Episode Studies by Clayton Barr enik1138 at popapostle dot com |
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"Breakout" Written by David Braff Directed by Ray Austin
Donovan and Tyler head into
Visitor controlled territory to find Donovan’s son; Diana
enlists Nathan Bates’ help in finding Notes from the V chronology
This episode, as a whole, does not fit well into
the V continuity. In
fact, during the first run of the V
weekly series in 1984-85, this episode was not aired! It showed
only after the series went into reruns at the end of the season.
Instead the original airings went from
"Dreadnought" to "The Deception", with
"The Deception"
seemingly written to ignore the events of this episode. The most
glaring problem when trying to include this episode in
continuity is that the resistance members are
first introduced to Nathan Bates' son Kyle here, but then are
introduced to him again in "The Deception" as if for the first
time! Although I do agree that "The Deception" is a better
introduction to Kyle than the one here, why was it changed? Didja Notice? As the episode begins, we get a news update by Howard K. Smith from the Freedom Network. Smith provided his newscaster presence on the original V mini-series as well.During the Freedom Network segment we are told that a combined force of Arab and Israeli commandos briefly liberated the Wailing Wall before being driven back by counter-attacking Visitor troops. I'm sure it was intended as an ironic comment by the writers that it would take a third party threat to both sides to unite the Arabs and Israelis in common cause. The Wailing Wall is, of course, a real place, built as a retaining wall on the Temple Mount of Jerusalem in 19 B.C., with successive layers added in the following centuries. The Wailing Wall is but one of many names applied to it, in this case for the Jewish practice of coming to the wall to mourn the destruction of the ancient Temple that was there. It is also sacred to the Arabs as the place where Muhammad tethered the legendary winged horse Buraq as described in the Koran. During the Freedom Network segment, Smith compares the new open city agreement in Los Angeles to Lisbon, Portugal during WWII. Lisbon was a neutral city during the war, with citizens of both Allied and Axis nations passing through it. The story opens in Visitor-controlled Ojai, CA, with Donovan attempting to track down his son in the State Academy there. Donovan had mentioned him attending school there in "Liberation Day". At 3:06 on the DVD, before the boy rides his bike through the town courtyard, a few sets of bicycle tracks can already be seen in the sand right along his path from rehearsal or previous takes of the scene. At 3:28 on the DVD, the Visitor shock troopers on patrol walk right past several people sitting on benches, yet they pause to look at Tyler sitting there pretending to read a newspaper until he looks up and smiles at them. Then they walk away without incident. Why did they pause to look at him at all? If they recognized him as a wanted resistance member why didn't they arrest him or least ask him some questions? It seems like the typical Hollywood cheat of building some false tension for no reason and which has no pay-off. At 3:54 on the DVD, we can see that the newspaper Tyler and Donovan are reading is the Ojai Herald. This is just a printed prop, there is no real such newspaper. In this episode there is suddenly a photo of Kyle on Bates' desk that was not there in previous episodes. Conveniently, it allows the viewer to be introduced to him by proxy before meeting him in the work camp near Ojai. After Diana asks for Bates' help in locating Elizabeth, he says he'll think about it and she leaves. Then he calls in his head of security and during the discussion it is clear that Bates already had his men looking for the girl. Why would Bates have been interested in finding her before Diana's request? Is he hoping that a replacement for the red dust can be found by examining the Star Child's unique hybrid chemistry as he later tells Julie? Elizabeth demonstrates an ability to play classical piano.
It turns out that Robin is already a prisoner in the work camp when Donovan and Tyler are brought in (as is Kyle Bates). It's not difficult to imagine that she was picked up by the Visitors sometime after she fled her vehicle at the check point at the end of the previous episode. However, for continuity's sake it is best to ignore her scenes in this episode since here she is told of recent events by Donovan (like her father's death and her daughter's transformation) but she seems to forget it all in following episodes. Since she escapes but disappears at the end of this episode, it is easy to imagine that she was simply on the run on foot for an entire day or two without meeting anyone until she sees Kyle (for the first time!) at the beginning of the next episode, "The Deception". Diana tells Lydia that their troops have entered Marseille, France, Jerusalem, Israel and Ho-Chih Minh City, Vietnam. Lydia comments that they are still meeting stiff resistance from the World Liberation Front in Houston. The mention of Jerusalem is a nice synchronicity with the Freedom Network report at the top of the episode.
Reviewing her research on Kyle Bates, Lydia tells us that Kyle was expelled from Stanford University late last year (no reason given) and since then has devoted most of his time to racing motorcycles, mostly in Arizona and Nevada. When Diana checks the computer records on the mothership for indications that Kyle may have been placed in one of the Visitors' internment camps, the information comes up on the screen in English! Shouldn't it be in the Visitors' language? Bates asks Julie to head up the new project at Science Frontiers to develop a new form of red dust to use against the Visitors.
When two Visitors at Club Creole seemingly recognize Elizabeth and attempt to take her into custody, the Star Child demonstrates a previously unknown ability to control or influence the actions of animals as two German Shepherds tear the Visitors apart to protect her. The other strange thing is that the dogs initially appear to be leashed into the back of a pickup truck, yet they manage to jump out to attack the aliens! I guess Elizabeth used a telekinetic power as well to free them!  When Julie learns that Elias let Elizabeth play the piano in public at the Club Creole, she is angry at him. As she walks away she even seems to mumble, "Stupid!" As the boy Billy sneaks around behind a tent to bring some materials for escape to Donovan at 28:09 on the DVD, a close viewing will reveal Tyler as he approaches in the far background, leading to his sudden appearance through a flap in the back of the tent, startling Donovan and the boy. After the dog attack scene, Elizabeth apparently went into a withdrawn, unresponsive state and slept for a while. When she awakens, Julie and Elias seem surprised that she is speaking. It's true that when she emerged from the chrysalis in "Dreadnought" she did not seem able to speak for a while, but she did when her grandfather, Robert, was shot aboard the mothership. Apparently she has not spoken again until this moment. This episode gives us our first look at Julie's house. When Nathan Bates shows up at Julie's house unexpectedly, she introduces Elizabeth as her cousin Betty. She uses the excuse that Betty has just arrived from Tucson where things are really bad. After Donovan and Tyler have managed to escape the work camp with Robin and Billy, they somehow get separated from Robin. The next morning Tyler comments there's no sign of her. The girl, Annie, who helped Donovan and Tyler by letting them into her and her mom's house to hide from the Visitors at the beginning of the episode, shows up again at the end to take in Billy at a refugee camp in the nearby mountains where the red dust is still effective. Does this mean that she has left her mother behind at the house after realizing that she betrayed the two resistance fighters to the Visitors? Near the end of the episode, it's a nice touch that Billy calls Donovan "Gooder", having heard Tyler refer to him that way the whole time. Donovan and Tyler steal yet another Visitor skyfighter! You'd think the Visitors would learn to take the keys out of the ignition! During the ensuing chase we get yet more recycled skyfighter footage from the mini-series. It's fun seeing that, seated behind the piloting Donovan during the chase, Tyler looks like he's about to lose his lunch! Earlier we saw Kyle knock out a guard at the work camp, but how did he get past the sand mote? The Visitors had already stopped the stream of prisoners who were working with Donovan and Tyler on their escape. Yet, Kyle shows up in Los Angeles in his father's office near the end of the episode.
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