V: A Bright New Day

"A Bright New Day"
Written by Diego Gutierrez and Christine Roum
Directed by Frederick E. O. Toye

The Visitors are approved for 100 American visas; Erica is assigned a V partner on a case; a resistance starts to form.

Read the detailed episode recap at the V Wiki.

Didja Notice?

As the episode opens, the Visitors receive 100 visas with a new "V" stamp from the American government. Notice on Anna's visa, her nationality is V and her address is New York Mothership. Her date of birth is listed as "unknown." The issuing date shows November 9, 2009. The same information is shown for the other Visitor visas of which we get glimpses.

When Father Jack slides open the confessional window at 2:08 in the episode, the focus of the veiled window makes the person's face look somewhat like a digital image!

At 2:57 in the episode, we see that Erica is sorting the FBI's crank files of persons who have called in tips of extraterrestrial threats into at least five separate piles. Pausing the video, it can be seen that three of the piles are labeled as Warehouse, Deceased, and Crazies.

At 3:07 in the episode, the news crawl at the bottom of the television screen is mostly too blurred to read, but the words "...reporting at U.N. Building..." can be made out.

This episode is the first time we hear the fifth column mentioned by name on V2000.

At 9:15 in the episode, the news crawl at the bottom of the television screen says "...spokesperson denies further cuts to health care system...Vice-President..."

At 9:32 in the episode, the news crawl at the bottom of the television screen says "...with The Visitors and world leaders over the coming weeks...Anna answers..."

On the news, Mary Faulkner, whose husband was killed when his F-16 fighter jet crashed while intercepting the New York mothership, says 642 other deaths, besides her husband's, were caused by the Visitors' arrival.

At 11:26 in the episode, there is Visitor writing on the wall of the Peace Ambassador Center. From the Visitor alphabet chart it translates as "WE ARE OF PEACE".


At 12:10 in the episode, there is Visitor writing on a sign of the Peace Ambassador Center. Another copy of the same sign is seen behind Erica at 12:32. The Visitor characters translate directly into the spelling of "PERIMETER SURVEILLANCE". It's kind of disappointing that the production has taken the easy way out in its use of the Visitor printed language.


At 12:34 in the episode, there is a Visitor sign on the door behind Erica. (This is the door that Erica enters later in the episode and sees a multitude of surveillance holoscreens.) It spells out "THOSE OF THE BODY ONLY" (also seen on the mothership in "Hearts and Minds").

When Father Jack goes through the crank file documentation, we learn that Georgie's last name is Sutton.

At 15:38 in the episode, we see a rearview projection of the medical holoscreen of Maddox's condition. Oddly, the Visitor characters appear to be in normal orientation; shouldn't they be reversed if the screen is see from behind? The words at the top spell out as "DALE MADDOX".

Over the course of episodes it seems like the New York mothership moves its position over the city somewhat. Usually it appears to be hovering over Central Park.

A number of newspaper clippings are pinned to the wall in Georgie's house. At 17:19 in the episode, three of the headlines are readable: "Staten Island Family Found Murdered", "Staten Island Murders: Sutton Still Missing" and "Litigation Stalls". A woman there (the landlady?) says his family was murdered and he claimed aliens had done it. The clippings imply that Sutton is, or was, the prime suspect of police.

Ryan keeps talking about how the fifth column and resistance used to fight the aliens; when and how did this fight take place? From the V back-story we've so far been told, it would seem the fight must have been a clandestine one against the Visitors' plan to insert their human-disguised infiltrators into positions of power on Earth. It sounds like The Invaders TV series of 1967-1968 and the follow-up miniseries of 1995, which also aired on ABC.

Cyrus betrays Ryan and tells him he did it to get "reconnected", to "feel the Bliss". Ryan says that's how "she" controls you (presumably referring to Anna). We learn more about the Bliss in "It's Only the Beginning".

At 20:48 in the episode, a scene of people walking through the courtyard of the Peace Ambassador center is played as Erica looks on. Then at 21:23 the same scene is repeated!

Throughout the scenes in the Peace Ambassador Center reception area we get glimpses of a banner proclaiming the V slogan "We are of peace."


At 24:30 in the episode, the assassin suspect is taken into a room labeled with a Visitor sign that says "Holding Room" in English.

When Marcus thanks Erica for saving his life, she says "Anything else I can ever do, please don't hesitate." And Marcus responds in kind. Was this a genuine offer on Marcus' part? Will Erica call a favor in at some point in the future?

Maddox refers to his time living among humans as "smelly, crowded and disgusting." Do humans smell bad to the Visitors?

This stylized "V" symbol seems to be the Visitors' symbol on Earth, replacing the "Visitor swastika" of the original series.

Memorable Dialog

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the fifth column says hello.wav

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