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V
"John May"
Written by Gregg Hurwitz
Directed by Jonathan Frakes
Original air date: April 13, 2010 |
Ryan, Erica, and
Jack try to find the legendary founder of the Fifth Column, John
May.
Read the detailed episode recap at
the V Wiki
Didja Know?
This episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes,
better known as Commander William Riker on Star Trek: The
Next Generation.
Didja Notice?
The episode opens 10 years previous with John May's TV
telling us it is 2 days after the close of the Florida polls in the
Presidential election. That would make it November 2000.
Well, last episode I wondered where Reedsville was. Here, we
learn it is in New York. There is no Reedsville, NY in the real
world.
John May must be a fishing fanatic. In the flashback we observe
that he is making a homemade fly-fishing lure and there is
assorted fish paraphernalia visible throughout the room. In the
original V, Mike
Donovan's bedroom was decorated with pictures of fish in the
episode "The Deception".
The coffee mug that holds John's fly-making tools appears to
have been made by a child and has the words "World's Best Step
Dad" painted on it.
During the flashback, the news on the TV set is from station
WYBS. This is a fictional station.
The Visitors apparently have cloaking technology. At 1:21 in the
episode, we see Ryan's ship de-cloak in the night sky.
At 1:44 in the episode, Ryan pulls out a V switchblade that
appears identical to the one used by the alien assassin in
"Welcome to the War".
The tall building visible outside Anna's window appears to be
the Empire State Building.
Having so far failed to break Georgie, Marcus reveals he has
sent for the human pain expert from the Tokyo ship (Dr. Maieta).
Dr. Maieta inflicts the burrowing, insect-like "scours" on
Georgie. He refers to them as "curious little creatures",
implying they are living, but they appear shiny and almost
robotic.
At 11:13 in the episode, mercenary Kyle Hobbes refers to Ryan as
Godzilla, a reference to his reptilian nature. It's a bit
reminiscent of mercenary Ham Tyler from
V80, who frequently used lizardy nicknames for
the Visitors.
In another John May flashback, John's wife says his stepson,
James, won a ribbon at the school science fair for his Cartesian
diver. The
Cartesian diver is a classic science experiment
demonstrating principles of buoyancy. John also mentions another
classic experiment, the
salt volcano.
When Ryan and Jack try to explain to James that his stepfather
was a V and the founder of the resistance against the aliens and that
they are searching for his comm device to make contact with
Fifth Columnists on the motherships, James sarcastically says,
"Okay. Maybe we can raise Mork and Kal-El on the Kree Omni-Wave
Projector." Mork is a reference to the goofy alien character
portrayed by Robin Williams on the 1978-1982 sitcom Mork &
Mindy. Kal-El is the real Kryptonian name of Superman. The
Omni-Wave Projector is a hyperspatial communications device used
by the alien Kree in comic books set in the Marvel Universe and
published by Marvel Comics.
Erica tricks James' girlfriend into revealing she is lying about
her past when she doesn't know that UCLA's football team is the
Bruins, not the Trojans. In case you were wondering, the Trojans
belong to USC.
UCLA is the University of California Los Angeles and
USC is the
University of Southern California.
James' girlfriend turns out to be a Visitor and during her fight
with Erica and Hobbes, her true fingers rip out through the
human skin of her hand, revealing long, sharp claws at the tips.
This may be why the V's seem to prefer cutting weapons like
their switchblades over guns. Remember also, my speculation in
the study of "Pilot" that the Vs may be
descendents of Earth's own dinosaurs, perhaps the taloned
Velociraptor. And, gee, did you notice the first letter of
that word?
Hobbes refers to James' girlfriend as the "girl with the Freddy
Krueger claw". Freddy Krueger is the disfigured nightmare man
with the taloned glove in the Nightmare on Elm Street
films. In the original series of films, Freddy was played by
actor Robert England who also played Willie in the original
V series.
At 25:21 in the episode, the news crawl returns to Prime
Focus! Unfortunately the first words we see are merely ones borrowed
from "There is No Normal Anymore", "...answers tough questions from
reporters at U.N. Building in New York..." But some new stuff
then follows: "U.N. expected to announce further meetings with
The Visitors and world leaders in the coming weeks".
The flashback of the memorial service for John May gives the
impression that Ryan first met Valerie there. We know why Ryan
was there, but why was Valerie? Did she know John May too?
As Valerie goes through Ryan's possessions which she has found
in the hidden wall safe, at 38:05 in the episode we see that he
has a French passport under the identity of David St. Pierre
among many other passports. The top of this passport says
"République Française", which is French for "French Republic".
The medical folder Valerie finds in the safe is related to her
pregnancy. We see from the cover that the doctor (secretly a V
fifth columnist) is named Dr. Leah Pearlman, M.D. The folder
contains the real sonogram photo of her baby which shows the
tail indicated by the fetus's movement at the end of the
previous episode ("Pound of Flesh").
At the end of the episode, Anna lays hundreds (or thousands) of
tiny eggs in a pool of water or other fluid. Is this how all
Visitor females go through the process of bearing children? Or,
as the "queen", is she the only one capable of reproducing?
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