Sunday disaster night. V, episode 3.
Mar. 22nd, 2010 10:05 amSunday evening is rapidly becoming "disaster night" on channel 9. Which is great for me, as I love disaster-themed series and telemovies and other such things.
First off, episode three of V. With additional commentary via text message by myself and
astrocave (again).
The episode opened with the aliens waving bright shiny diplomatic passports with US visas in them. Um, right. Because when you're hovering over 29 major cities in your Ginormous Space Ships you really need visas for entry to individual countries. I'm still amazed by the lack of mass panic in the streets actually, I'd be holed up in a remote cave somewhere by now.
The priest is hearing confessions, which range from "the aliens are ace!" to "OMG OMG OMG aliens" via "who am I to question the Pope?" (Me to Dean: I do that all the time. Dean: doesn't count, you're not Catholic.)
The FBI agent is at home, trying to work her way through the records of the nutters who'd rung in previously with information about aliens to see if any of them had been at the secret busted warehouse meeting a couple of nights ago.
astrocave:You don't think the FBI wouldn't already have checked the database? Like, automatically?
The doorbell rang - and there is the priest. This guy does not get the concept of Secret Resistance Cell. I mean, really Does. Not. Get. This. Concept. Mostly he wants someone to talk to about his doubts, and really, huh?! You know they're lizards who are out to kill you! You know they've been here secretly for ages! What's to doubt?!?!? Oh, OK, he's wondering why they didn't just go down the 'kill them outright' route. Me too. FBI agent postulates that they need us for something. Meat is better freshly killed? Hm.
FBI agent gets a phone call and has to rush off suddenly to the Peace Centre as there's been a death threat against the Vs. (Just the one?) She leaves the priest to keep going through the records.
hnpcc: Did she just give the priest access to the fbi db? Also, worst secret resistance cell ever!
The guy who survived the warehouse massacre meets up with the black resistance alien. I'm going to have to find out people's names at some stage. There's a mythical resistance alien fighter named John May. OK.
The FBI agent is at the Peace Centre being briefed on the lone plausible death threat. Sheesh, Obama manages more plausible death threats per day than extra-terrestrial visitors apparently do. She's partnered with a V to work in the centre. She's not happy about this.
astrocave:But she already has a V partner!
hnpcc: Yeah but he's deadish.
She does manage to get into their surveillance centre though, which looks... lame. Also, not as good as the one she glimpses across the corridor behind the keypad-entry door. (Um, keypad entry? Why not go DNA coding for extra security?)
Speaking of Wash, he's waking up properly. He was stabbed but V hearts aren't in the same place as human hearts. In more ways than one, obviously. He's also apparently been a sleeper agent for 20 years. Did these aliens get together and plan with the Cylons or something? What is is it with this long-term sleeper agent planning thing? If earth gets nuked we know they definitely were in on it.
Anna (hey I know one character's name! And she doesn't look anything like Inara, which is probably the different shaped eyebrows and lack of blinking) is watching a news report about the new face of the resistance, a widow named Mary something whose husband was among the fighter pilots killed when the aliens arrived. Anna is displeased by the idea of a visible resistance, and wants information on Mary.
Dweeb son drops off his friend at the Peace Centre, just in time for his Mom to miss seeing him. Lucky for him!
The priest manages to recognise the guy who was leading the warehouse revolution. He promptly rings the FBI agent and leaves a voicemail message. Secret Resistance. Which part of this is difficult?!
astrocave Hey, she didn't give the priest access to the DB, she PRINTED OUT EVERY RECORD
OK, this text made me laugh for about 5 minutes. All of the ad break, basically.
hnpcc: I'm with the why not just kill us now mob.
astrocave: I know I would.
Black alien resistance fighter goes off to meet Cyrus, who was the B&E card-leaving guy from the previous episode. He also apparently was a resistance fighter. B.A.R.F. (oops, terrible acronym - now I really do have to find out the character name, because I like this guy!) "jokes" that he has 29 reasons to see Cyrus.
Anna is meeting with the 29 ships captains, telling them to be friendly and non-threatening while hovering above major urban centres. Peace and love, people! Up to when we nuke them.
hnpcc: Not suspicious at all. And terrible carbon footprint!
Wash is trying to remember what happened. He was so beat up that whoever failed to kill him saw his lizard skin, and is therefore aware that he is less human than he seems.
Anna is getting information on Mary, preparing to stop the visible face of resistance.
The priest has gone to the warehouse guy's house in the nicely and clearly labelled parish car.
hnpcc:Thank god the priest wasn't in a closed society, worst resistance fighter ever!!!
astrocave:Re "worst resistance cell ever". Tribulation Force?
hnpcc:They probably had the church name on the car door too...
He wanders in and sees newspaper clippings of a multiple murder pinned to the walls. I'd be a little worried about warehouse guy about now. A neighbour arrives and asks what he's doing, if he's counselling warehouse guy about the murder of his family. He fails to lie and visibly falters along the lines of "uh, no, um, I'm just a friend and priest". OMG this guy is terrible at lying. Even for a priest. Can we dump him from the resistance now please? Before he gets everyone killed?
hnpcc: Every time I think he can't get worse...
astrocave: "Are you counselling him?" "Yes, yes I am"
Cyrus and BARF (whose name is actually Ryan, thank you IMDB) are still catching up until Cyrus pulls a gun and tries to turn Ryan in to the Vs so he can get more Bliss. Apparently Anna's a pusher of Bliss and he's been promised they'll (a) let him live despite his betrayal of them and (b) give him lots of Bliss if he turns in at least 5 turncoats. I'm getting confused. Anna controls the aliens with Bliss? Is this guy reptile or human? What?
hnpcc: Are the 5th column human then?
astrocave: Hang on, Anna's drugging all the aliens? There's just one bad guy? That makes it much... simpler
Ryan gets the gun and points out to Cyrus that Bliss only works if you're alive. And if they're both aliens then he knows where Cyrus's heart really is.
astrocave: Are they human? Is there only one black V?
FBI agent notices a guard missing, spots the shooter almost immediately despite him wearing a V jacket, and single-handedly prevents him from killing anyone even though he's managed to draw his gun. It's amazing how (a) the FBI has one agent total there and (b) how shooters never just, you know, shoot.
hnpcc: Yes to pt2. Worst shooter ever. Pull gun, fire quickly!
astrocave: Nooooo, he's got a guuuuunnnn
The V's take the non-shooter into custody, FBI agent's boss explaining that "it's complicated". What, they're effectively on V diplomatic soil and they were expecting the FBI would take custody? Huh?
hnpcc:That's not complicated!
FBI agent hands him over, and goes off to "wait" for her boss "outside". By which she means "break into the secret surveillance room via the keypad entry" (*eyeroll*) which she managed to see the code for during her microsecond glimpse of it earlier. There's a room full of pictures floating mid-air, which are all surveillance covering New York. She pulls one to make it larger and you can hear conversations. She realises she's on one and tracks it down to the flash on a Visitor's jacket, which is hanging on the door.
astrocave: Noisy TV screens. They go whoosh when you change channel. And I think we just found out why their cameras are so shit
hnpcc: well the camera is apparently an organic strip which wouldn't help...
astrocave: Yeah not so good on the focus
hnpcc: Also, boob height camera.
astrocave: That's where people look
hnpcc: Yeah but usually from above.
FBI agent sneaks out, just in time to miss seeing her dweeb son and Lisa-the-sexy-alien who've just hooked up again. Both in V uniforms.
hnpcc: How did both Lisa and the son end up in the same shot?
astrocave: Her name is Lisa?
hnpcc: Yep!
astrocave: What's his name?
hnpcc: No idea. Dweeb?
astrocave: Let us call him that then
astrocave: Are we only now learning their names? 3rd episode?
hnpcc: No they've mentioned them before.
We just weren't paying attention, obviously.
Wash is wandering through a recreation of his office, in an attempt to jog his memory and find out who knows he's an alien. He refers to his wife, Erica. Actually his wife's name isn't Erica, that would be the FBI agent's name. Another character name! Yay! Wash has a sudden flashback of Erica hitting him with a pole from episode 1, and swears he'll kill her. He's apparently not happy about having been almost killed. He's also a lot creepier than he was on Firefly.
hnpcc: Am barracking for wash to kill erica.
Anna practices talking about how sad she is that anyone was killed when they arrived. Then she meets Mary, the widow, and practices some more on her.
Wash is ranting about killing Erica. Unfortunately the alien he's ranting to turns out to be a 5th columnist and drugs him. D'oh!
hnpcc: bugger.
Mary gives a speech about how wonderful the aliens are, and how they only want to be friends and no one was supposed to get hurt. I suspect she may have been Blissed. Particularly when Anna starts going on about how Mary's husband died "defending peace". Or trying to repel an alien invasion, definitely one of those two.
hnpcc: How quick was that for conversion?
astrocave: "something changed." That'd be the mind control
hnpcc: Bliss!
The priest finally meets up with warehouse guy, who's wondering why this priest in a clearly-labelled parish car (who probably gave the neighbour his card as well) is looking for him. Warehouse guy pulls a gun on him. You know, I think it would be defensible from a resistance point of view if he shot him, actually. You know, for security reasons.
And sure enough he did give the neighbour his card. *bangs head on wall* This guy is unbelievably bad at undercover work. Warehouse guy doesn't shoot him, despite thinking that maybe the Vs followed him to the meeting. Yeah, I'd be wondering that about now myself. But no, they're teaming up so Warehouse guy can meet Erica, who he probably assumes is more competent or something. Assumption is the mother of all ****ups. (Thank you Under Siege 2).
astrocave: You gonna watch "Survivors"?
hnpcc: Um... Probably. And "clash of the titans"...
astrocave: Also in 2d!
Ad break over and Anna's still on about "we come in peace" while the news guy (the one from Party of Five), who hasn't really featured this episode, watches.
Anna's PA is at Cyrus's place, where there's a dusty outline on the floor (V's are vampires? Or did Ryan just take the body with him?) and "John May Lives!" graffiti-ed on the wall. Anna's PA is all "there can be no peace". Not while this wanton graffiti-ing continues. Obviously he's worked on public transport or at a high school before becoming an alien PA.
Dweeb and Lisa-the-sexy-alien have gone back to his place where he's showing her his room. They start kissing.
hnpcc: Eeeuw lizard tongue... The look on her face was totally 'your room stinks!'
astrocave: Yes, and she smells with her tongue!
Erica arrives home, Dweeb freaks and strips out of his V uniform jacket, telling Lisa to hide because his Mom's not aware of his extra-curricular V activities. Erica gets suss as topless Dweeb totally fails to convince her nothing is going on and storms into his bedroom, discovering Lisa in her undergarments. Erica is kind of freaked, tells Dweeb to drive Lisa home and retreats. Lisa tells Dweeb it was better that his Mom see her in her knickers than a V uniform. Dweeb appreciates this. Or the sight of her in undergarments. Or probably both.
Anna is watching the news guy talking about how the V's ratings have gone up (in New York at least - I'm not as sure the ratings in Paris would have been affected. Particularly not by the offer of a health care system in episode 1) after the attempted assassination and Mary the widow forgiving them all. Anna turns to the not-shooter and thanks him for an excellent job well done.
Erica and the priest meet up with warehouse guy and Ryan. Wow, 2/4 names! The priest states that they need to be careful because the V's have camera-jackets. Oh and can tap the phones, have easily breakable surveillance drones that can kill you, have a large population of sleeper agents who look human... but no, worry about the camera-jackets.
hnpcc: Now he works out they need to be careful!!!
Erica needs to talk to her son about having semi-naked girls in his room.
astrocave: Tyler = dweeb
Lisa goes to talk to her Mum, Anna.
hnpcc: Lisa = spawn. Hm.
astrocave: And can I point out, that compared to the original there's precious few rayguns and rat eating.
hnpcc: Want more rat eating!
Apparently next week the resistance does something other than be massacred! The fighting begins! Warehouses explode! There had better be rayguns, rat eating and alien phrenology.
First off, episode three of V. With additional commentary via text message by myself and
The episode opened with the aliens waving bright shiny diplomatic passports with US visas in them. Um, right. Because when you're hovering over 29 major cities in your Ginormous Space Ships you really need visas for entry to individual countries. I'm still amazed by the lack of mass panic in the streets actually, I'd be holed up in a remote cave somewhere by now.
The priest is hearing confessions, which range from "the aliens are ace!" to "OMG OMG OMG aliens" via "who am I to question the Pope?" (Me to Dean: I do that all the time. Dean: doesn't count, you're not Catholic.)
The FBI agent is at home, trying to work her way through the records of the nutters who'd rung in previously with information about aliens to see if any of them had been at the secret busted warehouse meeting a couple of nights ago.
The doorbell rang - and there is the priest. This guy does not get the concept of Secret Resistance Cell. I mean, really Does. Not. Get. This. Concept. Mostly he wants someone to talk to about his doubts, and really, huh?! You know they're lizards who are out to kill you! You know they've been here secretly for ages! What's to doubt?!?!? Oh, OK, he's wondering why they didn't just go down the 'kill them outright' route. Me too. FBI agent postulates that they need us for something. Meat is better freshly killed? Hm.
FBI agent gets a phone call and has to rush off suddenly to the Peace Centre as there's been a death threat against the Vs. (Just the one?) She leaves the priest to keep going through the records.
The guy who survived the warehouse massacre meets up with the black resistance alien. I'm going to have to find out people's names at some stage. There's a mythical resistance alien fighter named John May. OK.
The FBI agent is at the Peace Centre being briefed on the lone plausible death threat. Sheesh, Obama manages more plausible death threats per day than extra-terrestrial visitors apparently do. She's partnered with a V to work in the centre. She's not happy about this.
She does manage to get into their surveillance centre though, which looks... lame. Also, not as good as the one she glimpses across the corridor behind the keypad-entry door. (Um, keypad entry? Why not go DNA coding for extra security?)
Speaking of Wash, he's waking up properly. He was stabbed but V hearts aren't in the same place as human hearts. In more ways than one, obviously. He's also apparently been a sleeper agent for 20 years. Did these aliens get together and plan with the Cylons or something? What is is it with this long-term sleeper agent planning thing? If earth gets nuked we know they definitely were in on it.
Anna (hey I know one character's name! And she doesn't look anything like Inara, which is probably the different shaped eyebrows and lack of blinking) is watching a news report about the new face of the resistance, a widow named Mary something whose husband was among the fighter pilots killed when the aliens arrived. Anna is displeased by the idea of a visible resistance, and wants information on Mary.
Dweeb son drops off his friend at the Peace Centre, just in time for his Mom to miss seeing him. Lucky for him!
The priest manages to recognise the guy who was leading the warehouse revolution. He promptly rings the FBI agent and leaves a voicemail message. Secret Resistance. Which part of this is difficult?!
OK, this text made me laugh for about 5 minutes. All of the ad break, basically.
Black alien resistance fighter goes off to meet Cyrus, who was the B&E card-leaving guy from the previous episode. He also apparently was a resistance fighter. B.A.R.F. (oops, terrible acronym - now I really do have to find out the character name, because I like this guy!) "jokes" that he has 29 reasons to see Cyrus.
Anna is meeting with the 29 ships captains, telling them to be friendly and non-threatening while hovering above major urban centres. Peace and love, people! Up to when we nuke them.
Wash is trying to remember what happened. He was so beat up that whoever failed to kill him saw his lizard skin, and is therefore aware that he is less human than he seems.
Anna is getting information on Mary, preparing to stop the visible face of resistance.
The priest has gone to the warehouse guy's house in the nicely and clearly labelled parish car.
He wanders in and sees newspaper clippings of a multiple murder pinned to the walls. I'd be a little worried about warehouse guy about now. A neighbour arrives and asks what he's doing, if he's counselling warehouse guy about the murder of his family. He fails to lie and visibly falters along the lines of "uh, no, um, I'm just a friend and priest". OMG this guy is terrible at lying. Even for a priest. Can we dump him from the resistance now please? Before he gets everyone killed?
Cyrus and BARF (whose name is actually Ryan, thank you IMDB) are still catching up until Cyrus pulls a gun and tries to turn Ryan in to the Vs so he can get more Bliss. Apparently Anna's a pusher of Bliss and he's been promised they'll (a) let him live despite his betrayal of them and (b) give him lots of Bliss if he turns in at least 5 turncoats. I'm getting confused. Anna controls the aliens with Bliss? Is this guy reptile or human? What?
Ryan gets the gun and points out to Cyrus that Bliss only works if you're alive. And if they're both aliens then he knows where Cyrus's heart really is.
FBI agent notices a guard missing, spots the shooter almost immediately despite him wearing a V jacket, and single-handedly prevents him from killing anyone even though he's managed to draw his gun. It's amazing how (a) the FBI has one agent total there and (b) how shooters never just, you know, shoot.
The V's take the non-shooter into custody, FBI agent's boss explaining that "it's complicated". What, they're effectively on V diplomatic soil and they were expecting the FBI would take custody? Huh?
FBI agent hands him over, and goes off to "wait" for her boss "outside". By which she means "break into the secret surveillance room via the keypad entry" (*eyeroll*) which she managed to see the code for during her microsecond glimpse of it earlier. There's a room full of pictures floating mid-air, which are all surveillance covering New York. She pulls one to make it larger and you can hear conversations. She realises she's on one and tracks it down to the flash on a Visitor's jacket, which is hanging on the door.
FBI agent sneaks out, just in time to miss seeing her dweeb son and Lisa-the-sexy-alien who've just hooked up again. Both in V uniforms.
We just weren't paying attention, obviously.
Wash is wandering through a recreation of his office, in an attempt to jog his memory and find out who knows he's an alien. He refers to his wife, Erica. Actually his wife's name isn't Erica, that would be the FBI agent's name. Another character name! Yay! Wash has a sudden flashback of Erica hitting him with a pole from episode 1, and swears he'll kill her. He's apparently not happy about having been almost killed. He's also a lot creepier than he was on Firefly.
Anna practices talking about how sad she is that anyone was killed when they arrived. Then she meets Mary, the widow, and practices some more on her.
Wash is ranting about killing Erica. Unfortunately the alien he's ranting to turns out to be a 5th columnist and drugs him. D'oh!
Mary gives a speech about how wonderful the aliens are, and how they only want to be friends and no one was supposed to get hurt. I suspect she may have been Blissed. Particularly when Anna starts going on about how Mary's husband died "defending peace". Or trying to repel an alien invasion, definitely one of those two.
The priest finally meets up with warehouse guy, who's wondering why this priest in a clearly-labelled parish car (who probably gave the neighbour his card as well) is looking for him. Warehouse guy pulls a gun on him. You know, I think it would be defensible from a resistance point of view if he shot him, actually. You know, for security reasons.
And sure enough he did give the neighbour his card. *bangs head on wall* This guy is unbelievably bad at undercover work. Warehouse guy doesn't shoot him, despite thinking that maybe the Vs followed him to the meeting. Yeah, I'd be wondering that about now myself. But no, they're teaming up so Warehouse guy can meet Erica, who he probably assumes is more competent or something. Assumption is the mother of all ****ups. (Thank you Under Siege 2).
Ad break over and Anna's still on about "we come in peace" while the news guy (the one from Party of Five), who hasn't really featured this episode, watches.
Anna's PA is at Cyrus's place, where there's a dusty outline on the floor (V's are vampires? Or did Ryan just take the body with him?) and "John May Lives!" graffiti-ed on the wall. Anna's PA is all "there can be no peace". Not while this wanton graffiti-ing continues. Obviously he's worked on public transport or at a high school before becoming an alien PA.
Dweeb and Lisa-the-sexy-alien have gone back to his place where he's showing her his room. They start kissing.
Erica arrives home, Dweeb freaks and strips out of his V uniform jacket, telling Lisa to hide because his Mom's not aware of his extra-curricular V activities. Erica gets suss as topless Dweeb totally fails to convince her nothing is going on and storms into his bedroom, discovering Lisa in her undergarments. Erica is kind of freaked, tells Dweeb to drive Lisa home and retreats. Lisa tells Dweeb it was better that his Mom see her in her knickers than a V uniform. Dweeb appreciates this. Or the sight of her in undergarments. Or probably both.
Anna is watching the news guy talking about how the V's ratings have gone up (in New York at least - I'm not as sure the ratings in Paris would have been affected. Particularly not by the offer of a health care system in episode 1) after the attempted assassination and Mary the widow forgiving them all. Anna turns to the not-shooter and thanks him for an excellent job well done.
Erica and the priest meet up with warehouse guy and Ryan. Wow, 2/4 names! The priest states that they need to be careful because the V's have camera-jackets. Oh and can tap the phones, have easily breakable surveillance drones that can kill you, have a large population of sleeper agents who look human... but no, worry about the camera-jackets.
Erica needs to talk to her son about having semi-naked girls in his room.
Lisa goes to talk to her Mum, Anna.
Apparently next week the resistance does something other than be massacred! The fighting begins! Warehouses explode! There had better be rayguns, rat eating and alien phrenology.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-23 02:51 am (UTC)these aliens, who are taking over Earth to use humans as... what, cattle?... took the time and trouble to get PASSPORTS and CORRECT VISAS?
Really??
no, really?
suspension of disbelief shattered.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-23 06:51 am (UTC)