V is for Vicious

     What a ride the first season of ABC's V was!  With both a crappy pilot, and a crappy first episode back from the long, winter hiatus, it still managed to be good in succeeding episodes, leading to a wonderfully inventive and intense finale, "Red Sky"!  At least one significant character died, and though I expected it, it didn't take away from the pull of the moment.

     Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell) is the most vulnerable member of the featured cell of the Fifth Column, of which the show partially focuses on.  Her son, Tyler (Logan Huffman) has gotten himself involved with a V, the aliens come to earth on a seemingly peaceful mission, but Erica knows better.  However, she feels she can best protect her son by keeping him in the dark, and now seems to be actively using him to help her terrorist actions.  I'm sympathetic to her plight and position in the F.B.I., charged with heading up the task force against the Fifth Column, but I certainly question her mother abilities.

     Also in Erica's cell is Ryan (Morris Chestnut), a former V spy who now works against them.  It was Ryan's girlfriend, Val (Lourdes Benedicto) who was the main character killed off, after giving birth to his half-human, half-V child.  Her death may be the biggest blow to the Fifth Column yet.  You see, V's don't have human emotions, initially, though they seems to be contagious.  And the cold, calculating Queen of the Vs, Anna (Morena Baccarin), is using Val's death to try to win back Ryan.  If she does, which was uncertain in this week's finale, he could be the most dangerous foe Erica and company have faced.

     Especially interesting is the character of Lisa (Laura Vandervoort), Anna's daughter.  Tasked with getting close to Tyler, and later, Erica, we viewers have gotten to see first hand how emotions can affect and change the V aliens, and Lisa seems to have swung the way of the Fifth Column.  In fact, before the exciting climatic events had finished unfolding, rebel V Joshua (Mark Hildreth) called her queen.

     The introduction of rival queens, fighting for the V species's allegiance, is just one of many things I am looking forward to finding out in the forthcoming second season of the show, a pickup I was pleasantly surprise to learn of.  Another is, what will become of Joshua, who was healed from his near fatal wounds?  And what will Ryan's hybrid child mean to both species?  Also, why did the sky turn red and what does it mean?

     Sci-fi shows don't traditionally do all that well on network television, with a few notable exceptions, and, provided this one can keep growing it's audience, it will be nice to see a new one work.