Georgie's plight in this episode was really well done and effective. The poor guy was being tortured by the Vs, who wanted the names of his fellow resistance members and he just wouldn't break. The physical aspect of the torture was pretty nasty, especially once they introduced the Scours; tiny bugs we were informed enter through the face and tend to usually leave "through the reproductive organs." Ouch!
But the real torment they gave him was psychological. Anna forcing him to watch a video presentation of the point of view of the Visitor killing Georgie's own family was brutal – a horribly clever thing for Anna to do (in some ways cementing her villainy more than anything we've seen yet on the show) and something it was easy to empathize with Georgie over, because come on, having to watch your own family be butchered? That's horrific.
When Georgie let Ryan and the others know he couldn't hang on any longer – "I'm ready to see my family now" – it was a genuinely sad and powerful moment. Kudos to David Richmond-Peck for giving a very strong performance here. I am impressed to find myself this emotionally drawn in by V for the first time - and just hope they can do it again with one of the main cast members!
The flashbacks to Ryan and his history with John May (Battlestar Galactica's Michael Trucco) were definitely informative and interesting. Finding out Ryan was initially a loyal V sent to kill the traitorous John May certainly put a whole new spin on things – and I really liked the final reveal, that Ryan had actually killed John May, before making his full turn to the Resistance himself. It was such a cool twist – that John May was actually dead, but Ryan knew the power he had as a mythic leader and wanted to keep that hope alive – that I really hope they don't undo it. I'm highly suspicious of the fact that we conveniently saw everything in the flashbacks but the actual moment of death for John May (or his body afterwards). Obviously, if he were alive, Ryan would have to explain himself again - about why he had a cover story for his cover story. I'd much prefer they just keep things as we left them here, because it feels much stronger and more compelling this way.
On the action front, there was some fun content here – including a V sleeper agent who popped out some claws when Hobbes and Erica realized what she really was. I also liked that we got the return of the V seeker -- the lethal, floating sphere from the pilot – which Erica managed to take down with her gun. She's getting good at destroying those things!
I know I sound like a broken record, but the least engaging part of this series continued to be Tyler. I was glad we got the big secret mentioned last week out of the way – as predicted, it was that Tyler wasn't really the son of one of this parents; namely Joe (Though Erica insists it's a testing screw up – hmm). And yes, it's clever of Lisa to use this info to cause another rift between Tyler and his parents, in order to draw him back to her and the Visitors. But the problem is, I just don't like Tyler, so this battle over his allegiance isn't resonating.
More compelling was Valerie's discover of Ryan's hidden safe and the contents inside, which included multiple passports, money from across the globe, and most damning, her sonogram, with a very odd looking baby. This was definitely a pretty notable "holy crap" moment – who can blame Valerie for getting the hell out of there? I'm curious to see how Ryan's going to calm her down about this little situation…