The second episode picks up exactly where we left off, leaving me to believe it was filmed with the idea of a two hour pilot in mind.  At this point I’m going to freely admit to not being able to follow the finer points in television shows and I rely heavily on production value to base my critiques.  I miss overall themes and subtle facets.  So if I can tell something is wrong, you might want to fix it.

Agent Erica Evans and Jack Landry see a V ship arrive and begin cleaning up the massacre that was the resistance movement.  She calls 911, which is intercepted by the V’s, and another floating crystal ball of death chases them down.  Thus we start the long fight against the attractive but creepy visitors using nothing but deceit and bad acting.

We don’t know who could be a V, much like we don’t know who could be a Cylon or an Other.  While we don’t officially know what the V’s have in store for humanity, we do know they aren’t telling us the full truth.  There’s been a resistance for many years and we know there are more turncoats like Ryan.  The V’s, then, are hiding something.  That breeds mistrust and we see that Erica, now partner-less and struggling to come to grips with Dale’s real identity, walks through her job in a fog.  Her boss and her office are worried about Dale, but she can’t tell them the truth and has to play it off like he’s missing, then later that he is a traitor working with a terrorist cell.  Erica’s boss let’s her know of a DEA drug investigation that was nearly compromised, so her story of Dale being a traitor wasn’t far off.

We’re introduced to a couple new characters, including Agent Sarita Malik (Rekha “BS:G’s Tory” Sharma) who is investigating things in relation to V’s.  It’s a special task force, but given Sharma has already played a Cylon (oh, did I spoil that?) it makes watching her as a new character investigating the Visitors seem a little awkward; as though she has TRAITOR stamped on her forehead already.  It’s like watching Helo on Dollhouse and waiting for him to make out with the actives…oh.  Or like Saul on Dollhouse and waiting for him to drink…wait.  Or Apollo on Dollhouse…I’m sorry, wrong show.

Agent Malik on V talks to Father Landry about the man who gave him the photos.  He plays dumb and doesn’t mention the photos, remembering Erica’s advice on trusting people.  Anna is pitching her desire to travel freely on the Earth via travel visas.  So far only a couple countries are holding out, including the US.  Interviewer Chad feels he got played by Anna’s non-interview and plans on getting a bit of revenge.  He sets up a debate panel asking why people didn’t trust the V’s.  Anna’s not happy.  She and her assistant Marcus try to bully Chad but he stands tall and tells them he’s not their play thing.

Tyler and Brandon are stupidly enamored with the V’s and Lisa in particular.  Tyler punches a protester and Lisa suddenly isn’t so hot on him.  She says she can’t see him any more.  He and his bike are sad.

Ryan visits New Jersey and another traitor, Angelo, who has a V med kit complete with ooze gun to help Ryan’s wound.  He then drugs him and leaves, calling him later to tell him to be careful with his human girlfriend.  Angelo rattles off some of her historical data and says if he can get to her, anyone can.  Later in their home, she sees a photo that’s upside-down and turning it back over reveals a business card with Cyrus and an address.  He plays it off, she doesn’t seem to me mind.  His arm is nearly healed thanks to the goo.

Erica thanks Tyler for not getting involved with the V’s (or at least lying to her about it.)  He pulls up Lisa’s picture on his phone.  Erica shreds a picture of Dale.  We zoom up to the V’s ship where Dale is resurrected on a lonely table.  So at least Alan Tudyk will be back.  Where’s Georgie?  The character I liked the most is gone and in his place we have a weirdly robotic yet easily amused Agent Malik.

At this point I still want to see all the disparate story lines develop.  I’m still interested in the characters with the exception of Tyler and Brandon and Lisa.  I realize why this part of the story exists and I know it ties into the everyman or grassroots idea of humanity versus aliens.  Tyler is optimism and naivete and everything the V’s want.  He’s a yummy morsel of a human and they can’t wait to eat him up.  It’s his job to be brainwashed.  But the performance is unbelievable and the writing is lacking.  It feels like their dialog is written by 50 year old German nuns whose only exposure to American youth was through beach party movies with Frankie and Annette.  Lisa is serviceable, but if I have to hear another pandering to the youth line like, “Dude, two words: Awe Some!” I think I’m going to have to take a hostage.

Erica is still hard to figure out and I believe it’s Mitchell’s delivery or the lines she’s given at times.  Her interaction with Father Landry in the FBI office is fantastic.  Her interaction with Father Landry outside the federal building later is horrible.  The dubbing, the quality, the believability.  If I can say one thing about V, it’s that its inconsistencies are consistent.

Two and a half out of five Anna heads.