TV Review: TNT’s Falling Skies 4×8, “A Thing With Feathers”

Hey there, apologies for the lateness of this review, I got caught up in a skitter battle of my own in San Francisco this weekend.  That said, this will likely be a shorter write-up than normal anyway, as there was not a lot happening in this episode, aside from shifting some characters around to set things up for the last few episodes.  The ending of “A Thing with Feathers” is certainly an indication of how crazy things may be getting at the end of this season, but the rest of this episode was basically everyone recouping after the big losses that took place in last week’s episode, “Saturday Night Massacre.”

In “A Thing with Feathers,” things start out in a pretty straight-forward manner, as the episode simply indicates where everyone is, following the skitter attack on Chinatown.  Weaver, Hal, and the rest of the troops leave their fallout shelter in an attempt to find survivors, Tom is revealed to be buried underground with Dingaan near him as well, and Ben has been taken to the “Skittermorph” warehouse by Lexi, in an attempt to convince him of all the good that turning humans into crazy mutations is doing.  Basically, everyone is a little lost and needs to gather up their spirits.

Spirits do not need to be higher when it comes to Maggie.  Last week we were teased with whether or not her condition was serious.  This week Hal manages to find Maggie in some rubble, but she is revealed to be quite injured.  A spinal injury and possible internal bleeding mean a drastic measure must be taken – using the Espheni spikes that have been implanted into Ben and Deni, in an effort to heal Maggie quickly.  At first Deni has some fluid taken from her spikes, but when that doesn’t work, Ben steps up to have one completely removed from his body and implanted into Maggie’s.  At the very least, it was nice to see Cochise so heavily involved.

In regards to using spike transplants as a plot turn, I will be curious to see how it affects Maggie as a soldier, but much less interested in how her new connection with Ben adds to the love triangle between her, Ben, and Hal.  As this is the kind of storyline that feels more like a service to the crowd seeking more melodrama in their alien invasion series, the effort from any of the actors involved is not the issue, but I still haven’t taken much away from this aspect of the season that could seem like a possible interesting result by the time it is resolved.

Moving on, Tom and Dingaan share a lot of time together and it amounts to two things.  First, Tom needs to not stick his hands in random holes.  I am all for a proactive lead character, willing to take risks, but man was that a frustrating act.  Tom may have opened a door, but we then got to watch him get bitten by some sort of skitter weapon that inserted a worm into his arm.  Dingaan managed to pull it out, but hey, after going through a bombing and nearly dying, maybe it is time to be a bit more careful.  I am curious how many other humans have been infected in some way by the Espheni numerous times and lived to tell about it.  Somehow, Tom has had various bugs inside of him, let alone plenty of interaction with the overlords, but lives on as a free human fighting the good fight.

The other development involving these two was of Dingaan’s character.  I have enjoyed this new addition to the supporting cast, but up until this week it has only been due to his usefulness in terms of moving the plot forward or sharing his sage advice to other characters.  This week saw Dingaan in panic mode, which led to the reveal of his tragic backstory.  At first this seemed like a little much, but the understanding of what took place in Dingaan’s past made this a worthwhile aspect of the episode, as we came away knowing more about an already enjoyable character.  This is especially nice, given the loss of three characters last week.

Eventually Tom and Dingaan are found by Matt and Weaver, after a large search through the rubble.  At that point, everyone is happy to reunite around a campfire and get back into the status quo.  Maggie awakens to kiss Hal (after slapping him for giving the go ahead for her spike transplant), cheers are given to fallen soldiers, and Sara says goodbye to her old self.  It’s a decent moment and one that suggests a nice place of calm again, before the likely impending storm.  The last new development was a light shining on the moon.  We will see where that goes, but I have a good feeling it is what the Volm have been searching for and I am very excited to see what the next step to take will be.

This was more of a placeholder episode than anything, as it moved the characters around, set up some future developments, and did some work to strengthen some supporting characters.  Nothing new came from the Lexi storyline, Tom is back from down under, and Hal still has girl troubles.  Still, there is nothing inherently wrong with any of this and there is some drama to take from the situation at hand, just not in an action-heavy sense like last week.  But now the next stop is the moon, so that should be fun.

Other Thoughts From The Desk Of Tom Mason:

• Not much to say with regards to Lexi this week, as she simply showed Ben something we already knew and then let him go.  We’ll see where this goes in the future, I guess…
• Meanwhile, Pope finally gets the urge to kiss Sara; all it took was smashing the head of a skitter and burying a fallen soldier to get them in the mood.
• Also, Matt punched Pope in the face, making him my favorite Mason this week.
• “I didn’t do it for you.” – Okay Ben, we get it.
• Next week, the limit is “Til Death Do Us Part” #TNT BOOM!