, a barbed, blood-covered V-tail erupts from her abdomen. That's a rude interruption. The other end of the tail is of course attached to Anna, who looks like she made it back. She's standing about ten feet behind Diana on the stage, flanked by Lisa and No. 2, as she angrily asks Diana, "Did you think you could outmaneuver me?" Anna's tail lifts Diana's flailing body off the stage and then flings her to the floor, which is quite a feat of balance and strength for someone the size of Morena Baccarin, secret lizard or not. It's obvious from Lisa's face that she realizes she's made a huge mistake. Ryan and Joshua look on in horror from the audience as Anna stands over her mother. "You taught me everything you know, but you never learned half of what I know." "You've just doomed us all," Diana says, and expires. Shit, what a wasted opportunity. I've been waiting all season for Diana to reveal her true evil nature and it turns out she was really good all along. This remake sucks. Anna stands over Diana for another moment, then turns and strides over to get into Lisa's face. "Now that's how you kill your mother," she says. Okay, I admit it: great line.
Coming back, Anna gives her own speech to the assembled Vs about how Diana wanted to give into the humans. "No matter what the obstacles, I will never allow that to happen. I am your queen, and I will protect you. But if anyone defies my will, they will meet the same fate as my mother." With that, she returns her attention to Lisa, who she orders taken away. Joshua and Ryan look increasingly horrified. "Now kneel!" Anna orders. Everyone kneels, including Joshua and Ryan. Joshua whispers to Ryan to get off the ship, but Ryan's all "not without my daughter." He "sneaks" out, as though being the only person moving in there wouldn't attract all kinds of attention. Lucky for him Zod-rey Hepburn is enjoying her moment too much to notice.
Ryan goes and finds Amy in her room, and they immediately recognize each other, even though she hasn't seen him since she was a highly accelerated toddler. Ryan says they have to go before Anna finds out he's here. But when he reaches for her, she steps back and snaps, "Get out," whipping out her own tail. Ryan says he's her father and he's not going to fight her. She's not buying it, especially when Ryan says Anna's been twisting things and he's only been trying to protect Amy since her mother died. Amy insists that Anna is her mother, and wraps her tail around Ryan's neck. "And you, you left me here to die! I will never let you hurt me or Anna ever again!" Ryan can't exactly argue the point, since he's being strangled and all. She gives the tail a yank, and Ryan slumps to the deck. Dead? We may never know. Or care.
Nighttime in New York. Erica comes into her house, calling for Tyler both on her cell phone and with her mouth, in case he's at home for some reason. He cheerfully and cluelessly answers his phone on the mothership, apparently having just gotten back from a shuttle flight and therefore having missed all the shipboard drama with its matricides and patricides. Erica tells him to get off the ship now. "I have kept things from you about the Visitors but it's time you knew the truth," she says. Now it's time? As she's speaking, the camera tilts down to a little crystal ball on her shelf -- which is transmitting Erica's image in real time to a computer monitor. It's being watched by Kendrick and Bolling, which isn't creepy at all. "Erica knows everything," Bolling says, and dials his phone. Back to Erica, who repeats the order to get off the ship. Tyler is pretty blown away by all these revelations we didn't get to hear Erica make, but he says he needs to hear it from Lisa, and hangs up. Because he's an idiot.
Anna and No. 2 are watching the latest Chadcast all about how everyone the world over now loves Anna and "her selfless decision to risk her own life to save her daughter's." She turns it off and smirks, "I have won the love and respect of humanity the world over. It's time to see our breeding plan to completion." She's like a frat boy who just rescued a sorority's house kitten: "I just couldn't stand to see the little critter in danger. Now let's fuck." No. 2 reminds her that Lisa's betrayed her, but Anna says they don't need Lisa. Right, Plan B.
To the incubation chamber, where Anna, Joshua, and No. 2 watch that giant stanky queen-egg pulse and wriggle. "When is she due to hatch?" No.2 asks. Right about now, I'd say. Before anyone can answer, a six-foot-tall, green, grody, four-limbed, long-tailed, Giger-headed, thorax-rocking lizard-bug bursts forth, squealing and flashing its boning-knife fangs and glowing eyes. "Put skin on my new daughter," Anna says excitedly. "Make sure she looks exactly like Lisa." Whoa, that's going to take a lot of skin.
At 5CHQ, things are looking pretty empty, and I'm not just talking about Chad. He's pacing around on his cell phone, and Jack's there, and a few other pieces of wooden furniture, but everything else is gone. Including Kyle. Erica shows up wondering what happened. Chad says he's been trying to call Kyle, but he's not answering his cell phone. Erica says she told Tyler everything -- everything, even though we didn't see it -- and yet he's still on the ship. "And it's my fault." Jack tells her not to panic, which is pretty weak sauce under the circumstances. Chad dials his phone again, because it's not like he wants to help deal with her mess. Standing over Kyle's stripped mattress with Erica, Jack says they've all messed up. "Not you," Erica insists, which is pretty generous. "You are the only one who held strong to what you believe in." Jack says it's not too late for her, which is pretty much the same thing as agreeing that she sucks, but she wants to flog the theme about how she became like her enemy, because that's one sci-fi trope nobody ever gets tired of. I'm surpri