Surfing Sci-Fi: Falling Skies “Grace”
Spoiler alert!
Once again TNT’s website can handle the synopsis, I will bring the opinions! I actually had to watch Sundays episode a day late via the good ole’ DVR and to be honest this is the way to go. Falling Skies has a great time slot, but being able to fast forward through those lengthy commercials makes the show flow so much better. I can’t wait until this is released as a box set. So here we go!
This episode has received mixed reviews and for good reason. This is defiantly a transition episode, some important things happen and we get some new insight into not only the characters, but the Skitters as well. Grace starts out with the captured Skitter from Prisoner Of War being moved to a different holding area. I loved seeing the Skitter in a cage. There is something cool about seeing a multi-legged creature pacing back and forth in a fluid motion. My only problem with this scene was that the Skitter was moved through one of the main hallways in the resistance headquarters, with a bunch of non-combatants walking in that hallway. If my family had been killed by Skitters I would have tried to kill it or freaked out seeing one that close.
Grace used the actress Moon Bloodgood more than she has been used in the past. She is a good actress and shouldn’t just be eye candy. The former gang leader, Pope, has a bigger part to play as well, lucky for us, the viewers, he will not be relegated to just cooking duties. I enjoyed a conversation that Tom Mason had with Dai; talking about parenting and worrying about children. Before the invasion, Tom worried about his son Hal getting in a car wreck or getting a girl; now after the invasion, the game changes. Dai says it best “Same worries, higher stakes.”
Matt, Toms youngest sonm wants to get involved and Tom wants to shelter Matt as much as he can and wants him to have nothing to do with actually fighting the Skitters. To distract Matt, the resistance bomb maker gives Matt a job monitoring a radio he has just built. Matt starts to detect periodical bursts of static. I get that Tom wants to protect Matt as much as he can, but I agree with his older son Hal and Pope when they say he should be taught some fighting skills.
Captain Weaver sends Tom and a small team to a motorcycle shop that Pope once stole a cycle from to impress a girl. The catch is that Pope needs go with the patrol to guide them to the location of the cycle shop. Tom isn’t happy with the idea but is willing to support the mission. The team heads out on foot to find the shop and enroute, the squad spots a group of Skitters hanging upside down on an overpass “nut to butt” sleeping. This is the first time we learn that the Skitters sleep. While they are sleeping, the ever present Mechs are inactive. A weakness the resistance can exploit! While checking out the functionality of the motorcycles, Pope cheap shots Dai and escapes with one. Not a big surprise there. I will be interested to see what the creators will do with Pope. After his escape, he heads back to the sleeping Skitters, attaches a few grenades to a gas can and fire bombs them – classic! Pope loves to kill Skitters! I’m guessing Pope will eventually show back up at the 2nd Mass HQ and they will perpetuate the whole “we don’t trust him but he is good at what he does thing.” The Skitters then pull a great tactic – they arm a bunch of harnessed kids and surround the motorcycle shop and have the children open fire.
Talk about operation human shield; tactically this makes sense and it shows that the Skitters are gaining an understanding of their enemy as well. The Skitter makes a tactical mistake and tries to enter the shop to neutralize the humans inside and is killed and Tom and the squad escape on their newly acquired motorcycles. The children don’t react because the Skitter controlling them is dead. If the Skitter had just hung back I think it would have subdued and captured the resistance fighters.
Back at headquarters, Dr. Harris (the D-Bag doctor) wants to conduct a vivisection of the captured Skitter. Dr. Anne Glass disagrees. Ricky, the boy who was rescued in the last episode, comes out of his harness induced stupor and does not remember anything. While he’s distraught, he leaves to confront Dr. Harris and guess what happens – Ricky wakes up, reattaches the Skitter harness that was left right next to him and is back under the sway of the Skitter. Who in their right mind leaves a “weapon” of the enemy just laying around? I understand wanting to study how the harness works, but come on, you have a kid who was harnessed, the harness that was attached to him and a Skitter that can control that kid all in the same vicinity. WTF? I know these guys are not professionals but there comes a time when common sense has to kick in!
Ricky is now back under the sway of the Skitter and the Skitter is smart – it uses Ricky to communicate with Dr. Harris and Dr. Glass. Smart Alien! While this is happening, Matt and the bomb maker determine that every time there is activity with the Skitter, there are radio waves being generated. Huzzah! The aliens communicate through low level radio waves. My guess is the resistance will develop a way to “jam” these signals to get an upper hand. I like the way the creators set this up – it’s a big chink in the aliens armor. I hope the creators develop a cool way to integrate this into the story.
After the harness radio wave drama, we are taken to everyone eating diner. It is a sweet scene that uses religion to show that people need to have faith in something. While the religious angle might have turned some people off, I think the creators did a good job of not just setting the scene but expressing the concept of faith without getting preachy. We also get to see Captain Weavers tuff exterior fading. The episode ends with the group saying “grace.”
This will not go down as my favorite episode, but we did learn some interesting info about the Skitters and the resistance has even more clues on how to fight them. I like the radio wave concept and the fact that the aliens sleep – attack the enemy while they sleep, it worked at the battle San Jacinto (remember the Alamo!) See that is the kind of historical facts Tom Mason should be spouting, it shouldn’t be left up to me. There were some interesting moments and watching in on DVR made the story flow much better. This one is a 3 out of 5 and I’ll call it an episode that had to be done.
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