Falling Skies Season 2 Episode #06 – Homecoming Review

It seems like you can never really leave the 2nd Mass…

What They Say:
Homecoming – Hal finds bodies of de-harnessed children and someone from his past.

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
If there’s one thing a show like this can’t have a lot of, it’s down time. With the group having found the hospital base in the previous episode, they’ve now spent a couple of weeks there and things are getting rather slack. At least in Weaver’s opinion since he’s seeing sloppy drills and tardiness across the board. Some of it is a good bit of fun though as Tom and the good doctor Anna have certainly hooked up well and are finding a good connection with each other, even with what they’ve lost in the world that was. Unfortunately, while Weaver is right, he has his own issues because the infection he got hit with before in the factory by the alien has now hit the majority of his body.

The downtime makes the events that happen here all the more critical feeling as several things hit quickly. The first is that Maggie and Hal end up finding a ditch where a lot of de-harnessed kids have been tossed for dead, including Karen. With all of them dead white and and buried in leaves, it’s striking for Hal to have her back in his life in some way, especially with Maggie having turned him down in so many ways. Even more problematic though is that the 2nd Mass has run out of fuel for the most part, having not found any nearby and what they do have being used to run the hospitals generators. With Weaver out of commission and having known about all of this, Tom’s intent on getting him to Charleston but has no real options to do so at the moment. A lot of confusing things have hit very quickly for the leadership side and there’s no certainty in how to proceed.

So what we get is a lot of wheel spinning as things try to get resolved. Questioning of Karen goes relatively alright but what we really get is an understanding of what someone like her was able to remember seeing when she was controlled. There are some very good scenes with Ben as he’s intent on not letting her get away with anything. Ben’s definitely been an interesting character to watch this season, the only one really, just because of the uncertainty he brings into things. His time with Karen in particular is good to watch since he’s against her being there for all the right reasons and for reasons he wasn’t even aware of as he spends time with Karen and they find a connection through their spikes.

Weaver’s tale isn’t a bad one though it lends itself to some awkward medical moments as they try to figure out how to either slow down the alien infection or stop it outright. It leads to some of the tension between Tom and Anna that’s not a surprise sa well which isn’t bad but it’s just sort of there. I like their relationship but it’s bringing in some awkward moments at the wrong time. When it does get back to focusing on Weaver, it handles things well enough with what it wants to do in trying to get him better, but he mostly provides the role of a catalyst here in inert form.

In Summary:
While it was obvious as to what Karen was really up to all along, it’s played out well in the final minutes as it all comes together. The series is moving firmly into its second half of the season and there’s a sense that it’s going to start barreling forward more, which it needs to do. Taking Weaver out of the picture for this episode isn’t bad since he tends to come down hard on things related to the harnessed kids and what it can do, and with Pope showing back up this time around he’d probably just snap in general with all that’s going on. But it’s also an episode where it’s tense yet doesn’t feel like it’s intense or rushed. There’s a good number of things going on here but it’s paced somewhat slower which lets it all build up towards its inevitable ending.

Grade: B

Chris Beveridge

http://www.fandompost.com

Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.

He likes to write a lot, as you can see.

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