V (2009 TV series)

"We are of peace, always".

A remake of the |original series, airing on ABC. Massive spaceships appear over many of the major cities of Earth, and simultaneously broadcast images of "Anna", the leader of the Visitors. She claims that her species is delighted to find another intelligent species and want to trade their technology for water and a "common mineral".

Mankind is eager to embrace the help offered by the "Vs", especially their clean energy and universal health care. A handful, however, are aware that the Vs are not as benevolent as they claim, and that lurking under their beauty is an ugly intention.

Erica Evans is an FBI agent who is tracking multiple terrorist cells. Upon the arrival of the Vs, she notices that one cell's activity suddenly spikes, and her investigation leads her to a man who claims the Vs are here not as friends, but as conquerors. Through this meeting and the events that follow, she meets both Jack Landry, a Catholic priest who is questioning the effects of the Vs, and Ryan, a member of the half-legendary Fifth Column.

Stars Elizabeth Mitchell as Erica Evans and has Morena Baccarin as Anna, the equivalent of the Diana role in the original.

ABC cancelled it in 2011 after the second season.

Tropes used in V (2009 TV series) include:

Anna: The US is the linchpin. Once they grant us freedom, the remaining countries will follow.

  • Anyone Can Die:
    • Didn't think Georgie would die, did ya?
    • Episode 8 introduces a potential supporting character but kills him off by the last 10 minutes.
    • Subverted with Joshua, the leader of the Fifth Column, in the season 1 finale. He's shot by Erica to avoid suspicion that she's Fifth Column, but gets revived by Marcus.
    • Val by the order of Anna, subverting Death by Childbirth.
    • Eli and Joe to begin season 2... ouch.
    • In the series finale, Ryan got killed by his own daughter. That's just cold. Later it's Diana by Anna and Tyler by Fake Lisa
  • Awesome but Impractical: The Visitors employ what amounts to a floating sphere that shoots spikes out in a 360-degree radius. Problem is, it only does so on a horizontal plane, meaning the important characters only have to duck to avoid it. Wouldn't it be better if it just exploded? It doesn't help that its so-called "surveillance" function lacks the photographic resolution of a cheap cell phone. This is especially strange since we later see that they have floating bombs that are closer to what you'd expect.
    • The only semi-logical conclusion is that the spike-sphere was made of ice, designed to melt away untraceabley afterwards. It makes...some sense.
  • Badass Preacher: Father Jack was an army priest in the Iraq war, and one of the reasons he's joined the resistance is to protect his congregation.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Since this show won't get a third season, Mother's Day was a good day for Anna.
  • Batman Gambit: As we've seen in "Siege", Anna sets up the bomb in the "hostage" situation, and has Joe killed in the crossfire so Tyler has a reason to return to her.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: Decker comments at his first meeting with the Visitors that they are all what humans would consider attractive; he asks if there are any ugly Vs. Anna makes the charming "You're not so bad yourself" rejoinder, which means the Visitors could very well be Genre Savvy enough to know humans react positively to that which they find attractive. And that they would not react well to finding out that Visitors are reptiles underneath.
  • Bee People: Played believably, but not quite straight: The Vs are bred for different jobs, but they are all still intelligent. So far we've seen the queens (Anna and presumably Lisa), workers, trackers, soldiers, and possibly doctors, although they may just be workers.
  • Behind the Black: Usurper and former queen Diana is giving a speech to her loyal subjects, Anna walks up behind her and kills her. It's only a surprise to viewers because of the camera angle, but a literal room full of people had seen Anna and her troupe approaching but none of Diana's loyal subjects gave a warning.
  • Belief Makes You Stupid: "Heretic's Fork" makes mention of a potential "Church of the Vs". When Erica rightly points out that Anna is not a god, Tyler's counter is that the Vs haven't done anything bad. Unfortunately, Erica does not point out that this has nothing to do with the original argument. Comes up later when Jack speaks out against the Vs at his church, calling them false prophets since people are worshiping them instead of God.
  • Betty and Veronica: The Love Triangle is only hinted so far, but Jack Landry is obviously the Betty, with Hobbes as Veronica.
  • Big Applesauce: Alien ships have landed simultaneously in major cities all over the world. All the characters you have to keep track of happen to be in New York City however.
  • Big No: Anna after she sees her destroyed eggs.
  • Bloodier and Gorier: Season 2. The pilot episode alone has Tyler's face slowly melting off in a dream sequence, Anna graphically murdering a Visitor with her scorpion-like tail, and blood raining from the sky.
  • Bratty Teenage Son: Just how self-absorbed is Tyler? He blamed Erica for his dad's death because he thought she wasn't doing her job properly even after he thought she was a hostage and he saw that she was visibly hurting. Some people would call Erica abusive for hitting him, but she was really doing what the audience was thinking. To be fair, he eventually seems to come to his senses, but Anna has figured out how to Bliss humans by then and slams the door on that.
  • Break the Cutie: While it's been slowly building since "Hearts and Minds", Lisa now qualifies as of "Laid Bare". Anna ordered her to kill a test subject, and later that night she broke into tears in Erica's arms. And now Lisa was forced to watch her double have sex with Tyler and then see the fake Lisa kill Tyler
    • As of "Siege", Erica, with her ex dead and her son leaving her for the V also qualifies.
  • California Doubling: Vancouver for New York.
  • Cartwright Curse: Practically at epidemic levels here, but one character may end up standing out more than the others.
  • Catch Phrase:
    • "We are of peace, always."
    • "JOHN MAY LIVES"
  • Consummate Liar: Anna.
  • Conspicuous CG: You just know that the mothership is a greenscreen backdrop... somehow. Inside the ship, most of the time, nobody and nothing casts shadows.
    • The glimpses of the Vs beneath their human skins haven't been terribly impressive either.
  • Continuity Reboot
  • Crazy Prepared: Anna. Daughter and future Queen of the V's starting to turn against her? Keep one egg in stasis so she can try again. Tyler isn't working out exactly as necessary? Have 28 other candidates prepared for possible breeding. Anna seems to be veering into Ben Linus-levels of prepared-ness.
    • Then there's Project Aries. Their base is specifically stated to be built deep enough below ground to survive the impact of the New York mothership both crashing and exploding if it was ever hypothetically shot down somehow.
  • Dawson Casting: Tyler and Lisa. May be justified with Lisa, in that she is a V and supposed to have an Uncanny Valley look, but it is pretty obvious that Tyler's actor is about 20, especially in shots where Tyler is standing with Anna.
  • Death by Sex: An almost literal example happens when Anna picks a guy to help make her army. After the deed is done, the eggs need nourishment.
    • And again when Fake Lisa has sex with and subsequently kills Tyler.
    • Indeed, given that this is how the V nourish their eggs, this is probably the fate of any male V who fathers young, as well as the males of other species the Vs plan to interbreed with.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: The reason Vs rebel against Anna in the first place. Their race shows very little in the way of emotion, apparently being fed happiness by Anna's "Bliss." Any V that discovers emotion becomes immune to Bliss, and almost inevitably rebels.
  • Did Not Do the Research
    • Oh, probably loads, but among the silliness is that "chatter" (as in posts on the Internet, phone calls, etc) is a quantifiable and graphable value. Granted, in the age of Twitter/Facebook, you can get a lot, but only over a select demographic.
    • A Fifth Column doctor has developed an injection to counteract R-6 (the V's tracking agent). She says her shot raises the pH levels of the human body, and the acidity neutralizes the tracking function. However, raising pH actually lowers acidity.
    • The Visitors claim to need Earth's water; water ice exists all over our solar system, and ice doesn't shoot back. This may be a Mythology Gag: the original V had water as the *hidden* agenda. Turned out that they indeed didn't come for water, but this is pretty implausible lie, as said before.
  • Disappeared Dad: Erica's son is a troubled teen due to lack of father, and mother who works long hours because of the nature of her job as an FBI agent.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything??: An article was written by the Chicago Tribune comparing humanity's initial support of the aliens to Obamamania, particularly given they phrase the help they offer humans to "a message of Hope" and they are offering universal health care to Earth's citizens. Others say that its simply a coincidence, and the series is simply pressing the political hot buttons of the week.
    • The episode Laid Bare had the extreme misfortune to air 10 days after the Tucson shooting that led to the deaths of six people and congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords being hospitalized. There was considerable media buzz following the shooting and many accused right-wing pundits like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin of encouraging violent behavior through rhetoric. Keeping this in mind, Laid Bare has a scene involving a fake relative of a victim of an anti-V suicide bomb blaming protagonist Jack's rhetoric for the bombing. Of course, this episode aired so soon after the tragedy that it was obviously completed before it occurred, making this a case of extremely bad timing.
    • In "Devil in a blue dress" Anna is giving Bliss to Tyler while looking like she is having sex with him. That happy smile on his face afterward doesn't help either.
  • Downer Ending: In season 2. Lisa is locked away in a dungeon, while her impersonator kills Tyler. Diana is dead, after failing to retake her place as queen. Ryan was murdered by his own daughter. Hobbes has vanished. Chad is exposed and caught by Anna. Jack, along with the rest of the world, has been brainwashed by Amy and Anna's Bliss. Damn.
  • Dramatic Irony: The FBI investigation concerning Erica's involvement in the Fifth Column ended due to the setting up Erica as a fake hostage, a situation that ended with Joe's death. The investigation ended because of the supposed hostage situation, but as soon as the investigation ended Erica took Eli's sword (not that way you pervs) and became the sole leader of the Fifth Column.
  • Dying Like Animals: Given the premise of the show, it's no surprise there will be a few of these.
  • Enemy Mine: La Résistance recruits Terrorist for Hire Kyle by convincing him that it would be the best way to get back at the V for framing him. With the death of Georgie, they've traded up from a tragic Heroic Sociopath to a genuine Token Evil Teammate.
  • Evolutionary Levels: Apparently, the Visitors are here to steal the best of the human race's DNA, so they can "speed up their evolution". The characters stop using particular phraseology rather fast though; when they do things make more sense.
  • Evil-Detecting Baby: Well, a child. Jennifer Hartswell retreats behind her mother at the sight of Anna.
  • Evil Twin: Not technically an evil twin, but another "Queen daughter" that hatched and upon which Anna immediatedly put human skin on; human skin that looked just like Lisa's
  • Face Heel Turn: Ryan,as a result of I Have Your Daughter and Joshua thanks to Trauma-Induced Amnesia. Both seem to be turning back as of "Devil in a Blue Dress".
  • Failure Is the Only Option: The protagonists develop a fool-proof plan to assassinate Anna in Concordia. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?? And what do you think happens by the end of the episode?
  • Fan Service:
    • Lisa (Laura Vandervoort) in her underwear. Quick thinking by her, as it allows her to hide her V uniform from Tyler's mom.
    • Tyler (Logan Huffman) without a shirt. Same scene as above, but his thinking was less quick. And, in context, really didn't make sense. So, yeah, fan service.
    • Anna in her altogether.
    • Father Jack shirtless, greased up, panting and gasping. That is one well-built priest.
    • Erica and Lisa's Hurt/Comfort Fic scenes in "Fruition".
    • There's a reason why Kyle wears so many tight black shirts. He must find a lot of time to hit the gym between Merc gigs.
    • Erica and Hobbes bare quite a lot in "Uneasy Lies the Head".
  • Fatal Family Photo: Erica basically tempted fate by looking through her iPhone of photos with Joe and Tyler.
  • Five-Bad Band: For the V camp.
  • Five-Man Band: And the Fifth Column.
  • For the Evulz: Getting a DNA sample doesn't usually entail screaming...
  • Fridge Brilliance: Hive species tend to respond... unsocially towards other colonies of the same species. If Diana's/Anna's colony wiped out the rest of their kind on their homeworld, they'd be left with two choices: Risk inbreeding, or learn how to adapt sufficiently similar species for procreational stock.
  • Fridge Horror: The skinning of Malik shows that once the V's have human skin put on them, it is permanent, because Ryan reveals that that a V can only survive a half hour after being skinned. This means that the human skin is not only tied into the V's nervous system, there's a good chance it's tied into the circulatory system. As demonstrated by the appearance of Diana, an older V, the skin ages like human skin. Therefore, it would need blood to keep it nourished.
  • Fridge Logic: In "Siege", why did the Fifth Column need to use actual kamikaze vests? Why did they need to use actual hostages? Since it was all a ploy to buy some time, they could've just had completely harmless but convincing fake explosives and planted the hostages along with the bombers. Then everything would be alright (though Eli would probably be in custody)..
    • In the season 2 finale why did Joshua allow Anna's plan to carry through by giving Fake Lisa "enough memories" to mate with Tyler? He gained his memories back and I feel like he would have done something to prevent Anna's plan from being fulfilled.
  • Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: They call it "bliss."
  • Gory Discretion Shot: In Season 2's opener "Red Rain", Anna uses her tail to slash open one of her lackies' disguises. There is much splattering of blood but it's done off camera. However, the impaling afterward is onscreen.
  • Green-Skinned Space Babe: Horribly, horribly subverted.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: You knew this was coming.
    • And now it is revealed that Anna's goal is to populate Earth with half-Visitor, half-human hybrids. And it is implied that they did it to other sentient races as well.
  • Heel Face Turn: The V's that are part of the Fifth Column have done this, and by extension any who go through the Defrosting Ice Queen process are likely to.
    • Ryan and Joshua.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • When a Visitor doctor kills Maddox, one of his staff takes the blame. It's especially heart-wrenching in that the doctor has to perform the execution. The incredibly painful execution by skinning.
    • Georgie's death in "John May".
  • Hot Mom: There's the obvious Erica, but in "A Bright New Day" it's revealed that Anna is Lisa's mother. How that works isn't clear, but it helps that their real age doesn't have to be the same as they appear.
  • How to Invade An Alien Planet: Gets it wrong again. *sigh* It seems to be working for them... for now.
  • Ho Yay: The chemistry between Joshua and David was probably the most romantic part of the series thus far.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Anna's reason for betraying Diana.
  • Idiot Ball: The vast majority of the human race. Including most of our heroes. Almost all the time.
  • If Jesus, Then Aliens: Reversed, in that people become more religious after the Visitors arrive. Also, possibly Subverted in that Father Landry is the least credulous when it comes to the Visitors' intentions.
  • I Have Brothers: Erica's explanation for her boxing skills.
  • I Have Your Wife: Anna has Ryan's daughter.
    • Anna also has Sarah, whatever her relation with Hobbes.
  • Impairment Shot: When your friends can't trust you, they poison you.
  • Invincible Villain: Even called attention to by Erica. No matter what the Fifth Column does, Anna always comes out on top. Either through Diabolus Ex Machina or just good PR, every supposed win they've had is thrown right back in their faces. Manages to go Up to Eleven in the season 2 finale. The Fifth Column decides to take out Anna. Result? Anna uses Bliss on pretty much all of humanity; the Fifth Column is basically defeated; Diana, Tyler, and Ryan are dead; and the queen egg hatches to replace Lisa. Coming back from that should be impressive.
  • Ironic Echo:

Erica: He left me. I did not leave. I am here for you.
Jack (next episode): You walked away from me last night! What the hell was I supposed to do?

  • Just Eat Gilligan: One problem the resistance faces is trying to prove to the world that the V's are actually killer lizards. At least one resistance member is a V. They could have easily solved the problem by having one of the resistance V's take off his skin and have that broadcast live to the rest of the world.
    • Not exactly. It's shown that taking off human skin from a V is painful, and the subject would die. In fact, taking off a V's skin is a form of torture among them.
  • Kick the Dog: If you still had any doubts that Anna just wants what is best for her species instead of being capital-E EVIL, then forcing Lisa to watch as Lisa's sister has sex with Tyler and then kills him certainly removes them.
  • Kill'Em All: Very nearly. Ryan is dead, Tyler is dead, Hobbes is missing, and Chad's cover has been blown...
  • La Résistance: Both humans and the Vs' Fifth Column.
  • Left Hanging: Assuming it's not picked up by another network, it seems like we'll never know if Erica's discovery of another resistance movement succeeds in finally overthrowing the V's
  • Lego Genetics: The Vs sinister plan seems to rely on this. And the more we know about this plan the more ridiculous it seems to be.
  • Lemmings: Tyler and the other "Peace Ambassadors" are our Lemmings.
  • Let's Get Dangerous: The Fifth Column at the end of "Siege".
  • Made of Iron: Anything short of complete immolation doesn't appear to be fatal to Vs, as seen with both Dale and now Joshua.
  • Mama Bear: God help us if someone threatens Anna's unhatched children.
    • Then subverted in the season 2 premiere: Anna was disgusted with herself for feeling maternal towards her children that survived the explosion, so she turned their life support systems off. She tries to hold her tears as she walks away.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Anna has shown herself to be a master of this, in "A Bright New Day".
  • Mars Needs Women: The Vs' true purpose for invading Earth is to use us for breeding stock.
  • Mile-High Club: In "We Can't Win" between Tyler and Lisa. Actually in space but with gravity.
  • Mood Whiplash: Oh, cool, a sex scene with Morena Baccarin! Wait, you call that sex? Man, that was over fast--OHSHITTEEEEEEEETH!.
  • The Mole: Maddox, Erica's first partner, is one of these, along with the other sleepers. Also, Malik, Erica's second partner.
  • More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: Anna after providing more soldiers.
  • Mythology Gag: Jack's speech to his congregation ends with him declaring "Let V stand for Victory!" which is what it also stood for in the original miniseries.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Erica's entire group in "Hearts & Minds", and Jack in particular. He subtly warns Decker of a potential attack on a V shuttle, Decker in turn warns Anna, and she makes Erica's group look like monsters by filling the shuttle with humans. Moreover, it results in the formation of a taskforce to hunt the Fifth Column down, with a V spy as one of the members, though they catch a break when Erica is put in charge.
    • Also in "Devil in a Blue Dress". Their attempt to sabotage the Blue Energy reactor ends in the Vs making it look as if they restored power after a human failure, getting them even more public approval. Admittedly, the alternative would have been destroying an entire city.
  • No OSHA Compliance: Though they're aliens, the Vs are guilty of this in the construction of their Concordia reactors. When one reactor is made to go unstable through the addition of a second batch of unstable blue energy, the reactor has to be shut down manually. Mind you, there's enough there to wipe out a city.
  • Not So Different: The episode "Laid Bare" has both sides of the war doing similarly questionable acts in order to accomplish their goals. These acts are the protagonists torturing and subsequent killing of Malik for information and Anna having Lisa kill a test subject to "extract a human soul."
    • Mentioned in "Mother's Day" by both Erica and Lisa.
  • Not So Stoic: Anna as of the season one finale, after discovering that the majority of her eggs were destroyed.
  • Not Quite Dead: Ryan survived the events of "Siege".
  • Ominous Floating Spaceship
  • Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Sid is an expert or atleast knowledgable at whatever scientific stuff Erica's group needs him to do. He started out as a biology expert and in "Devil in a Blue Dress", he has a good understanding of how the Visitors' blue energy works.
  • Orbital Shot: This is done in episode 5.
  • Only One Name: The Visitors not undercover.
  • Only Sane Man: The Secretary General in "We Can't Win" counts. While most higher-ups appear to be dropping trousers and bending over, he's more suspicious of the Vs' agenda. Of course being an experienced politician means that he doesn't need to know that they're lizards to suspect that something is up.
  • Outrun the Fireball: Erica does a variation with the blue energy "freeze ball" grenade in the season one finale.
  • One-Woman Wail: Anna pulls this off regarding her offspring being flash frozen. An angry sorrowful wail that surprises the audience, as well as herself.
  • Parental Substitute: Erica for Lisa.
  • Playing Gertrude: The actress who plays Anna is five years older than the one playing her daughter, Lisa.
  • Plot-Relevant Age-Up: The V's age Ryan's daughter as a test to perfect the technology for use on a new Queen Egg. Somewhat subverted in that she's still very much a child, as opposed to an adolescent who'd be a new character.
  • Postponed Question: In "We Can't Win", Anna's number 2 asks her near the end of the episode why they were giving humans blue energy. Also counts as Viewers are Morons, because there's no way we could have figured out ourselves why an invading hostile-masquerading-as-friendly culture would possibly want to make us dependent on them for our energy needs.
  • The Power of Love: John May turned against the V and started the Fifth Column because he discovered that human emotions are "beautiful" and got married to a human woman with a son. Ryan also discovered this at John May's funeral, leading to his Heel Face Turn.
    • Lisa is going this way for Tyler, up to and including being immune to her mom's Bliss treatments.
    • Unfortunately for the Fifth Column, Anna is also aware of The Power of Love and manages to manipulate Ryan into a Face Heel Turn back to her side in the season finale. Whether or not he gets better remains to be seen.
  • Pow Zap Wham Cam: When Tyler goes to the Visitors' ship at the end of the pilot.
  • Product Placement: Have you bought an iPhone yet? Because V would really like you to buy an iPhone.
  • Psychic Nosebleed: Anna has this Tears of Blood-style when she is using Bliss on humans.
  • The Quisling: Zigzagged with Decker. He's willing to toe the line for the Visitors on-camera, but once he's off the set, his journalistic integrity kicks in, and he decides to investigate them. Yet even with the apparent knowledge that they are up to something, he's still being more helpful than his standard work ethic would dictate. It's kind of hard to say which way he'll go at this point, though it will be interesting to see what he does now that he knows what the Vs do to the live aboards.
  • Rapid Aging: Anna does this with Ryan's hybrid child, who in a matter of weeks (or at most months) appears as a 7 year old child.
  • Rebellious Princess: Lisa, who is now secretly fighting alongside the protagonists.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Anna in the birthing pool.
  • Red Sky, Take Warning: Subverted. Anna pumped some sort of gas or dust into atmosphere causing the sky to turn red. This scared the crap out of people, but didn't seem to have any negative effect. Of course, Vs being Vs, it probably does have some horrible use that will become apparent when Anna is actually supposed to do it (she jumped the gun in a moment of rage).
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Duh, but also the V use machine-induced visions of snakes to torture a human who fears snakes.
  • Revealing Hug:
    • Ryan hugs Valerie when she tells him she's pregnant. Ryan fakes happy to her face, but during the hug looks rather distressed because Valerie doesn't know Ryan is both a V and a member of the resistance.
    • Another happens with Anna, where she hugs her recently-abused daughter as if concerned, but smiles because she's the one who did the abusing as part of a ploy.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Anna jumps to the paint the sky red part of her plan when her eggs are destroyed, despite the fact that they weren't ready to implement it yet.
  • Rule of Symbolism: The Jesus icon falling in the earthquake, symbolizing the decline of religion. Lisa holding the apple and smiling at the boys, symbolizing Eve and/or the Serpent. Cutest Lilith ever!
  • Sacrificial Lion: Poor, poor Georgie
  • Scream Discretion Shot: In the fourth episode as a Fifth Columnist is skinned alive.
  • Sexy Discretion Shot: In the Season 2 premiere episode "Red Rain", Lisa and Tyler make out on the bed and embracing each other in her room on Anna's ship while Anna herself watches both of them and then switches off the monitor.
  • Shout-Out:
    • There's a quick one to The 4400. The first resistance meeting the characters go to is held at 4400 Pier Ave.
    • A V protester in "There Is No Normal Anymore" is holding a sign that reads "V For Violation".
    • A V who wants to be "reconnected" and is named Cyrus.
    • When Anna unveils 'blue energy', one of the delegates has a placard indicating they represent the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
    • Erica's dream sequence in "Red Rain" has her walking through a city full of bodies and crashed cars.
      • The V "tracker" in the same episode looks and acts like a Hunter.
    • And in a Shout-Out to the |original series, Anna opens wide and swallows a rat. Still looks fake.
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor. Or should it be fifth?
  • Smug Snake: Anna. You saw that coming.
  • Space Whale Aesop: Apparently, universal health care will lead to lizard aliens killing us all. Or alternately, the world's inability to guarantee health care to all citizens makes Earth more vulnerable to takeover by lizard aliens. Remember: the aliens had been sowing dissent, war, and other problems on Earth for decades, so it's possible that they had prevented humans (or at least America) from creating universal health care so that they could step in, steal their thunder, and present themselves as the saviors of humanity.
  • Sugary Malice: Anna. So sweet and innocent. And of course she is of peace, always. Even when she incites civil unrest, has people tortured to death and generally plots the destruction of mankind. Especially when she does those things.
  • Take That: A kid remarks upon seeing the ships for the first time, "Dude, this is Independence Day", to which his pal responds, "which itself was a ripoff of any number of alien invasion films."
  • Take Up My Sword: Eli Cohn makes Erica the new leader of the Fifth Column in Siege.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Tyler, to the core. Chad Decker seems like this at times, but he's smart enough to see that Anna isn't on the level about her intentions without forcing the issue in a way that would get him killed. To some extent, most of the good guys get into this territory at one point or another...if not a lot more often.
    • This trope claims THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE in "Mother's Day", after a fashion. Main cast-wise, it also successfully kills, imprisons, or brainwashes anyone who's unlucky enough not to be Anna or Erica.
  • Trailers Always Lie: The next-episode previews will occasionally show a particularly shocking scene completely out of context, but when the actual episode airs, the scene in question was just a nightmare. Usually involves Erica dreaming about something terrible happening to Tyler.
  • Translation Convention: Implied with the Visitors whenever they're alone. It sounds like English to us, but we never see humans listening in, and at one point, Ryan mentions that one of the reasons a human couldn't infiltrate a ship: "What happens when they start speaking in our native language?"
  • Traitor Shot: Every single scene featuring Anna ends with this. It's been long since established that she's the villain, but just in case anyone forgot...
  • Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Joshua gets one after being shot by Erica in season one finale. Leads to a Face Heel Turn. However as of the latest episode Joshua has gotten his memory back and in fact protected Lisa from being discovered by Anna's goons
  • Troubled but Cute: Tyler.
  • Turn the Other Fist: Tyler Evans turns away from some anti-Visitor protesters before swinging around to punch one in the face in order to impress Visitor Lisa.
  • Uncanny Valley: In a lot of shots, the Visitors are digitally airbrushed to remove their skin of imperfections. The effects, however, make them look too good to be true--like they're all made of plastic--which is exactly what is intended.
  • UST: There are hints of this between Kyle and Erica. He's thrown a couple of flirtatious comments her way, though so far she only seems to take them in stride rather than reciprocate.
    • Second season ups the tension and finally resolves it in "Uneasy Lies the Head".
    • There's also a lot of Erica/Jack, and they apparently filmed a few US Tier scenes that were later cut.
    • Erica can be shipped with everyone and everything.
  • Viewers are Morons: For the premise of the show to work the writers are assuming that people worldwide aren't asking common sense questions.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Anna, naturally. By means of Decker.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Anna has a positively epic one at the end of the first season after Erica destroys nearly all her soldier eggs culminating in her going "Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies" on the entire planet.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Erica seems to be headed down this road. Hobbes is encouraging this while Jack is doing the complete opposite.
  • Wham! Episode:
    • The season 1 finale. Oh boy...
    • "Concordia". Bring My Brown Pants.
    • "Siege". Eli and Joe die, and it's all because of Kyle! Tyler decides to go live on the V ship! Erica is now officially in control of the entire Fifth Column!
    • "Mother's Day". Diana? Dead. Ryan? Dead. Tyler? Dead. Chad? Caught. Lisa? Imprisoned like Diana was. Humanity? Blissed. Hope Spot? Erica is recruited into Project Aries, which is a cabal dedicated to preserving humanity from the Vs. Series canceled? Oh, hell yes!
  • Wham! Line: "I believe you've just experienced your first human emotion."
    • And as of the season 2 finale " Now, that's how you kill your mother."
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: John May's stepson wasn't seen or mentioned again after John May.
    • And what about that actual mouse transferred from Anna's mouth to Ryan's daughter's?
      • Some animals - including, apparently, Vs, feed their young by regurgitating their food, as explained on that Other Wiki
  • A Worldwide Punomenon: A V supporter's sign reads "Give Vs a Chance".
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Anna had Lisa injured and blamed the Fifth Column for the attack in order to manipulate Tyler and keep him close.
    • Erica and Eli also invoke this trope when Erica has Eli slap her so she could appear as a hostage and convince her suspicious FBI colleagues that she's not Fifth Column. The FBI actually fall for this and don't even think about questioning her presence in the first place!
  • You Fail Biology Forever: Apparently, Tyler's DNA is half missing. Because that can happen. In fairness, the first thing someone says about this is "how can he live like that?" and the answer is "I have no idea." So at least they're aware of the absurdity.
    • One possibility is that he's a chimera--he would have multiple sets of DNA. I think actually the set in the blood is supposed to be the primary (and thus the most healthy), but whatever.
      • Chimeras are individuals with two lines of genetically distinct cells. Some cells have one set of DNA, other cells have the other, but each cell can only have one set, and there isn't DNA missing from any of the cells. Even if one line of cells was missing half of its DNA, and the other line of cells had the rest of the DNA, the individual still wouldn't be able to survive because of dosage requirements; the individual would basically only have one set of genes, not two.
    • 98% of the human DNA is - and that's the scientific term - 'Junk DNA' that serves no purpose.
      • Actually, a huge amount of that "junk DNA" is functional - it governs transcriptional and translational control. Yes, some of the noncoding regions of your genome serve no purpose, but if you are missing half your DNA, you'll still die.
    • The DNA of Vs has become 1000 times more complex over the span of 50 years. The scientist claims that that surge in complexity should have taken 5000 years. Based on what? He doesn't know enough about V evolution to deduce that pattern from their history and if he's basing it off life on Earth then he's just plain wrong. Anatomically Modern Humans have been around for about 200,000 years, that means our genes have not changed much since then. If Vs separated by 50 years have that much difference in their genetic complexity, not only would they no longer be the same species, they probably wouldn't even be in the same biological kingdom.
    • Justified by the "evolution" being entirely artificial. They're choosing DNA that makes them stronger, faster, more fertile, and more resistant to disease--not genes that would give them gills and the ability to breathe fire.
    • The Fifth Column plans to tamper with the DNA of live-aboards-to-be so that their genes mess up the whole V DNA reserve. Because DNA is stored in a tight bundle in mass vaults and you can tamper with someone's whole adult DNA without repercussions.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Played with. Anna implies that this is Tyler's ultimate fate, once whatever undefined task that they require him for is completed. Thus, Lisa is trying to preempt it by getting Tyler out of the picture first.
    • It is, Not-Lisa mates with him and then eats him.
  • You Owe Me: After saving Lisa's life by altering her empathy test results, Joshua tells her that he will ask her to do something someday to repay the favor and that she will comply.
  • Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Kyle, a Western Terrorist, is recruited for La Résistance specifically because of his unsavory background.
  • You Keep Using That Word: A Fifth Column is a group within a larger group who sides with an outside group against their own group's interests. In the original series the phrase was rightfully used to describe the Visitors who helped the human resistance fight their leaders. In this series, however, it's used to refer to anyone (human or Visitor) who is fighting against the Visitors. It is possibly a case of The Artifact for the human resistance, who more-or-less adopt the name for themselves after the Visitors begin a PR blitz to discredit the human resistance and the actual Visitor Fifth Columnist in one broad stroke by conflating together. The problem is that the majority of the humans don't know that there are Visitors within the Fifth Column.
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