Date of airing: November 5, 1995 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 8.9 million viewers, 5.8/9 in Households
written by: Glen Morgan, James Wong
directed by: Félix Alcalá
This was a politically charged episode that could stand the test of
time even today, the year 2023, which is when I was writing this wall of text, mere hours after Kevin McCarthy historically lost the Speakership, and around the time authoritarianism was getting its voice heard in various government seats and establishments, including the European Union. This episode had everything – a right-wing, nationalist-ish French politician being the leader of the
world, France having exited the European Union, the danger of specific world
leadership threatening potential peace talks, and it even had a couple
of assassination attempts led by a politician who was seen as a positive influence in public and maybe still had some humanity left, and yet did not shy away from drastic measures to get what she wants. This was a pretty complex episode for 1995
television, which surprised me when I watched this episode, because I
really was not expecting politics of this level in a science-fiction
show from the 1990s. Maybe this episode should be one of the must-watch
TV episodes of the 1990s, even though it generally was not such a stellar
episode in the first place
I did however like that the premise of this episode was entirely different from the premise of the show. The war against the Chigs was barely an issue here, instead, the biggest story the writers decided to deliver was the fear of Earth's government seizing power for their own good, and for world leaders attempting to take that power, as if the war against the Chigs was a welcomed opportunity for a few members of the United Nations to try and be on top of the world, so that they can do their own bidding – as corrupt politicians usually do.
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| If all lie detector tests could be this easy on the eyes... |
In addition,
another threat humanity faced was the danger coming from a leadership
led by people who could not give a damn about any other lifeforms than
natural humans. In Vitroes were treated like African-Americans were in American history, or
like Muslims and other non-white American males have been treated during Donald Trump’s presidency. There were quite a few
similarities between real life and the story of this episode, and it
scared me a little bit that even the good guys would turn bad eventually, just to
save face, and maybe even save humanity. And the thing is, this episode was written and produced in the 1990s, and most of the corrupt political behavior of some of the characters here can be found almost 30 years later in real life. Absolutely nothing has changed in that time.
The question at the end of the episode was appropriate though: If the world had managed to assassinate Hitler or Stalin before they managed to grab power and kill millions, would the world have been a better place? Were patriots like Ambassador Hayden even allowed to take matters into her own hands and try to save the world from a right-wing, potentially extremist, politician? In history class, a lot was taught about assassination attempts on Hitler, with one of them being a movie led by Tom Cruise (ewww), but there was never a moment during these classes to make us ask the question if it should have been the world’s decision to rid humanity of these evil clowns, or if humanity needed to be saved by people who accepted the dark side and the eventual consequences of their actions. It was, is, and will be a question to be asked, especially after more and more countries in the world decide to elect authoritarian leaders, even after they have been warned about what will happen when they do so.
In a way, this episode was another thriller. It started with the realization that McQueen and Cooper were targeted for loyalty questionnaires, it continued with the bomb that was set on the 58th Squadron’s transporter (that made me wonder whether it was Ambassador Hayden who put the bomb there, although that does not gel with the notion that she was putting out the hit on Chaput later), it ended with the question of who would be the next assassin (I thought for a second that Nathan would be it, or at least be framed for an attempt on Hayden or Chaput's life), and who would be the target.
The second half of the episode was very much enjoyable because of the complexity of the narrative, though I did not like that it was kind of easy for Cooper not to pull the trigger, due to the fact that he could not properly see the coin on Chaput's uniform. Not to mention that it is a cliched science-fiction way of brainwashing an In Vitro like this, almost turning Cooper into a stormtrooper about to execute Order 66. It should not be that easy to manipulate a person, but then again, this is still a 1990s science-fiction show, so some dumb sci-fi plot devices are needed to fill episodes with.
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| He wants no medal, he wants the truth. |
And finally, whatever happened to the Silicates on the Saratoga? Hayden was bringing them with her to help negotiate peace between the humans and Silicates at least, but they disappeared from the story as soon as they were introduced here. Why even include the Silicates when there was no purpose for them, since the remainder of the episode was about the threat against either Hayden or Chaput's lives, as well as the loyalty tests? I actually liked the story of Silicates being present during peace negotiations (led by someone who could pass for a Silicate with her electronic device on the side of her head), so I was a bit disappointed that the story just vanished.
