Falling Skies S05E04: The Short Life of Ryan

Not going to save the best for last: The episode has no Maggie at all! That is amazing.

What the episode does have is a lot of emotional moments surrounding Cochise and Anne. Cochise just remembered that he is dying because he only has one alien kidney. For this occassion, his father stops by and is, within minutes, convinced that an organ transplant – which has never been done in Volm history – is a reasonable suggestion and Anne is the most qualified person to perform it. Anne selects Ben as her assistant “because Tom wasn’t around and Ben was”. It remains unclear what would make Tom, a history professor, a more qualified surgery assistant.

Meanwhile, Pope and Anthony have banded together over their anger; Anthony is pissed because he is removed from the frontline, Pope is pissed because Tom didn’t rescue Sarah. Out of nowhere, they recruit a bunch of new, never seen before misfits to have a front against the Masons.

The Masons, at least Tom and Matt, are checking out a totally untouched police station to loot weapons and gasoline. They take Dingaan, Weaver and Ryan along. If you don’t recognize the name Ryan, that is because the character never showed up before and could as well be called Red Shirt. At the police station, Weaver finds the car of his dreams, Dingaan contacts a resistance group near the Bolivian border and Ryan dies to a swarm of those flesh eating bugs or whatever killed Sarah.

Back at the camp, they are just in time to provide a car battery for Anne to try to revive Cochise’s father, who strangely refers to his son as ‘Cochise’. Not right now, he’s dying, but he did so before, when they were speaking in Volm language. While Anne and Ben try to revive Daddy Cochise, Pope calls Tom out on getting Ryan killed. It is quite amusing how both have a point – Pope about the Masons being apparently immortal and sacrificing everyone else, Tom about Pope just moping and whining. Tom then gives Pope a gun and points it at his head, and because this is a family show, Pope sadly doesn’t pull the trigger.

Instead, Anthony lures Anne to their villain lair, where Pope is just done shaving his head, to underline how he is really really bad now. Not bad enough though, as he just lets Anne go and decides to go after Tom’s sons instead. Genius.

Tom, on the other hand, walks through a forest when he is contacted by his dead wife/the mystery alien again, who “can’t exist in the same space”. Guess we’re in for some interdimensional crap. Anyway, the dead wife points out that Hal is gone. Big surprise, Pope kidnapped him somehow and holds him hostage in a forest, intending to kill first Hal and then Tom.

Yeah. What can I say? It was way too predictable that Ryan would die to surprise anyone. The only surprising thing about it was that Ryan wasn’t black, really. It was also obvious that Pope wouldn’t go through with killing Anne and it doesn’t take visionary skills to predict he will also not kill Hal and Tom. As usual, the most interesting part is what will happen with Anthony after he turned on the 2nd Mass. Best guess? They’ll blame it on PTSD and all is good again.

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Falling Skies S05E03

Looks like Ben and Maggie will take the Cringe Couple Award home. The death of Sarah was both welcome and telegraphed from miles away, and I wouldn’t even complain if it hadn’t been so cringey and unneccessary. But first things first. The valley full of skitters and the skitter-like hornets didn’t pose a problem at all. Dingaan luckily invented a flying insect poison dispenser over night and a small group of fighters was able to clean out the valley within minutes. Things briefly got interesting when the population was not only back but had doubled in numbers the next day. The only conclusion was that an Overlord was nearby and genetically engineered skitters and had them gather in this valley. So far, so good. The past has shown that this shouldn’t take longer than 30 minutes, or a half in-show day to solve. Pope and Sarah went to follow the “stream of skitters” to find the source and it was physically painful to listen to the “let’s have pretty babies after the apocalypse” talk. Seriously…? Well, meanwhile, the girl and the skitterized brother that the Cringe Army had brought back from the Land of the Miracle last episode escaped and naturally, Maggie had to go after them due to a guilt trip. Wherever Maggie goes, Hal goes and wherever they go together, stupidity ensues. Not far away in a forest, they spot the elusive Overlord who saw no need at all to meet the skitter boy and his sister in a somewhat more protected location. It’s not like the Espheni are in a vulnurable position at the moment, and damn, if only there was a gathering ground for skitters and hornets in the area to provide a better defense for a single Overlord… But I guess the attempt to personally talk Skitter Boy into killing his sister for whatever reason was too important, so that’s what the Overlord tries. He also takes control of Maggie to underline the urgency of his deed, but luckily, Hal and his rifle are nearby. Any bets if Hal would think to use his rifle to take out the Overlord from a save distance? Well, nope, he runs toward him and stabs him in the back. Why? Because they need him alive, to tell the 2nd Mass where the skitters are made. And because Hal only learned to shoot a rifle yesterday, it was impossible to fire a non-lethal shot. Skitter Boy then obtains a gun and shoots his sister and then himself. Well done. Hal and Maggie return to camp with the captured Overlord.

Meanwhile, Sarah got stuck in the conveniently placed “Espheni goo” some might remember from last season. It’s like superglue! Oh my god! Fire would easily remove the goo, but Pope still hasn’t learned to make fire with all the damn wood and leaves in the forest, so he has to go back to camp to get a flamethrower. If you can count two and two together, you know from the “let’s have a picture book future” talk earlier that Sarah won’t see another morning. In the camp, Ben and Maggie have combined their spikes to get the location of the skitter factory from the Overlord. The rest of the 2nd Mass takes the only available vehicle to go destroy said factory, and Tom promises to save Sarah on the way back. Pope freaks out, takes the flamethrower and runs back into the forest. Whatever. If you had learned to make a damn fire, or picked up a lighter, you wouldn’t have this problem.

The 2nd Mass arrives at the skitter factory, which is an actual factory building full of giant barrels. Fully grown skitters and hornets emerge from those, like from an assembly line. I don’t know how far you can stretch “it’s alien tech”, but that’s not how I imagine genetic engineering. Three bombs quickly put an end to it, and now the crazy plot twist: Anthony froze up. No, this had no impact on anything. Yet. After the successful mission, Tom tries to keep his promise and save Sarah. But alas, Pope arrived there a bit earlier, flamethrowered a bunch of alien insects away and Sarah had no legs. Including the cliche “I can’t feel my legs” line. She ded nao. And Pope is pissed at Tom. Really? I mean, the entire Cringe Conga with Sarah was meant to turn Pope into… an antagonist for Tom? Isn’t that… y’know, exactly as what he started? The character was fine for 2.5 seasons, and some decent writing would have covered up the weak episodes in season 3. Now it’s a train wreck like all the others, with no hope for redemption.

Speaking of train wrecks. It appears I somehow put my money on the right horse from the start: Anthony. The last man standing. The only character left who has not turned into a parody or otherwise been made awful to watch. It took him extraordinary survival skills – with black guys dying left and right, no last name, often without notable screentime or lines for episodes – to make it this far. But there he is, alive and kicking, and with a believable plot of his own: Anthony now has PTSD, according to Ann. Therefore, he killed the Overlord, after witnessing him pick up some rocks and making them glow – which might as well be a real thing; Overlords have been doing just this to open telepathic communication with others of their kind in season 4. With the exception of Lexi, no-one has witnessed this though, and Anthony certainly seems a bit nuts to the 2nd Mass now. Which is why Weaver relieved him of duty. Comically, he only took his rifle, not the bullet belt Anthony wears since his first appearance. Noteworthy, at least to me, is the fact that a different accessory has changed owners: Anthony now also wears Pope’s skitter claw necklace. And I finally have hope to get Sheriff Anthony and Desperado Pope to team up against Mason and Weaver.

Falling Skies S05E02: Pringles

When Hal and Maggie have the most chemistry out of all the forced, annoying romances, it means something and that something is: Enough already with the soap opera.

The 2nd Mass is under siege by hungry skitters, who are out of control without an Overlord. In a fit of rage, a grenade blows up the entire food reserves that the 2nd Mass – somehow – still had. After an extra we never met before dies after eating grilled skitter flesh, it is clear: The 2nd Mass must go after the conveniently discovered food bank nearby. That this would be a prime location for booby traps, according to previous seasons, never enters anyone’s thoughts and it doesn’t matter, because there are no traps.

Two contenders for the Most Awkward Couple Award, namely Sarah, Pope, Maggie and Ben, make their way through storm drains to the food bank, just counting on their good fortune that there is not only food, but also a functional, fueled truck to transport it. Meanwhile, Matt Mason joins the Awkard Couples competition by making friends with a starving girl we never met before, unaware that his efforts to win the award are doomed. His new girlfriend is black and should die within the next 2 – 3 episodes in good old Falling Skies tradition.

The food bank team arrives at their target to find not only food, but also a functional, fueled truck. What a coincidence. They give their all to score points in the competition – Ben and Pope having a man to man conversation about the bro code (literally and literary, considering Ben and Hal are actual brothers) while Sarah suggests Maggie should go for a threesome. Hilariously, Maggie points out that this would be wrong because the guys are brothers. Quite a funny thing coming from a woman over 30 who habitually goes after boys in their mid- to late teens.

Meanwhile, Anthony discovers his inner warrior by punching a skitter to death, which Weaver objects to. Tom Mason, on the other hand, is fine with it because people are following his orders to unleash their primal rage. In his spare time, he hallucinates his dead wife and her advise relating to current issues in the camp.

At the food bank, the armed team of four, of which 3 are accomplished shooters and 2 have enhanced strength and reflexes, is held hostage by a teenage girl who threatens to unleash her skitter brother if they don’t leave all the food to her. Why a single skitter is such a threat to an armed team that just fought their way through hordes of skitters remains a mystery. Maggie finally claims to have a machine that can reverse the process and save Skitter Brian and the girl agrees to go with them.

Back at the camp, hilarity ensues. Pope of all people prepares a candle light dinner – complete with wine – for Sarah. Maggie presents Hal, who has meanwhile collapsed from hunger, with a roll of 5 years expired Pringles. Last season’s pristine Hershey bar was not the end of ridicolous product placement. For a crowning moment of “oh come on now”, Matt has constructed a microscope for Ann to examine the bug that bit Tom. Said bug has not only Skitter and Espheni legs, it also has human eyes and it was a bad, bad idea to show a close up of that. The bug is the funniest looking alien on the show and after seeing the bright blue eye, it is nearly impossible to take it serious as a threat.

While the bug was shown to be roughly the size of a bumblebee, Tom and Ann have no problem to follow it on foot as the bug turns out to not be dead and escapes. They follow it to a valley, where a large swarm of either bugs, winged skitters or both is emerging. Now, THIS might be a better threat – unless they are all shown to have doll eyes.

Falling Skies S05E01

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.

Who would you be if the world went to hell?

In her article over at fallingskiesblog, fellow author BethTX makes a strong point for why Ben Mason is one hell of a character. I agree about this fact; the writers and actor Connor Jessup do a damn fine job there. However, while reading the article, I found myself realizing that the reason “we viewers can identify with Ben” doesn’t apply. And that, on paper, it really should apply.

I do not wish to bore anyone with tales from my teenage years, but I need to go there for a short moment to explain. So I was a rebellious teenager who, like any other teenager, thought the world would never understand the first thing about me. Now I’m over 30 and the world is still mostly at a loss, which may lead me to think I got a point back then. Truth is, I don’t know and I also don’t care if the world gets me. However, to put things in perspective: I ran away from home at age 14, lived on sofas and in alternative communes with punks, anarchists and (red/S.H.A.R.P.) skins for years, “grew up faster than others because I had to”, am diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder and defy all odds with the triple A – being asexual, aromantic, agendered. I do get the grasp of feeling like an alien, in every nuance available. And without playing my own experiences up or other people’s teenage years down, I think my past qualifies for something else than “omg my parents are so mean, no-one understands me” teenage issues.

Ben Mason, a teenager who lost his mother in a freaking alien invasion, got captured and brainwashed by aliens and then turned out to develop scary levels of superhuman powers, should give me something to connect with. If nothing else, the feeling to be different and the attempt to fit in, the pretending and hiding of things others wouldn’t begin to understand. I have spend the better part of my youth pretending to be something I’m not. Most of all, however, I pretended to give a shit. Because, usually I don’t. Any attempt to fit in was for my convenience, not to really “fit in”. Tired of explaining that I don’t have “crushes” or any aspirations to be in a romantic relationship? Pretend I’m your average straight person, randomly pick some celebs people around me find “hot” and claim I find them “hot”, too. Tired of explaining that yes, I do appreciate this birthday gift, but my appreciation doesn’t inspire me to jump around and hug people? Fake a smile, play along, be done with it. It boils down to “being tired of explaining things you don’t get anyway” and “yeah, whatever, leave me in peace”. I never had any illusions people would sit down, hear me out and be okay with it at some point.

Ben Mason, he is truly desperate to make people understand how he feels. For acceptance, trust and community; proving his loyalty and that he only wants the best for his people. I give a shit as long as people just don’t get on my nerves and I frankly don’t bother with “what’s best for them”. “What’s best for me” is perfectly enough, and that is usually “I don’t get what the fuzz is about, so go tell your problems to someone else”. It’s not out of spite or because I’m such a cold bastard. It’s because I really, honestly don’t understand those things. Breaking up with a partner of 3 years? People will go through weird phases like trying to analyze why the relationship didn’t work out, worry that they “can never love again”, being allround sad and crushed. Me? Find new sofa to crash on, end of story. I know, I know, it sounds sad, but it isn’t – for me, it isn’t. I get it, I’m pretty different from the majority when it comes to such things. And that’s fine, I don’t expect the majority to change for me. It’s not all bad to be different anyway. One of my very best friends comes to me for relationship advice specifically because it will be rational and brutally honest. That is because I couldn’t give any other advice – I’d never say “listen to your heart” because people suspect I don’t even have one. (I do, I once saw it on an x-ray.) So in a nutshell, I cannot relate to Ben’s desire for understanding because I never had it, despite my being different.

I can also see what Ben is doing when he hides his glowy spikes or pretends he didn’t watch the time when he did 200 freaking push ups. He tries to not scare people; to fit in and be part of a group. Well, that’s the very thing that drives me nuts. My reaction to getting weird ass superpowers? Yay, now I can run off into the woods, survive on my own without depending on others to find food, weapons and shelter and other humans will run from me in fear! That’s awesome! You see, whenever I faked to be a sane, average person, I could keep it up for a while. I became quite efficient at it, down to faking to be a social butterfly who knows everyone and their mother; all while truly giving a damn. It was the neccessary thing to do to be good in my job, so I made the sacrifice the situation demanded. And then, I went into major burn out syndrome because a social butterfly is simply not who I am and playing a role almost 24/7 wears you down. Getting the magical ability to be efficient at what needs to be done – in case of an alien invasion, that would be “surviving” and “fighting for my life” – without the need to deal with people would be a freaking revelation. And what Ben did for the better part of the show was the exact opposite of what I would do.

Enter Pope – here’s the character I do relate to, along with the bits and pieces of Dai and Anthony we were shown so far. No, Pope doesn’t struggle with alien superpowers that make people fear him; he doesn’t have the entire inner conflict of being different and trying to fit in. And that’s the point: He doesn’t try. People percieve him as a jerk and he’s okay with that. That is who I am. Sure, I’m likely percieved as a jerk for different reasons – I have the psych evaluation to show for it. But I have never thought of myself as a freak, as “ill” or that “something is wrong with me”. At best, I thought something is wrong with everyone else, because hey, I’m fine with the way I am. I am, indeed, okay with being kind of a jerk. Pope is more likely to ask “what the hell is wrong with you people” than having some inner monologue about his desperation regarding people not accepting or liking him. To me, he doesn’t give off a “what an asshole” vibe. I get a “ah, finally, sanity!” vibe from him because he does pretty much what I would do. Call bull when the situation warrants it, regardless if people want to hear it. Fend for himself and himself alone. Not having true loyalties, not even his own brother. (My brother isn’t quite the jerk Billy was, but damn, he’s close.)

So, if the world went to hell, I wouldn’t be like Ben. I’d be a chain-smoking version of Pope, and I’d be making more sarcastic remarks with pop culture references. And you’d better pray I wouldn’t get superpowers like Ben, because I’d be the most unlikely person to use them for your sake. While you were out there, afraid and alone, in an alien infested city, trying to find something to eat… I’d be jumping from roof top to roof top, in a silly, over-the-top superhero costume, throwing plasma TVs from skyscrapers, for the lulz. You need this fuel to transport your merry band of survivors to a safer haven? Well, fuck you, I need the fuel to make a flaming Punisher skull on this public place because it will look awesome at night. You need this canned food to feed starving children? Well, fuck you twice, I need the cans to shoot at them because I’m the Amazing Super Redneck (until I make a new costume).

Oops. I got sidetracked by my world domination fantasies up there. In a nutshell, I’d be a total jerk in a post apocalypse scenario. I’d be worse than Pope. And he’d be the one I’d come back for to save his ass, because he’d be the one most likely to become my supervillain sidekick. I’m not a hero. (Well, not that kind of hero.) I’m not someone struggling to fit in. I’d be mayhem, as irresponsible and “bad” it would be – from your point of view, heroic survivor with nothing but the well-being of your followers in mind. And that’s why I can’t identify with Ben. He’s a hero, I’m a jerk. And that’s my saving grace: At least, I’m honest about it. You’re warned: Do not, under no circumstances, depend on me if the world goes to hell. Because I’ll go with it.