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.

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 S04E11/12

Well, it could have been worse.

That doesn’t say a lot about Falling Skies anymore; it doesn’t matter how bad it gets, it usually turns out that the writers still haven’t reached the very bottom in the next episode. However, the season finale actually had a few entertaining moments. And a whole lot of cringeworthy unneccessities, like the entire episode 11, but it was not 100 % garbage.

Episode 11 makes up 170 % of the garbage though. It can be summarized real quick: After a game of idiot ball, Tom and Lexi go to the moon (instead of Tom and Ben). On the way, they inhale a cocoon and talk about family values and what it means to be human in a dream world. The End.

Episode 12 had the most interesting thing of the entire season: the spiky fog pods Dingaan first encountered on patrol. Despite their ever shrinking numbers, there are still large groups of people going on “patrols”, so Anthony has a reason to be absent from everything remotely interesting. (Yes, he is on patrol with a large group of others during all of the following events.) Anyway, so these pods just drop from the sky, release some sticky tar and crawling spine-leeches and slowly turn the trapped humans into skitters. It’s visually far more impressive than the stupid volcano landscape and it put a slightly new twist on “2 – 3 people trapped somewhere”, retiring “trapped under rubble” in the process.

Cringe is the word that immediately pops up in any and all Weaver and Matt Mason scenes, and this is no different. Trapped in a building, they start chanting a matra about not giving up and continue to do so for the rest of the episode. It’s painful to watch even before it begins.

In a garage or warehouse of some sort, Maggie, Ben and Hal are trapped. Well, Hal is stuck in the tar and Ben and Maggie are on a bus, trying to free him. After spending the last couple of episodes to build up the senseless rivalry between Ben and Hal, there is no trace of that anymore. They just get along fine and Hal gets saved. Umm, okay?

Somewhere outside, Dingaan and Pope are trapped and Dingaan already got attacked by one of the spine creepers. Strangely, Pope is the one screaming all the time (warning Ann specifically to not step in the fog, for some reason), while everyone points out how sound attracts the creepers. It is also unclear how Pope can still move at least one arm to save Dingaan, yet Matt and Ann inside the building are apparently paralyzed and unable to help Weaver when he gets attacked. Pope is on the ground, in the fog and tar, while both Matt and Ann are standing, and Ann is in super soldier mode after finding a functional flamethrower and fighting her way to Matt with it. Anyway, now that I think about it, this becomes more and more stupid, but I still want to say that Dingaan getting attacked was the first and only time there was an actual sense of danger here. With the tendency to introduce characters that aren’t Masons and then kill them, I did think for a moment they would kill Dingaan here.

The rescue in almost all cases was plain awful. The winning team in the category “least stupid rescue” is Maggie/Ben/Hal – Maggie and Ben finally manage to use their powers without making out. Weaver and Matt are saved by their human spirit and Ann with a flamethrower. Not making this up; she accidentally stumbles right into a functional flamethrower and instinctively knows what to do and where to go. This earns the team rank 2, because Ann was at least present and had been more than sufficiently warned about the dangers of the fog by Pope. He and Dingaan get saved by Sarah, who hasn’t been in this or the previous two episodes at all and just showed up with a gun to shoot the creeper on Dingaan’s throat.

I really liked the pods and all. I was even on board with most of the “these characters are forced to interact” pairings – Ben, Maggie and Hal had indeed a lot to work out (which they sadly didn’t), and Pope and Dingaan are two of the less painful to watch people, so that was fine, too. Weaver and Matt… Well. No. I would have liked to involve some of the underused characters, such a forced to stay put and somehow work through the danger together deal would have helped in many ways – to further the sense of actual danger (with non-Masons being far more likely to actually die) and to break with the usual pairings that just hurt to watch. But alas, Deni was nowhere in any episode and Anthony, as mentioned before, was “on patrol”, where nothing relevant happened, and only returned after everything was said and done.

Now, while all of this sort of interesting stuff was going on, Tom and Lexi were still in space and captured by the burned overlord on his ship. Stuff happened, testing the new found family trust of Tom and Lexi, bla bla bla, they are Masons and stick together, Lexi goes for the heroic sacrifice after learning what it means to be human, bla bla bla. As expected. Cochise had tried to contact his father and the Volm fleet to inform them about the power source, and luckily, they arrive in time to fight off Espheni forces. Lexi then crashes the ship into the moon base, and Tom in the damaged beamer comes off course and drifts into space.

This creates a void: Who are people supposed to hug now?! The answer is: Weaver and Anthony (of all people) are granted immortality. They are now involved in Mason Family Hugs [tm] and can therefore not die in season 5. Surprising, as I thought the only ticket into Masonhood was marrying Lexi, and with her death (oh God, PLEASE don’t have her magically survive…) that road is closed.

The cliffhanger was actually not that bad either. Yeah, it started out as Tom waking up in yet another dream world, but it ended with him seeing a blurry figure with lots of tentacles/arms and saying he had no idea how beautiful “they” were. “They” probably being the mysterious “greater evil” the Espheni are running from.

Episode 11 was boring and eventless and I wouldn’t have missed a thing had I skipped it. Episode 12 had some promising moments, and ultimately amounts to maybe 75 – 80 % cheesy/stupid, but with entertaining scenes. Not quite sure I’ll stick around for season 5, all things considered.

Falling Skies S04E10

This episode takes the cake in the “most cliché” category. Everything that happened – absolutely everything – was so predictable and stereotype, it’s amazing in some way. Or it was “Bring your Harry Potter Fanfiction to Work Day” the day they were filming this.

First, we have Dingaan, Tom, Cochise – and as usual, for no reason Matt trying to find out how the beamer works. To fly it to the moon, in case you forgot. Then the Espheni technology magically pulls out a defense mechanism but only against Volm. For that reason, Cochise can only go on this mission if they can manually fly the beamer… or something, I have no idea. They are basing their plan on “just getting to the atmosphere and then the beamer should pick up on the homing signal from the moon base and auto-pilot engages” to the very end of the episode, and Cochise doesn’t set a foot in the beamer again.

As soon as Matt is alone in the beamer, he starts pushing blinking buttons like any 13 years old boy would. Yeah. That’s what Weaver says. “You know we all would have done the same.” If you grew up among idiots, possible. But I know maybe one teenager who would seriously be that dumb. Seems more like an exception than a rule.

Anyway, Matt’s uncanny luck finds exactly what Cochise and Dingaan couldn’t figure out earlier, and they also pick up a transmission in Spanish. Anthony now speaks Spanish, luckily, and can translate that this an automated message from other humans, recommending to run and hide as the Espheni now improved their methods to capture humans. This only confirms Tom in his belief that flying the beamer to the moon is the most reasonable thing to do.

And then, the shitstorm hits. The entire 2nd Mass (are they still called 2nd Mass?) wants to go instead! Everyone volunteers for a suicide mission. Supermature Matt then suggests to put all names in what looks like a giant mossy seashell and have a draw. Note that this is after Dingaan, apparently the one to know most about Espheni technology, speaks out about having flight experience. As a pilot. It should be a no brainer to pick the volunteer who has at least some solid qualifications, but of course the names go into the seashell anyway, including Ben, Matt and presumably every other teenager around.

Meanwhile, Lexi practises her “gravity powers” with her Espheni father. It is a bit like watching an apathetic Kermit teach Miss Piggy telekinesis. I can’t take Lexi or the Espheni serious as characters, and in their next scene, they drive the point home as to why that is… The Espheni enters the “shadow plane” (yes, really), the telepathic (?) volcano landscape where Espheni apparently talk to each other. While he lays out the masterplan of how Lexi is totally unaware of being a superweapon, Lexi listens and if you don’t see what happens next coming from lightyears away, you lived under a rock for at least 50 years. Yes, Lexi kills the Espheni with her “gravity powers”.

Back in… wherever the Mason Dynasty currently resides… Weaver catches Pope fumbling around on the giant seashell at night. It doesn’t take a genius to expect that the resident anti hero and professional Tom Mason opposer is trying to manipulate the draw in some way, and after the horrific derailment of his character this season, it is also a safe bet to assume he tries to put himself up for the mission. After a drawn out mud fight with Weaver, Pope admits not only that he took Tom’s name out, but also Weaver’s “because these people need you and no-one needs me”. If other characters pick up mud wrestling just to stand a chance at getting a brief moment of suicidal glory from the Masons, you know things are bad. Anyway, after Weaver refers to the possibility that Sara(h?) might come back, Pope rests his case. Because that obviously makes sense in the world the writers live in.

Now the big surprise. Tom (who else if not the man most eager to go on the mission himself?) draws two names. It’s Ben and himself, and then he admits to Ann he fixed the draw so he could go. Ann attests that he is a good father (but apparently only to Ben), after not wanting Tom or any of his sons to go from the beginning.

Long, drawn out scene of Mason Hug [tm] between Tom and Matt.

Maggie, after having told Hal some bullshit story about “the spikes are attracted to Ben’s spikes”, decides it is a great idea to say goodbye to Ben alone. Naturally, they start making out again. Naturally, Hal, who stopped by to forgive Ben, walks in again. A few minutes later, he forgives Ben anyway.

Just when Tom and Ben are about to board the ship, Dingaan holds them back and starts yelling “something is heading this way”. For a brief moment, I thought this was great writing – Dingaan, obviously the more qualified man for the mission, was luring Tom and Ben away, to then quickly board the beamer himself, possibly taking Hal along. But no such thing happened, there was really “something” and it was making beamers crash. The lamest surprise to date: Lexi was coming back to her real father Tom.

Painful. Just… painful.

Falling Skies S04E09

Christ on a bike. It was physically painful to watch in every possible way.

Based on a hunch and much theorizing, Tom Mason decides to fly to the moon. With the beamer that was not only shot down by the Volm, but also had an Espheni bomb go off inside. Sound plan. Said beamer being buried under rubble (how? Matt and Weaver spent an entire episode removing rubble?!) is not a problem because Volm are magical and happen to have a secret weapon cache that contains exactly the required tools.

Off they go to recover the cache, and take Matt along for absolutely no reason. It results in a showdown with many explosions and toxic waste, caused by Matt’s Hitler Youth girlfriend (Mira?) who totally unsuspiciously appeared. Tom does the first and possibly only smart thing this season and ties her up, just so his idiot son can free her and have her call an aerial strike. The usual “Matt is in danger, Tom almost dies but makes it out without a scratch and Matt is fine” ensues. They do not recover the magical Volm tool.

Meanwhile, the teams Maggie/Ben and Sarah/Pope compete for the most cringeworthy scenes. (Spoiler: They’ll both lose this contest, despite best efforts.) Apparently, Sarah’s fade out speech about being a new person contained something about painkillers? I have no idea, but Pope is all upset when he sees her with a pill bottle. After Super Maggie threw a piece of concrete on Sarah by accident, because Maggie is now She-Hulk. In turn, this accident also leads to Ben teaching Maggie about her super powers and, as absolutely everyone ever expected, they now have a magical spike connection and kiss. Hal sees it, of course, to further the “love triangle drama” absolutely no-one ever wanted to witness. Conclusion: Hal punches Ben; Sarah takes off with a rifle and Pope will very likely go after her next episode because it’s such an uncharacteristic thing for him to do.

The cringe contest is won by team Ann/Tom when Tom proposes in a world that has neither state nor church, Ann accepts and then Weaver marries them. Seriously, the fuck? Volm to the rescue even in this situation, as Cochise’s second in command interupts the “human ritual” with news about the beamer. The magical Espheni Candy Lipstick can make the beamer dig itself out and fly! MOON, HERE WE COME.

Geez am I excited for next week. No, really, I want to know if it can possibly get any more nonsensical and awkward than this.

Falling Skies S04E07

This was almost a coherent episode, if it wasn’t for the people in it. It would also have made a much, much better midseason highlight than, well, the actual midseason episode.

Lexi left her cocoon and proceeded to kill Lourdes for no apparent reason (“to save her the pain” or something?) and announced her plan to leave the 2nd Mass because they “only have violence in their hearts”. No shit, Sherlock, after an alien invasion, it was sort of bound to happen, but let us not forget Lexi Stormborn is a 1 year old super hybrid, and hence kind of stupid. So Lourdes is dead. Lourdes was expected to die since early season 2 by viewers, and now it finally happened. Rather anticlimatic, but for her character, it was truly the best thing to happen.

Anyway, with Lexi gone to her “real family”, the Espheni, said real family immediately moves out to destroy what’s left of the 2nd Mass and their current shelter. Because Espheni totally don’t have violence in their hearts. Like I said, Lexi is kind of stupid. With some luck, the Espheni will turn their violence against her next and end this awful magic hybrid plot.

The 2nd Mass plans to make a last stand and kill the overlord Tom burned. Cochise conventiently shows up again to help out with the part that would involve explosives the 2nd Mass can’t possibly still possess; blowing up a strategically vital bridge. I can accept that as some kind of logic, except… the stand off doesn’t work as planned because of a gas pipe having a leak and blowing up a barricade. I’m not sure if the writers know how gas pipes work, but something has to put the gas in them. They aren’t like trees that just grow and if you cut them open, there’s wood in them. With at least 4 years passed since the invasion, and large parts of the infrastructure destroyed and, if season 1 is still to be believed, ALL the important things (like food and energy sources) trapped… where does the gas even come from? Oh well… Drama doesn’t grow on trees either, so the gas leak had to provide it, I guess.

Another long expected death occured: Tector blew himself up to make the overlord think Tom is dead. This was telegraphed last year when it became known Ryan Robbins would do double duty (signed for another show) and would likely have to limit his screentime due to that. Despite being one of the fortunate few non-Masons to get a backstory, it was a wise choice to opt out of Falling Skies. His death made sense, it was “going out in a blaze of glory” and therefore, Tector has the honor of being the one character to have lived and died with dignity in this show.

From the most dignified death to the least. This episode had quite a bodycount. Dr. Kadar also opted out, but in a much less blazingly glorious way. After the gas explosion, Weaver finds Kadar in his lab, trying to save samples taken from Lexi’s cocoon, and having a huge piece of glass sticking in his kidney. Only after Weaver points this out, and calls for Ann, Dr. Kadar realizes he is mortally wounded, drops to the floor and dies within a minute. For some reason, this upsets Tom a lot more than Lexi killing Lourdes.

Speaking of Lexi, there are some curious lines in here. Hal, now back to his less consistant, less logical self, directly asks Tom “so is she still a Mason now”, clearly suggesting he does not think so. Kudos for that; he’s definitely a bit smarter than the rest of his clan here. However, when Ben seeks out Lexi to have her call off the Espheni, she refers to Tom as “your father”, not “our father”. Room for speculation that Hal is actually right and she really is the child of Ann and the Espheni, and aware of not being a Mason. In that case, it was quite meta of her to leave the 2nd Mass and try to find a better shelter. Not everyone can be as blue-eyed as Pope and believe the Masons are the best bet for survival even if your name is not Mason.

I said Hal is back to his inconsistant self, then pointed out how he was clearly the smartest Mason recently. I got sidetracked, I need to mention that after Lourdes’ death and Hal’s rejection of Lexi as a Mason, he had a talk with Maggie (who, out of character, doesn’t throw a jealous ragefit due to Hal’s reaction to Lourdes’ death). He tells her, in cheesier words than neccessary, that the Espheni have figured out the humans’ true weakness – love. That they realized family and loved ones will always forgive each other, and therefore no-one will do the neccessary thing and kill a friend who is under alien influence. He refers to himself as a risk (his previous mole phase) and that it was a mistake to let all of the people who were infected back into the circle of trust. It’s a really logical stance – the Espheni created Lexi as a Mason, knowing full well Tom would never eliminate a family member. Not his half-skittered son Ben, not his mole-son Hal, not his indoctrination-camp-escapee son Matt; not himself after having a bug in his eyeball. Making him think their “super weapon” Lexi is his daughter was the perfect place to hide her in plain sight and even have the enemy protect the weapon. Hal has it all figured out right there… to just turn around and frantically scream for Maggie, out of love, putting the plan to “pretend we are all dead and hide in this old bomb shelter” at risk. Major Facepalm salutes you, Hal Mason.

By the end of the episode, Ben has lived up to his father’s legacy and let a blond girl talk him into boarding an Espheni ship. Maggie is missing, and the preview for next week suggests she’ll be found paralyzed. A role reversal with Hal being unable to walk in Charleston, and yet another drama point for the woman who already has the most impressive collection of the cast (cancer, drugs, prison, baby taken away, rape).

All in all, yeah, it was sort of a mess as usual, but I would rate this as one of the better episodes this season, mostly due to Tector’s heroic sacrifice and the little screentime Lexi had in total.

Falling Skies S04E06

What.

I have no idea what I just watched. It’s total chaos and makes no sense. Hal suddenly sides with Tector and Pope, plotting to kill his sister – which bizarrely is the most sane choice anyone made in this episode. This also makes Hal the only Mason to realize that Lexi is a complete stranger, at least until the 5th Mason Family Hug. Dr. Kadar, who was some sort of physicist and engineer last season, is now also a memory recall therapist. This doesn’t mean he or Tom stops Ann when she strolls through the pristine lab to inject herself with a potentially lethal dose of whatever magic serum Kadar “found in an office pharmacy” though. Ann hallucinates or whatever, to realize that “Lexi needs her”. Lexi, by the way, is in a lava cocoon and the Volm told only Hal that Espheni are the most irrational and violent when they are young. Smart choice to not inform Tom, Weaver or anyone else, but whatever.

Ben has wet dreams about Maggie, who is reunited with Hal (he’s quite hot and cold when it comes to saner choices in these 45 minutes). Suspiciously absent is not only Deni, but also Popette, as well as any interest from Matt’s side to free the other children from the camp. In other words, two expected/feared romance plots seem to have been completely abandoned in favor for a romance subplot even less people wanted to see: a triangle with two Masons and the least liked female character.

I can only repeat: What?!!!

Falling Skies S04E05

Wow, the Espheni is Lexi’s father! What a reveal! Except, wasn’t that very, very strongly implied before anyway…? Like in Ann’s “dream”, where she saw him with some tentacle-tube sticking in her pregnant belly? Or all the times she said “it was you who did that to me”? I don’t know, but this surprise twist fell a bit short.

What else is new? The Volm are strategic masterminds. All they had to do to know every enemy’s position in the area was bringing down a single mech, and they never even considered or mentioned that until now? As a last resort? If this is something you can pull off with a barely armed, small force that is also on the run, why in the world haven’t they done this earlier? For dramatic effect?

On the Supemason front, absolutely nothing is new. As usual, the immortal genius got captured and outwitted the captors, with much humanity angst going around between Matt and Weaver.

Not much of a mid-season finale here, with a twist so predictable, it’s foreshadow could darken the sun.

Falling Skies S04E01-04

While catching up on Falling Skies, I remembered making this blog thingy. Yeah, I know. I can be a bit absentminded sometimes. Anyway. Time to catch up with the 2nd Mass.

Tom Mason

No surprises here; he’s still the greatest human and leader to ever live and I couldn’t give a shit if I lived on a diet of laxatives. Flashback to season 1 when Tom risked everything to free Ben, except he now risks everything to free Matt. He also, as usual, boards an Espheni ship and is offered a deal and doesn’t take it, now haven’t we seen that roughly 25 times in the last 3 seasons already? It’s just boring as hell to see an immortal, omnipotent guy do the same things over and over again. But hey, it’s at least consistant.

Hal Mason

Consistency is something I can’t pin on Hal. So he was Tom’s second in command for the longest time and suddenly he needs daddy’s permission for everything? On the bright side, he seems to be over Maggie and so far, hasn’t been anywhere near Lourdes. Guess it counts for something.

Ben Mason

Nothing wrong here, except the creepy chemistry he has with Lexi Stormborn, the last dragon. I get many, many Targeryan vibes here and that is a bad, bad thing. I also have a bit of a hard time to see how he and Lexi came to be so close as siblings, considering Lexi has turned from a 5 years old girl into the expected “she’s like 1, but looks like 21”. Still, I’m not complaining. Ben was damn lucky so far.

Maggie

Umm, she’s around and her usual oh so tough self. Don’t really care either way.

Ann Glass

Ann went into full Parental Rage. Her entire character consists of “OMG MUST FIND LEXI”. Now she has found her, but I have very little hope to see anything other than “BUT SHE IS MY DAUGHTER” for the rest of the season.

Lexi Stormborn

Alexis is suddenly not 5 anymore, she’s conveniently 21. She also looks nothing like the child we saw anymore, she now looks like Danerys Targeryan, has magical powers like no-one else, not even Ben, and goddamnit, that’s why I hate this old super child that grows up really fast and gets crazy abilities shit. Duh, her Espheni friends want to use her as a superweapon. I hope they do that rather sooner than later, so this is over.

Cochise

The Volm left and don’t care about humans anymore, except for Cochise and a handful of soldiers. Well, there’s one thing the Volm and I have in common; I am losing interest myself (see below).

Lourdes

Holy fucking shit, on what drugs was the idiot who decided to trash her entire character development? She was one of the big hopes I had for this season, and what did I get? A delusional, passive-aggressive hippie priestess. Fuck that. I’m giving this one more episode, but really… This is so freaking bad, I don’t see a way to recover from such a blow to character development in general.

Matt Mason

How old is Matt again? 10? 11? Let him be 12 thanks to generous time skipping. Did he really need a love interest?! Not complaining about the general character development, but this is just fucking stupid. Plus since she was left behind, the Mason clan has yet another person to go after. It’s turning into BBC’s Survivors, where the entire plot was “variations of saving group members”.

Pope

Has the same problem Matt has: apparently, he’s getting a love interest. While Matt’s “girlfriend” isn’t neccessarily a bad character, Pope’s is a carbon copy of himself, which is the nail in his coffin. Pope always worked best in moderation; if the writers tried to include him in everything ever, it soon got lame and he ended up inconsistently complaining about everything. Now we’re getting twice the already slight overdose from season 3. Sad, since Pope was one of the few truly good characters in the beginning.

Dan & Jeanne Weaver

Colonel Predictable. Besides the usual “totally having Tom’s back” and worrying about his daughter, he plays up his heart condition a little more. Everything else is status quo. And, as many predicted last year, Jeanne did die and he did witness it and now he’ll probably start drinking or something.

Deni

Oh, yeah, she’s back. She’s never been gone, right? Still no background story, still no comment why she was absent for so long and why she’s suddenly back.

Anthony

Still lacking a last name and a really defined role in the group, but he’s alive and has lines. I’m still holding out hope he’ll get more of a backstory and a definition instead of bouncing from “3rd or 4th in command, if X isn’t around” or “voice of reason to someone (Ann) who doesn’t listen”.

Tector

Still around, now flipflopped to Hal’s second in command.

Lyle

Apparently got offed in the first 10 minutes of the premiere, and no-one even blinked.

Dr. Kadar

Still alive, still a genius in every sciencey science there is.

Dingaan

Probably the best thing about the season so far: the introduction of a new character who isn’t someone’s love interest (yet…).

 

Summary

As is apparently tradition, many major events such as the opening of indoctrination camps for children, the sudden decision to turn human adults into skitters after all and the beginnings of Lexi’s hippie community are left unexplained. And the Espheni have announced that yet another party is involved in the war; a small detail that they – as well as their long-time enemies, the Volm – neglected to mention. At this point, I think the writers are just out of ideas. So it’s Tom being offered deals and declining on Espheni ships, saving a son and being an allround super leader; it’s a new random alien race; it’s people stressing over where other people are over and over again. A big part of me wishes the 2nd Mass had retired to Brazil.