This causes Donovan to ask the other man how he happened to be there.  Tyler explains that when he heard Diana had been killed, he went to the morgue and discovered that she wasn't there.  Donovan accepts this without another word.

(Sorry, but this is just too much to accept without question.  Donovan's a hell of a lot smarter than that, and as writer David Braff noted . . ., this moment could have resulted in an element of distrust that could have played thematically throughout the series.)

A cop car comes down the street and the officers open fire.  Both men duck for cover and make it to Tyler's car, which they peel out in.  A car chase ensures.  Donovan and Tyler are eventually victorious.

Elsewhere, Julie and Robert discover a cocoon housing Elizabeth, who seems to be going through another metamorphosis.  The cocoon bursts open, and a very different Starchild is taken to safety.

On the Mothership, Diana is walking down a corridor while Lydia questions her on the status of their troops.  Assault commanders are gathered on the bridge, awaiting the word.  Lydia goes on to explain that in the past year, their homeworld has become a wasteland, and because of that, the conquest of Earth is even more imperative.

"Which," Diana smiles, "is precisely why I intend to take it by force of arms."

They enter the bridge, and Diana announces that the time has come for them to achieve global victory.  A team of shock troopers are given a "special assignment": finding Elizabeth Maxwell.

At the Maxwells, we find that Elizabeth is now an adult, temporarily unable to speak and frightened by her physical change.  As they're talking, they hear the frighteningly familiar sound of a Visitor shuttlecraft landing outside the house.

Frightened, Julie and Robert hide Elizabeth, get rifles and begin shooting members of the aliens.  Some of them make their way into the house, but before they can do anything, they start gasping for air and collapse to the ground, lifeless.

"The red dust," says Robert with relief.

"But it took far longer than it should have," Julie replies.

On the Mothership, Diana comes to the conclusion that in warmer climates the red toxin withers and dies, while in colder ones it breeds and thrives.  Lydia wonders what will happen if the humans introduce more of the toxin into the atmosphere, but Diana is determined to prevent this by striking at the source.

As a result of a vicious attack on Los Angeles, hundreds of people are either dead or wounded, and the Club Creole has become something of an infirmary.  Julie and Robert enter with Elizabeth, who only Willie seems to recognize.

Later at Science Frontiers, Nathan Bates is meeting with Julie and an air force general, who's astounded that the red dust is only working in areas below the frost line.  He wants to ship more toxin in to other areas, but Bates tells him that that is impossible, and he pulls out a file containing photos of deformed plant and animal life, mutated due to exposure.

"Every person on this planet," explains Bates, "has already been exposed to the red dust once.  We've ingested it; it's in our systems.  If we use the dust in combat again, every life form on Earth could be dead in six months."

The general leaves, and Julie is crushed because there's nothing they can do.  Bates, conversely, feels as though everything is under control.

Diana and several shock troopers enter the room, with her announcing that she's ready to kill Bates.  He actually laughs this off, explaining about his pulsometer, which is tied in to explosives on storage tanks installed throughout the facility.  If the device is removed from his wrist, or if his pulse should suddenly stop, the explosives will go off, releasing enough red toxin into the air to kill every Visitor on the planet, and making Earth uninhabitable.

Eventually they come to an understanding that the Visitors will withdraw from Los Angeles, and, in return, Bates will return to them the captured Mothership and not release the red toxin.  Diana departs, leaving a stunned Julie staring at Bates.

"Imagine," he says in defence, "there's a little room somewhere in the cosmos.  It's filled from wall to wall with high explosives.  Inside, two men hold guns to each other's foreheads.  Forget the fact that the little room is a planet.  Forget the fact that one of the men isn't even human.  The one remaining fact -- the inescapable fact -- is that racial extinction is a moment away . . .  Now is the time for cunning, and guile.  The time to defeat Diana on her own terms.  That's my plan.  It's not capitulation . . . it's an accommodation to reality."

This statement by Bates is an impressive one, and it's unfortunate that it never aired.  Additionally, it would have given a little more insight into the Nathan Bates character, and perhaps have made him a bit more sympathetic to this audience.

Diana explains to Lydia that she has no intention of living up to her end of the deal, for due to arrive the next day (without the Leader's approval) is the Particle Triax, a weapon powerful enough to vaporize all of Los Angeles without any nuclear fallout.

That night on television, Bates explains that L.A. will be an Open City, where neither Visitor nor human will be allowed to bear arms, and both will coexist in peace.  He hopes that this message will spread to the rest of the world.

The now reformed Resistance, watching this, realize that the only thing they can do is steal the Mothership, and prevent the plan from going through.

Back at Science Frontiers, Julie convinces Bates that he may be in danger from people against the whole idea.  He says that if she'll accompany him to the ceremony, he'll double his security, to which she agrees.  This will leave security on the Mothership down to a minimum.

On her ship, Diana explains that in nearly three hours she will come back to the Mothership, and moments later the Triax will vaporize the city.

While the ceremony takes place, the Resistance boards the vessel and begins work on the controls.  Elizabeth uses her powers to activate the main engines.  Several guards come on board, and are driven off in a gunfight, although Robert Maxwell is seriously wounded.

At the ceremony, Ham makes an attempt on Nathan, but security protects him, which, ironically, causes him to give Julie thanks for having him bring the extra men.

The Mothership takes off and quickly rises into the atmosphere.  On the viewscreen they see the Triax, which Willie explains.  They quickly realize that the only way to stop the device is to destroy it by self destructing their ship.  Robert volunteers to fly the vessel into the weapon, because, as his wound makes clear, he's destined to die shortly anyway.

The Resistance bids a sorrowful farewell to Robert, who departs in a shuttle.

The stolen Mothership, much to Lydia and Diana's horror, collides with the Triax, and both are destroyed.

Watching from the shuttle, Elizabeth screams out, "Grandfather -- no!  Preta-na-ma, Grandfather.  Preta-na-ma."

Later, with no choice, the Visitors begin to pull out of Los Angeles.

"For better or for worse," explains Julie, "Nathan Bates has made Los Angeles an Open City, a place where we can operate against the Visitors.  It's doesn't do much for those trapped outside the city, but it's a start; a ray of hope."

And indeed it is.
 

Still, the characters (particularly Robert Maxwell) were handled quite well, although it's unfathomable why such impressive pieces of dialogue from the script never made it to television.

With "Dreadnought", hopes were still high for V: The Series.
 

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