Time for the annual commentary on Falling Skies, though there really isn’t a whole lot to say that hasn’t been said already. This is a bit sad and a bit amusing, considering it’s a new season and all there is to it is… the same “twists” that were in every previous season.
Tom Mason finds himself on alien vessel? Check.
Tom Mason has a telepathic conversation with an alien? Check.
Tom Mason magically finds himself in the wilderness unharmed? Check.
Tom Mason finds his way straight back to the 2nd Mass, despite not knowing where exactly he is or they are? Check.
Tom Mason is examined by Ann and comes back “clean”? Check.
Tom Mason knows mysteriously exactly where the Overlord is hiding? Check.
Tom Mason has an alien parasite scare? Check.
And that’s just the Tom Mason related stuff. We also have repeats of Ben and Maggie awkward flirting and Hal being jealous. Deni having a sudden friendship, but this year with Anthony, after being mostly absent and not even on screen in the last season. (If I was spiteful, I would also point out that with her death, we have a repeat of “black characters dying”.) We even revisit the school setting from season 1, like there are no other sets available. And naturally, Volm magic that can track the mechs and somehow enables the 2nd Mass to know when other teams are in danger, despite no mechs being at their position.
All those repeats come down to a brief summary. Tom is saved by mystery aliens from the beamer; it crashes into an ocean on Earth instead of the moon. Taking on the shape of Tom’s dead wife, Mystery Alien tells Tom to “find his warrior”, which he conveniently discovers a scene later, after crawling out of the ocean unharmed, on the way back to the 2nd Mass.
Pope, who seems to be eternally on watch alone, welcomes Tom back with the obligatory “how are you still alive?” line. Ann checks Tom, all is good, Mason Family Hug [tm]. Tom holds an inspiring speech about finding warriors, and no-one has a problem with him coming back from certain death a 52nd time. With the moon base gone and most Espheni ships leaving, Tom yet again decides to strike openly against the remaining Overlords and Skitters. Said and done, awkward-awful Hal-Maggie declarations of love and being unable to resist Ben ensue, Cochise reveals the Volm have located roughly 300 other militias and can communicate with them (though they all “lack a leader”, because Tom Mason can’t be everywhere and he is the ONLY capable leader on the planet). Armed with looted mech weapons, the 2nd Mass follows Tom’s alien memory hunch to a high school and kill the Overlord hiding in the basement. Deni gets killed unceremoniously by skitters, which causes Anthony to “find his warrior” (I guess? He was the one with the ammo belts and big guns from the start anyway…) and though Deni apparently gets torn apart in a high school basement, she gets a Roman funeral pyre in the 2nd Mass camp. During this funeral, Tom slaps a bug on his neck and surprise, surprise, it’s a mech fly.
Well. Let’s focus on the bright side: Lexi is dead and it seems she’s dead for real.
I’m not sure what I expected from season 5. Maybe there simply are no particular things to expect of train wrecks. I guess if anything, I wanted new absurdities, not plain old repeats of the cliches already done to death in the previous seasons. But then, the season is young and with Magical Alien Hybrid Girl gone, they have to come up with something else. I hope.
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