You guys, we’re going to the moon! Well, not quite yet, but Falling Skies is now hellbent on taking our heroes to the next level, as the location of the Espheni beacon has been revealed. Sure, it may be a bit silly to place the key source to all the Espheni’s power in one location, but in a time when so many other shows are so grim, it is fun to see Falling Skies embrace a bit of goofiness for the sake of its story. This sense of goofiness actually plays into a lot of what I thought about this week’s episode, as it seemed to have a lot more humor and lightheartedness, compared to any of the other episodes this season.
From the get go, it is clear that the writers need to approach a plotline involving travel to the moon with a sense of humor. Weaver, Anne, and Hal immediately call out how ridiculous this sort of plan is, and Tom champions the idea by quoting Kennedy. We get the minor details we need from Cochise to make it all seem plausible within the bounds of this show, but what it mostly comes down to is setup for the next few episodes. For this episode, we are mainly focused on salvaging what is available by way of a roundabout story that sort of goes nowhere.
The main plotline involves Tom, Anne, Weaver, Matt, and Cochise searching for a Volm weapons cache that could assist in recovering a buried skitter ship, but it really serves more as a way for Tom and Anne to get themselves on the same page. This comes at the risk of making Matt seem too much like a dummy, as he and the team are able to find the location of the cache only to be surprised by the presence of Matt’s former girlfriend, who was very obviously a spy for the Espheni youth camp leaders. This is why the plotline does not go very far, as an ambush by the youth camp members takes place, ruining the items in the cache, making Tom and the others head back to camp empty-handed.
There is not a lot to say about Matt, but as far as what the ambush means for Tom and Anne, it essentially boils down to these two seeing what they mean to each other. While earlier conversations between these two were arguments about Lexi and how she has joined the dark side, the climax of this episode features Anne willing to sacrifice herself to save Tom (in the hilarious manner of distracting a gunman by yelling out, “Hey, Wait!”). I have talked a lot about how I respect Falling Skies for the way it makes the characters more enjoyable to be around, compared to similar shows where the world has fallen apart. “Til Death Do Us Part” feels like a very good reminder of that, given the way it uses a plotline involving a scavenger hunt and turns it into the buildup scenes for a marriage to close out the episode.
Given that we are four seasons in and headed towards the end of this season, I have no real problem with the lead character getting married on a show where he is father to the alien-hybrid baby that is also the daughter of one of the overlords looking to kill the human father. It is the kind of convoluted nonsense that won’t win over any new fans, but fits what the show has been doing. What it does allow for is continued trust in this show, making sure you have fun with the cast. It is why we only need to see so much of a character like Weaver, yet understand who he is at this point, given how effective Will Patton can be, let alone Colin Cunningham’s Pope, whose role in this episode is to challenge his new girlfriend in the most melodramatic way possible. There are a lot of clichés being presented this week, but Falling Skies continues to know how to make it all very watchable.
Speaking of watchable, I have made it clear that the love triangle between Ben, Hal, and Maggie does not interest me a whole lot, but seeing Maggie handle her spike transplant from last week at least made this aspect of the season a little more entertaining. It was silly to watch Maggie do high-flying theatrics, while wasting bullets, but it fit the theme of this week’s episode. Less exciting was the kiss she shared with Ben, while Hal caught it from a distance, but once again, Falling Skies is set on having this drama play out and once again, we will just have to see where it all goes.
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At least I have plenty to be excited about in terms of a moon adventure. By the end of this week’s episode, it is established that the salvage adventure was not completely for nothing, as a whistle from the youth camp kids turned out to be a way to activate the Espheni cruiser buried in the rubble. Now Tom has what is needed to cripple the Espheni, assuming he and Cochise can make a solid plan to fly a spaceship to the moon and somehow destroy the beacon. That may sound silly, but hey, that seems to be going around this week.
Other Thoughts From The Desk Of Tom Mason:
- We had a nice tracking shot this week, played a bit subtly, but this series does have fun getting away with that.
- Pope and Sara have a fight over Sara possibly going back to her drug habbit ways and blah, blah, blah, we’ll see what comes next soon I’m sure.
- Tom does a fun little roll and shoot, though it does result in him killing the main youth camp leader. #GoodRiddance
- “It was just over our heads” – Cochise being hard on himself. #PoorCochise
- “You’re 13. Puppy love isn’t easy” – Tom to Matt, who thinks it is more than puppy love.
- “Hey, Wait!”
- Where do you think Tom and Anne are registered?
- Next week, it’s time to “Draw Straws” #TNT BOOM!
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