['V' - 'Siege']

Things are moving along. One regular character lost his job and two recurring ones lost their lives.

The writing for 'V' remains a problem that keeps the series from living up to its potential. A sci-fi storytelling master like a Joss Whedon or a Ron Moore would never have telegraphed to such a degree the deaths that occurred. It made the actual events seem anti-climactic.

Don't get me wrong. It's understandable how the arc of the season has to be moved along, but it felt like the writers told us how the episode would end somewhere around the half-hour mark. Twist surprises work much better. See '24' for examples of this.

With the death of Joe Evans, it was obvious that Tyler would join the Visitors. It remains somewhat vague as to why he's so important. The character seems so whiny that the human race might be glad to get rid of him.

Is Ryan dead? He must have been caught in the explosion. However, Morris Chestnut is a series regular and it seems unlikely the character would be killed off at this stage (particularly with the two other significant deaths in the episode). Did anybody else notice the angelic light behind Ryan as he sat in captivity? Were the creators trying to make some sort of Christ analogy?

Both of the major deaths served to further Erica's character. The death of her ex-husband eliminated her blood family, and then Eli Cohen's death gave her a new organization to care about. She's also a bit more bloodthirsty now. I don't think she'd be as concerned about hostages anymore.

I'm presuming when Diana invited Lisa to aid her in overthrowing Anna, she was unaware of Lisa's collusion with Erica and the Fifth Column and was simply speaking euphemistically. Lisa now has a juicy bit of information that would seriously help human efforts against the V's. It's a good bet she'll be using it before the end of the season.

The best part of the episode was that every character underwent a significant change in status. Two characters died. Erica had a change in rank and family. Ryan was uncovered as a traitor and possibly died. Father Landry lost his job. Tyler joined the V's. Kyle Hobbs ended up actually betraying the Fifth Column.

However, there were some problems with the writing. I don't understand how the V's could have gotten Hobbs' lady friend that disappeared five years ago, but they have tremendous resources and I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Also, how come nobody was wondering how Erica got to the Fifth Column base before the rest of the FBI? The FBI also seemed a little quick to forget their suspicions of her Fifth Column association with the death of her ex-husband.

Anna better not find out about Erica's new role in the Fifth Column. She now has Erica's child in her custody and that tactic has already worked with another member of the Fifth Column.

It was also interesting to hear Erica make a slip of the tongue and accuse the Fifth Column of being "no better than the Visitors." Didn't she once have a Visitor ally or two? Is this comment betraying a new "us versus them" mentally that borders on species-ism? Erica will probably be benched for a little while as she mourns her ex -- which will give her time to command the real troops.

Overall, while the writing of this episode felt a little weak, it did still advance the story. Let's find out next week how these changes play out. What did you think?

'V' airs Tuesdays at 9PM ET on ABC.