Tom is bike riding chased by Skitters again – where does
he get the fuel for this thing? And why haven’t the Espheni dealt with him by
simply destroying all motorbikes in their ghetto? How many can there be?
Ah, if Falling Skies were ever meant to make sense!
Anyway he makes his way to overlooking the wall which was supposed to have been taken down. And we move back to 60 hours earlier
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – tell your
story IN ORDER damn it, this showing the action then cutting back before it is
annoying
Back then Tom discusses his plan with Hal and Botha – who
is going to climb the fence in his secure suit and use volatile explosives to
destroy the very obvious power lead the big flying space ship uses to power the
fences. Tom intends to act as a distraction while Botha blows up the power cord
– but first Tom has to Inspiring Big Damn Hero Botha into risking so much for
all of them rather than saving himself.
Lots more plan exposition with extra arseholery from
Pope. They begin moving the population and rigging their explosives, ambushes
and traps.
Tom acts as a diversion by setting the Espheni on fire –
because the Espheni has decided to meet in person rather than send his
harnessed meat puppet to do his talking because REASONS (no, “REASONS” is too
much credit. Because FALLING SKIES NEVER MAKES SENSE!). The meat puppet screams
orders which seems unnecessary given they don’t need humans to talk to Skitters
And for completely random bad luck. Botha breaks his hand
which means he can’t use the suit (what, did a POC nearly be an integral part
of the show?). Since Weaver has a heart condition and can’t use the suit that
leaves Pope to save the day.
Pope. To save the day. I may have invented all new forms of profanity.
Pope drops the bomb but proves he’s a good guy after all
by going back for it and not saving himself. There’s a brief panic on everyone’s
part when Pope is knocked out (and the pipe turns out to be explosive proof but
not hammer proof) meaning everything is delayed and Hal has to kill a gazillion
Skitters with a stick.
But the fence goes down, Tom sets his trap and rawr lots
of explodey Skitter death (the whole “the Skitters are an enslaved species” is
no longer on anyone’s mind so celebrate their splodey deaths!) Celebrations for
all! And we all misjudged Pope by thinking he was an arsehole because he’s
spent 4 seasons being an arsehole! We should totally trust more guys.
They’re also watched by something… unknown, which Weaver sees but decides not to talk about. Of course.
At the Espheni Youth, we have more Nazi-imitating with
not the slightest subtlety. We have the very-Aryan Kent praising Sheila for
betraying her parents like a good little collaborator. Daddy’s quick to say how wonderful the Espheni
and their re-education camps , but collaborator Sheila’s mother calls her a
traitor.
Mira worries to Matt that they may be broken in the camp
and wants to escape; she’s sure that Matt’s confidence about being immune to
brain washing is wishful thinking. She has stolen and hidden wire cutters. They’re
found by Kent in one of his searches since the Espheni quickly notice anything
missing. When facing collective punishment, Matt confesses. As he’s lead away,
Cochise (who, remember, has put on hold whatever mission he was left with to go
babysit Tom’s kids) watches from a distance.
Anne leads her people on their forced march until she
actually collapses. Anne, as a leader, rather lacks planning skills (but bad
decisions just makes her fit everyone on this show). She now starts hallucinating
while unconscious, as you do, or maybe a memory, back in the shop when she was
pregnant and the Espheni was connected to Anne’s pregnant stomach by a tube and
calling it “our baby”.
No. No. no no no nonononononononono. There is not enough
no in the world.
Anne wakes up all energised and determined having psychically detected Lexie.
At Camp Cult, Ben tells Maggie about Lexie’s little get
together with the Espheni. Maggie is not a fan of this and reveals her cache of
hidden guns she’s been keeping just in case. Ben has to push to talk to Lexie
rather than go in guns blazing because Maggie is very very not impressed with
Lexie lying and meeting with the enemy.
They interrupt her little cult worship (much to Lourdes’s annoyance) but Lexie doesn’t care that she lied or see anything wrong with meeting the Espheni – and breaks Maggie’s wrist for bringing a gun. She says the Espheni is a part of her and that the Espheni want peace and Maggie’s gun toting is threatening that.
In a show where people actually used logic and thought, someone would have pointed out that the Espheni have destroyed the majority of the human race. For some reason no-one is asking Lexie about this.
No-one does that, instead Lexie appeals to Ben out of sibling need. And then Anne and co arrive. Lots of reunions and hugging!
Lexie being experimented on as a baby is one thing – but Anne
being inseminated by an alien while unconscious and helpless? (And yes, she was
already pregnant so insemination is a weird word but this is Falling Skies it does not make sense,
ever!) No, no, hell no.
Ok 3 episodes in and it’s time to poke some of the fail
of this series (beyond the plot making no sense, the aliens making no sense,
nothing making any sense at all, ever). The role of POC on this show – because this
is… not good
Most of the POC are with Anne – and Anne has rather
rapidly established herself as a pretty poor leader, with Anthony and Deni both
following her around trying to make her see sense. She faints because she
forgets people need to eat. Her plot line is the least involved and least meaty
and least meaningful of them all because it’s just Anne wandering around being
a hardarse with Anthony and Deni following in her wake. Now, bad decisions are
pretty damn common in Falling Skies,
but the show usually pretends that Tom’s are good ones – Anne’s are clearly
bad. Just like Marina
Peralta in Season 3.
In the Epsheni Youth Camp, Matt’s crafty planning is
damaged by… Mira.
In cult centre, well, Lexie is a WOC to begin with then
there’s her high priestess – Lourdes. Who sees through all this? Maggie, Ben
and Kadar.
And Tom’s great plan nearly fails because Botha breaks
his hand and has to be replaced by Pope. Seriously.
POC are incidental or an active problem to work around
repeatedly in this season – and it’s not the first time we’ve seen this. Also
of note – Maggie is the only woman who hasn’t fallen into the same trap (maybe
Deni by the sheer fact she has virtually no screen time) and even she had to
wait for Ben to guide her.
