http://www.hulu.com/watch/108493/v-recap-theres-no-normal-anymore#s-p1-sr-i1
GET TO KNOW YOUR NEW ALIEN INVADERS — ER, NEIGHBORS!
In advance of the main course of recap, I offer an appetizer platter of observations — three things we learned about The Visitors in last night's V.
THEY'RE EARLY! Gone-native alien Ryan (Morris Chestnut) — needing a patch for the painful rip to his human skin suit sustained during last week's ill-fated resistance confab — sought help from a fellow incognito ET named Angelo. As the mechanic-cum-surgeon squirted Fasting Acting Miracle-Gro Flesh gel into Ryan's gash with a Flash Gordon cocking gun, their conversation turned to the monolithic star destroyers parked in Earth's atmosphere. Newsflash! Those mothers ain't supposed to be here… yet. The timetable was accelerated. Why?
THEY'VE GOT THEIR OWN GITMO! Marcus (Christopher Shyer), second in command to alien leader Anna (Morena Baccarin), tortured a would-be member of The Resistance at an undisclosed, dramatically lit location. The Vs' version of water-boarding: stripping you down to your bulging cod piece, then strapping you to a giant porcelain birdbath (or bidet; you choose) and casting illusions of your worst fears on your tummy. In this poor rebel's case: snakes. The lingering question: Is Anna aware of these clandestine renditions and black site beat-downs — or is Marcus running a conspiracy behind her exquisitely dressed back? Bolstering the latter possibility:
ANNA AND MARCUS DON'T SEE EYE-TO-FLUTTERY EYE ON HOW TO SERVE MANKIND Anna had a sharp exchange with Marcus while flipping though a holographic catalogue of Earthly couture. She selected a white kimono and coolly noted, '''I'm told in Japan this both conveys the respect of tradition and the allure of submission.'' Marcus: ''I'm not sure that's the message you want to send.'' Anna shot him a withering gaze. ''You still don't understand humanity.'' Talk of ''submission'' is the kind of thing we'd expect to hear from diabolical reptilian monsters intent on dosing mankind with paralyzing kindness and then eating us alive for dinner. But if you believe as I do that Anna is a sincere reformer determined to improve our woeful condition, we could also interpret her to mean that engaging Earthlings and coaxing them to change requires tact and deference. Regardless, Marcus didn't agree. My guess is that he regards humanity as a planet of damn dirty apes that need to whipped and rifle-butted into being obedient little monkeys. Schism! Shades of: The Jacob/Man in Black debate about rehabbing and managing unruly, sinful man in the season finale of Lost. [This recap's obligatory forced Lost connection has now been fulfilled.]
Having dazzled us last week with extravagant spaceships and enticingly exotic extra-terrestrials, V's second episode scaled back the pricy pseudo-cinematic ambition and shifted to a more sustainable gear — a Trust No One paranoid thriller like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, tailored for a culture coached to worry about sleeper cells in the suburbs. (Be honest: How many of you really sweat that?) Where the pilot was briskly paced and meaty with ideas, ''There Is No Normal Anymore'' was slow and small and missing much of the Big Picture musing on the Vs' global impact that gave this otherwise ho-hum alien invasion yarn its promising point of distinction. Yeah, there was a throwaway line here and there about an alien-inspired psychotherapy boom or geopolitical significance of the United States, but I wanted more, and I was disappointed. All week, ABC promoted V with the Muse song ''Uprising,'' which I thought was a perfect fit: this new V should be mythic and melodramatic, politically charged and comic book fantastic, brilliantly produced and raucously thrilling. Alas, ''… No Normal Anymore'' didn't quite get there. This show needs to be more interesting, more fun — Battlestar Galactica, but with less bleakness. (Not that bleak can't be fun. In fact, in my more pessimistic moods about V, I nurture the fantasy of NBC pulling the now-complete BSG out of mothballs and putting it up V. If broadcast TV is really that interested in politically charged, philosophically provocative humans vs. aliens sci-fi saga, why not show them — and V — how it should be done?)
For now, I watch on faith, buoyed by glimmers of hope. Elizabeth Mitchell can make me believe in anything. The Visitors — embodied by inscrutable Anna — continue to be a metaphor and mystery worthy of parsing and theorizing. My take: Anna is sincere about wanting to bring peace, love, and universal health care to the world — but her advisors are conspiring against her. (A lengthy elaboration of this theory, complete with time travel head-hurtyness, can be found at the close of this recap.) And has the subject of V's much-discussed political subtext shifted? Forget the Obama allegory. After last night, I'm now wondering if Anna = NaIve Commander-in-Chief and Marcus = Hawkish Vice President Who's Puppet-Mastering His Boss From His Secret Torture Chamber Bunker. I'm not trying to ruffle Left or Right feathers — I'm just saying that I suspect V is engineered to reflect the political energies of the whole decade, not just the past year.
NEXT: A priest and an FBI agent walk into a bar...
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20318975,00.html
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