Greetings-
Pre-Show:
Last week we added another member to the resistance. A scientist, Dr. Sidney Miller (Bret Harrison from Reaper) found a Visitor skeleton a couple years ago that, according to carbon dating, was about 50 years old. Our heroes find him and recruit him to be a member of the resistance. TV personality Chad Decker (Scott Wolf from Party of Five) also seems to be completely on board with the resistance after learning of the experiments done on the people of the Visitor Live Aboard program on the motherships. We also found out that Erica may have been experimented on by the Visitors years ago while she was pregnant with Tyler. I'm guessing this is why Tyler is so important to Anna's plan. We also learned that Joshua (leader of the 5th Column on the NY mothership) was healed before he could die of his wounds, but he seems to have no memory of being a part of the 5th Column.
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!-King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4
In this week's episode, Serpent's Tooth, we might get a little payoff from what we learned last week. Here's what TV Guide says about tonight's
episode:
Diana (Jane Badler) faces off with Anna on the mother ship; Erica has Tyler's blood tested, and learns that something sinister happened while she was pregnant with him.
I'm really digging the casting of Jane Badler as Anna's mother. Ms. Badler still has the ability to get me breathing a little heavier after all these years. I've also heard that Marc Singer will be playing a part in the series toward the end of this season (still no word if there will be a season 3 or not). I'll be back with my reaction in a bit.
Post-Show:
We find out tonight from Diana that the Visitors have known about Earth since the first atomic bomb was detonated. Diana used to be the Queen 15 years ago until Anna seized power and had her locked up in the bowels of the ship for becoming "infected" with human emotion. Diana's plan was to create a new home for the Visitors and to interbreed with the humans. Diana knew that her plan would fail when it became clear that interbreeding would create a new generation of free thinkers that would never bow to a queen. Anna wants to continue the plan by eradicating emotion.
Erica gets a blood sample from Tyler by swiping a piece of toilet tissue with some of his blood on it due to a shaving cut and brings it to Sid for analysis. We saw Ryan attending the funeral of his wife. It seems that Val's parents blame Ryan for their daughter's death because she got pregnant with her heart problem. Ryan blames himself for other reasons. Anna sends an envoy to give Ryan an access card of some sort so he can see his daughter. Chad keeps up the facade of being visitor friendly while putting a seed of doubt into a young mother to be who is about to have her baby delivered with nothing buy Visitor tech. We also find out that words from trusted religious leaders can have terrible consequences when there is a rash of suicide bombings at Visitor Embassies across the world. The FBI assumes that these suicide attacks were ordered by the Fifth Column.
Back on the New York mother ship, we see Anna putting human skin on Ryan and Valerie's baby in order to prey on Ryan's vulnerable state. Anna is planning on using Ryan's vulnerabilities when it comes to his family in order to turn him against the resistance. We also finally get to see a Visitor chow down on a rat as we find out how the Visitors feed their young (think of a mama bird feeding her babies...yuck)!
Back at resistance HQ Hobbes is trying to convince Erica and Father Jack that they need to recruit the people that carried out the suicide attacks. Father Jack and Erica are horrified at this, but Ryan shows up and convinces them to reach out to the others and convince them to fight the war a different way. Not sure if Ryan is falling for Anna's scheme or not, so I don't really trust him at this point, but it could just be a red herring.
Back on the NY mother ship, Anna is accessing Joshua's memories to find out who destroyed her eggs. Erica's face shows up on the screen. Turns out though that the last thing he remembers is getting shot by Erica and his near death experience has wiped out all other recent memories. That's really too bad in my opinion as it would have forced the resistance to go completely underground. This cat and mouse game between Erica and Anna is getting a little bit old. Diana lets Anna in on the secret to controlling the humans...the soul. Anna vows to find the soul and destroy it. Meanwhile, Father Jack speaks to Ryan who doubts that he has a soul and tells him that the soul is not a thing that can be analyzed or measured by science.
We found out that Chad Decker is a target of the radical 5th columnists because of his closeness to Anna. The visitors have tracked down a lead as to who the leader of the radical might be and the FBI has a bombing suspect in custody who leads Erica to the same person that the Visitors are after. Visitor FBI agent arrives at the warehouse first, and Hobbes shows up moments later. Hobbes gets the drop on the Visitor and knocks a tooth, a big nasty Visitor tooth, out of her with his gun. Erica shows up and Hobbes saves her from walking into an ambush.
Looks like they found the right place...the rest of the FBI shows up and finds bomb vests, shipping labels, blank passports, and all sorts of other evidence. Hobbes calls Erica with an address and says he'll meet her there. Erica's boss sends Erica and Malik (secret Visitor) off to that same address found on a shipping label. Chad finds video evidence that Agent Malik is working with the Visitors and brings that evidence to Father Jack telling him that Erica is in danger. Erica and Malik are on the way to the address when Erica notices the blood on Malik's shirt from earlier when Hobbes hit her. Malik notices that Erika has seen the blood and pulls a gun. Erika fights for control of the gun and wrecks the car.
Anna continues to manipulate Ryan by using his daughter against him. He says he will do anything to get Anna to ease his daughter's suffering.
Anna visits her mother to brag about Joshua knowing what to look for, but Diana reminds Anna that it's just a matter of time before she too is "infected" by human emotion and that time is running out.
Looks like next week things come to a head. We see that Erika and Hobbes have taken Malik prisoner, and Sid has the results from Tyler's blood sample. Anna's daughter, Lisa, is changing.
Was hoping for more in tonight's episode, but I guess I'll wait until next week.
Plot hole: Diana reveals that Anna is infertile. How? Didn't Anna just lay a buttload of eggs last season? Or do the Visitors only get to lay one batch of eggs in their lifetime?
Dropped plotline: Are we ever going to get back to Hobbes and Marcus working togther on some type of plan (I assume that Marcus is tired of being Anna's yes-man and is looking at gaining leverage over her in some way)?
Until next time,
-Bill
