First Wave
"Normal, Illinois"

Airdate: July 16, 2000

When a teenaged couple get horizontal, one of them gets a fatal lesson in safe sex.

Following up on an e-mail to The Paranoid Times site, Cade travels to Normal, Illinois where a group of healthy teenagers have been dropping like flies. His contact, Robbie Harlock, a teenaged outsider who has read his journals and truly believes that aliens walk the earth, helps him investigate. What they discover is that the deaths are linked to rampaging hormones and the Gua.

In keeping with the title, the theme of being different was explored in this episode. Robbie, although dating one of the popular crowd, is an outsider. Probably even before he found The Paranoid Times, Robbie was never one for convention. His acceptance of Cade's version of the world only makes matters worse. As an outsider, however, he sees things that others don't and as one of the good guys, he feels that he must take action. In a way he is a younger version of Cade and now that he believes, but as he has no proof, he is caught in the same trap as our hero.

Believing in a dire threat without tangible proof can only lead to being labeled crazy. Which, as I've written before, makes for good TV. The only problem is that this whole no proof angle is getting a bit tired. Although it is imperative that Cade amass his troops of believers, the formula is wearing thin. Just as the first season focused heavily on discovering and destroying Gua experiments, this season has become as overly dedicated to the gathering of allies among the human population. While both can be interesting at times, there should be more of a mix in the episodes lest the audience get bored of the same thing week after week.

In spite of the tendency to wear out a formula, First Wave still has one really good thing going for it. And I'm not talking about Sebastian Spence in a tight t-shirt either. First Wave has good aliens. Well, not good per se, but rather really interesting aliens. They are strong, flawed, independent, sheep-like, enigmatic and see-through. They are, in fact, more interesting than their human counterparts as Gua like Joshua, Trent and The Minister have illustrated that not all of the aliens are the same. Even those with similar goals can be very different.

For example, although it is suggested that the town sheriff is part of the Gua resistance. His actions seemed to paint him as a renegade instead. Unlike the other resistance members in "The Purge" who seemed to agree with Joshua's opinions about the strength of humanity and were sympathetic to our plight, this new Gua was an entirely different matter. Appalled at the idea of using the instruments on his fellow Gua, the sheriff didn't seem all that disturbed by the thought that humans were being used as guinea pigs. While he could have used a bit more screen time, I like the idea that there exist Gua who rebel, not for our sakes, but for their own. By segmenting the resistance, First Wave once again increases the complexity and appeal of the Gua.

Now if only they could do the same for Cade Foster.

-- Linda M. Najera

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

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