Erica, Jack, Ryan and Georgie are now the de facto resistance leaders on Earth.  Without knowing who or what the Fifth Column is, we’re left to assume these four are what’s going to stand up to the Visitors.  “It’s Only the Beginning” takes a look at the tenuous trust system these four have in each other as well as the trust others are beginning to put in the Vs.

The background is delivered via Chad Deckard’s investigative reporting (at Anna’s request) and the resistance group’s own snooping around.  After hearing stories about the Visitor’s Healing Centers, Chad is allowed to do a story from within one.  Other threads lead us there as well, including one in which Ryan’s fiancée finds out not only can her heart condition be cured, but she’s pregnant.  Valerie Stevens is Tyler’s counselor and when she brings up the Health Centers, he says he can probably get her in.  Everyone says the wait list is long, but I’m guessing that’s a ruse to drum up interest.

Anna has made an announcement as well.  The people of the Earth, if they want, will be given a vitamin injection that will supercharge their immune system.  This is in a effort to not only provide health care, but preventative care as well.  The Fab Four don’t buy it and at Ryan’s suggestion they track down a known V and chemist to ascertain the truth.  The chemist shoots Georgie after Georgie threatens to skin him, but then takes a suicide pill that leaves him a burning pile of ash.  They gather information that leads them to a warehouse in which the Vs are manufacturing a compound that’s harmful to humans and putting it not in the vitamin injection, but it our own flu vaccine.  They strike a blow by detonating the warehouse.

Joshua, a chief adviser to Anna and the lead medical officer, has a discussion with his right hand man about the Fifth column.  An investigation into Dale’s murder is underway and Anna wants to make an example.  The assistant claims responsibility to save Joshua and the resistance and for his trouble is skinned alive by Joshua.

Lisa brings Tyler aboard the V ship and they meet Lisa’s mom, High Commander Anna, who shows Tyler the engine room; something no human has ever seen.  Tyler had tried to talk to his mother earlier but she was distracted with work and the resistance.  He’s steadily and predictably becoming more trusting of the Vs and susceptible to their machinations.  But he leaves his computer open and Erica intercepts a message from Brandon saying he’s jealous Tyler got invited to the mothership.

Jack is turning out to be a surprise as he is quite adroit with his fists and at the end we see him opening a cabinet in which is stored an American flag, several medals and a gun.  His reverie is short lived as the man he decked at the warehouse sneaks in under the guise of a sorrowful parishioner so he can get all stabby.  Jack lies bleeding under the crucifix.

Chad’s bio-scan for TV to show the world how cool the V’s technology is has turned up the fact that he has an aneurysm in his brain that will kill him in six months.  It’s treatable.  Chad wants a second opinion.  Anna performs a ritual that involves her getting naked and talking through light to her people and some people on Earth about living in the now and believing in goodness.  Lisa called it a gift; bliss.  Even Joshua, wheeling a cart of bloody tools, seemed to appreciate the serenity.

Anna likes that Tyler is smitten with her daughter and how cool their ship is and tells him it’s only the beginning.  We zoom out into space, out of the Solar System into the Oort Cloud where a few hundred other V ships approach menacingly.

It was all about who to trust.  The fifth column lives and Anna is well aware of it.  Anna trusts in her assessment of human predictability.  Chad Deckard doesn’t trust his own eyes.  Erica doesn’t trust her son but she trusts Ryan, whom she knows is a Visitor.

What strikes me about the show overall is the production value and how it’s still inconsistent.  The external shots of the V ships is excellent.  They look like they’re part of the NY skyline.  Inside the ships everyone seems to be floating on a different plane and all reflecting light from different, diffuse sources.  It’s like really bad cubical lighting.  The sound quality and overdubbing for the few times they need it is also quite horrid.  Remember in Star Wars, the first time you heard Aunt Beru speak and you thought, “Well crap, that’s not her real voice.  Oh well.”  That happens 5-6 times each episode and it really pulls you out of the show.

The camera work, however, is nice.  It plays fancy with the high and low shots, tilting the camera this way and that.  It’s meant to unnerve you and force you to look at everything in different ways and it works.  They may overdo it a little at times, but for the most part it’s becoming the style of the show.  The cinematographers and photo directors are quite in tune with their schooling and how to frame shots and move from one shot to the next.

Hopefully we’ll see John May soon.  Though I have a feeling he and Ryan are the same person.

Three and a half (out of five) Anna heads.