Everybody has their reasons. And in the case of the
writers of Falling Skies I believe
the reason is “class A drugs.”
So Tom & friends have found a working military base.
No, really. Actually, working, occupied military base. Weaver’s excuse for why
it hasn’t been decimated is that it’s surrounded by three walls so is
strategic. How this would have worked against the invulnerable mechs of season
1, the completely dominating air power of the last 5 seasons or the hordes of
feral skitter – some of which can fly – let alone the swarms of piranha flies
that can strip a human to bone in seconds… well, it’ Falling skies and this show has sworn to never ever make sense.
Of course, Tom, Weaver and Hal decide to go forward
without advance notice, backup or even letting anyone know what they’ve found –
they go forth confident in their plot armour. They’re ambushed and everyone
points guns at each other until Katie Marshall appears – an old contact of
weaver’s. She welcomes them to the 14th Virginia.
So the 2nd Mass gets a nice welcome into the
base that was successfully protected by WALLS. (Ok maybe the first lot of
inhabitants were wiped out but still leaving these guys alone for a year makes
no sense. And don’t tell me they’re hiding – they literally have a building
sized, improbably clean America flag). And technically Colonel Weaver outranks
everyone so is in charge.
They tell Marshall that Tom shut down the power, in case
she didn’t realise she’s supposed to worship at this feet and Marshall shows
off how they’ve improved the base (flags – flags are very important it seems)
and the intel they’ve managed to gain. Weaver also tells them about the Volm –
which Marshall is not a big fan of because of their whole re-locate to Brazil
idea which was back when the Volm were actually a major fighting force and not
just handwaved away. They tell Marshall their plan which they’ve implemented
through the militias and show off the shiny Volm tech and the plan to reach DC
Random domesticity – and Hal decides to get all kind of
possessive over Isabella, not-so-subtly playing the MAH WOMAN game with a
soldier who was flirting with her. And Maggie looks on. Oh look, the love
dodecahedron continues. My interest does not grow. Maggie and Hal have
relationship talks. Do not need. Tom talks politics and history with Matt like
they’re going to rebuild very soon
And Weaver and Mashall catch up with a strong hint of
them having been an item once. Well more than a hint. And an actual good
depiction of her being haunted by a bad experience.
There’s some underlying tension about Ben’s spikes. Which
becomes more than underlying when they try to hold him at gun point ad he goes
super spikey on them before being tased and captured so he can be questioned
about being a spy. He then tries to rip the spikes out of Ben’s back. Which
results in said spike attacking him
Hal learns that they have radio – but they’re not communicating with any of the Mason Militias in case they’ve been “compromised” by the Espheni because Marshall is super duper paranoid about human collaborators with an extra suggestion that she’s become all icy and cruel.
Anne is a doctor, something they’ve been lacking.
Marshall confronts Tom in giving her men orders – she’s
not in favour of his whole march on DC plan. Tom is outraged that she doesn’t
respect his vast military skill and prowess. Weaver tries to calm it down and
Tom implies he’s biased because of his past with Marshall.
Tom is far more enraged when he realises Ben has been
imprisoned and is being questioned as a spy. Tom handles this with the same
level of intelligence he always does – and gets himself imprisoned as well.
They then imprison Hal and several others for funsies.
Weaver confronts Marshall and in a moment of utter
hilarity, she points to all the very stupid things Tom has done over the years
as proof of why he’s untrustworthy.
Weaver decides to send Matt for help.
Anne is also imprisoned while Tom and Hal have a terrible escape attempt. Maggie saves Anne and she and Isabella beat one particularly loathsome soldier to the floor. This also brings the one bright spot in the swamp that is this episode – Maggie and Isabella deciding that whatever stuff there is with them and Hal, they need to rely on each other.
So now we have a court marshal for Tom and Hal and Ben. Including
the admission that they tortured Ben. Marshall judges them laying down all
their many improbable achievements. She keeps poking those big hollow plot
points and Tom decides to challenge her – how very dare she presume to
challenge the great Tom Mason. She decides they’re all guilty and they will be
executed
Yeah, that’s not going to happen.
Meanwhile Digaan and Cochise are poking at the conveniently
found Esphenic communicator. Despite supposedly being very intelligent, neither
of them seem to be very sensible. Their master plan for moving this tech is “pick
it up and hope it doesn’t kill us.” I’m almost offended it works.
Hey the whole world could have been saved if they’d just
had walls. Because walls and trip wires would have totally stopped the aliens.
Amazing how the whole world was devastated given how effective these measures
are
It’s never been quite explained (ha, this show explaining
anything) why humans tend to point guns and getting all agitated when they see
other humans. It’s not like we’ve seen a lot of human vs human combat. Where do
these collaborators suddenly come from? And why would there even be any? What
would they gain and, really, what would the Espheni need them for? This is part
of the nonsense that wasn’t explained last season. It feels like another
convoluted pulled-out-of-nowhere idea to make this plot limp onwards. The whole
idea of a paranoid commander wouldn’t make sense without this randomly
appearing collaborator menace.
Do I laugh or do I just quietly despair that Marshall points to all the stupid things Tom as done which do, indeed, make him kind of odd and am expected to think “oh you silly paranoid lady, not respecting the righteous rule of the Mason-who-is-your-saviour” rather than “damn you have a point” or even “Tom should be dead several times over. Curse your plot armour”.
Hey, remember when this show was about fighting aliens?
