V: The
Series Episode Guide
"The Betrayal"
Original Airdate: January
18, 1985
Plot Summary
~ Detailed Review ~ Freedom
Network ~ Bloopers and Nitpicks
Memorable Moments
~ Cast and Production
Plot Summary -
While Willie fights for his
life after being shot by a Visitor laser blast, John steps up his campaign
to impregnate Robin and create another 'Starchild'. Kyle suspects
that all is not as it seems at Science Frontiers. Second of two parts.
Detailed
Review -
-
As a Visitor shuttle flies over the city, Willie
makes his way to an abandoned building to meet with Fifth Columnist Simon,
who warns Willie of a secret arms shipment coming into the open city.
Simon's fears of being followed are warranted, as two troopers arrive and
open fire. Simon is killed, and Willie is shot but manages to escape
into the street.
-
Kyle, watching 'Nathan's latest television broadcast,
suspects that the figure on TV is not his father. He knows that the
extent of Nathan's injuries were such that he would not be able to appear
so healthy. Kyle leaves to investigate.
-
At the Visitor legation, John meets with Diana
in an attempt to get a transfer - he knows that Diana was willing to let
him die at the hands of the disintegrator. Diana refuses and demands
that John complete his mission - impregnate Robin Maxwell or die.
Diana also demands the location of the Resistance Headquarters, but John
refuses to tell her on the grounds that she may decide to blow it up with
him still inside.
-
Willie makes his way back to the Resistance.
He has suffered internal injuries; Juliet attempts to remove the shrapnel,
but doesn't know enough about Visitor physiognomy. She sends Mike
and Ham out to get a Visitor doctor.
-
Outside of a Visitor field hospital, Ham and Mike
kidnap a young doctor, using his armband to identify him.
-
Aboard the Mothership, Charles manipulates a new
video image of Nathan when he is informed by Lydia that various laser weaponry
that he had shipped to L.A. in crates marked "Medical Supplies" has arrived.
Diana is shocked that Charles and Lydia have so openly broken her agreement
with Nathan. They are interrupted by a trooper bearing a message
from Mr. Chiang - Nathan has come out of his coma. Charles heads
to L.A. to meet with Mr. Chiang.
-
Robin arrives at John's house just as he has removed
his synthetic 'human' eyes. Hurriedly replacing them, he greets her
with a kiss and attempts to force her into a sexual relationship.
Robin leaves in tears, telling him that she loves him but that she is not
yet ready to make love.
-
When John returns to his house, he finds Diana
waiting for him. She expresses curiosity about John's attractiveness
to women, and we are left with Diana and John sharing a kiss.
-
At the Resistance Headquarters, Willie is in such
agony that Julie decides to give him some morphine. She is interrupted
when Mike and Ham arrive with the Visitor doctor, Howie, that they have
kidnapped. Howie warns Julie that morphine is poisonous to Visitors.
He recommends that he give Willie a blood transfusion while he talks Julie
through the operation that will be necessary to save Willie's life.
Juliet manages to remove the damaged portions of his internal organs, and
Howie gives Willie 24 hours to pull through.
-
Robin, meanwhile, returns to John's house and
apologizes to him. She agrees to stay with him.
-
Diana and Charles meet with Mr. Chiang to discuss
Nathan's situation. Mr. Chiang knows that Nathan will react strongly
when he learns of the computer image that they have been using of him.
Charles recommends that Mr. Chiang kill Nathan, in which case the open
city will belong to Chiang.
-
Robin and John rush back to Resistance Headquarters
when they hear about Willie. John acts mistrustful of Howie, trying
to implant doubts in the others of what Howie actually did to Willie.
Howie feels that he recognizes John, but can't place him. Willie's
condition rapidly deteriorates, and he begins convulsing. Howie attempts
to resuscitate him, but fails, and Willie dies. While the others
gather around the stretcher in tears, Elizabeth panics - she stands over
Willie and touches him. Her power radiates outward and allows his
heart to start beating again.
-
Witnessing Elizabeth's strange powers, Howie realizes
that she is the Starchild, and the Resistance members are left with the
decision of what to do with him. While John continues to attempt
to sow doubts about Howie's intentions, Howie reveals that he is a Fifth
Columnist and informs the Resistance of the arms shipments that Charles
has been making to the hospital. He agrees to help them to destroy
the shipments.
-
At Science Frontiers, Kyle - disguised as an orderly
- manages to get Nathan. The elder Bates reveals that there are a
series of underground tanks below the city with concussion detonators that
are set to go off if the Visitors try to take the city by force.
When Kyle reveals that Mr. Chiang does not know that he is there, Nathan
realizes that Chiang has betrayed him and warns Kyle to leave. Kyle,
however, refuses to leave without his father, and the two are reconciled.
-
Howie takes Ham and Mike on a reconnaissance mission
to the hospital, where the three see the most recent laser shipments being
unloaded. Howie reveals that the Visitors are also storing liquid
xenon at the facility, which is used as fuel for their weapons.
-
Kyle and Nathan attempt to get out of Science
Frontiers. Nathan is heavily sedated and still hooked up to his IV,
but they manage to make it to the elevator - which opens to reveal Mr.
Chiang. Chiang pulls a gun, but before he can fire Nathan lunges
towards him, taking two bullets in the chest. Nathan's last words
to Kyle are "Get out of here" and Kyle steps backward into the elevator
just as Chiang fires another shot at the closing elevator doors.
-
Aboard the Mothership, Diana receives a partial
message from John and prepares to leave for the surface.
-
In Visitor uniforms, Juliet, Mike, Ham, Robin,
John and Howie infiltrate the hospital where the weapons and liquid xenon
are being kept. After Ham and Mike knock out the guards, they join
Julie and head into the interior of the building. John and Howie
drag the two unconscious guards into a storage room. When Howie finally
recognizes John as one of Diana's henchmen, John knocks him unconscious
as well and takes his weapon.
-
At Science Frontiers, Mr. Chiang relaxes at Nathan's
desk, when the door opens and Kyle appears. He lunges at Mr. Chiang
who pulls a gun. Kyle manages to knock the gun from Chiang's hand,
where it falls to the floor in front of the desk. Chiang dives for
the gun, and in the ensuing melee the gun goes off, killing Chiang instantly.
Kyle quickly escapes.
-
Ham, Julie, and Mike are able to infiltrate the
back area of the hospital by bluffing about a maintenance check.
Julie sets the controls so that the xenon will boil, and Ham uses his gun
to blow the other systems so that the coolant will not reactivate.
-
Waiting at the front of the hospital with the
ambulance that they arrived in, Robin overhears John telling a Visitor
guard that the Resistance members are in the xenon control room.
When he comes outside, he reveals to Robin that he is a Visitor.
Robin naturally loses control - she cannot believe that she has been duped
yet again.
-
Juliet, Ham, and Mike are able to make their way
out of the building via an alternate route, and arrive at the ambulance
to find that Robin is being held captive by John, whose Visitor skin is
revealed behind a gouge that Robin has made in his face. The Resistance
members are forced to put away their weapons, but Howie has awakened in
the storage room and arrives in time to shoot and kill John. Lifting
Robin up quickly, the freedom
fighters jump into the ambulance and quickly escape - Howie, however, decided
to stay behind, as he feels that he can better help by being on the inside.
Diana arrives just as the Resistance are making their escape, and Howie
points out the fallen John as the only witness to whatever had happened.
-
At Resistance Headquarters, Robin makes the decision
to make a new start in Chicago. Packing her bags, she bids goodbye
to all, including Elizabeth who has decided to stay in L.A., and heads
out with Ham and Chris as her escorts and bodyguards.
Freedom Network
Medal of Valour - The
Freedom Network Medal of Valour is awarded this week to Frankie Weatherwax,
a mechanic from Chapel Hill, North Caroline. Frankie single-handedly
stopped a Visitor attack on a junior high school by taking over a laser
cannon and turning it on the Visitors.
Bloopers
and Nitpicks -
-
When Willie is running back to Resistance Headquarters,
his clothes change. He is first shown
wearing black jeans, a blue T-shirt, and a black jacket. After he
is shot, he is seen running through the streets wearing a
long brown coat. When he arrives back at HQ he is wearing the
original clothes. Thanks to Nick
for this nitpick!
-
Second blooper for Willie: both Willie and
Simon have holes in their shirts before they are shot
by the Visitor troopers. Thanks to Kris
for this nitpick!
-
Final blooper for this part of the show:
The scene when Willie is running back to Resistance
Headquarters is reused footage from when Willie is returning from seeing
Elias' killed by the
disintegrator in 'The Hero'.
-
During Kyle's fight with Chiang, Kyle has Chiang
pinned on the desk. Chiang double punches Kyle on the chin
- there is at least a foot of space between the punch and Kyle's face!
This is probably the worst shadow punch I've ever seen!
-
Mr. Chiang is shot in the chest during his struggle
with Kyle. We then see him lying on the floor moments
later - his entire chest is seen and there is neither blood nor a bullet
hole to rumple his impeccable vest.
-
The Resistance doubt that Howie is a Fifth Columnist
because they had heard that all the Fifth
Columnists had been killed. Yet Willie had met with a Fifth Columnist
earlier that evening - that is why he was lying near death in the
very next room, and the reason that they needed Howie in the first
place!
-
Just prior to Robin's departure, Julie announces
"At least you're not pregnant". Since Robin had arrived back
at John's house to apologize and to make love, this leaves us with two
possibilities: either Robin and John were interrupted by the news of
Willie's injuries before they had the chance to get together...
or they did have sex and Julie had merely tested Robin to ensure
that she didn't become pregnant as a result of it. Any comments?
Well, Wendy for one believes
that Robin and John did indeed make love. And I have to agree
with her!
-
When 'Nathan' is on TV, he announces "It's two
hours after curfew and all is well". That same
night we see: Ham and Mike go to the Visitor field hospital, Robin goes
twice to John's house, and various people on the street outside
of John's house. This all occurs after curfew! Thanks
to Kris for this nitpick.
-
Kris has
more: the same footage of the people outside of John's house is used
twice.
-
And last but not least,
Kris wonders: how did John and Robin find out about Willie anyway?
No
one called them.
-
"Lucifer"
says: Charles seems extraordinarily cavalier about having Bates killed,
especially after being told about the red dust bombs in the previous episode.
After Bates is killed, no one seems to have anything to say about red dust
not being released. It seems to have obviously been a bluff, but why does
Lydia not mention that Diana was had by a human, as she always enjoys antagonizing
her rival.
-
R. Carter
has come up with a plausible explanation for the inconsistency with the
red dust. He says: Bates originally said that if his pulse
stopped, the pulsometer was attuned to explosives attached to red dust
containers at Science Frontiers. Isn't it likely that after Bates
went into a coma and Chiang took over, that Chiang dismantled the explosives?
-
Collin
notes an inconsistency between this episode
and another: Kyle and Mr. Chiang have a nice little knock-down drag-out
in which Kyle holds his own and ultimately wins. But "Visitor's Choice"
established that Chiang is skilled in martial arts, and in that episode,
Kyle doesn't stand a chance against him.
-
Alan caught
a blooper during the Freedom Network broadcast: When the map of the
south-west of Britain is shown, the sea to the west is labelled "Atlantic
Ocean". The writers seem to have forgotten about that
insignificant little island that us inhabitants
like to call Ireland, and in between the not-spoken-of Ireland and the
mammoth that is Great Britain, lies the Irish Sea. The Atlantic is actually
off the west coast of Ireland...
Memorable
Moments -
-
(Howie gives his initial prognosis of Willie's
condition)
Mike: OK,
OK, How's he doing?
Howie:
He's gonna die.
Ham: (cocks
pistol) You
don't seem to understand. I care about this lizard.
-
(Kyle reconciles with Nathan)
Nathan:
Kyle, I made my deal with life a long time
ago. I wanted power and reward, and I got it ...
but I lost you in return. Now there's no need to say that I'm
sorry, that I was wrong ... my gamble ... yet I love you, boy.
Kyle: Hang
on Dad. We're gonna get out of here.
Nathan:
Kyle, I want you to do something you've never
done before - I want you to listen to me.
Get out of here, now.
Kyle:
Dad, I love you and I'm not gonna leave you
here. No way.
Cast
Diana: |
Jane Badler |
Lydia: |
June Chadwick |
Elizabeth Maxwell: |
Jennifer Cooke |
Willie: |
Robert Englund |
Juliet Parrish: |
Faye Grant |
Ham Tyler: |
Michael Ironside |
Mike Donovan: |
Marc Singer |
Nathan Bates: |
Lane Smith |
Robin Maxwell: |
Blair Tefkin |
Kyle Bates: |
Jeff Yagher |
Guest Stars
Mr. Chiang: |
Aki Aleong |
John: |
Bruce Davison |
Howie: |
Richard Minchenberg |
Charles: |
Duncan Regehr |
Howard K. Smith: |
Howard K. Smith |
Additional Guest Stars: |
Robert Dowdell, Dean Abston, John Allen, Gary
Dubin, Jonah Pearson, Michael Tulin |
Production
Executive Producer: |
Daniel H. Blatt |
Executive Producer: |
Robert Singer |
Supervising Producer: |
Garner Simmons |
Producer: |
David Latt |
Creator: |
Kenneth Johnson |
Writer: |
Marc Rosner |
Director: |
Gilbert Shilton |
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Hero
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