So lunar panels. Yes, lunar panels, the gang has found
panels that glow in moonlight. Though not actually moonlight (because that
would be a stretch even for Falling Skies)
but from a power sourc being beamed from the moon – the little green light they
keep seeing.
Clearly this was a recent development because a whole lot of storylines in past episodes would become dubious and… gah, I’m expecting consistency from Falling Skies again aren’t I?
Anyway, this explains why the Volm can’t find the elusive power source, because they’re looking on the wrong celestial body. Cochise sneezes over this, or possibly curses in volmian. Anyway, the power core on the moon powers everything on the whole world – so we assume it works even when the moon is on the other side of the planet. We know this because Tom et al have decided it does. Though for all they know the Espheni in Australia could be burning koalas in giant koala power plants. (Hey, don’t mock, it makes as much sense as your average Falling Skies storyline)
Tom decides the solution to this is to go to the moon and
blow it up. As you do. Naturally other people sensibly point out the rather
blatant impossibility of that task but he’s sure they can
Personally I think the Volm can. C’mon, they don’t have the tech and vehicles to get to the moon? Or have they been abandoned without one single ship?
Apparently the Volm are all out of ships so they’re going
to use the beamer they have – that would be the one they SHOT DOWN (therefore
not flyable, because if it where it would still be flying and not, y’know, SHOT
DOWN) and is now buried and made of alien tech which they have to learn how to
repair, programme and steer – and they don’t even know if it is actually space
going or just an atmospheric craft
This is their plan.
No, really.
It’s Falling Skies.
The next day Maggie joins clearing the rubble,
transitioning over her alien spikiness but seeming to have no hostility for
Hal. She has to adapt to her sudden alien super strength though – and nearly
hitting Sarah with rubble. Pope is, predictably, an arsehole. Ben arrives to
offer Maggie superspike training and to add to the sexual tension.
Pope follows Sarah where she’s wandered off to find
something for her wrist and finds her with a box of pills, something she had
said she was going to stop in her big dramatic “hey this funeral needs to be
more about me” speech last episode. So, relationship drama!
Anne is helping, she doesn’t agree with Tom but she’s willing
to go ahead since everyone else is willing to go with it and it’s giving them
some level of hope. There’s also Lexi angst – Anne is mad at Tom because he’s
doing something other than search for Lexi (not reasonable) and because he has
an idea and everyone is expected to step into line (much more reasonable). They
have an argument about faith vs hope (and Anne upset that Tom doesn’t have
faith that their evil daughter isn’t evil despite all the evil she’s evilling).
To help with the digging, Cochise has a hidden supply
cache that may help (hiding supply caches is something he picked up from human
history, apparently, and not a rather basic military tactic of a warrior race…)
Tom, Weaver, Anne and others head off for the cache and
they brought Matt, because who wouldn’t want a child with them on an expedition
into enemy territory, right? As an extra bonus fun, chlorine gas is
contaminating the area and they all have to wear gas masks. This was on purpose
– Volm can breathe chlorine and it ensures no-one messes with their cache.
While they’re looking at the cache they’re joined by
Mira – who was an inmate in Matt’s Espheni Youth Camp
Once they’re clear of the chlorine, Mira explains she got
out by following Matt’s plan – pretending to go along with their indoctrination
until she graduated. She describes how she was trained to search for and expose
dissidents – but she threw away her alert whistle they were all given. Tom and
Anne are highly suspicious at the coincidence it would take for them to run
into each other. Tom ties her up while they get the cache, Matt is upset. I’m
stunned, that’s Tom doing something which actually resembles common sense.
Alas, Matt is Tom’s son and, therefore, lacks any common
sense so he unties Mira. I’m sure we’re all totally shocked to learn that Mira
has actually converted – and she pulls out a whistle and blows it. Matt warns
everyone and a beamer flies in and destroys the area – before Cochise found the
diggy explosive thing they needed.
They then have to run from gun toting Espheni Youth Camp
people and Matt is shot. The firefight continues, Tom and Anne happily mowing
down kiddies while Cochise decides to go for a stun. Anne is hit and youth
leader Kurt decides to yell propaganda which gets him shot as well. Bye bye
Aryan Youth Camp Leader.
Everyone’s reunited, everyone seems to just forget the bullet wounds they all received and they walk home without what they came for and with Tom reassuring his son (but not taking the blame for deciding bringing a 13 year old on a vital mission was a good idea).
Back with the group, Botha and Shaq make considerable
processes studying a completely alien technology. And Maggie is having problems
with the enhanced senses from the spikes but Ben is there with spikey training
which also involves hand holding. And jumping of roofs – which Maggie finds
absolutely super super awesome.
Ben also describes the bad side we haven’t heard about –
the spikes are living, thinking beings with emotions and thoughts that want to
take them over. This also means random emotions they can feel that they don’t
have. It also makes for very very very intense emotions. As an added bonus,
perhaps because they have the same spikes, Maggie and Ben can feel each other’s
emotions (their spikes glowing as they do).
They also need to use their new abilities to gain
control. She continues to perform super human feats which are super duper
impressive and Maggie senses what Ben is feeling for her. They kiss – and Hall
sees from a distance
Oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooo. After the kiss they both
remember Hal and have the guilts. Maggie also realises this is weird because before
the spikes she never felt this way about Ben. She moves in to kiss him again
but Ben stops it and walks away
The next day Hal hits Ben and says “she’s mine”.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargle, but Hal’s sexist bullshit does have Ben reply “I didn’t see
your leash on her.”
Pope and Sarah continue their relationship drama and Pope
is (completely shockingly unsurprisingly) an arsehole who calls Sarah an addict
– which, in his eyes, makes her weak and a liar. She hits back that the last
thing she’s done is used him – since she signed up to his dangerous group
despite managing before. She also adds he’s looking for an excuse to avoid
commitment and throws the pills at him – it may be labelled vicodin but it’s
actually aspirin because people mixed and matched the bottles for funsies.
Sarah apparently goes off on a “supply run”.
The group returns to town, everyone meets and discuss
that they’ve actually achieved very little. Tom and Anne have their happy
reunion all objections put aside – he proposes to her and she says yes.
Weaver presides over their wedding, with Shaq looking on
with a curious bemused look on his volm face - he’s also discovered something
and sees no reason not to interrupt the wedding to get Tom to check it out. The
whistle they found does communicate with Beamers (humans would never have
detected ultrasonic sound because “human tech wouldn’t know to look for it.”
Really?) He can use it to effect the Beamer – which he does, causing it to rise
out of the rubble.
Um… wasn’t it shot down? Isn’t it damaged?
So, who didn’t see Mira’s conversion to Team Dark Side
coming? Anyone? Anyone at all? Damn, the noble Masons are again tripped up by
silly POC.
So Pope and Sarah argue (I didn’t care), Pope sweepingly
demonised addicts and rather than a response about how out of line that is, or
any attempt to consider the difficulties of addiction (or how, maybe, being all
alone in a dystopian world struggling to survive could drive people to
addiction), instead we get “how very dare you, she isn’t an addict.” Ok then.
Also, the Espheni’s new evil plan is to turn humans into
apey things which we’ve already seen aren’t all that impressive (since a
skitter can kill one). But the harnesses they ALREADY HAVE turn Maggie and Ben
into superheroes (and this episode takes it to a comic level) so why are they
even bothering altering human DNA? Maggie and Ben could probably rip Skitters
apart with their bare hands
Ben/Maggie/Hal. I repeat my NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! However
there is a teeny yes there in that Ben realised that Maggie didn’t actually
feel anything for him – it was his feelings being transmitted through the
spikes. So he stopped it – this isn’t what Maggie really wants/feels.
On the plan – that Beamer is damaged. And even if it wasn’t,
can’t the Espheni override the whistle commands?
