V 1.11: "Fruition"

“The less you give them, the more they want.”
-Anna

“Fruition” was an okay, but not stellar, episode of “V.” I think the episode was mostly saved by the masterful interplay between Morena Baccarin and Elizabeth Mitchell as they were essentially dueling mama bears. The episode mostly dealt with the aftermath of Lisa’s “attack,” which Anna is playing up as a Fifth Column act of violence, even though her own henchmen were truly responsible for the injuries. There’s basically a lot of nefarious planning and not a lot of action going on in this episode. In that sense, it’s a little on the slow side, and since the show hasn’t really done all that much work to develop the characters as unique individuals, slow isn’t really good. As an aside, as I start checking off all my complaints in the last few episodes recapped on the blog, I’m beginning to see why my recapping pace slowed so drastically. This was generally just a really crappy week in television, and it’s hard to work up the motivation to relive these episodes. The things I do for my (few? any?) readers!

Anyway, as I said already, this episode begins with the aftermath of the “attack” on Lisa. Lisa is found in an alley, her face badly bruised with a “V” slashed into her cheek and her legs broken. An attack on a Visitor is a big deal, so she’s taken to a Healing Center and the FBI immediately gets involved. Erica is shocked to see Lisa when she arrives at the Healing Center. She didn’t realize her son’s girlfriend was a V. Her motherly instinct kicks in, and she cradles and comforts the clearly still hurting Lisa. Lisa softens at the gesture. It’s clear that she has never experienced parental affection before. This is interestingly contrasted with Lisa’s first encounter with Anna, her actual mother, following the attack. Anna cradles Lisa much like Erica did, but she has a knowing smirk on her face as she does it, while Erica’s face showed genuine concern. Anna’s relationship with Lisa is Erica’s second big shock of the day, and I love the subtly menacing conversation between both moms. Each basically makes it clear that they should stay away from the other’s child if they want to live.

Lisa is quick to identify her attackers, and it’s painfully obvious to Erica that Lisa is not telling the truth. Mostly because Hobbes is being framed yet again. Lisa identified two suspects, though. The second turns out to be a scientist named Parker. Hobbes had been hired to kill Parker a few months back, although obviously, he never had a chance to finish the job. Hobbes rifles through Parker’s apartment and finds some very interesting information on his computer. Parker and some colleagues had been working on some scientific experiments that could potentially be very dangerous to the Visitors.

Back at the Healing Center, Erica finally meets Joshua, who has come down from the Mothership to supervise Lisa’s Healing. Joshua tells Erica that Anna is responsible for Lisa’s injuries, and Erica is shocked and appalled. The information makes Erica more purposeful as she undertakes the mission of finding Parker and figuring out what makes him important enough that the Visitors want him dead. Thanks to some intel from Hobbes, Erica does manage to find Parker just as the reset of the FBI is about to close in. Parker reveals that a compound he and his colleagues were working on was a virus to many lifeforms, possibly including reptiles (like the Visitors). Now we have an explanation for why they wanted him dead, and the only possible way our little Resistance could ever win the day. Well, although boringly, played.

Throughout the episode, Anna has been scheming, as always. As the drama surrounding Lisa escalates, she decides to shut Chad out. She’s giving her own press conferences and not inviting Chad to be involved. When the media fervor around Lisa’s attack is at its height, Anna announce that the V will be leaving Earth. Chad still can’t get an audience with Anna, and in his desperation, he makes a plea on Prime Focus for his viewers to tell the government that they need to do more to support the Visitors in the hopes that the Visitors will change their mind and stay. Anna shut Chad out hoping something exactly like this would happen, of course, and her plan works exactly as intended. I’d like for one of Anna’s nefarious schemes to go horribly wrong for once, really. It’s time to switch up the formula a bit. Anyway, the United States agrees to form a Joint Task Force to help the Visitors hunt down Fifth Colum, and anyone suspected of being Fifth Column will be remanded to the Visitors for questioning before trial. Oh and Erica has been tapped to head the FBI contingent of the Task Force, naturally.

Once Parker is caught by the FBI (Erica has to quickly act like she got to the apartment ahead of time and was already in the process of arresting him), it’s time for a line-up. Erica is hoping that she can guilt Lisa into telling the truth instead of just obeying Anna’s orders. And she almost succeeds. Lisa is about to tell Erica something important (probably that she’s been lying), when Anna bursts into the room and says it’s time to get the line-up over with. That shatter’s the little bit of progress Erica had made, and Lisa identifies Parker as her attacker. The story of Parker’s arrest is all over the news, and when Tyler sees it, he’s elated. It leads to a reconciliation between Erica and Tyler, although I’m sure it’s killing Erica that Tyler still has such close association with the Visitors.

A potentially interesting little subplot in this episode is that Hobbes appears to be selling out the rest of the Resistance. He offers to sell Parker’s research to the Visitors (and it appears they’re taking him up on the offer), and he tries to convince Ryan to go back to suppressing his emotions. I think Ryan would find that difficult, as near the end of this episode, he receives a text saying that Val’s water broke. Elsewhere, Lisa is more like Ryan and Joshua than ever now. She and Joshua share a significant look as it is revealed that they are both now immune to Anna’s Bliss.