V - "Serpent's Tooth"
Gregg Hurwitz, writer of this episode, said on Twitter that the title, "Serpent's Tooth" was a reference to Shakespeare's King Lear.
If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her!
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
King Lear Act 1, scene 4, 281-289
Anna and Diana
Diana [to Anna]: So, you had to seize from me before your time. Tell everyone I was dead. Burying me down here like a dirty little secret.
We were first introduced to Diana at the end of the Season 2 premiere, but in "Serpent's Tooth", we actually get to know her. I like that by knowing about her relationship with Anna, we get both history of the Vs and foreshadowing of what is probably coming between Anna and Lisa.
Diana [to Anna]: If you proceed with interbreeding, you'll have a generation of Vs who listen to their emotions, follow their hearts, and refuse to bow to their Queen.
Previously, in Season 1, Anna explains to Lisa that the Vs are made for efficiency and that's why they don't have human emotions, so it's interesting that when two V Queens discuss the matter together, it's all about having control. Human Emotion will prevent the Queen from being able to control her people the way she wants to. Of course, what they're not taking into consideration is that if you treat them with respect and look out for their needs, maybe they would bow to the Queen out of reverence and choice? I suppose it's easier and less time-consuming to control your people instead of trying to spend time in building relationships and that's why the Vs are doing what they're doing. They don't seem to have a lot of time to preserve their species.
Diana tells Anna (and us) that she came to Earth to find another homeworld and preserve their species through interbreeding, but that interbreeding with humans would never work. I'm guessing that's why Ryan and Dr. Pearlman were so amazed that Val got pregnant last season?
Diana: I first heard this music on Earth. No, I didn't hear it. I felt it.
Anna has kept Diana hidden for fifteen years because Diana's human skin was infecting her with emotion. It's interesting that the first time Diana seems to have experienced human emotion (I took the "I felt it" to mean that it was related to emotion) was through music, specifically, Mendelssohn's Sadness of Soul. It's an appropriate piece of music (and how about that surround sound iPod necklace?) because there is an emotion (sadness) mixed in with the season's theme (of the soul). It's a beautiful piece, but there's a lot of melancholy in it, which is interesting to me because both Anna and Diana have experienced human emotions through some of what my friend, Krysti (who is a professional counselor), refers to as negative emotions. Anna has her first human emotion through rage and Diana has hers through sadness. I think that's an interesting contrast to Lisa, Ryan, and Joshua, who have all felt the positive emotions of humanity.
We may never know (and really, we don't have to know), but I wonder how Diana first heard Mendelssohn? Was it on the radio? At a concert? Did someone play it for her? Did she play it herself?
Music is powerfully emotional. It can bring you back to a time when you first heard it. It can fill you with memories. It can connect you to another person. I think it's really smart of them to use that as the device that first brought out Diana's human emotions.
Diana explains that she found Earth through the detonation of the first atomic bomb, which history indicates was in New Mexico, 1945. Is that a connection to Alpha, who was found in New Mexico?
Diana: It's Earth or nothing.
Anna's infertile now, so it's up to Lisa to lay the eggs and keep the Visitors alive. I suspect that whole Tyler/Lisa love scene in the premiere was to set up Lisa getting pregnant. At least, I hope that's what it was for because it was very awkward to watch and if there was a reason, I guess I could consider it worth it.
Knowing that Earth is the Vs only hope for survival as a species gives Anna a lot more motivation as a character and learning that there is a lot at stake for the Visitors as well as for Humanity, the fight between them becomes even more important. No matter who wins the war, one species is going to suffer and perhaps die out and go away.
Love the cross-cutting between Diana and Anna's conversation about the soul to the one that Ryan and Father Jack have in which Ryan questions whether or not he, as a V, has a soul. Jack replies, "Every creature can feel the grace of God." If Ryan didn't have a soul, he wouldn't even bother questioning whether or not he had one in the first place. Of course, Anna disputes that and tells Ryan that he doesn't have a soul and that he never will. The fight (between Anna and in this case, Jack) over Ryan's soul is a great piece of writing because it's an example of the bigger picture. We may see them discussing Ryan's situation now, but I think the dialogue and discussion of the soul is true for every character within the story, both Human and Visitor.
I really love that after Anna tells Joshua to look for the soul, she goes down to see Diana to brag about how she will succeed where Diana failed. Diana's really getting under Anna's human skin and Anna, in turn, is looking for ways to get back at her. It was pretty funny (and a great little bit of villainy) to me that when Diana mentions Lisa's possible betrayal, Anna rips the musical necklace away from Diana's neck. Yeah, Diana's getting to Anna. In only the ways a mother can.
Diana: Tick tock. Tick tock.
As cheesy as I thought Diana's "Tick tock" line was, I do appreciate it for the very fact that it's a reminder that there is a time table going on in the story. Anna doesn't have a lot of time to make this breeding plan of hers work.
Anna
Anna [about the Hybrid baby]: She wants her mother. She has me.
Anna has become super creepy about this hybrid baby. She's using it to get Ryan to do what she wants and to test her for interbreeding, but part of me wonders if she'll form an attachment to the child. Anna ate a rat and then fed it to Ryan's baby like a bird (which also tells us more what the Vs are) and noted that the bond between a nurturing mother and her child is a strong one. She was able to suppress her maternal feelings towards her soldier babies in "Red Rain", so she can probably do it again, but the mention of the bond sticks out to me. Makes me think either Anna develops feelings for the baby or the hybrid thinks Anna is her mother and won't have anything to do with Ryan.
Of course, at this point, Anna only cares about the hybrid living to get her the answers she's searching for. There's no maternal feelings towards the baby when she says "get it out of here".
The new version of V finally paid homage to the classic rodent-eating sequence from the original miniseries and I loved that it wasn't just a straight-up copy of the way Jane Badler did it. This took it a step further. It wasn't just eating a rat. It was eating a rat and then, regurgitating it into the baby's mouth like a bird.
I love that as villainous as Anna is and of all the dastardly things she has done, she can't really top being a SOUL DESTROYER. She's on a quest to destroy the soul because that is the only way, she believes, to get rid of human emotion.
You can try to top SOUL DESTROYER with backhanding your mother and then stuffing pills that will incinerate her into her mouth. That's like, right under SOUL DESTROYER.
Erica Evans
Erica: I need you to analyze this blood sample.
Sidney: Whoa! Don't you people ever just say "hello"?
Erica was all around awesome in "Serpent's Tooth".
Loved how Erica was smart in getting the blood sample from Tyler without him suspecting, by taking the opportunity when it presented itself in the form of his boneheadedness.
I loved that Erica, genuinely, reinforces to Sidney how important he is to the team. It's another contrast of the difference in how Anna and Erica treat their people. Erica shows Sid respect and in some ways, I think, shows humility when she realizes that the way she was treating him was not how a leader should approach people.
I really enjoyed getting to see a picture of Young!Erica and Baby!Tyler (I suspect that's a real picture of Elizabeth Mitchell and her son, C.J.) and thought the prop folks did a great job mocking up that medical document showing Erica's abnormal levels of phosphorous. We also get Erica's birth date of 5/23/71. Aside from those being fun things to look at, I'm glad to see that Erica is seeking answers to a mystery that involves her family (which, unfortunately, Georgie never got to solve in regards to his own family). She's not just sitting around, waiting for something bad to happen.
Glad to get a Heroic!Erica moment in saving Chad! She was smart to figure out that Chad was the target and acted when she saw the would-be bomber/assassin. Erica had doubts about involving Chad in Resistance activities, but that didn't stop her from saving a human life when it needed her and that says volumes about her as a heroine.
Anna: If anyone helped him destroy my eggs, their face should appear.
[Erica Evans comes up on the screen of the Memory Chamber]
Erica's face shows up in the memory chamber after Anna explains that whoever helped Joshua destroyed the eggs should appear. Good writing, in my opinion. Of course, Anna doesn't suspect Erica because the medical technician says that the last memory Joshua has is that "he's a devoted V" and she considers Erica an ally, with no reason to doubt that.
I had two favorite scenes in "Serpent's Tooth" and both of them involved Erica Evans.
One of my favorite scenes is when Erica reveals herself as Fifth Column to Melanie in the FBI Interrogation room. I think it's great for a lot of reasons: 1) it was visual confirmation that she had the skull bone test done at the warehouse in the Pilot (we can assume she had, but it's nice to see it), 2) the V stands for "victory" and is a nice reminder of the Fifth Column's goal, 3) Fifth Columnists can form an immediate bond of trust when they see the scar on each other which led to encouraging Melanie to open up to Erica and it was smart of Erica to think of using that as a way to get her to talk, and 4) it connects Erica to Jack, whose scar we saw in "We Can't Win", making them the only two humans in The Resistance who have them.
The other favorite scene of mine was Erica and Malik in the car together because they were acting like total bitches (excuse my French) to each other and the tension was so fun. They both knew they were lying to each other and it was only a matter of time before someone took action. I joke about Malik's nerve (I mean, the NERVE) to take Erica's precious gun away from her, but it's also a very serious matter because the car they're riding in flips into a serious car wreck.
Overall, I thought Erica Evans was heroic and smart in "Serpent's Tooth" and I was really glad to see that.
Chad Decker
Chad: I mean, you know some moms. There's just no talking to them when their kid's safety is at stake.
Chad's new outlook on the Vs is making him change the way he works. He used to do interviews for Anna and Marcus because he would get something out of it, but now? He's trying to help other people.
I'm a little nervous for Chad Decker because the scene with Chad, trying to talk the expectant mother out of using V technology to deliver her baby makes me think he is going to screw something up, royally. He has great intentions now, but if he's not careful, he's going to get discovered or make a mistake.
I did love that Chad's warning to the woman about moms and the safety of their kids throws back to the big theme of this story. Anna's dealing with that issue with the survival of her species and Erica's trying to protect both Tyler and her global "children" from being taken by Anna.
Does Chad do his own editing? Most reporters I've known in my life let their photogs edit their packages, so I'm guessing Chad is just going through tape to help him write. Whatever the case (and my news background is making me read too much into that), it helps Chad notice Malik talking to Marcus, which takes him to Jack to warn Erica.
Sidenote: As an editor, I thought it was fun to see a fake editing software interface and things like Action and Title Safe buttons.
Chad was reasonably upset over joining Fifth Column and then becoming an assassination target, but I'm glad he cooled his jets long enough to help out the team. I don't know how much his warning helped, though, because Erica never gets Jack's message, but at least, Chad stepped up and did the right thing.
Father Jack Landry
Father Jack: Times of dangers. Times of grief. Of loss. We can turn only to our essential humanity. For what are we, if we let go of that? If we lose sight of the part of us that differentiates us. We must be comforted by the light of God inside of each of our souls.
Father Jack's sermons are on the Internet? Does St. Josephine's stream their services online or is this some underground operation through other Fifth Column cells?
Poor Jack. He had no idea that his "It's time to fight" would be what his parishioner needed to go through with his plan to blow up the Peace Ambassador Center. He's been struggling on how he should act as a priest this whole time and when he finally takes a stand, it gets misinterpreted in a way he didn't intend. Jack would have NEVER encouraged someone to blow up themselves and/or try to kill others.
Thought it was cool that Father Jack prays and asks God to show him as a sign about what he should do and at that moment, Chad walks in and shows Jack how he found Malik and Marcus interacting on his video, which leads Jack to call and try to warn Erica. His prayer is answered.
I like the way Jack was used in this episode as a "father" figure to Ryan because he understands Ryan's pain. He's patient with Ryan when he tries to help teach him about the soul, which had to have been difficult, considering how angry Ryan was.
Ryan can't pray with Jack because Anna's Bliss almost takes him over. Jack witnesses this, but doesn't seem to understand what is really happening. Tyler knew something was going on when he witnessed Lisa succumbing to Anna's Bliss, so why doesn't Jack?
Ryan
Ryan: The more I feel, the more Anna can hurt me.
Ryan is in a really tough spot. I really feel terrible for him. The love of his life, who opened up his eyes to human emotion, allowing him to break free from Anna, was murdered. He's not allowed to see his miraculous child other than his Skype sessions with Anna. He's told he has no soul. And, on top of that, he KNOWS Anna is messing with him.
It's interesting to me that Ryan thinks that Anna can hurt him through his feelings because isn't that what helped him fight her Bliss in the first place? Yet, here she is, understanding more about how human emotion works and is able to torture him with it.
Anna: No parent can stand by and watch while their child suffers. If he wants to be human, I'll make sure he suffers like a human.
I love all the dialogue the show offers up about parents and children. They use it as double meaning every time and I eat that mess up. In this instance, it refers to Ryan witnessing his sick baby, but in general, it's talking about every other parent on the show.
Anna realizes that emotions aren't all good. She's able to take Ryan's developed emotions and use them against him.
Ryan: Humans. They love guilt, don't they? Blame themselves. Blame other people. When things go wrong, they just wallow in emotion.
For so long, Ryan experienced all the good that human emotions had to offer, mainly, in the form of love. It's now, after Val's death, that he's starting to feel guilt, anger, and sadness, which are all emotions that we wish we didn't have in life. Ryan is right. Guilt, blame, and wallowing in whatever our emotions are is a very human thing.
Anna refers to Ryan as a "weapon" and reminisces about his past as an assassin who went after Fifth Column members like John May (character and story continuity!). Anna seems pretty convinced that she can use Ryan's baby to turn him back into that V he once was. Hopefully, Ryan will prove her wrong.
It's interesting that we got to meet Val's parents and they don't know about the baby and blame Ryan for her death. Is that where some of Ryan's anger is coming from in this episode? His own personal guilt of putting Val in danger mixed in with her parents blaming him?
The minister at Val's funeral says there is no greater loss than a parent losing their child. In addition to referring to Val's death, could it also be foreshadowing? If so, which parent and which child? It could be a throwback to how Anna lost her eggs and had to turn off the machines keeping her remaining babies alive, but I'm still betting on Tyler dying at some point because of the foreshadowing in "Red Rain", but that's just me.
Ryan doesn't cry at Val's funeral and Mrs. Stevens questions whether Ryan has a soul. Does not crying mean you have no soul? I don't think so. I know people who don't cry very often and even at funerals, sometimes, you can still be in such shock from a loved one's passing, that you don't know how to feel. I think Mrs. Stevens was being a tad harsh there, but it still sets Ryan on his quest to find out if he has a soul and it's one, I'm guessing we'll be seeing him on all season.
Jack/Erica
Got a little Jack and Erica moment, despite the Hobbes/Erica random and somewhat forced scenes in this episode. I'll admit that I felt like the Hobbes/Erica interactions were a little too much in this one for me (and yes, as an Erica/Jack shipper), but it's interesting that Erica wants to touch Jack to comfort him in his guilt over unknowingly encouraging the bomber while she demands that Hobbes get his hand off her wrist.
I just wish there was a better balance with those interactions.
Kyle Hobbes
Hobbes steals The Art of War from the bomber's residence and not only is appropriate reading material for the story (about a war) and for Hobbes, as a character, but it gives him a lead to help the Fifth Column find Eli Cohn, which is the exact same tip that Marcus gets and is why Malik goes to the Five Brothers (clever, Writers) warehouse.
Sidenote: The Art of War was mentioned on SMALLVILLE as one of Lex Luthor's favorite books.
Hobbes and Erica discover there is a Mossad connection to the Fifth Column radicals. Looking forward to finding out who these people are and maybe learn how they found out the truth about the Vs.
Hobbes knocks Malik's tooth loose and gives us another reason for the title of this episode. She is the serpent.
Joshua
Joshua's memory loss is temporary, but at this point, I don't think he's faking it (even though, Lisa offers it up as a possibility). I don't think there is any way he can, unless he knows how to beat the Memory Chamber's technology.
The Fifth Column
Anna: Fifth Column is proving to be a bigger threat than I anticipated.
I really love the small sequence in which the suicide bomber blows himself up, not out of some sick twisted way my mind works, but because it is really well-choreographed (the slow-motion of people falling) and chock full of symbolism. It's a man, detonating a bomb while praying, killing himself and sixteen others in front of a Peace Ambassador Center. Of course, the Peace Ambassador Center is just a front used by Anna. The Vs aren't really of peace, but that's what the building is known for, so to see it attacked by a "terrorist" is quite good, storytelling-wise to me.
Fifth Column has claimed attacks in each of the twenty-nine cities that the motherships hang out in. Erica wants to stop them (from hurting humans and making Fifth Column look bad, which would reflect on them as well), but Hobbes suggests they recruit them. Ryan takes it a stop future that a mixture of both of those options is the answer. He brings up the idea to seek them out and talk them into approaching the war their way, which seems like a good way to gain new membership and try to protect human lives.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
I liked getting to see how the Visitors put human skin on themselves. There had been a lot of questions about the Vs fit into human bodies, but that's the wrong way to look at it. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's Vs putting ON human skin, NOT having to fit inside it. They create human DNA and then, just spray it on like a fake tan.
Marcus' "I believe it's hungry" made me laugh.
I could have done without Tyler's "Hey, Hun". I'll get over it, but it shouldn't have been there. "Hey, Babe" or hey, how about "Hey, Lisa"? Those would have been better options.
Melanie really should have tried to find another way to hide the bomb strapped to her chest. It was a little obvious :)
I want to be an actress on a TV show so I can look this flawless.
Final Thoughts
Not my favorite episode of the series so far, but I loved Erica in this one and think the discussion of the soul brings another layer to the story that the show needed.
If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen, that it may live
And be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her!
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth,
With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks,
Turn all her mother's pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
King Lear Act 1, scene 4, 281-289
Anna and Diana
Diana [to Anna]: So, you had to seize from me before your time. Tell everyone I was dead. Burying me down here like a dirty little secret.
We were first introduced to Diana at the end of the Season 2 premiere, but in "Serpent's Tooth", we actually get to know her. I like that by knowing about her relationship with Anna, we get both history of the Vs and foreshadowing of what is probably coming between Anna and Lisa.
Diana [to Anna]: If you proceed with interbreeding, you'll have a generation of Vs who listen to their emotions, follow their hearts, and refuse to bow to their Queen.
Previously, in Season 1, Anna explains to Lisa that the Vs are made for efficiency and that's why they don't have human emotions, so it's interesting that when two V Queens discuss the matter together, it's all about having control. Human Emotion will prevent the Queen from being able to control her people the way she wants to. Of course, what they're not taking into consideration is that if you treat them with respect and look out for their needs, maybe they would bow to the Queen out of reverence and choice? I suppose it's easier and less time-consuming to control your people instead of trying to spend time in building relationships and that's why the Vs are doing what they're doing. They don't seem to have a lot of time to preserve their species.
Diana tells Anna (and us) that she came to Earth to find another homeworld and preserve their species through interbreeding, but that interbreeding with humans would never work. I'm guessing that's why Ryan and Dr. Pearlman were so amazed that Val got pregnant last season?
Diana: I first heard this music on Earth. No, I didn't hear it. I felt it.
Anna has kept Diana hidden for fifteen years because Diana's human skin was infecting her with emotion. It's interesting that the first time Diana seems to have experienced human emotion (I took the "I felt it" to mean that it was related to emotion) was through music, specifically, Mendelssohn's Sadness of Soul. It's an appropriate piece of music (and how about that surround sound iPod necklace?) because there is an emotion (sadness) mixed in with the season's theme (of the soul). It's a beautiful piece, but there's a lot of melancholy in it, which is interesting to me because both Anna and Diana have experienced human emotions through some of what my friend, Krysti (who is a professional counselor), refers to as negative emotions. Anna has her first human emotion through rage and Diana has hers through sadness. I think that's an interesting contrast to Lisa, Ryan, and Joshua, who have all felt the positive emotions of humanity.
We may never know (and really, we don't have to know), but I wonder how Diana first heard Mendelssohn? Was it on the radio? At a concert? Did someone play it for her? Did she play it herself?
Music is powerfully emotional. It can bring you back to a time when you first heard it. It can fill you with memories. It can connect you to another person. I think it's really smart of them to use that as the device that first brought out Diana's human emotions.
Diana explains that she found Earth through the detonation of the first atomic bomb, which history indicates was in New Mexico, 1945. Is that a connection to Alpha, who was found in New Mexico?
Diana: It's Earth or nothing.
Anna's infertile now, so it's up to Lisa to lay the eggs and keep the Visitors alive. I suspect that whole Tyler/Lisa love scene in the premiere was to set up Lisa getting pregnant. At least, I hope that's what it was for because it was very awkward to watch and if there was a reason, I guess I could consider it worth it.
Knowing that Earth is the Vs only hope for survival as a species gives Anna a lot more motivation as a character and learning that there is a lot at stake for the Visitors as well as for Humanity, the fight between them becomes even more important. No matter who wins the war, one species is going to suffer and perhaps die out and go away.
Love the cross-cutting between Diana and Anna's conversation about the soul to the one that Ryan and Father Jack have in which Ryan questions whether or not he, as a V, has a soul. Jack replies, "Every creature can feel the grace of God." If Ryan didn't have a soul, he wouldn't even bother questioning whether or not he had one in the first place. Of course, Anna disputes that and tells Ryan that he doesn't have a soul and that he never will. The fight (between Anna and in this case, Jack) over Ryan's soul is a great piece of writing because it's an example of the bigger picture. We may see them discussing Ryan's situation now, but I think the dialogue and discussion of the soul is true for every character within the story, both Human and Visitor.
I really love that after Anna tells Joshua to look for the soul, she goes down to see Diana to brag about how she will succeed where Diana failed. Diana's really getting under Anna's human skin and Anna, in turn, is looking for ways to get back at her. It was pretty funny (and a great little bit of villainy) to me that when Diana mentions Lisa's possible betrayal, Anna rips the musical necklace away from Diana's neck. Yeah, Diana's getting to Anna. In only the ways a mother can.
Diana: Tick tock. Tick tock.
As cheesy as I thought Diana's "Tick tock" line was, I do appreciate it for the very fact that it's a reminder that there is a time table going on in the story. Anna doesn't have a lot of time to make this breeding plan of hers work.
Anna
Anna [about the Hybrid baby]: She wants her mother. She has me.
Anna has become super creepy about this hybrid baby. She's using it to get Ryan to do what she wants and to test her for interbreeding, but part of me wonders if she'll form an attachment to the child. Anna ate a rat and then fed it to Ryan's baby like a bird (which also tells us more what the Vs are) and noted that the bond between a nurturing mother and her child is a strong one. She was able to suppress her maternal feelings towards her soldier babies in "Red Rain", so she can probably do it again, but the mention of the bond sticks out to me. Makes me think either Anna develops feelings for the baby or the hybrid thinks Anna is her mother and won't have anything to do with Ryan.
Of course, at this point, Anna only cares about the hybrid living to get her the answers she's searching for. There's no maternal feelings towards the baby when she says "get it out of here".
The new version of V finally paid homage to the classic rodent-eating sequence from the original miniseries and I loved that it wasn't just a straight-up copy of the way Jane Badler did it. This took it a step further. It wasn't just eating a rat. It was eating a rat and then, regurgitating it into the baby's mouth like a bird.
I love that as villainous as Anna is and of all the dastardly things she has done, she can't really top being a SOUL DESTROYER. She's on a quest to destroy the soul because that is the only way, she believes, to get rid of human emotion.
You can try to top SOUL DESTROYER with backhanding your mother and then stuffing pills that will incinerate her into her mouth. That's like, right under SOUL DESTROYER.
Erica Evans
Erica: I need you to analyze this blood sample.
Sidney: Whoa! Don't you people ever just say "hello"?
Erica was all around awesome in "Serpent's Tooth".
Loved how Erica was smart in getting the blood sample from Tyler without him suspecting, by taking the opportunity when it presented itself in the form of his boneheadedness.
I loved that Erica, genuinely, reinforces to Sidney how important he is to the team. It's another contrast of the difference in how Anna and Erica treat their people. Erica shows Sid respect and in some ways, I think, shows humility when she realizes that the way she was treating him was not how a leader should approach people.
I really enjoyed getting to see a picture of Young!Erica and Baby!Tyler (I suspect that's a real picture of Elizabeth Mitchell and her son, C.J.) and thought the prop folks did a great job mocking up that medical document showing Erica's abnormal levels of phosphorous. We also get Erica's birth date of 5/23/71. Aside from those being fun things to look at, I'm glad to see that Erica is seeking answers to a mystery that involves her family (which, unfortunately, Georgie never got to solve in regards to his own family). She's not just sitting around, waiting for something bad to happen.
Glad to get a Heroic!Erica moment in saving Chad! She was smart to figure out that Chad was the target and acted when she saw the would-be bomber/assassin. Erica had doubts about involving Chad in Resistance activities, but that didn't stop her from saving a human life when it needed her and that says volumes about her as a heroine.
Anna: If anyone helped him destroy my eggs, their face should appear.
[Erica Evans comes up on the screen of the Memory Chamber]
Erica's face shows up in the memory chamber after Anna explains that whoever helped Joshua destroyed the eggs should appear. Good writing, in my opinion. Of course, Anna doesn't suspect Erica because the medical technician says that the last memory Joshua has is that "he's a devoted V" and she considers Erica an ally, with no reason to doubt that.
I had two favorite scenes in "Serpent's Tooth" and both of them involved Erica Evans.
One of my favorite scenes is when Erica reveals herself as Fifth Column to Melanie in the FBI Interrogation room. I think it's great for a lot of reasons: 1) it was visual confirmation that she had the skull bone test done at the warehouse in the Pilot (we can assume she had, but it's nice to see it), 2) the V stands for "victory" and is a nice reminder of the Fifth Column's goal, 3) Fifth Columnists can form an immediate bond of trust when they see the scar on each other which led to encouraging Melanie to open up to Erica and it was smart of Erica to think of using that as a way to get her to talk, and 4) it connects Erica to Jack, whose scar we saw in "We Can't Win", making them the only two humans in The Resistance who have them.
The other favorite scene of mine was Erica and Malik in the car together because they were acting like total bitches (excuse my French) to each other and the tension was so fun. They both knew they were lying to each other and it was only a matter of time before someone took action. I joke about Malik's nerve (I mean, the NERVE) to take Erica's precious gun away from her, but it's also a very serious matter because the car they're riding in flips into a serious car wreck.
Overall, I thought Erica Evans was heroic and smart in "Serpent's Tooth" and I was really glad to see that.
Chad Decker
Chad: I mean, you know some moms. There's just no talking to them when their kid's safety is at stake.
Chad's new outlook on the Vs is making him change the way he works. He used to do interviews for Anna and Marcus because he would get something out of it, but now? He's trying to help other people.
I'm a little nervous for Chad Decker because the scene with Chad, trying to talk the expectant mother out of using V technology to deliver her baby makes me think he is going to screw something up, royally. He has great intentions now, but if he's not careful, he's going to get discovered or make a mistake.
I did love that Chad's warning to the woman about moms and the safety of their kids throws back to the big theme of this story. Anna's dealing with that issue with the survival of her species and Erica's trying to protect both Tyler and her global "children" from being taken by Anna.
Does Chad do his own editing? Most reporters I've known in my life let their photogs edit their packages, so I'm guessing Chad is just going through tape to help him write. Whatever the case (and my news background is making me read too much into that), it helps Chad notice Malik talking to Marcus, which takes him to Jack to warn Erica.
Sidenote: As an editor, I thought it was fun to see a fake editing software interface and things like Action and Title Safe buttons.
Chad was reasonably upset over joining Fifth Column and then becoming an assassination target, but I'm glad he cooled his jets long enough to help out the team. I don't know how much his warning helped, though, because Erica never gets Jack's message, but at least, Chad stepped up and did the right thing.
Father Jack Landry
Father Jack: Times of dangers. Times of grief. Of loss. We can turn only to our essential humanity. For what are we, if we let go of that? If we lose sight of the part of us that differentiates us. We must be comforted by the light of God inside of each of our souls.
Father Jack's sermons are on the Internet? Does St. Josephine's stream their services online or is this some underground operation through other Fifth Column cells?
Poor Jack. He had no idea that his "It's time to fight" would be what his parishioner needed to go through with his plan to blow up the Peace Ambassador Center. He's been struggling on how he should act as a priest this whole time and when he finally takes a stand, it gets misinterpreted in a way he didn't intend. Jack would have NEVER encouraged someone to blow up themselves and/or try to kill others.
Thought it was cool that Father Jack prays and asks God to show him as a sign about what he should do and at that moment, Chad walks in and shows Jack how he found Malik and Marcus interacting on his video, which leads Jack to call and try to warn Erica. His prayer is answered.
I like the way Jack was used in this episode as a "father" figure to Ryan because he understands Ryan's pain. He's patient with Ryan when he tries to help teach him about the soul, which had to have been difficult, considering how angry Ryan was.
Ryan can't pray with Jack because Anna's Bliss almost takes him over. Jack witnesses this, but doesn't seem to understand what is really happening. Tyler knew something was going on when he witnessed Lisa succumbing to Anna's Bliss, so why doesn't Jack?
Ryan
Ryan: The more I feel, the more Anna can hurt me.
Ryan is in a really tough spot. I really feel terrible for him. The love of his life, who opened up his eyes to human emotion, allowing him to break free from Anna, was murdered. He's not allowed to see his miraculous child other than his Skype sessions with Anna. He's told he has no soul. And, on top of that, he KNOWS Anna is messing with him.
It's interesting to me that Ryan thinks that Anna can hurt him through his feelings because isn't that what helped him fight her Bliss in the first place? Yet, here she is, understanding more about how human emotion works and is able to torture him with it.
Anna: No parent can stand by and watch while their child suffers. If he wants to be human, I'll make sure he suffers like a human.
I love all the dialogue the show offers up about parents and children. They use it as double meaning every time and I eat that mess up. In this instance, it refers to Ryan witnessing his sick baby, but in general, it's talking about every other parent on the show.
Anna realizes that emotions aren't all good. She's able to take Ryan's developed emotions and use them against him.
Ryan: Humans. They love guilt, don't they? Blame themselves. Blame other people. When things go wrong, they just wallow in emotion.
For so long, Ryan experienced all the good that human emotions had to offer, mainly, in the form of love. It's now, after Val's death, that he's starting to feel guilt, anger, and sadness, which are all emotions that we wish we didn't have in life. Ryan is right. Guilt, blame, and wallowing in whatever our emotions are is a very human thing.
Anna refers to Ryan as a "weapon" and reminisces about his past as an assassin who went after Fifth Column members like John May (character and story continuity!). Anna seems pretty convinced that she can use Ryan's baby to turn him back into that V he once was. Hopefully, Ryan will prove her wrong.
It's interesting that we got to meet Val's parents and they don't know about the baby and blame Ryan for her death. Is that where some of Ryan's anger is coming from in this episode? His own personal guilt of putting Val in danger mixed in with her parents blaming him?
The minister at Val's funeral says there is no greater loss than a parent losing their child. In addition to referring to Val's death, could it also be foreshadowing? If so, which parent and which child? It could be a throwback to how Anna lost her eggs and had to turn off the machines keeping her remaining babies alive, but I'm still betting on Tyler dying at some point because of the foreshadowing in "Red Rain", but that's just me.
Ryan doesn't cry at Val's funeral and Mrs. Stevens questions whether Ryan has a soul. Does not crying mean you have no soul? I don't think so. I know people who don't cry very often and even at funerals, sometimes, you can still be in such shock from a loved one's passing, that you don't know how to feel. I think Mrs. Stevens was being a tad harsh there, but it still sets Ryan on his quest to find out if he has a soul and it's one, I'm guessing we'll be seeing him on all season.
Jack/Erica
Got a little Jack and Erica moment, despite the Hobbes/Erica random and somewhat forced scenes in this episode. I'll admit that I felt like the Hobbes/Erica interactions were a little too much in this one for me (and yes, as an Erica/Jack shipper), but it's interesting that Erica wants to touch Jack to comfort him in his guilt over unknowingly encouraging the bomber while she demands that Hobbes get his hand off her wrist.
I just wish there was a better balance with those interactions.
Kyle Hobbes
Hobbes steals The Art of War from the bomber's residence and not only is appropriate reading material for the story (about a war) and for Hobbes, as a character, but it gives him a lead to help the Fifth Column find Eli Cohn, which is the exact same tip that Marcus gets and is why Malik goes to the Five Brothers (clever, Writers) warehouse.
Sidenote: The Art of War was mentioned on SMALLVILLE as one of Lex Luthor's favorite books.
Hobbes and Erica discover there is a Mossad connection to the Fifth Column radicals. Looking forward to finding out who these people are and maybe learn how they found out the truth about the Vs.
Hobbes knocks Malik's tooth loose and gives us another reason for the title of this episode. She is the serpent.
Joshua
Joshua's memory loss is temporary, but at this point, I don't think he's faking it (even though, Lisa offers it up as a possibility). I don't think there is any way he can, unless he knows how to beat the Memory Chamber's technology.
The Fifth Column
Anna: Fifth Column is proving to be a bigger threat than I anticipated.
I really love the small sequence in which the suicide bomber blows himself up, not out of some sick twisted way my mind works, but because it is really well-choreographed (the slow-motion of people falling) and chock full of symbolism. It's a man, detonating a bomb while praying, killing himself and sixteen others in front of a Peace Ambassador Center. Of course, the Peace Ambassador Center is just a front used by Anna. The Vs aren't really of peace, but that's what the building is known for, so to see it attacked by a "terrorist" is quite good, storytelling-wise to me.
Fifth Column has claimed attacks in each of the twenty-nine cities that the motherships hang out in. Erica wants to stop them (from hurting humans and making Fifth Column look bad, which would reflect on them as well), but Hobbes suggests they recruit them. Ryan takes it a stop future that a mixture of both of those options is the answer. He brings up the idea to seek them out and talk them into approaching the war their way, which seems like a good way to gain new membership and try to protect human lives.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
I liked getting to see how the Visitors put human skin on themselves. There had been a lot of questions about the Vs fit into human bodies, but that's the wrong way to look at it. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's Vs putting ON human skin, NOT having to fit inside it. They create human DNA and then, just spray it on like a fake tan.
Marcus' "I believe it's hungry" made me laugh.
I could have done without Tyler's "Hey, Hun". I'll get over it, but it shouldn't have been there. "Hey, Babe" or hey, how about "Hey, Lisa"? Those would have been better options.
Melanie really should have tried to find another way to hide the bomb strapped to her chest. It was a little obvious :)
I want to be an actress on a TV show so I can look this flawless.
Final Thoughts
Not my favorite episode of the series so far, but I loved Erica in this one and think the discussion of the soul brings another layer to the story that the show needed.