The hospital segment of the season comes to an end as a new alien weapon is revealed.
What They Say:
Molon Labe – Ben is betrayed by someone he thought he could trust.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the changes brought in during the previous episode with the discovery of Karen in the valley and then her subsequent revival and drawing out of Ben, it’s really no surprise how things would end up going. While she was able to convince him that they have aplan to hook up with the rebels and do what needs to be done away from the 2nd Mass, the people who just can’t understand them, it all turns in a way that Ben just can’t grasp. With his age and nature being off due to the changes, he’s easily tricked by Karen as she leads him into a trap that will help the Overseer aliens find out more about the rebels.
Luckily for the 2nd Mass though, they caught on to all of it quick and turned the situation around, stopping Ben from being captured and actually slow down things enough through threatening the Overseer with basic weapons. It’s amusing to see how it plays out in that battle, particularly with the way Ben is just kind of dumbstruck that he was tricked and that it unfolds as it does. The whol exercise is one that gains them an excellent new hostage, stuffed in the back of a truck, but it also brings down a lot of chaos on their heads since that has the skitters coming to rescue it. Or at least attempting to since they need to keep from actively hitting their master, which has them trying some very basic tactics that they don’t often employ in their search for people in general.
With everyone boxed in and in something of a stalemate, the show lets the tensions grow pretty well as a few ideas are tossed around and basic defense are shored up. What I do like is that we get a good if angry conversation between Tom and Ben over where Ben will go once all is said and done. Ben’s intent on leaving and hooking up with the Skitter rebellion but Tom won’t let go of his son that easily. Each certainly has their positions staked out and definitely have legitimate reasons, but it’s another moment where it’s a whole lot of wheel spinning. Part of me just wants to see Ben go and have his own adventure for awhile since it could bring some fun things to light in an unusual manner.
With things in a real state of a mess, it gets even worse in the lower levels as when a small group is trying to make its way back to the main group, they discover that the aliens have a new breed coming down there through the vents and other areas that are like giant bugs. We get the traditional Alien moment here in a way as well as Jamil’s time is done and over with, leaving just Lourdes, Anna and Matt down below trying to find a way up. But it doesn’t take long for more to get involved as well as the goofy romantic subplot with Hal and Maggie also get drawn into it while they’re looking to secure the hospital.
Where the episode takes an interesting and surprising turn is when Tom confronts the Overseer since things are getting desperate and he needs answers. The push to get them has some small but predictable reveals where the Overseer says that they aren’t there to kill everyone, though the planet was certainly in a spiral because of what humanity has done, and that they intend to leave when they’re done with their operation. An operation that once again we don’t know the truth about. It’s not unexpected and fits in to the basics where we get a lot of mysteries left but a sense of a little more knowledge. What frightens them continues to be the Skitter rebellion, which is in contrast to humanity which they have little fear of because of their sentimentality. That leads to Tom being emotional and taking him out cleanly, making a difficult situation much more difficult.
In Summary:
Sometimes the simple and obvious way of doing things may be a cliché and we try to avoid them, but they do work and that’s used here. There does continue to feel like there’s a larger game going on here that’s ever so lightly hinted at that allows the 2nd Mass to keep on moving. Everything ends here about as you’d expect when it comes to the main story, but it all comes down to who will live and who will die. I dislike the losses here a bit but overall it’s fairly inconsequential, since it mostly means that the whole vehicle maintenance aspect of the show will fall off. There’s a good bit of action here and some minor revelations and it ends well, keeping me hopeful we’ll see something come from it, but I’m still pretty wary of this series.
Grade: B