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V
"Uneasy Lies the Head"
Written by Cameron Litvack and Gregg Hurwitz
Directed by Jeff Woolnough
Original air date: March 1, 2011 |
Erica makes some
bold decisions
against Anna in her leadership of Fifth Column;
Anna's human paternal candidates begin to get sick; Ryan becomes
a fugitive aboard the mothership.
Read the detailed episode recap at
IMDB
Didja Notice?
The arches of red light in the mothership corridor at 1:38 in
the episode look like upside-down "V's".

There is V writing on the data screen in the DNA storage room at
2:07 in the episode. The characters do not appear to be spelling
out anything in English translation. A few seconds later, the
screen flashes the English words "DNA Sample Acquired".

When Erica asks if the data connection he's established is
secure, Sidney sarcastcially retorts, "No, I thought I'd run the
pow-wow through
Facebook."
Thomas brings up an image of young Jennifer Hartswel at 6:06 in
the episode. Although it's blurry, the V writing in the upper
right corner appears to spell out her name. Oddly, we are shown
the front-side image even though we are seeing the screen from
behind...so it should be a mirror-image instead!

At 6:41 in the episode, we once again get the same shot of the
Pulaski Bridge intersection we've seen several times in previous
episodes. It would seem to indicate that Hobbes' home/Fifth
Column HQ is near this intersection.
When Erica and Hobbes say they're going to hit Jameson Labs hard
and fast, "cowboy style", Jack refers to Hobbes as Wild Bill.
This is a reference to
Wild Bill Hickok (1837-1876), a renowned, and now legendary,
gunfighter of the American Old West.
Attempting to get Melissa to agree to join the Live Aboard
program with her young daughter, Jennifer, Anna tells her she
also has a daughter of Jennifer's age, named Amy, referring to
the hybrid child. Anna seems to have used the name "Amy" because
that was Melissa's mother's name, but will that now become the
hybrid's actual name? I have to admit, I was kind of hoping
she'd become Elizabeth, in homage to the hybrid Star Child of
the original V.
The scene at 10:14 in the episode is about the best shot we've
had of a V gun. Notice that Ryan seems to load a Visitor
immolation pill into the gun in order to fire it!
Lisa refers to the Visitor gun as an immolation gun in
"Mothers Day".

The Fifth Column raids Jameson Labs to get the flu virus sample
they need for their plan to infect and ruin the Visitors' DNA
samples.
Jameson Labs is, of course, a fictitious company; the address at
which it is described, "450 Reade Street", is a real address in
New York City, but there is no building similar to the Jameson
Labs building there.
At 12:34 in the episode, Erica
and her crew run past a door
sign during their raid of
Jameson Labs. It reads "You are now
entering a BSL graded facility".
BSL stands for Biohazard Safety
Level. In the lab from which
they actually steal the virus,
there are signs stating "BSL 2
Safety Precautions Strictly
Enforced". There are four levels
of BSL safety, 4 being the level
of precautions used for the most
dangerous biohazard agents, such
as the Ebola virus. BSL 2 is for
agents that cause only mild
disease in humans, such as
influenza. |
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After the third security guard shows up and shoots Hobbes, Erica rather stupidly shouts Hobbes' name
and later Sid's as well while the guard is present. As an FBI
agent, shouldn't she know better than to use their real names in
the middle of an illegal activity?
I had previously wondered in earlier studies of the series about
the privacy levels available in Lisa's bedroom considering she
has a large bank of windows looking over the atrium area of the
ship. At 17:51 in the episode, some partially lowered shutters
can be seen on a few of the windows, indicating all the windows must
have shutters that can be lowered in place.
The ubiquitous
USA Today newspaper machine is seen at 21:00 in
the episode, alongside a
Daily News machine.

The V writing on Raphael's medical screen at 22:18 in the
episode translates as his name, Raphael Mendoza. The other
characters on the screen are seem to be random letters and
numbers. At least
this time the rearview of the screen does show the mirror-image
as it should!

There is V writing on Will Lerner's medical screen at 23:59
on
the Blu-ray, showing his name. The rest of the lettering appear
to be random characters.

The monitor screen Ryan opens at
32:02 in the episode to summon
the escape pod, has buttons
labeled CLOCK, PAUSE, and SECURE.
Again, the rear view of the
screen is not the mirror-image
it should be. A few seconds
later, the screen has several
Visitor words translating into
TERMINAL, USER, MAP, DEL, and
LOCK. Other characters convert
into the English letters
CCSTM-JBA and CC-IEE; these may
be in-jokes of computer
terminology as CCSTM is a type
of library software, JBA may
stand for Java Based
Application, and IEE may be an
abbreviation of IEEE (Institute
of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers), a professional
organization dedicated to
advancing electrical technology.
Other bits of V writing appear
on the screen, but they are
either too blurry to make out or
are just nonsense jumbles of
letters. |
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We get our first look at a Visitor escape pod on the mothership
in this episode. Diana tells Ryan and Lisa that she has several
hidden and cloaked escape pods built into the mothership that no
one else knows about.

At 32:32 in the episode, the screen of the escape pod has V
writing that spells out DEL and LAUN. DEL probably means
"Delete" and LAUN probably "Launch". It is one of the LAUN
buttons which Ryan hits that expels his pod out of the
mothership to freedom.

When Hobbes pays a visit to Erica's house to offer some (ahem)
moral support, he brings a bottle of liquor with a label on it
we never get a good look at. The label may read "Finnarraugh
single malt scotch"; as far as I can tell, Finnarraugh is a
fictitious brand.
At 36:39 on the Blu-ray, books and DVDs are seen on a shelf in
Erica's house. Of the books visible are, The Between
(1995) by Tananarive Due, Monstruary (1999) by Julián
Ríos, and Winter Solstice (2000) by Rosamunde Pilcher.
Of the DVDs visible: The River Niger (1976), Death
of a Prophet (1981), Pilates Principles (a workout
video), The Road to Zanzibar (1941),
Hobbes tells Erica that a woman who was close to him died.
Presumably he is speaking of the woman, Sarah, whom he believed
was dead, but whom the Visitors allege they have found alive and
have in custody (as revealed in "Siege").
Notice that he doesn't tell Erica the Visitor part of the story.
In this episode, we see that
Hobbes has a tattoo on his right
arm, possibly of Asian writing.
Anyone know what the symbols
represent? |
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