This is my commentary for V episode 103, A Bright New Day. This show originally aired Tuesday November 17th on ABC.

FYI – This was the second time I watched the episode. I originally watched it on Tuesday and recorded this commentary afterwards.

WARNING – if you haven’t watched the show yet, stop reading

0:00 — “It’s a Bright New Day in America” emphasizes Chad Decker from outside the V Peace Ambassador Center. Clips of various V receiving their Visas. A few we know, Anna, Lisa, Creepy Guy, but some we don’t. Will they end up playing key roles later or are they just extras?

0:01 — “You know you helped make this day happen” says Producer Chick.
“Yes, Yes I did” says Decker.

0:02 — Father Jack is the confessional hearing people’s confession and hearing all the confused people. People who are happy that the V’s cured their sick loved ones. People who are doubting God. People who follow blindly the Pope. It ends with a guy saying “I feel lost.” I think it is safe to say that Father Jack feels lost right now too.

0:03 — Tyler (Erica’s son) is being warned not to go into the city because of the V stuff going on. He says he is just going to give Brandon a lift so Erica says ok, but come right home after… Somehow I doubt he’s going to listen. As he leaves Jack shows up knocking at Erica’s door.

0:04 — Father Jack wants to get involved and be useful so he went to Erica. Erica’s been researching the list of people they stole from the FBI task force. This is the list of people who have reported alien stuff in the past. Erica is cross referencing them with FBI files to whittle the list down to a smaller number of people to investigate.

Jack has some interesting points… WHY are the V doing what they are doing? Why do they need to infiltrate the people and use sleeper cells instead of annihilating us.

Erica says it’s because the V are smart and patient and that the V must need us for something and that’s why they don’t annihilate us.

Erica gets a call from the FBI asking her to come into the city to help protect the V’s peace ambassador center. There is a credible threat that someone is going to try and attack the V today.

0:05 — RYAN I got high hopes for this guy… He seems like a bad ass lizard who is willing to kick other lizard ass and he actually likes humans (he is in love with one after all.)

Ryan tells his girlfriend he would never keep secrets from her. (LOLOLOLOL how about the fact that you are a lizard? How about the fact that you’re leading a resistance group?)

Ryan gets into a car and Georgie is in it. Ryan setup the meeting. Ryan wants to mount a new resistance.

Georgie is scared. He’s scared of the V’s because they keep finding the resistance groups. Ryan says that’s why they have to act now before the V infiltrate the resistance even further.

Georgie says “How? We don’t have access to cash or bodies.”

Ryan says he has access to BOTH! (I told you I like this lizard guy

Ryan, “Have you ever heard of John May?”

Georgie, “The guy’s a myth.”

Ryan, “He’s not a myth. He’s real. John May’s the leader of the 5th Column. The first group of visitors to ever turn against the leadership. He started it.”

Georgie, “The visitors have sleeper cells EVERYWHERE.”

Ryan, “And so do we. The 5th column is down but it’s not out. We can win this.”

Georgie, “And if John May gets into this…”

Ryan, “He’ll bring it on me.”

0:07 — Creepy V leader and the V doctor are talking about Dale. At the end of last show we saw Erica’s old FBI partner wake up in the V ship. They saved him. The Creepy V guy says they need to figure out who compromised Dale’s identity. He was a highly placed sleeper and they really want to know who and how many people know he is a V.

BTW Jen says the doctor looks familiar. Who the heck is he? Where do we know him from? (Oh and the Dr’s character name is Joshua.)

Dale says “I need your help to remember who did this to me…”

0:11 — Anna is watching Decker reporting on a woman is a widow of the man flying the F16 that crashed in the first day. She’s on a hunger strike and she is bringing up the fact that 642 souls were killed in “accidents” caused by the V’s arrival. She plans to speak live from in front of the V Peace Ambassador Center in NYC. Anna asks creepy guy to give her as much information as he can on the woman so she can stop this…

0:12 — Tyler drops off his buddy Brandon at the V Peace Ambassador Center. Remember Tyler got kicked out of the Ambassador program for fighting. Tyler gets on his motorcycle and leaves just as his mom is showing up (so she still doesn’t know he is with the peace ambassadors). BTW Brandon feels guilty for getting him kicked out…

0:13 — FBI boss tells Erica they had multiple calls on this guy and gives her a typical profile of what to look for. They think this guy is serious and he has a plan.

FBI boss says they have to coordinate with V security and each FBI agent will partner with a V. Erica is NOT happy about that. I wonder why At least this time she knows her partner is a V.

0:14 — Erica has her partner take her to the surveillance center. He says it’s restricted but he still takes her back there. BUT it looks way out of date and I think Erica picks up on that. It doesn’t look like there is much technology here… He says it is what they were given when they got here and haven’t had time to change it.

Erica immediately begins to help the V and to give them instructions for tracking the shooter, fixing camera angles, what to look for, etc.

The V guy also says if there are injuries the V want assurances that the V will be treated by their own medical staff. As he says this Erica notices another room with V technology protecting it. She gets a glimpse inside the door when someone opens it.

0:15 — Father Jack finds Georgie listed on the files they stole from the FBI. He calls Erica to give her a message and let her know he found the guy who led the warehouse meeting.

0:15 — Georgie and Ryan. Ryan shows Georgie the card with “Cyrus” on it. This is the card that Ryan’s girlfriend found in their house last episode when she moved a picture. Ryan tells Georgie that he needs help finding people and that this guy Cyrus is an old friend and 5th Column member. He says Cyrus used to be his right hand man and was one of the best fighters. Cyrus also used to have the best contacts.

Georgie refuses to go with Ryan. He says it will be awhile before he recruits again. Ryan says he has to do this. There is strength in numbers so he has to rebuild the 5th Column.

0:16 — An old restaurant under remodeling. Ryan goes in anyway and finds Cyrus. Cyrus “What are you doing here man?” and Ryan says “I’ll give you 29 guesses.”

0:17 — Cuts to the NY mothership and the creepy guy says the captain of all 29 ships are present. Erica is telling them to control popular opinion and to monitor those opinions and shape those opinions if neccessary. She says this is a key to stopping the resistance before it starts.

0:18 — Dale and Dr. Joshua are talking. Dale is trying to find out what happened. He asks about how bad his scar was. Dr. Joshua says that he was “wide open“. Dale realizes this means whoever did that to him saw his “true face.”

0:21 — Anna and creepy guy are talking about Mary Faulkner (the widow). Anna is worried that her story will infect others. Remember Anna is trying to control public opinion here.

0:22 — Father Jack drives up in a mini van. LOL. He is looking for George Sutton. Father Jack let’s himself into the room. A woman comes in… I guess it is a good thing he is wearing a priest uniform because otherwise someone might call the cops on him for breaking and entering but who is going to complain about a priest? Who is going to be scared of a priest? I guess he is going to be a good person to have in the resistance!

She mentions George doesn’t live there any more and asks if Father Jack is counseling George about the murders. Father Jack sees some newspaper articles on the wall… He gives her his card and tells her to give it to George if she is in contact with him and let him know “You can tell him, I was at the warehouse. He’ll know what that means“.

0:24 — Cyrus tells Ryan that everybody is scattered and it will be hard to find people. Ryan is trying to recruit Cyrus to be the first to join the resistance. Cyrus has the names and numbers in the back and tells Ryan to get his glasses off the table. As Ryan goes through the door into the back he finds Cyrus holding a gun. Ryan reaches under the counter and hits a button????

Apparently Cyrus has gone back to the V. They offered to “reconnect” him in exchange for him turning over 5th column members. They talk about “The Bliss” which is how she controls us. Ryan says it is how she controls them (meaning the V) and that it is like a drug. He says Cyrus is a junkie because he is willing to do anything to get back to the V so he can be a part of “the bliss” again.

That’s probably a really important conversation Don’t you think?

0:26 — Ryan takes the gun from Cyrus and points it at his head. He says “You gotta be alive to be reconnected”… and we cut to commercial!

0:30 — Erica and her V security partner are on top of a nearby building. She spots a missing guard. They run down to check and find a guard who has been knocked out. The security guard is missing his jacket. So now they have to try and find someone in a V uniform.

0:32 — the chase for the shooter continues. Erica sees him just as he is about to shoot at Creepy V dude. She grabs him and throws him to the ground before he can shoot. The V think she’s a bad ass and I think they immediately like her.

0:33 — the pizza place. Brandon and Tyler show up… Lisa is in the corner at a table. Brandon set this up so he could make it up to his buddy. He leaves Tyler with Lisa. Lisa tells Tyler that he is back in the ambassadors again. (Wasn’t it lucky for him that he couldn’t be there today when his mom was there working all day. She would have discovered him, don’t you think?)

0:34 — Erica is bringing the bad guy to the V holding area and her boss and the security guys won’t let her in. They take the bad guy from her. Her boss says “It’s complicated. They’ll take it from here.”

I’ve got to tell you her boss is continuing to creep me out. I definitely think he’s a V.

0:35 — Meanwhile Erica doesn’t leave the building. She takes this opportunity to go find the room she saw earlier which was protected by alien security. After a couple of tries she manages to unlock the door. (She saw someone enter the security code earlier, at least she didn’t get in on the first try!)

This room has a bunch of floating screens in it. It looks like live video feeds and it shows Peace Ambassadors talking to people. Eventually she finds a video feed of the room she is in. She doesn’t panic though. Instead she tries to find the source of the video. It is coming from a V uniform hung on the back of the door. Apparently the symbol on the jacket is a camera.

Finally she gets spooked and leaves just before the video feed of Tyler trying on his peace ambassador jacket comes up That kid keeps getting lucky. Obviously his mom is going to figure it out sometime soon, but WHEN?

0:42 — Anna is practicing her acting. She is trying to show sympathy. She appears to be practicing speaking to the widow and she is trying to figure out the right way to say “I am so sorry for your loss” “only together can we help each other heal…”

0:43 — She surprises the widow and asks for a few moments of her time. Her acting seems to be working… the widow starts crying. Anna says this is the only way they could meet without causing a scene.

0:44 — FBI boss finds Erica and says someone would like to meet her. It is creepy V dude. He wants to thank her for saving his life. Creepy V dude and Creepy FBI dude both together. YUCK! Erica’s skin is probably crawling. LOL.

0:45 — Dale and Dr. Joshua are trying to restore his memories. Dr. Joshua has made some sort of virtual construct (kind of like the thing in Star Trek) where Dale can walk around the FBI office without actually being there. It seems to be working and starts helping Dale remember things.

Dale says, “You can’t believe how disgusting it was to wake up every morning next to a human.”

Dale realizes it was Erica who saw his true face. He wants them to send him back down so he can kill Erica personally.

0:46 — Georgie sneaks up behind Father Jack with a gun. He holds it to Jack’s back. He pulls his ear aside and sees the “v” incision they put there to check on the resistance members to see if they had a skull instead of lizard skin. So he knows Jack is telling the truth.

He tells Georgie that he was with Erica the FBI agent and that they know who the mole was. He tells Georgie that it was Erica’s partner and that Erica had to kill him.

Georgie is still scared. He’s seen too many resistance groups broken up and people killed. He is hesitant.

Father Jack says, “I know this whole thing has made you feel alone. Lost. There is strength in numbers. We need to stick together George.”

George says, “It’s Georgie.”

0:48 — Dr. Joshua is interrogating Dale to try and find out if anyone other than Erica saw him. Dale says he she was meeting other resistance members.

Dr. Joshua, “I’m not letting you go back down.”

Dale, “Come again?”

Dr. Joshua, “If half the things you say about Erica are true, she’s going to make an excellent ally.”

Dale tries to fight back but it’s all virtual. The virtual room fades away. Dr. Joshua is there and stabs him in the arm with a syringe. Dale realizes he is a traitor as Dr Joshua says “The 5th column says hello.!”

WOOT WOOT WOOT! That means they have resistance members ON the mothership!

0:49 — Mary Faulkner (the widow) gives her speech at the V Peace Ambassador Center. It looks like Anna has done a good job of silencing the voice of the anti-v protestors. Her lizard tears must have worked. Anna made her believe that her husband didn’t die in vain and that they need to have hope and trust in the V. Then Anna gives an oscar winning speech. I guess she’s doing a good job at shaping public opinion.

“We remain of peace, always” Anna

0:51 — Creepy V leader and a task force are at Cyrus’ restaurant. They say Cyrus set off the alarm but we all know it was Ryan who did it. They show the floor and it looks like there is a red stain but there is a clear spot in the middle where something has been cleaned/wiped up. The V leaders believe they got their too late and Cyrus is dead. We don’t know for sure if he is dead or not. He might not be. Perhaps Ryan made it look like he was dead so that the V wouldn’t search for him. Perhaps Ryan is torturing him or using him to get more information on other 5th column members or get information on the V. I’m guessing we’ll find out that Cyrus is really alive. I think the whole point in Ryan making sure the V came to investigate was he wanted them to believe Cyrus was dead.

“John May Lives” is spray painted on the back of the kitchen door. Creepy V leader says “There will be no peace” when he sees the door.

0:56 — Uh oh. Lisa and Tyler are in his bedroom and he shuts the door behind him… Which one was working their magic? Does Tyler have game or does Lisa?

Erica disturbs them and Tyler has enough sense to hide his V outfit. Lisa hides hers by pretending to be half naked… It fools Erica. BTW Lisa looks great in case you didn’t know

(BTW why the heck does he have $220 worth of unused skateboards on his wall… no kid would have UNUSED skateboards on their wall. They would skate the board until it is unusable/they get a new one then put the old one on the wall as a sort of trophy.)

0:58 — Ahhh. Now we see the assassin was a fake, he was really a V soldier. Anna tells the V soldier he did well done. Chad is reporting that the anti-V protest movement was dealt a serious blow, that Mary Faulkner’s speech and the assassination attempt has led to an outpouring of new support for the visitors.

0:59 — Father Jack and Erica meet to discuss the V jackets with the cameras inside. She’s worried for Jack. She didn’t think he was very smart to go out trying to find Georgie. Meanwhile Georgie shows up He brought a friend. Ryan.

1:00 — Lisa meets with Anna.

Lisa says, “Tyler’s the one. We should use him.”

Anna extorts, “You’re doing an excellent job.”

Lisa replies, “Thank you mother!”

BTW I don’t want to spoil anything but next week’s show looks great!!

And yes it will be the final episode of the year. Next episode won’t be until March 2010.

Tags: 5th Column, A Bright New Day, episode 103, the bliss