V: "Fruition" 5/11/10 - Grading & Discussion

[Christopher]

Pretty good episode again. This show lacks a sense of being truly inspired or original and will never be brilliant, but it's "workmanlike" - they know how to tell an interesting story and are doing basically the right things.

To each one's own. This week was the first time I've found even part of the story interesting or done right. I've rarely seen a show do so many things so wrong. I've seen incoherently developed and poorly written shows before, but rarely with such unappealing casts, and the fakey virtual sets don't help any.

Kudos to Anna for using PR brilliantly.

Brilliantly? The general public knows by now about the Visitors' miraculous healing abilities. Yet Anna leaves her daughter's injuries unhealed until after the press conference. That should scream to millions of people, not just Erica and her teeny-tiny resistance, that Anna's blatantly playing on the public's sympathies at the expense of her own daughter's pain. By all rights, it should've been perceived as a horrible PR move, a shameless, heartless, and hypocritical sympathy ploy. But the public in this show is painted as a bunch of gullible idiots.

What would've made more sense was if Anna had healed Lisa's injuries but had documented them first and showed the images to the public. True, that wouldn't have underlined her cruelty as much, but that's just the point -- by all rights, the public should've seen that it was cruel.

If Team Erica has a hope of countering Anna on the PR front, they'll have to get very dirty.

On the contrary, as io9's review pointed out a few weeks ago. To date, the Visitors have done nothing to make themselves look bad (allegedly), and a great deal to earn the people's sympathy and gratitude. The resistance is already losing the PR war, and making itself look like terrorists will only make things worse. What they should be doing is going public with what they know, countering Anna's claims. They need to make themselves look good and trustworthy, to cast doubt on Anna. "Getting dirty" themselves will only play right into Anna's narrative of the Visitors as peaceful victims of a brutal band of terrorists.

Rather than defending the Fifth Column PR-wise, which is now a lost cause, Erica should be contriving her own atrocities to make the V's look bad. She'll have to sacrifice some of the V's who are with the Fifth Column by having them pose as agents who are discovered enacting Anna's "real" plan for humanity and who confess to something really nasty. Using humans as breeding fodder to create a hybrid race who will serve as the V's imperial overlords on Earth or something like that.

So the only way to fight a lie is with another lie? I don't buy that. How about trying the truth? If Ryan and the Fifth Column know all these secrets about the Visitors, why aren't they telling the press, posting it on the Web, getting the truth out there? Why doesn't Ryan just arrange an interview with Chad Decker and cut his own skin off, show the world that Visitors are lying about their appearance and have been infiltrating us for years? Heck, that was one of the Resistance's first moves in the original V -- to raid a press conference and tear John's human face off, revealing the lizard beneath.

So it's premature to conclude that the only way for the resistance to score points is by staging atrocities of their own. They haven't even tried measures that would be far simpler, more ethical, and more effective, like telling people what they know. Their own insistence on secrecy is self-defeating.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I hope I'm wrong, too, but I've seen enough TV that I can get a sense pretty quickly of what the writers are and aren't capable of doing. Also, the fact that this show is on a broadcast network argues against any kind of cable-channel-type gutsiness. With the ratings on a knife edge (but this week, they ticked up - a good sign for renewal), nobody's going to take any crazy risks. They'll stick to a mediocre, workmanlike level.

it's premature to conclude that the only way for the resistance to score points is by staging atrocities of their own. They haven't even tried measures that would be far simpler, more ethical, and more effective, like telling people what they know.

You obviously have more faith in humanity than I do! People believe what they want to believe, regardless of the evidence. Look at all the people who insist on believing nonsense like Obama was born in Kenya. It isn't remotely as simple as Erica calling a press conference to denounce the V's. Anna has already made that unworkable. Too many people would decide Erica's a liar, one of those horrible, evil, vicious people who tried to kill Anna's lovely daughter. Anything Erica would say about the V's would be interpreted as propaganda motivated by bigotry. Add to that Anna's control over the media and her political clout - Erica cannot possibly fight that. Her only options are to go really dirty on the PR front and to build up her army because having four people in a resistance movement is nonsense!

 

[Christopher]

it's premature to conclude that the only way for the resistance to score points is by staging atrocities of their own. They haven't even tried measures that would be far simpler, more ethical, and more effective, like telling people what they know.

You obviously have more faith in humanity than I do!

No, I just recognize that it's incompetent for the writers to ignore the fact that the resistance has options it isn't even trying yet. If they had actually tried to get the truth out and it had failed, then you might have a point that escalation is necessary. But they haven't even tried yet. And they should. Since Anna isn't using overt violence or oppression, the resistance can only hurt itself by going dark. As you say, this is a war for public opinion. So it's inexcusable that the resistance isn't even attempting to engage on that battleground, instead jumping right to blowing up shuttles and playing right into Anna's narrative about them. They're letting Anna get away with defining them to the public. Staying quiet and secretive is the worst possible response to that. They need to get their message out there. It's not enough to make the Visitors look bad, not unless the resistance can make itself look like a better alternative.

Besides, the problem with lies is that they're not true. They can be disproven by hard evidence. What if this singularly inept resistance tries to fake a Visitor atrocity and gets exposed for the fakery? That would just make them look even worse. It's bad strategy to risk a move like that before you've even bothered to try something with fewer potential drawbacks, like exposing the actual bad stuff the Visitors are doing. If the truth is on your side, it's stupid not to use it.

People believe what they want to believe, regardless of the evidence. Look at all the people who insist on believing nonsense like Obama was born in Kenya.

Yes, there's a fringe of people who believe that nonsense, but that didn't stop the majority of Americans from voting him into office. The blind folly of some people is no excuse to avoid trying to appeal to the good judgment of the rest.

Besides, I'm not just talking about evidence. Like you, I'm talking about PR, about controlling the narrative. This is how President Obama has achieved so much: by taking charge of the narrative. When his opponents have tried to define the game in terms that suited them, he's called them on their mind games and propaganda and refused to let them define the terms of the debate. Yes, he's done it by pointing out the truth, but having the truth on your side isn't enough if you don't have the skills to control the public narrative. (The Clinton health-care plan back in the '90s was exactly what the people wanted. When pollsters asked people about their support for its specific provisions without specifying where they came from, that support was overwhelming. But the factions opposed to it had so successfully sold their lies about the plan that they convinced the people to turn against their own best interests. The Clintons had the facts on their side but failed to control the narrative. Obama succeeded in passing health care where they failed, not just because he had the facts on his side, but because he sold them better and was better at deflating the opposition's claims about his goals.)

It isn't remotely as simple as Erica calling a press conference to denounce the V's. Anna has already made that unworkable. Too many people would decide Erica's a liar, one of those horrible, evil, vicious people who tried to kill Anna's lovely daughter. Anything Erica would say about the V's would be interpreted as propaganda motivated by bigotry.

But that's my point. It's too late now because the resistance waited too long to try to influence the narrative. Like I said, I'm elaborating on a point that an io9 reviewer made over two weeks ago. I quote:

You run a resistance against a successful invasion — which this isn't... yet, anyway. You run a resistance against a government that's turned despotic. You do not run a resistance movement against people who claim to come in peace but are actually up to something nefarious but nebulous. It's the wrong set of tactics. Blowing shit up and killing people is not going to win the PR war.
...
So are we supposed to be scratching our heads and wondering why the resistance is so inept? As various people have pointed out, the resistance members have had dead or injured Visitors on their hands several times, and they've never thought to un-skin them in front of a handy television camera. But it goes beyond that — the resistance doesn't have any plan or idea for changing public opinion. Instead, it's a "dogfight," as Ryan puts it.

And it's obvious why the show is doing this — it wants to ask questions about terrorism and torture and what tactics are too extreme. In the preview for next week's episode, the Necessary Evil guy with the beard, who's so boring I can't be bothered to look up his name, even says "We're terrorists now." Just in case you missed it. You know the interesting thing about terrorists? They cause terror. It's even in their name. The main reason you employ terrorism is to intimidate the civilian population of a democracy.

Last time I checked, Erica and her friends were not trying to strike fear into the people of the United States. And trying to strike fear into Anna and her people, who are safely on their motherships, seems like a bit of a waste of time.

 

[melancholymecha]

Though what annoys me is the metatextual equivalent: the writers aren't bothering to make the Visitors at all alien, giving them no culture of their own. They talk and act just like humans even in private. They're too ordinary.

I think its b/c it makes the show too science-fictiony & they dont want to scare away the non-geek audience...and they dont want too much of a geek audience, as they tend to be too critical & demanding (ask Tim Kring.)

 

[Greg Cox]

I'm still trying to figure out why Anna bothered to pack that doomed shuttle with already-dead human cadavers instead of simply letting the Resistance blow up a shuttle full of innocent civilians by mistake? It's not like she has any compunctions about sacrificing innocent citizens.

That whole twist felt like a contrived excuse to get our heroes off the hook, morally, whereas it would have been much more dramatic if they had ended up with the deaths of all those innocent passengers on their conscience. "Make no mistake. We're terrorists now."

(You almost have to wonder if that was the original idea, but somebody wimped out and decided to go for the "they were already dead" cop-out instead.)

 

[kes7]

You obviously have more faith in humanity than I do! People believe what they want to believe, regardless of the evidence. Look at all the people who insist on believing nonsense like Obama was born in Kenya. It isn't remotely as simple as Erica calling a press conference to denounce the V's. Anna has already made that unworkable. Too many people would decide Erica's a liar, one of those horrible, evil, vicious people who tried to kill Anna's lovely daughter. Anything Erica would say about the V's would be interpreted as propaganda motivated by bigotry. Add to that Anna's control over the media and her political clout - Erica cannot possibly fight that. Her only options are to go really dirty on the PR front and to build up her army because having four people in a resistance movement is nonsense!

Okay, I'm *not* a birther, but do you really not see the irony in this post?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

You obviously have more faith in humanity than I do! People believe what they want to believe, regardless of the evidence. Look at all the people who insist on believing nonsense like Obama was born in Kenya. It isn't remotely as simple as Erica calling a press conference to denounce the V's. Anna has already made that unworkable. Too many people would decide Erica's a liar, one of those horrible, evil, vicious people who tried to kill Anna's lovely daughter. Anything Erica would say about the V's would be interpreted as propaganda motivated by bigotry. Add to that Anna's control over the media and her political clout - Erica cannot possibly fight that. Her only options are to go really dirty on the PR front and to build up her army because having four people in a resistance movement is nonsense!

Okay, I'm *not* a birther, but do you really not see the irony in this post?

The irony is that I'm advocating Republican fearmongering tactics. But life is nothing if not ironic... And yes, they do work.

No, I just recognize that it's incompetent for the writers to ignore the fact that the resistance has options it isn't even trying yet. If they had actually tried to get the truth out and it had failed, then you might have a point that escalation is necessary. But they haven't even tried yet.

They definitely should try. They'd be both stupid and unappealingly immoral if they didn't try. When they do immoral things, it should be because the nice tactics didn't work - otherwise they'll just lose our sympathy outright. And they should convince, oh, 5-10% of the world's population that they are right. I'm sure that proportion would be prone to believe the worst in the V's, regardless of their health care and free energy. Might be as high as 20%.

So that would give the Fifth Column a much larger following than now, and a means to protect themselves from the backlash, of which the V's themselves would be the minor factor. Mostly, they would have to fear humans who believe that the Fifth Column are bigotry-motivated terrorists who must be stopped before they fuck up the best thing that's ever happened to humanity. That sparks a worldwide civil war among humans - the V's would just sit back and chuckle - in which the Fifth Column would be wildly outnumbered and doomed. And that's when they start doing worse things out of desperation. Erica would be discredited as a leader at that point, and Evil Scottish Accent guy (no, I still don't know his name!) would take over, or someone ruthless and nasty like him would. Erica would be out in the cold, trying to regain control of events that are way way way out of her control.

And then we'd have a really wild, kick-ass show! But I know I'm dreaming again...

I've rarely seen a show do so many things so wrong.

Not a Heroes viewer, huh? Or how about Happy Town? That one set new records for going straight down the toilet. I've seen a lot of shows much worse than V - shows that I have to turn off because they are flat-out unwatchable. Grading on a curve, any show I can tolerate enough to watch deserves at least a C.

The general public knows by now about the Visitors' miraculous healing abilities. Yet Anna leaves her daughter's injuries unhealed until after the press conference. That should scream to millions of people, not just Erica and her teeny-tiny resistance, that Anna's blatantly playing on the public's sympathies at the expense of her own daughter's pain.

Once again, my estimation of people's intelligence is not as high as yours. I think plenty of people wouldn't even think about the manipulativeness of it, and just have an emotional reaction. Others would rationalize it this way: to make her point on TV, Anna had to leave the bruises unhealed - otherwise, her press conference wouldn't be very effective, so what's the point of doing it? Anna's an angry mother who wants bad humans to SEE what they did to her daughter. She isn't going to hide the bruises until she's made her point. That would seem reasonable to many people, and not a sign that Anna is a bad person.

The resistance is already losing the PR war, and making itself look like terrorists will only make things worse. What they should be doing is going public with what they know, countering Anna's claims.

But Anna's way ahead of them. By striking first and casting the Fifth Column as evil terrorists, she's poisoned the well. Now any public message from them will be greeted with suspicion.

So the only way to fight a lie is with another lie? I don't buy that. How about trying the truth?

Wow...okay, it's definite. We just differ too greatly in worldview to advocate the same tactics. I've seen well meaning attempts at truth bulldozered by adept lying to ever believe that the truth is going to work without a whole lotta clever maneuvering behind it, and not always of a savory or truthful manner.

It's too late now because the resistance waited too long to try to influence the narrative.

I do agree with that. The sad thing is, an FBI agent, a priest, a renegade V and a terrorist just couldn't be expected to have the PR savvy to realize that they needed to get out in front of the story before Anna did. Now that the damage is done, they can't use PR effectively in a positive way - Anna has made sure of that - so going negative is their only hope. Going public could have one valuable use, to build up their own army, but that army will be full of crazies and bigots - the Tea Party on steroids - which would become a self-fulfilling prophecy of everything Anna's been saying about them.

I'd love to see this situation written in an honest and realistic way. It looks like the Fifth Column is screwed no matter which way they jump. But this show isn't nearly smart or gutsy enough to do that.

 

[Trent Roman]

True psychopaths are terrible at manipulating people, because you can't figure out how to get a desired emotional response out of someone if you're incapable of understanding their emotions.

Do you have a source? The literature I have indicates otherwise; to wit, psychopaths excel at projecting an appearance of normality and manipulating people. Admitedly, my Abnormal Psych textbook is a number of years out of date at this point, but a quick search 'round the net seems to come up with largely similar information...

Not to mention that if Anna has no emotions, why does she display those wicked, self-satisfied grins when nobody's looking?

That's a good point. Whether there's anything underlying it or if it's just another inconsistency, however...

I'm still trying to figure out why Anna bothered to pack that doomed shuttle with already-dead human cadavers instead of simply letting the Resistance blow up a shuttle full of innocent civilians by mistake?

And, to add to the list of questions somebody really should have asked by now: why did Anna have human remains on hand in the first place? (I assume they didn't dig up a graveyard, because the remains will eventually be identified, lizard-cyclon's interference notwithstanding) If Anna is killing people involved in the Live Aboard program, the resistance ought to make obtaining proof of that--say, via the ship's fifth columnist chief medical officer--their top priority. That would be a major blow to the V's public image.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Snaploud]

I assume at least some of the remains were from the humans who remembered "nightmares" about needles, etc. Anna was probably playing it safe by having them killed prior to the shuttle-launch (as she couldn't be absolutely certain that the resistance would destroy the shuttle).

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I assume at least some of the remains were from the humans who remembered "nightmares" about needles, etc. Anna was probably playing it safe by having them killed prior to the shuttle-launch (as she couldn't be absolutely certain that the resistance would destroy the shuttle).

Why would that be safer than killing live humans?

The writers chickened out, plain and simple.

 

[Snaploud]

I assume at least some of the remains were from the humans who remembered "nightmares" about needles, etc. Anna was probably playing it safe by having them killed prior to the shuttle-launch (as she couldn't be absolutely certain that the resistance would destroy the shuttle).

Why would that be safer than killing live humans?

My first thought was that it was safer because she can't be sure the resistance will destroy that shuttle, but that would beg the question of what would happen to the bodies if the shuttle managed to reach the ground safely.

I'm now thinking that Anna needed to shut them all up quickly, and that there was some incident on the ship which made the killings need to happen sooner.

The writers chickened out, plain and simple.

Oh, I agree. I'm just rationalizing to see if there's a way to make the writing remotely logical.

 

[Christopher]

So that would give the Fifth Column a much larger following than now, and a means to protect themselves from the backlash, of which the V's themselves would be the minor factor. Mostly, they would have to fear humans who believe that the Fifth Column are bigotry-motivated terrorists who must be stopped before they fuck up the best thing that's ever happened to humanity. That sparks a worldwide civil war among humans - the V's would just sit back and chuckle - in which the Fifth Column would be wildly outnumbered and doomed.

Except the writers are now telling us that the Visitors' huge fleet of warships is going to be within radar range of Earth any day now. Which would probably make it much harder for Anna to convince people that she's the good guy -- and she might no longer see any need to try, given the overwhelming military advantage she'd have. Heck, she already has an overwhelming military advantage. All she has to do is drop one of those ships on the city beneath it and it'd be tantamount to dropping a nuke on it.

This is one more sign the writers clearly have no idea what they're doing. If Anna's goal is military conquest, as the ginormongous fleet of warships suggests, then she doesn't need to bother with the PR campaign and the attempts to quash resistance, since nobody could stand against her. And if her goal somehow requires humanity's trust and allegiance, then she'd have to be an idiot to bring in a ginormongous fleet of warships just after successfully painting her people as peaceful victims. The whole storyline here just doesn't fit together. The tactics on both sides are incoherent.

...and Evil Scottish Accent guy (no, I still don't know his name!) would take over...

He's actually English. And I initially thought his accent was Australian.

Not a Heroes viewer, huh?

Heroes at least has an appealing cast, and generally good production values. Whatever it got wrong in the writing, it generally got the other stuff right. Let me amend my comment to say that I've rarely seen a show get it wrong on so many different levels of the production.

Or how about Happy Town?

I had no interest in that. However, it struck me that any show whose ad campaign depended on trying to apologize for a misleading title was making a mistake right off the bat.

Once again, my estimation of people's intelligence is not as high as yours. I think plenty of people wouldn't even think about the manipulativeness of it, and just have an emotional reaction. Others would rationalize it this way: to make her point on TV, Anna had to leave the bruises unhealed - otherwise, her press conference wouldn't be very effective, so what's the point of doing it? Anna's an angry mother who wants bad humans to SEE what they did to her daughter. She isn't going to hide the bruises until she's made her point. That would seem reasonable to many people, and not a sign that Anna is a bad person.

No, she didn't have to leave the bruises unhealed. As I said, she could've taken photos and medical scans.

And I'm not talking about intelligence. I'm talking about visceral emotional reaction. If people saw a mother deliberately leaving her own daughter in unnecessary pain, they would react badly to that.

Not to mention that the public's reaction to news is generally mediated by journalists and pundits. And they need things to talk about, topics to debate, in order to fill airtime. Look at how the pundits in real life obsess over the most trivial issues in order to manufacture controversies they can bloviate upon to justify their existence. If you've got a real issue like this, Anna deliberately withholding medical treatment from her own daughter to score PR points, the pundits would be all over that. And that would affect public opinion. Surely not everyone in the press is going to be like Chad Decker.

But Anna's way ahead of them. By striking first and casting the Fifth Column as evil terrorists, she's poisoned the well. Now any public message from them will be greeted with suspicion.

That doesn't mean they can't win people over if they manage it effectively. Suspicion can be overcome. Public opinion is fickle.

And like I said, once that ginormongous Visitor warfleet shows up on radar, I think it's going to completely redefine the game and render all of this moot.

Wow...okay, it's definite. We just differ too greatly in worldview to advocate the same tactics. I've seen well meaning attempts at truth bulldozered by adept lying to ever believe that the truth is going to work without a whole lotta clever maneuvering behind it, and not always of a savory or truthful manner.

I've seen the truth win out just recently, when Congress passed health care reform. Yes, adept lying can be effective, but why do you assume that it isn't possible to be just as adept at wielding the truth? Again, what matters is controlling the narrative, selling the public on your version of the story. There's no reason that story has to be a lie. Especially since it's easier to keep the truth consistent with itself and with reality. Surely you know the saying that the best lies are as close to the truth as possible. That's because they're harder to disprove and easier to back up. Well, the same must go in spades for the actual truth.

It's too late now because the resistance waited too long to try to influence the narrative.

I do agree with that. The sad thing is, an FBI agent, a priest, a renegade V and a terrorist just couldn't be expected to have the PR savvy to realize that they needed to get out in front of the story before Anna did.

Actually they should have been expected to realize that. Certainly Father Jack should have. Who's better at proselytizing, at using verbal persuasion to win over hearts and minds, than a priest?

And I'd hardly say the FBI lacks experience with public-relations matters. I'm sure that ever since Waco, they've put a lot of care into managing their PR to make sure they didn't come out looking bad again.

Besides, people tend to trust authority figures. An FBI agent and a priest? Of course people would listen to them! They've got a built-in PR advantage by virtue of their professions.

As for Ryan, as other critics have pointed out, he has enormous untapped potential for exposing the Visitors, because he is one, and he knows things about their true identity and true plans that he could be sharing with the world. He could make the case far more convincingly than someone like Hobbes or Georgie could, but he's not even trying.

Okay, granted, Erica and Ryan have kept quiet out of fear that Anna would have them or their families assassinated. But Father Jack should be free to speak out; if he's true to his professed beliefs, he should be willing to put himself on the line for the greater good, and have faith that his soul will be saved if worse comes to worst. And now that Val is gone, Ryan should be less inhibited about speaking out and exposing the Visitors to the world. Sure, he could still be killed, but he's not much of a freedom fighter if he places his personal safety over the cause.

Now that the damage is done, they can't use PR effectively in a positive way - Anna has made sure of that - so going negative is their only hope.

I find that saying something bad is your "only hope" is usually an excuse for not trying to find other options.

Going public could have one valuable use, to build up their own army, but that army will be full of crazies and bigots - the Tea Party on steroids - which would become a self-fulfilling prophecy of everything Anna's been saying about them.

Okay, leaving aside the ginormongous fleet of warships that's just days away from darkening the skies and rendering this all moot...

Surely the crazies aren't the only people on the planet who'd be suspicious of what Anna's selling. We've seen that the UN Secretary-General has serious doubts about the costs of taking the Visitors' charity. And what about the scientists? Surely there are plenty of scientists who are skeptical that the Visitors are presenting themselves honestly, because there's simply no way an alien intelligence could look exactly like humans. And there would be scientists questioning some of their other technological claims, like being able to reconstruct the appearance of a bomb from its remains after detonation, or being able to detect an aneurysm that hasn't happened yet. (Not to mention that no court would've admitted the evidence from that bomb reconstruction until and unless it could be proven reliable, which would probably take years of test cases and arguments.) The original V showed the Visitors actively suppressing, killing off, and converting scientists because they knew they would pose a threat. The current show is virtually ignoring the existence of scientific inquiry.

For that matter, what about the governments of countries that aren't privileged with Visitor ships overhead? They might feel left out, might want to discredit their rivals by discrediting their Visitor allies. And what about all the news networks that are competitors of Chad Decker's network? Wouldn't they love to bring Decker's ratings down by showing that his beloved Visitors had feet of clay?

I'd love to see this situation written in an honest and realistic way. It looks like the Fifth Column is screwed no matter which way they jump. But this show isn't nearly smart or gutsy enough to do that.

On the contrary -- if this show were smart enough to consider the real possibilities here, the Fifth Column would be in a vastly stronger position. As the io9 reviewer said, they've deliberately set up an unbelievable situation in order to justify asking questions about terrorism.

I'm now thinking that Anna needed to shut them all up quickly, and that there was some incident on the ship which made the killings need to happen sooner.

As I recall, Erica found photographic evidence that some of the bones in the crash had been treated with preservative. That suggested they were medical samples, scavenged remains. The implication being that Anna didn't kill anyone, just collected some pre-existing human remains and loaded them on the shuttle. As stated, a total copout.

 

[Greg Cox]

As I recall, Erica found photographic evidence that some of the bones in the crash had been treated with preservative. That suggested they were medical samples, scavenged remains. The implication being that Anna didn't kill anyone, just collected some pre-existing human remains and loaded them on the shuttle. As stated, a total copout.

I'm not sure they mentioned preservatives, but there was something about the way the skeleton burned that indicated that the bodies were already dead before the explosion.

Which is another reason Anna should have just gone with living victims. The trick with the dead bodies meant the V's had to go out of their way to cover up any evidence of the hoax--when it would have been easier just to let some expendable humans get killed for real.

And if the Resistance hadn't taken the bait and hadn't shot down the shuttle . . . no problem. Anna just tries again another day.

The whole dead-body trick seemed way more trouble than it worth, at least as far as Anna was concerned. Unless the show had already established that she had some inconvenient dead bodies she need to account for.