Powerful V Episode Revolves Around Trust

V Season 1, Episode 3 Review "A Brand New Day"

After a bit of a letdown in pace last week, V is back to a crisp and powerful surge in "A Bright New Day" which is a strong episode with a confident push. Now that we are familiar with the characters "A Bright New Day" gives us a chance to appreciate their reactions in an atmosphere charged with paranoia, both warranted and invented.

We also get much more than just glimpses into the Visitors' plans and strategy, and a clear picture is forming of who the players and pawns will be in the upcoming struggle. This settling of ranks is effective and compelling, even as we're just beginning to figure out the battlefields on which the war will be fought.

If the first two episodes of V demonstrated that you can't trust anyone, "A Bright New Day" offers a compelling counter-theme to that. It turns out that to have any chance against the Visitors the members of the budding resistance must relearn trust, as it becomes clear that only through what is referred to by several characters as "strength in numbers" can the Vs be defeated.

This is not an easy task in an environment filled with deception and misdirection, but by the end of the episode the first steps have been taken toward reforming the bonds of friendship and partnership which were shown to be so fragile in the first two episodes.

At the beginning of the episode the potential members of the resistance are fragmented and isolated. Father Jack Landry (Joel Gretsch) feels helpless listening to the confused confessions of his churchgoers. Georgie Sutton (David Richmond-Peck) is still haunted by the massacre in the warehouse. Both Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Ryan Nichols (Morris Chestnut) are actively engaged in the struggle, Erica by aiding in the protection of the Vs while spying on them and Ryan by attempting to recruit, but both are easy targets as individuals.