'V' recap: The Beginning of the End

The episode's best stuff, as usual, involved Anna. Once again, we were left to ponder and debate her true motivations. She was hellbent on squashing the Fifth Column subterfuge and the unsettling re-emergence of its mythical leader, John May. She ordered Joshua to launch an investigation into the murder of sleeper agent Dale Maddox — not knowing Joshua was the murderer himself. (Or did she?) She knew the culprit was one of the medical staff and was more than willing to go cruel and unusual to smoke out the traitor. ''The innocent will suffer,'' she warned. When Joshua's boy Friday — also Fifth Column — stepped forward to take the bullet, Anna seemed to take satisfaction in issuing the sentence. ''Skin him,'' she sneered.

At the same time, Anna and her daughter, Lisa, pushed forward with their plans for Agent Evans' son, Tyler — a plan which, like the Vs' injection conspiracy, went maddeningly unexplained, although we got the sense that Tyler's increasing estrangement from his mother played right into their hands. Anna ramped up the seduction by inviting Tyler to the mothership and letting look at her engines. I mean that literally, though I was kinda hoping it would actually happen figuratively. ''Don't' worry, she won't bite,'' Lisa said of her mother — another coy nod to the original series and specifically its legendary guinea pig swallowing moment. Everything we saw of Anna last night made her seem like a suspicious figure — even when she stripped down and bestowed ''Bliss'' to her people. Is this how she maintains power — by keeping her followers hooked on psychic/spiritual Xstacy, or at least telepathic nudie pics of herself?

Still — and I know this perspective of mine frustrates a lot of you — I remain unconvinced that Anna is the villain we are being encouraged to think she is. Because once again, if you go back and look at everything she said and did (or didn't say and didn't do), she becomes open to interpretation. She could very well be a megalomaniacal wannabe goddess bent on adding a new world of spiritual slaves to her empire. (Or her menu.) But she could be a severely pragmatic idealist on fire to redeem the universe and isn't about to let mankind's cynicism get in the way of giving the world the salvation it needs. In the episode's final image, we saw an armada of spaceships — hundreds of them, just like Anna's — in deep space, presumably en route to Earth. The assumption: Anna's fleet is the advance team, softening us for the hard-core invasion to come. But remember what we learned in the second episode? All of this is happening earlier than expected. Could it be that Anna wants to save Earth from a separate faction of her species? Maybe this super-duper ''vitamin supplement'' that she's trying to sneak into human beings is designed to strengthen mankind for the war to come? And to further turn all of this on its head... what if the Fifth Column isn't a rebel/resistance force, but actually part of the evil empire that Anna is trying to subvert? Which would mean that Ryan isn't a good guy resistance leader — he's a bad guy stormtrooper, and clueless Erica and Father Jack are helping him thwart Earth's only hope for staving off alien armageddon: Anna.

Wow. The more I speculate, the more I'm beginning to wonder if I like V a lot better than I think I do. That I don't know makes me even more frustrated with it. Regardless: I cede the floor. Did you like V's winter finale? Was this ''pod'' a creative success? Are you already counting down the days to V's scheduled return in March — or do you think you'll pass on the return engagement? The message boards await your answers. Two final notes: (1) To all those who like V and would call themselves fans, I know that reading a recap written by a disliker/non-fan isn't all that fun, and even kind of infuriating. So I appreciate your indulgence — and I accept your bitterness and scorn. (2) I hope to see you all over at the Lost and FlashForward recaps in the weeks to come — and I hope also hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving.