I had a difficult time with this episode of V. It was perhaps the best episode of the series in many ways, but it was discomforting to watch. The dilemmas of “Laid Bare” were overwhelming for the humans and the humanized Vs both. From the previews last week, I knew that Erica was faced with the decision about whether to skin Malik or not. I expected that she said to skin her as a threat, but didn’t think she would go through with it. Why? Because, Erica is supposed to be on the “right” side of this story. The moral compass. The one trying to bring down the Vs to protect humans. Unexpectedly, Erica was the one who made the final decision to skin Malik. And, she did it without any consideration of whether it was right or wrong, which shocked me even more than the skinning.
The question came up often about the saving of one life and the value to that, yet, there didn’t seem to be any consideration to the taking of one life. Last week, when Hobbes suggested that the violent actions by the Fifth Column were justified for the greater good, Erica balked at that and said no, the ends did not justify the means. Where was that Erica tonight?
On the other side, there was Anna and her quest to find and eliminate the human soul. The disregard that she and the Vs have for the value of life is clear, yet somewhat intriguing because the whole reason they are even on Earth is for the survival of their species. Lisa had a choice to make, admit she was infected by the human skin and refuse to kill the guy or follow her mother’s instructions and kill the innocent human. Lisa gave in and killed. That took much strength on her part. And, I expect it will not be the last time Anna — her mother — tests her.
As much as this was about testing one’s boundaries of right and wrong, it was also about betrayal. Malik betrayed Anna by giving the Fifth Column the details about the kidnapping, Lisa betrayed her mother by hiding her human emotions and even more so by going to Erica for the comfort of a mother, and Tyler, unknowingly, betrayed Erica by going to Anna. And, begrudgingly, I say that Erica betrayed herself.
The question remains for next week … does Ryan betray his Fifth Column friends to Anna in hopes of protecting his daughter? Or, does he trust that they will be willing and able to help him get his daughter back another way? I was wrong about Erica this week, I hope I am not wrong about Ryan.
As Erica said, “If we lose hope, we lose this fight.”
Clacked by Carla Day 
on Jan 18, 2011 @ 21:41 EST5EDT
I’m sure she gave it a great deal of consideration. If you’re going to skin a V to make them talk, nothing can be gained from hand wringing in front of said V. If she’s gonna o.k it, she should look totally committed.
I don’t know. It’s hard to care that she o.k’d skinning a lizard that’s bent on crushing humanity. Especially the V that put Callie out the airlock. :)
*POST AUTHOR*
I would have liked to have seen some discussion or thought from her about whether skinning her was the right thing to do. Erica gave the permission to torture Malik and basically kill her, since skinning leads to death.
She did deserve it for the Callie thing, for sure! ;)
I thought this was an amazing episode. And, sorry to nitpick, but wasn’t the title of the episode “Laid Bare”?
*POST AUTHOR*
I originally had it as “Laid Bare” but then saw it listed as “Laid Bear” so I changed it. I will look into that more.
I loved the episode. I found it to be very philosophically challenging and that’s not a bad thing.
I was struck by how much Lisa looked like she could be Erica’s child, and Tyler Anna’s. I’m not saying it is relevant to the story, just that I noticed.
*POST AUTHOR*
I noticed that as well. I’m not sure what to make of it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is meaningful.
Of course I’m glad they didn’t get graphic about it, but that was just a localized skinning…not like the job the alien did in the Predator movie. I’m sure it was painful enough, however. Adding to the BSG reference, in both shows Sharma’s character died a violent death for her devious actions. I’m quite alright about her throwing Callie out the airlock though.
Really? How super interesting! Why do you say so?
My dear bsgfan….I suspect you know my reasons….
For a civilization supposed to preclude emotion, the V’s are not very convincing.
Forgive me! How could I have forgotten? Duh…..
I really loved this episode. It’s true what you’re saying about the moral dilemma. Erica clearly does not consider a V life equal to a human life, which is why she doesn’t have a problem with killing Malik or any number of Vs. She killed Anna’s “babies” – now if we considered V babies equal in value to human babies, then this would be a monstrous act. But instead, I think Erica sees the Vs as deadly predators… highly-evolved, technologially-advanced velociraptors. She’s not going to hesitate to kill them – all this talk about the value of one life, she’s talking about human lives. For me, the moral dilemma comes in because Jack tells Ryan that the Vs do have souls. If Jack believes this, then he at the very least has to treat Vs as if their lives have as much value as human lives. Erica may or may not believe that the Vs have souls, so it’s less of an issue for her.
Wild conjecture here but, perhaps the birth of a V soul is only available to them after they enter the garden of Earth.
The V’s are obviously technologically advanced, but seriously lagging spiritually. Maybe the contact with humans is driving their development towards a grand spiritual leap for the V’s as a race……..?
Ruby- you bring up an interesting question … I never considered Erica and the Fifth Column killing Anna’s ‘babies’ as a moral issue at all. They were spawn as a weapon against the humans. But, what makes them different? There is so much we don’t know about the reproduction of Vs. What makes some Vs different from the army she was breeding? They must be different in some respect because Anna is infertile, yet spawned the soldiers.
Regarding Malik, I was just surprised that Erica could so easily torture and kill someone that she worked with for years … even a V.