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V
"The Rescue"
TV episode
Written by Garner Simmons
Directed by Kevin Hooks
Original airdate: February 1, 1985 |
With the death of Nathan Bates,
the Visitors brutally take over
Los Angeles; Charles announces his
intention to marry Diana.
Read the summary of this episode at V: The Series Interactive
Website
Notes from the V Chronology
On the Freedom Network report at the beginning of the episode,
Howard K. Smith notes that Nathan Bates has died
three weeks after being gunned down. This indicates that this
episode takes place three weeks after the end of
"The Conversion", in which
Bates was shot.
Didja Notice?
On the Freedom Network report, Howard K. Smith tells us that an
unprecedented union of blacks and whites in Johannesburg, South
Africa hit the Visitors' processing plant there with over 200
humans rescued; Stuart Kaminsky is awarded the Freedom Network
Medal of Valor for operating an underground railroad between
Atlanta, Georgia and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, saving over 300
people from the Georgia work camps; Nathan Bates has died, three
weeks after being gunned down.
Johannesburg is a large city in the country of South Africa.
During the time of V, apartheid, the legal segregation of blacks
and whites, was still in force in that nation. Apartheid did not
end there until 1990.
The name of the Medal of Valor winner, Stuart Kaminsky, is also the name of a
well-known mystery writer. However, there are no indications
this was an intentional homage.
It seems odd that the death of Nathan Bates and the fall of the
open city of Los Angeles would be the last item brought up in
the news report, especially considering the Freedom Network
report seems to originate in the United States, it would be
probably the major
news
story!
At 1:48 on the DVD, during the Freedom Network report, a cut can
be seen indicating that part of the report has been cut out. And
after reporting on this week's Medal of Valor recipient, Howard
K. Smith says, "Here at home in the U.S..." The Medal of Valor
story takes place in the U.S. so no need to suddenly say "here
at home"! The report also ends abruptly, without the usual
closing line by Howard K. Smith, "From the Freedom Network
in New York, our hopes are with you. Good night."
It seems that a few of the segments were cut from the Freedom
Network broadcast this week. This is also the final Freedom
Network broadcast we see in the series (with the exception of a
few panels of the broadcast in issue 9 of the comic book,
"The
Poison in the Apple").
At the beginning of the episode, with the death of Nathan Bates in
"The Betrayal", we see now shots of Los Angeles in flames as
the Visitors mercilessly move in. A number of the shots are
stolen from scenes of the Visitors' aborted initial invasion of
the city in "Dreadnought" before
Bates asserted control.
At 2:56 on the DVD, there is a scorched Visitor propaganda
poster of the type seen throughout the original two mini-series
with the slogan "The Future Together".

I never noticed before, but there is a high catwalk in the command
center of the mothership, in front of the window bay, as
evidenced by the Visitor crewman walking across at 4:04 on the
DVD.

At 4:09 on the DVD, the production microphone pokes down from
the top of the screen.
At 5:30 on the DVD, Willie walks past Hewitt Real Estate and H.
Alston Accounting Service. These appear to be fictitious
businesses, though there is currently a business named
Hewitt Real Estate in Pennsylvania.
At 5:46 on the DVD, Kyle confronts Alan armed with a MAC-10 and
Willie pulls out an M1911A1 handgun. These two weapons types are
normally wielded by Tyler and Donovan repectively. Maybe Kyle
and Willie borrowed them from the pair!
At 6:10 on the DVD, Donovan picks up a stack of M-16 rifles
stored in the old speakeasy headquarters.
At 6:44 on the DVD, a crate labeled "SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT" is
seen against a wall in the speakeasy headquarters.
At 8:31 on the DVD, there is Visitor writing on the monitor
screen on the console, but it is too blurry to make out.

Charles reveals that he is a member of the House of R'Man,
in the direct line of descent, and,
as such, he can take any woman he chooses as his wife, and, by
law, she cannot refuse. He chooses Diana partly so he can keep
her under his thumb and partly because she is undeniably
attractive to virtually any male.
Lydia refers to the recently-installed stone bed in Charles'
quarters as "the best bed in the fleet." I guess lizards do like
sunning themselves on rocks!
When recalling specific past events, Elizabeth is able to speak
in the voice of other people, even men.
As the resistance members flee the speakeasy headquarters of the
former Club Creole, Donovan tells them to rendezvous at Griffith
Park.
Griffith Park is the largest park in Los Angeles and is to
the city what Central Park is to New York.
Twice, when Willie is helping
Elizabeth to stimulate her
photographic memory, he places
the tips of his fingers at her
temples. Is this a common
gesture among the Visitors to
help stimulate or focus another
of their species? (At 19:24 on
the DVD, from one angle, Willie
has his fingers placed at her
temples, but from the profile
angle his thumbs are at her
temples instead.) |
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Alan says that his pregnant wife and son are hiding in a
bombed-out store at 4th and Highland. In the real world though,
the intersection of 4th and Highland in L.A. is a residential
neighborhood with no businesses in the immediate vicinity.
Later, Donovan says 4th and Highland is about 5 miles from where
they are in Griffith Park; this is about right, the park is
located NE of 4th and Highland, 4-5 miles away.
For some reason there is a fake cactus stuck in the corner of
the room Alan's family is hiding in at 14:48 on the DVD.
Donovan says "Well" twice in a row as we see two different
angles of him pulling a map out of his jacket pocket at about
20:24 on the DVD.
Donovan says he has marked a trail through the Cahuenga Pass to
an abandoned movie studio he wants to use as the new resistance
headquarters. The Cahuenga Pass is a pass through the Santa
Monica Mountains connecting Los Angeles to the San Fernando
Valley. It runs through Hollywood, so there are a number of
movie studios in the area Donovan could be referring to.
At 21:44 on the DVD, Lydia refers to the Leader as "he". Twenty
years later in The
Second Generation, the Leader is revealed as female,
though it possibly could be argued that the Leader at the time
of the Visitors' arrival on Earth was a male and a new one came
into power during the intervening 20 years.
Prior to the wedding, Charles sends a couple of assistants to
prep Diana for the big event. The man pictured below has been
sent to shave Diana's body. Shave it of what? Since she is still
wearing her dermoplast skin for the ceremony, what would need to
be shaved off? Does she have synthetic hair in unmentionable
places? And even if the shaving were referring to her own
reptilian skin, again, what is to be shaved? Scales? Or do the
Visitors have hair-like growths as well as scales? (Recall the
image of Amon in "The Overlord"
that appears as if it might have a beard.) Meanwhile, the woman pictured is there to fit Diana for her "wedding skin".
Perhaps the fabric of the gown she is holding, and which we
later see Diana wearing, is meant to be the scaled skin of some
animal? Lydia even seems to suggest that while fingering the
gown, saying, "You'll look lovely in scales."
Later we see that Charles is wearing similar fabric/skin in his
wedding outfit.

At the abandoned movie studio, two presumably fake business
names are seen on the filming lot. One, a portable tropical bar
has a name that cannot be made out. The other is Kev's Golden
Palace Saloon.
Wow! A big, ugly head! This is one of the leftover props at the
abandoned movie studio. It just struck my interest. Anyone
recognize it from a particular movie or series?
Email me.

The resistance has apparently acquired a mascot, a lost dog
named Ramsey they encounter at their new base.

Willie displays a lot more than the usual number of Willieisms
in this episode. Perhaps it's due to stress from the Visitor
invasion of Los Angeles?
Diana's assistant, Louis, betrays her to Charles when she tries
to flee before the nuptials. I would imagine that after Charles'
death, he pays a high price!
At 26:40 on the DVD, there is
some spray-painted graffiti on
4th Street, "Long Live Hoven". I
am unaware of any significance
to the phrase, but it seems to
stick out a bit in the scene. I
am reminded of the "John May
Lives" graffiti that has
appeared in
V
2000! |
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As the bowl of ceremonial eels is being brought in to Diana for
her bath, we get a shot of the bowl at 27:42 on the DVD in which
we see a goldfish swimming around in there as well and one of
the eels suddenly grabs and swallows it!

As she brings the ceremonial eels in to Diana, the female ritual
assistant says, "Kon bi loki, Diana." Before she dumps the eels
into the bath, she says, "Evok nor lor pat." Presumably this is
in the Visitors' language, but we don't get a translation. In
English she says, "May their venom give you strength and their
bodies make you fertile." Do the eels actually bite her and
deliver a venom that is actually beneficial to the Visitors? And
what does she mean by their bodies making her fertile? Is Diana
meant to later eat them to gain some kind of fertility boost?
Another question that is not answered is whether these eels are
from Earth, the Visitors' homeworld, or another world.
At 28:48 on the DVD, it can be seen that Jane Badler is wearing
something over herself even though Diana is supposed to be nude
in the bath.

In Charles' newly decorated
quarters, an art object is seen
hanging on the wall at 29:26 on
the DVD. Why does it appear to
have a human face on it instead
of a Sirian one? Did he obtain
it on Earth? |
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At 31:20 on the DVD, there is some kind of wall-hanging of the
planets of our solar system mounted in Marta's shop on the
mothership. It has Visitor writing on it, but it is mostly too
blurry to make out. There also may be some English printed on it
in the bottom left and elsewhere, as if from a printed poster.
Speaking of Marta, she wears a
bunch of gaudy rings on her
fingers! |
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At 36:04 on the DVD, there is a
framed poster on the wall of the bombed-out store in which
Alan's family
is hiding. The name on it
says Raul del Rio and the poster
pictured appears to be this one,
Macaw Jungle, I found on the
artist's
delrioproductions.com
website. |
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At 37:18 on the DVD, Kyle mentions Isaac Newton and the quote,
"What goes up must come down." Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was a
key player in the Scientific Revolution and is best known for
his mathematical theorems on the nature of gravity. "What
goes up must come down," is a quote attributed to Newton in
regards to gravity.
The van with CA license plate 8M7Q86 that Kyle drives to pick up
Donovan looks to be a 1975-78 series
Ford Econoline.
Why do a couple of the Visitors in the wedding party have
mohawks?!

When the priest marries Charles and Diana, some Visitor words are
spoken.
Priest: Are you ready?
Charles: Mahone.
Diana: Kruga.
Priest: Charles, do you promise to be the stone that crushes the
Leader's enemies?
Charles: Gra'tal.
Priest: Diana, do you promise to bear Charles, in the ripeness
of your years, a multitude of fearless warriors?
Diana: Gra'tal.
And later...
Priest: Then in the name of our glorious Leader, I declare you
mated! Eekay laxton foia may!
This episode was written by Supervising Producer Garner Simmons.
According to an interview with Simmons for the book Fascist
Lizards from Outer Space: The Politics, Literary Influences and
Cultural History of Kenneth Johnson's V
(Dan Copp, 2017), he wrote the Visitor "I do" terms pogue
and mahone from the Gaelic language and taken together
(pogue mahone) they mean "kiss my ass" (in the episode
pogue sound more like kruga and the two words
are reversed from his script; possibly the meaning of the words
and order was noticed by someone and changed during shooting?).
Simmons did this because the network, NBC, had informed him they
were replacing him as Supervising Producer for the last handful
of episodes but wanted him to remain onboard until the new one
(Donald R. Boyle) was in place and up to speed.
Near the end of the wedding ceremony, the priest presents the
ceremonial mouse. Are there mice on the Visitors' homeworld? It
appears to be a normal white Earth mouse used in the ceremony.
Presumably they would have used a Sirian rodent if the ceremony
were taking place on the homeworld.
The bottle of cat poison that
Lydia uses appears to have a "no
cats" symbol on the label! |
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When the priest says, "You may kiss the bride," he uses a
sibilant, reptilian hiss as he says "kiss". Listen:
you may kiss the bride
Quite a smorgasbord has been
laid out for the wedding guests:
both live and dead birds, mice,
goldfish, tarantulas, worms. The
table is decorated with several
small lizard statues...and even
a white-painted statue (or toy)
of Godzilla! |
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The idea of the wedding of Charles and Diana was probably at
least partially inspired by the famous real life royal wedding
of Prince Charles and Lady Diana of Britain which had taken
place only a few years before the production of
V.
As a gift, Lydia gives Charles
and Diana cups engraved with
their names for the drinking of
the ceremonial wedding potion in
their private chambers. The
engraved names are presumably
their actual Sirian names. |
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Charles' cup |
Diana's cup |
Cat poison appears to have quite a negative effect on Visitor
physiology! Not only is Charles killed by it, but it shrivels
his skin almost to the bone and even seems to have disintegrated
his human dermoplast skin! It does, however, leave his reptilian
eyes alone.
