Just when you think you’re going to bolster your forces.
What They Say:
Everybody Has Their Reasons – The 2nd Mass arrives at a functional military base run by Weaver’s former flame; the two groups make plans for the final assault on the Espheni.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As we get closer to the end of the series, Falling Skies has taken its expected awkward turns where it tries to do what’s mostly standalone episode material. The previous episode tried that hard by putting Tom in the place of temptation with a household that had survived unscathed and with kids growing up not aware that the world had ended. All you could think is that they must have been heavily shielded before the war to not realize things are very different now. The temptation of normalcy was certainly there for tom and understandable, especially with the problems with his leg after being shot, but you knew how it would all play out in the end and it ended up just feeling like a side quest that didn’t need to be dealt with.
With the opener here, the 2nd Mass has made their way forward and come across the remains of a military base where there’s a number of seeming soldiers still at work there. That has them doing some exploratory work before bringing the 2nd Mass there in full since the potential of building their ranks is certainly appealing. It gets tense when the trio of Tom, Weaver, and Hal get caught up in one of the traps set, but it goes for very predictable when it turns out the person running it is an old friend of Weaver’s named Katie Marshall, a long time military woman herself. This makes for some fun as both Weaver and Marshall get acquainted here and trade information in a pretty good clipped way while also setting up what they feel works as the chain of command between the two of them. It’s a new piece of Weaver’s past that comes to light here and while we’ve had a bit of him over the course of it, he’s still been kept pretty light.
There are complications that come into this though as they spend some time with Marshall and her people, as there’s a mixture of disbelief with some of what Tom and Weaver reveal and some truths kept light on because of the reality of it all. You can see the wariness coming from some of Marshall’s people when Tom and Weaver begin to talk about the Volm and working with them and that makes a lot of sense since they’ve not been as involved with them. There’s a good bit of distrust as well since they can view the Volm as interlopers themselves just as bad as the Espheni. But that comes from not having as strong a contact as the 2nd Mass has though the 14th Virginia has certainly done a solid job of putting something together in this previously lost base.
Naturally, the more that the 14th learns about the 2nd, the more they realize that they’re not what they want to align with. The 14th has been intent on dealing with human collaborators with the aliens and that puts a lot of the 2nd in their sights – starting with Ben of course since he’s got the visible spikes and he’s no longer human. It’s understandable to a good extent, but when this work has allowed the fight to progress where it is, such as Tom flying to the moon in a beamer with his alien hybrid daughter Lexi, well, that’s nuance that the 14th isn’t looking to process. It’s a black and white military world here for the 14th and they’re just going to eliminate what doesn’t belong. Add in the lack of context and understanding of what’s gone on with a group like the 2nd Mass and it’s pretty much a whole lot of ignorance on display.
The taking of Ben is what turns things really complicated though because when Tom finds out about it, he pretty flies off the handle at the chain of command there under Marshall, who herself is off dealing with other things. As it progresses, a lot of the 2nd Mass starts getting taken in and checked out, accused of working with the Espheni and being under their influence. It gets pretty paranoid as it goes on and as Weaver confronts Marshall over it, regardless of their personal connection from years prior, and Weaver really does realize that she’s gone around the bend a bit in seeing spooks and shadows everywhere. Some of it is certainly understandable considering what they’re told, but they take it to such a rough extreme that with the majority of the 2nd Mass being taken in, well, that puts Weaver in a real pickle. One that he kind of excels in and one that works in a way that plays to the long relationship he has with Matt, who has had a meager role so far this season.
The final act plays through a lot of small acts of violence as the 2nd Mass does what it can to regroup and figure out what’s going on and that has some fun with Maggie, though it comes with an obligatory near rape scene with Isabella as a soldier tries to take advantage of her. It’s pretty sloppy writing to put that together when there’re far better things to do to provide tension. Between that and the torture, it basically once again works the idea of seeing quite a number of soldiers that have been pushed to dark places and to do dark things. Taking it all a step further towards the end here with Marshall running a court martial with Tom and his family with a lot of disbelief over all the things that he’s supposedly done. It also brings up the point of Tom making it back from the moon without knowing how, which has been a curious bit throughout this season overall. Not that answers are forthcoming and only a death sentence now awaits – with an amusing little twist at the end as it seems like Marshall is being controlled by an Overlord herself.
In Summary:
Falling Skies has just three episodes left after this and what we get is an episode that while interesting on some level is mostly just a way to draw things out with minimal special effects. Giving us time with the 14th Virgina and how they’re seeing the enemy everywhere isn’t a surprise though it’s something that we’ve had aspects of it before with previous encounters with other military types. There are some interesting things that do come into play, but a lot of it is just moving into setting things in a darker place and using bad cliches and terrible writing to achieve it. I’m feeling like Tom a lot here in wondering why we’re focusing on this side of things rather than fighting the Espheni. We do get a taste of an answer here, of course, but that doesn’t alleviate things.
Grade: B-
