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V
"Heretic's Fork"
Written by John Wirth and Angela Russo Otstot
Directed by Frederick E.O. Toye
Original air date: April 27, 2010 |
Chad goes to
the mothership for his aneurysm surgery; Ryan tells Valerie he's
a V; Erica and her cohorts press their captive for information.
Read the detailed episode recap at
IMDB
Didja Notice?
It's a nice moment when the normally
imperturbable Anna gives a slight reaction when Marcus delivers
her the news of a
human woman pregnant with a half-Visitor baby at 3:30 in the
episode.
Notice also that Marcus refers to themselves as V's. Seems a bit
odd...wouldn't he use whatever is their own name for their
species?
Anna says that the existence of the hybrid baby
puts their entire species at risk. Why? She mentions that the
hybrid could be born with human emotions such as love. Why does
this bother her so? Because of this new development, she orders
the acceleration of all initiatives of the Live Aboard program
and for all the motherships to begin the "extraction procedures"
on their human residents. Is she trying to create hybrids under
her own command?
The Fifth Columnist Visitor Dr. Pearlman seems to
confirm that the R6 formula the Vs have been administering to
humans at the healing centers is designed to allow the Vs to
track individual humans. She says it masks its presence in
humans as saline and gives Valerie a shot whose acidity will
neutralize the tracking function within 24 hours.
At 10:00 in the episode, Chad reveals to us it has only been a
few days since he told his viewers about the aneurysm found in
his brain by the Vs.
Anna essentially orders Lisa to get Tyler aboard the mothership
as part of the Live Aboard program. She says, "He'll remain on
the ship until he's no longer needed." Needed for what? It seems
that he specifically is wanted even more than the other humans who are part
of the Live Aboard program. (Later episodes reveal that Tyler is
intended to impregnate Lisa.)
Anna checks in with Joshua who reports that they are moving
ahead with the humans in the Live Aboard program, the
experiments have already begun, just as she ordered. She asks,
"How long until we can realize our goals?" We don't get a direct
answer to this. And what are their goals?
Hobbes is about to attach a torture device called a heretic's
fork to their assassin prisoner, until he is interrupted by
Father Jack. A heretic's fork is a real device that has been around since at
least the Middle Ages and mostly known for its use during the
various Inquisition periods in Europe.
The Thompsons tell Ryan, Val, and Dr. Pearlman they can hide at
their safe cabin in the Adirondack Mountains. The Adirondacks
are in northeastern New York.
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At 17:38 in the episode, Marcus'
holoscreen displays images and
information on Valerie in
Visitor script. The blue words
at top center say VALERIE
STEVENS. The other words on the
screen are too blurry to really
make out. When Marcus displays a
map of New York shortly after, the
city labels on it are in the
Arabic alphabet, clearly
identifying
Nyack and
Yonkers; shouldn't they
be spelled in Visitorese? After
the soldier pinpoints Valerie's
location a Visitorese label
appears on the map but it's too
blurry to make out the
characters accurately. |
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After his surgery, we learn that Chad has no one close to him.
His mother is dead and he apparently does not get along with his
father.
At 24:41 in the episode, Barnes asks the same question of Erica
that Tyler does at 11:25. Tyler says "Name one bad thing the Vs have
done since they got here. You can't, can you?" Barnes says,
"You
name one bad thing that they've done since they arrived. Do it!
Do it! You can't, can you? You can't!"
The V soldier seems to have a pronounced sense of smell, sight,
and hearing compared to humans. Do all Vs possess these enhanced
senses or just the soldiers? We see no evidence that Ryan has
them.
Ryan reveals that he is different from V soldiers. Soldiers are
bred for fighting. Ryan was bred for work. This seems to suggest
a genetic breeding program and class system at work within the V
civilization.
Valerie is leaving on a train at Nyack Station at 31:34 in the
episode. As far as I can tell, this particular rail station is
fictitious.
Before leaving on the train, Valerie tells Ryan she doesn't want
to see him again, that she doesn't forgive him. Ryan is stunned.
Since the Vs are apparently only just learning emotions from
humans, it's quite possible he has not felt the sting of a loved
one's rejection before. How will he handle it? Might he move on
to the emotion of bitterness? And, if he does, might he choose
to betray humanity?
Chad's discussions with Father Jack and Anna regarding the Fifth
Column keep the audience guessing whether he's on the Visitors'
side or Earth's. It's possible though that Anna has had
something done during the brain surgery to make him loyal to
her.
Lisa's remarks to Tyler that he shouldn't live on the ship keep us wondering
if she is trying to protect him or drive a further wedge between
him and his mother.
Earlier in the episode, Hobbes told the rest of the cell that he
would turn Hobbes over to some people who will disappear him
into a prison overseas. But at the very end of the episode, he
marches Barnes into the woods alone and tells him, "First,
you're gonna tell me everything you know about the V's. And then
you're gonna beg me to kill you." This seems to imply that
Hobbes kills Barnes and buries him the woods. Barnes' fate is
never revealed after this.
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