V Recap: Welcome (Back) to the War

After four months on hiatus, V reared back up last night with both humans and Visitors hatching plans for vast armies of, you know, humans and lizards. Rallying those two legions were Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell), an FBI agent moonlighting for the resistance, and V High Commander Anna (Morena Baccarin), who, as it turns out, looks a lot like Venom from Spider-Man 3 under all that faux-human skin. And unfortunately for her mate, she's a little hungry, too.

Anna is literally hatching an army: While secret-V Ryan Nichols is warm-blooded enough to have a baby the human way, Anna's got a whole bunch of eggs. The episode culminates with her choosing a top-notch mate, lying motionless on top of him for about three seconds, announcing "It's done," then pulling a preying-mantis move (revealing her Venom face) and eating him. I can't think of any lizards that do that, but feel free to prove me wrong.

Meanwhile, after Erica is attacked by a V in her house, she recruits Carl Hobbs, a man wanted by the FBI, to help train resistance members. "Welcome to the War," she tells him after he accepts, working in the not-terribly-nuanced episode title.

It seems the first prize in this war -- or at least the mini-war beginning to form between the two women -- is Erica's wholly unremarkable son Tyler (Logan Huffman). A major thread in the episode sees Erica channeling a little bit of John Locke ("Don't tell me what I can't do!" to Ryan, after he says she can't go to the V ship) in an effort to retrieve him. Tyler's been wooed by the V's and has holed up on one of their ships, but Anna, in the end of the episode, tells him to go back and comfort his mother, who looks mortified to learn he's become one of their stealth camera-toting "Peace Ambassadors."

Anna's interest in Tyler -- and by extension her vendetta forming against Erica -- doesn't quite jibe in this episode. How has this conflict become so chiefly focused on Erica and Anna? Erica, intrepid double agent that she is, can't be that much of a treat for Anna, who's got a whole world of gullible humans at her disposal. And Erica's eagerness for action, revealed through her recruiting a felon to the resistance and, as she says, "breaking every oath I've sworn to protect," seems just a little misplaced. I mean, come on. The V's apparently aren't trying that hard to kill her considering their resources. They're kind of just picking at her. Anna's kind of just picking at her. Forget the Obama administration analogies -- we're getting into catfight territory, here.

Welcome to the war, indeed. It's getting way, way personal.