First Wave
"Harvest"

Airdate: August 6, 2000

Bad boys. Bad boys. Whatya gonna do? Whatya gonna do when they come for you?

Investigating a series of disappearances in Boston that just might relate to one of Nostradamus' quatrains, Cade discovers both a potential ally and a daunting development in the Gua's plans for domination

Foster determines that Jennifer Moore, the sister to trash-novelist Renee Ashford (Lisa Howard), the latest wealthy woman to disappear, had engaged the services of a male escort on the last night she had been seen. In his attempts to catch the suspect, however, he learns not only that the escort was Gua, but also that his visually pleasing husk has the ability to regenerate even after suffering the wounds associated with a five story drop.

It turns out that the physically beautiful, but menacing gigolo is merely a sample collector for his superiors, charged with harvesting -- hence the episode's title -- a substance found in the brains of sexually aroused women which promotes healing. This fluid, when injected into a Gua husk, can make them virtually indestructible. The only problem is that it is also highly addictive, something of which that Midnight Cowboy has first hand knowledge.

The bodies of two earlier victims are found and according to the medical examiner, both died seven days after they disappeared. What with it now being six days since Jennifer was last seen, both Cade and Renee must trust one another -- something both find difficult to do -- to find out where she is being held. To complicate matters, the true perpetrator of the crimes has put the police on Cade's trail. It will take a lot of luck and guts to find Jennifer before her time is up.

While the issue of the regular Gua foot soldiers is addressed in "Harvest", it still isn't explained away in any sort of satisfactory manner. It was nice to see the Gua police officer, however, act logically by reaming out his fellow alien for circumventing the desires of The Council.

This isn't from this episode. But we don't care.

"Harvest" proves, once again, that the Gua are more interesting than their human counterparts. While Cade meanders around collecting allies, the audience learns way too man fascinating facts about the alien invaders. As seen previously with substances like salt, and the pleasure derived from sexual intimacy, the Gua are very vulnerable to addiction. Time and again we've seen that they, like us, they are prone to weakness, and even something as harmless as salt, or as beneficial as the serum taken from their victims' brains, can have dire consequences. I only wish Foster had been privy to that information as well.

But at least this episode didn't allow the Gua to completely overshadow our hero. Actress Lisa Howard seemed to ignite a spark in lead actor Sebastian Spence, allowing him to lend Foster more animation to his personality. Even Cade's exchanges with Eddie had a less somnolent feel to them. The dry wit that has been attempted in previous episodes has finally started to click.

While Rob LaBelle is perfect in his role of Crazy Eddie, I'm thinking that perhaps Foster needs someone new, someone edgy to work with. Our hero needs another partner, one who pushes the envelope in both a plot wise and character driven manner.

Hey, Lisa Howard hasn't re-signed with Earth: Final Conflict again, has she?

-- Linda M. Najera

First Wave airs at 7pm EST, Sundays on The Sci Fi Channel.

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