V--The Conclusion Teleplay by Diane Frolov Story be Kenneth Johnson and Diane Frolov, Peggy Goldman, and Craig Buck Second Draft, dated October 6, 1983 Unaired Part two opens at a radio telescope observatory, where members of the resistance, via radio signals, are attempting to contact the Alliance, fierce enemies of the Visitors. Meanwhile, at Resistance headquarters, Donovan paces around like an expectant father, wondering what's happened to Julie. There's been no word from either the Fifth Column, or Kristine Walsh (who committed suicide before allowing Diana to convert her) and, out of frustration, he plans on going back aboard the Mothership. Father Andrew, Brad and others enter the room, announcing that the Alliance has received their call for help and will be arriving on earth shortly. But what, they wonder, to do in the meantime? "There was something about remaining passive," explains Father Andrew, "presumably to lull the Visitors into a false state of security." Harmy is pleased because it means that their own acts of violence can come to and end, but Maggie sobers the group by saying, "If they're really on our side." While making love on the Mothership, Martin and Barbara discuss the fact that there is a wave of discontent sweeping through various ships stationed on earth. The one way to stop this madness, they reason, is to kill Diana, but they can't take the chance of exposing the Fifth Column. What's needed is a human assassin, and Donovan immediately comes to mind. Julie, in the meantime, is experiencing various nightmares while in the conversion chamber. Finally she "wakes up" to find herself in her childhood bedroom, being comforted by the reassuring voice of her mother who, strangely enough, sounds exactly like Diana. Then her mother transforms into the female Visitor, and Julie shrinks away. With a major effort, she "walks" out of the room, trying to convince herself that it is all in her mind. The nightmares continue as she makes her way down a dark alley, right down to the point where Donovan stabs her with a switchblade. Finally, she collapses in the conversion chamber. (The dream sequences here with Julie are truly effective, tapping into our common fears of the dark, and our attempts to cling to our parents for reassurance during any crisis. The idea of Donovan attempting to calm her, and then slash her with a blade, is a fascinating one in that it explores a deeper subconscious level of thought concerning lovers and those you trust with your very life. Is it conceivable that they could betray trust and destroy you in the process? An interesting concept, and one that would be toyed with again during the course of the weekly series.) At Resistance headquarters, Sancho and Robert tell Donovan that they've got a bounty hunter with a "truck full of shortwave equipment and a mouth full of lies." Entering the other room, Donovan sees their prisoner in a wheelchair, and his face hardens. He approaches, pauses for a moment and takes a swing. The prisoner, moving quickly with the wheelchair, knocks Donovan down on his behind, noting, "He who hesitates, dies, Donovan. We're at WAR here. That little humanitarian streak of yours is going to get you killed yet." Getting to his feet, Donovan introduces the man as Ham Tyler, a master of covert operations who had hired himself out to train troops; troops who eventually killed a lot of Donovan's friends and nearly the former newsman himself. Ham informs them that he "allowed" himself to be captured so that he could find out why the Resistance hasn't set up an underground international network of communication with other resistance groups. Father Andrew informs him that they've made contact with the Alliance, but Ham will, basically, believe it when he sees it. Ham is told that the plan of the Resistance is to steal several squad vehicles from a Visitor transportation system and that Donovan will be serving as training pilot. The mercenary is not impressed, noting that they “wouldn’t have a prayer of pulling any of this off without me.” (This Ham Tyler is quite similar to the character aired, but the idea of him being a cripple is an inspired one. As Ken Johnson noted last issue, it’s certainly unique to have your hero about to slug a cripple, but even more so to have the tables turned and the hero knocked to the ground. Another interesting aspect of this characterization is that it shows that Ham is not infallible. War is hell, and Ham has paid the price.) A gigantic ship enters earth’s atmosphere and hovers over the LA mothership, dwarfing her in size. On the boarding dock, Supreme Commander Pamela descends a ramp, informing Diana that the Leader sends his greetings. Pamela explains that she’s been sent to supervise the arrival of the next wave of motherships which are due in several months. It seems that the Leader wishes to accelerate the harvesting of earth, and has cut the mission time by half. Diana is angry, stating that this whole mission was originally her idea. Brushing this off with sarcasm, Pamela points out that she intercepted the signals directed to the Alliance, and assured the humans that they would be there shortly, and to remain passive and hopeful. “Always a desirable frame of mind for one’s victims,” she explains. “I’m sure since you’re such an important person, you didn’t have time to take care of the matter yourself. I’m so pleased I could help.” Diana’s face flushes with hatred. (Even if we were never afforded a look at the Alliance, at least the matter was dealt with in an intelligent manner. The very idea of the Visitors intercepting an S.O.S. and giving a false response is a truly dramatic one, and one which nonetheless leaves the door open for true contact to be made with this unknown civilization.) Back in the conversion chamber, Julie, still experiencing various terrors, finally calls out to Diana for help. The Visitor enters the room and says that all she has to do is sign a “confession.” Julie begins to do so with her right hand, and then switches it to her left. Going back to the control room, she joins Pamela and Steven, saying that she’s not completely convinced that Julie has been converted, and that she would feel more comfortable with one more go around. Suddenly the door opens and Donovan is there with a laser. He fires, but a shock trooper named Jake (who conned Robert Maxwell into revealing the location of the Resistance’s mountain headquarters in return for Robin’s safety during the original miniseries) blocks the blast, leaving Diana unharmed. He throws a charged satchel into the room, which Pamela’s guard muffles with his body. While Donovan takes off, with another guard in pursuit, Fifth Columnists Mark and Barbara pull Julie out of the conversion chamber and into the landing bay where they load the disoriented woman into a fighter shuttle. Before it takes off, Julie sees Donovan running across the catwalk, where he is shot and falls to the landing bay floor. As the fighter leaves the bay, the wounded Jake turns Donovan’s body over and tells Diana that he’s dead. A confused Julie arrives at Resistance headquarters, where she announces that Donovan is dead. This news is greeted by stunned silence. Later, Ham, believing that there’s a chance Julie may have been converted, wants her to be kept completely oblivious to the planned raid of the Visitor depot. She agrees to this, unsure herself how far along the conversion process had gone before she was rescued. A deafening silence fills the room as Donovan stands in the doorway. Delighted, he approaches Julie, who shudders back in fear. "It seems," says Ham, "the reports of your death have been greatly exaggerated, Mr. Donovan." Diana is informed that the dead "Donovan: is actually a Fifth Columnist cosmetically altered to looklike the human. She is furious that one of her own people tried to kill her. Elsewhere, Brian revives Sean Donovan and brings him to Diana, who is pleased to have the opportunity to get revenge against the Resistance. "You'll never capture my dad," swears Sean. "Capture? Of course not," Diana smiles. "Your father is going to ASK that we take him." Ruby, the sweet little old lady who has been known to blow up squad vehicles, leaves Resistance headquarters to go home so that she can feed her cats. Ruby insists on living at home because she's lived in her house for fifty years, and she refuses to be driven out by lizards. She's asked to pick up some of Robin's cassettes from the vacated Maxwell house, to which she readily agrees. In Daniel Bernstein's neighborhood, the youth brags to some Visitor buddies about the power he's obtained. They agree, noting that his own parents are so frightened that they hardly ever come out of the house. They notice Ruby coming out of the Maxwell house. Daniel calls out to her, asking what she was doing in a restricted area, and she refuses to give him an explanation. She starts to walk away, and he grabs her arm firmly. "You go when I tell you to go. I'M the Youth Commander here!" "Let go of my arm, Daniel Bernstein!" He reflexively does so, and his friends start to laugh out loud. She verbally chastizes him and walks away, flashing the victory sign with her fingers. Daniel fires his laser, the beam finding its mark on Ruby's back, instantly killing her. Daniel himself is a bit horrified by what he's just done, and what he's becoming. Lynn Bernstein, Daniel's mother, has witnessed this act, and telephones Julie, informing her as to what has just happened. Later, attempting to bravely accept Ruby's death, various Resistance members set off explosives and flood the Anaheim Stadium in Visitor blinding light. After a savage, albeit exciting, battle, they manage to grab several fighters and take off to Resistance headquarters. There, a television transmission features Sean and Diana. "This little boy," Diana says in mock sincerity, "wandered into Visitor headquarters and is looking for his daddy. If anyone can help find this boy's father, the Visitors would be most grateful." The way Donovan sees it, he simply has no choice and he walks out. Shortly thereafter, a van driven by Ham Tyler parks at one end of a deserted street, while a Visitor shuttle lands on the other. A pair of Visitors step out of the craft, both armed with lasers. At the same time, Elias and Sancho get out of the van, both armed the same way. A third Visitor exits the shuttle, bringing Sean with him and, as though in response, Donovan leaves the van. Father and son meet in the middle of the block, hug tightly and, having no other choice, walk to opposite ends, Donovan instantly being placed under arrest. A moment later, the shuttle takes off. At new Resistance headquarters, located on a western set in an abandoned movie studio, members are doing the best to set up when Robin's labor finally breaks. The time has come, and near pandemonium erupts. The operation is a difficult one, but Julie finally extracts a beautiful baby girl, whose tongue happens to be that of a reptilian. Robin begins to scream, and at this point they realize there's something else inside of her. Moments later, Julie extracts a lizard child. On the Mothership, Donovan sits in a witing cell. Fifth Column member Mark enters, explaining that since his last escape security on the ship has tripled, and that the Fifth Column cannot risk exposure for the sake of one man. He adds that Diana has developed an infallible truth serum which could jeopardize all they've worked for if it should be used on the human. To prevent this, he hands Donovan a pill designed to kill him. As Donovan reaches forit, the door opens and Jake runs in, laser blasting and killing Mark. The pill goes flying across the room. Donovan leaps for it, but is held in place by Jake. Diana appears at the door, smiling. "We can't let you go to your deathbed without making a confession, Mr. Donovan," she sneers. Shortly thereafter, in Diana's laboratory, she, Martin, and a guard surround the restrained Donovan. She injects his arm with the serum, and tests its effect with some very basic questions. Diana then asks him who his Fifth Column contact is, and, after doing his best to resist, the name Martin slips from his lips. Diana turns to him in surprise, and the guard lunges for him and Martin kills him with his laser. He fires again, but Diana is out the door. Then he frees the semi-conscious Donovan and drags him into an air duct. On earth, Sancho informs Julie that the lizard baby seems to be sick. Its skin is paler, and it appears to be dying. Elizabeth, who is hugging her brother, seems to be changing as well, with her skin growing dryer. Sancho attempts to remove the lizard-child, but Elizabeth spits venom in his face, causing him to reel back in pain. While Harmy tries to help, they notice that the reptile's eyes are baby blue and quite human. It looks up at Willie in pain, but there's nothing the Visitor can do to ease it. A moment later, it dies, and Elizabeth unleashes a mournful mail. A little later, while examining a blood sample from the baby lizard's corpse, they find that it is filled with a bacteria and that it differs greatly from the sample they got from Willie. It seems that the reptile's blood cells are a hybrid of both races, and that is the bacteria that killed it. In addition, it's believed that this particular bacteria is the one that the Visitors have no defense against. In the bowels of the mothership, Donovan and Martin move through the sewage sludge, nearly up to their hips. They make their way onto a catwalk. According to the script, Donovan's beard has a ten day growth to it, with Martin's face, naturally, remaining clean-shaven. A rat scurries by, and Martin catches it. Explaining that they have to eat what's available, he offers Donovan some. He refuses, but tells him to go ahead. Martin swallows the rat whole, and apologizes if he's made his friend sick. "Just takes getting used to," Donovan replies softly. "I have problems watching people eat live oysters." Donovan questions him about the Alliance, and is told that they have been trying to save the Visitors as a species by relocating them to more hospitable worlds. When the Leader came to power, he tried to do the same thing, but instead began to strip other planets of their resources. He adds that Pamela faked the transmission which supposedly came from the Alliance, and that their race is off in a distant solar system organizing their military forces. "The Alliance is more of a moral voice," explains Martin, "much like your United Nations. The only hope for my planet--and yours--lies in our combined Resistance forces." Another rat scurries by. Donovan grabs Martin's laser and shoots it. He picks it up, wryly noting, "At least it's cooked." He skins part of it with his pocket knife and forces himself to take a bite. (This scene works far better than the aired version as it realistically conveys the desperateness of their situation. Forced to eat rats? Living in what is essentially a sewer for nearly two weeks? This is a bit of gritty realism that would have made V-THE FINAL BATTLE as effective as its predecessor was.) Julie attempts to reassure Sean that his father will be okay. He nods his head, and walks away. Josh approaches, explaining that Sean is now throwing his baseball with his left hand. Julie is sickened by the realization that he has been converted. Donovan is ready to give up, feeling as though he and Martin are finished, and that his determination to find his son has screwed everything up. "Your people need you," says Martin, "and there you sit in sewage and self-pity. Well, they go well together." Getting to his feet, Donovan shouts, "I hate when people preach at me. I hate listening to some pompous know it all run off at the mouth about what I should or shouldn't do..." A beam of light and the approaching sound of shock troopers shuts Donovan up, and forces them to run off in the other direction. At Resistance headquarters, Robert approaches Elizabeth's crib and screams out for Julie. Julie, Harmy and Willie enter the nursery and stare down at the crib in shock. Elizabeth is gone, and in her place is a crumpled mound of dead skin.