The paths continue to slowly intersect and come together, but not without a lot of trouble along the way.
What They Say:
Mind Wars – Tom encounters strangers in the woods; Hal tries to lead the remaining Volm and the 2nd Mass to a place of safety; Lexi and Anne have a difference of opinion.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Bringing a few of the storylines together in the previous episode as different groups finally reconnect after being split in the season opener, it’s feeling like things are coming together. OF course, the show has had its bad moments so far, such as Lexi’s rapid growth and the bluntness of the whole Hitler Youth thing, but it’s also provided some interesting teases about what may really be going on with what the Espheni are doing and fighting against in the larger galactic scale. We got a good tease in the last episode as we saw how some of the leader communicate with each other, which has one of them manipulating Lexi in hopes of creating what they need, but it’s all tied to the stupidity of humanity as being useful in all of this. Which is hard to believe since they pretty much slaughtered the vast majority of humanity in the initial invasion.
With all that’s gone down, the Espheni are still pretty much hunting Tom down in a big way for what he did in torching one of them badly, making it a simple kind of grudge that’s driving them in this regard. We get to see a little more of that at the start here as he and Matt get caught in a warehouse, hearing a bit from Lourdes on the radio, before trying to avoid the Espheni and the Skitter that’s seeking them out. It’s a simple mouse hunt of sorts and you get the kind of awkward bit where Tom is able to get the two of them away relatively easily when you consider the higher intelligence and power that’s at work here. Bringing them back together with Cochise and Weaver is the end goal though and making their way to catching up with Hal. The radio message from Lourdes is certainly enticing to them, but reconnecting with the 2nd Mass is, what’s left of it is, important. And Cochise has his own mission to get back to, which you know will cycle back around later since he’s hunting up Espheni power sources.
Events at Lexi’s little sanctuary are not going well as Anne has taken the Espheni hostage and is interrogating him pretty intently. It’s causing a feedback problem with Ben though as the connection is no longer easy considering the changes that Ben has gone through and it’s taking quite the toll on him. But Anne is relentless since she sees the Espheni as nothing but a threat to her daughter and she’s not listening in the slightest to her. Lexi, of course, is pretty petulant and out of control with her powers, to the point where she nearly force-strangles Anne over the fact that Anne isn’t listening to her. The whole sanctuary is pretty much on edge and the way Anne is pushing things it’s not a surprise. And Lexi may try to play the calm and spiritual guide, but she doesn’t have the real experience to do that in a meaningful way.
Tom and Weaver have certainly made a decent team over the seasons so far and Matt’s not bad himself all things considered, especially since he took to Weaver early. When the trio comes across a couple of brothers while making their way towards where the think Hal has gone, it’s pretty friendly since they see Tom as a bit of a legend. There’s some decent stories swapped, but the whole thing turns into a trap for Tom as the brothers are actually collaborators of some sort. There’s a conflict within them in doing so, particularly Cooper, but both of them are essentially doing what they can to survive in this harsh new world. While they think that they killed Matt and Weaver and are taking in Tom, the truth is obviously something different, not that Tom knows it which sends him into a controlled spiral over the potential loss.
Hal’s leadership is one that is doing decently, though there are struggles among some of those that he works with since they’re older and more experienced. And he has Pope with him. But as they try to get more intel on their journey, we see a pretty good maneuver that should work, fails and the succeeds because of the luck and wildcard aspect of Pop is fun to watch. Especially since they’ve got a few Volm with them that are a little surprise that such tactics are actually working. They’re not exactly types to go the route of doing things that are highly irregular, but when they do they have an amusing kind of wide eyed innocence about it. And it is admittedly fun watching Pope and his new companion save the day in a willing kind of way rather than being forced into it or tricked into helping like has happened so many times before. Getting Pope onto the team isn’t easy, and it goes against type, but there’s also that sense that he has to really realize what’s at stake.
All the little arcs of the show naturally culminates in the final ten minutes or so, which is standard procedure for the show as it takes time to get to something meaningful. Anne pretty much beats an answer out of the Espheni, though not without some damage to Ben along the way. Tom figures out how to get under the skin of his captors in a big way while Matt and Weaver catch up and Matt struggles with taking another human life even if it is to save his father. And the whole last minute save naturally comes into play as well, which is simple writing that may work on some level. Hal’s storyline is a bit minimal overall in this episode but they do manage to get some decent intel towards the end as the Volm taps into their network and gets a good clue about what the Espheni are up to in terms of troop deployment and the path to take to get to the sanctuary.
In Summary:
Falling Skies advances everything in small ways here as the various arcs that are going on keep pushing everyone towards Lexi’s sanctuary. The struggles there are pronounced enough and we see the issues at stake that Anne has been making worse because of her pretty blunt style in getting things accomplished. The whole sanctuary arc has its place but it’s still not working with the way it’s set up now and it mostly just leaves me frustrated with it. There’s some decent stuff with Hal and his group this time and some good stuff with Tom as he deals with both Weaver and Matt but also the two guys that they end up getting caught up with. When it sticks to just the trio though, there’s a pretty good sense about it in how they’d be on the outside of things and survive while also figuring things out about themselves. It’s not great, but it’s not bad either. It’s just sort of there, which is how things will likely go for a good chunk of this season unfortunately until they get serious about what the real storyline is.
Grade: C+
