Last night on Falling Skies , someone let out these words : “ We ’re all just a heartbeat by from demise . We always have been , we always will be . That ’s not a reason to fall behind hope . ” And deplorably , that ’s middling representative of the form of writing we were treated to last night .
There was also a scene where Hal and Maggie are having a moment of unpleasantness , and Maggie suppose , “ It ’s getting warmer outside ” — cleverly put forward her hope that thing were thawing out between the two of them , using the conditions as a metaphor . Hal bet out the windowpane and enounce , “ It still feel jolly parky to me , ” thus utter his own view that things are continue frosty between them , while stay on this subtle use of goods and services of the weather as a metaphor .
Sadly , Falling Skies really want to be a show that features lots of character development , and strong worked up moment . And episodes like last dark ’s show why even though we might respect the show ’s ambition , its execution fall way , room short . This show aims for sharp word picture and hits on cliches or else . Spoilers ahead …
So in many path “ Death March ” was sort of an interstitial instalment before the big ( and peradventure more expensive ) Charleston episodes — the whole matter was shot inside the trucks , and large chunks of it were in all likelihood done in the studio . ( Or maybe they really did take the whole thing on localization — I could n’t tell , off - hand . ) The Second Mass are basically repulse all through the Nox , on their way to Charleston , and they ’re processing their feeling along the mode .
To anticipate all the negativeness above , there is one middling keen tantrum in last night ’s installment . It come towards the end of the instalment , when the Second Mass has found Charleston , and it ’s apparently a bombed - out wreck . And the show basically does the “ BSG middle of fourth time of year ” plot line in like five minutes , with everybody standing around look grub and going , “ OMG we found Earth Charleston and it was already destroyed . ”
And Captain Weaver is standing behind a tree diagram looking badly bummed , and Tector , his new pal , comes and finds him . Weaver ’s like , “ Not now , Tector . ” And Tector says that everybody needs Weaver now , more than ever . Weaver asks what he should say them . To which Tector respond , “ I respectfully suggest that you make something up , sir . ” This being the first time Tector has shout out Weaver “ Sir ” after a whole complicated discussion on the topic . Anyway , that was a nice moment , and an actual example of successful picture .
And now for the rest of the installment .
really , there was nothing incorrect with most of “ Death March ” . It was just sort of … lumpy mashed potato . There were a billion subplots , none of which were that engage in themselves .
So first of all , Matt Mason has made out his will . And sadly , we do n’t get to have a whole episode about that . Who is he leaving all his stuff to ? Is Matt on the Q.T. rich ? I bet he leave everything to Pope , and that ’s why Tom is upset . I want to have a whole “ court drama ” episode where people are contesting Matt ’s will and there are witnesses and claim that Matt was not of well-grounded mind and body , and possibly some extended discussions of the mind - altering property of those canned peaches that Matt keep eating .
Where were we ? Oh yeah . So Matt is feeling fatalist and keeps saying affair like , “ I think of death only with tranquility , as an last . I refuse to allow death hamper life . Death must enter life only to specify it . ” and “ If a triumph is distinguish in contingent , one can no longer severalise it from a defeat . ”
Until they almost run over a footling harnessed girl . And even though everybody channelise out the obvious — that they just fell for the “ rein in girl ” bunker a duet weeks ago — Tom insist that they ca n’t just leave her . So Matt bonds with the harnessed girl , who tells him she sleep together her “ Guardian , ” aka her Skitter . There is burping , and a slew of Spielbergian push prettiness . And Matt blabs to the lady friend all about Charleston and the fact that there ’s a cloak-and-dagger human small town there . Good job , Matt !
Oh , and somewhere during all this , Anne and Tom discourse one of the more interesting questions on the show — even if they do come after in kicking the alien off their major planet , there are probably millions of harness tyke all over the place . In fact , it seems likely the Brobdingnagian legal age of the human race is harness at this point , since most of the adults are bushed . What do they do with those kids ? ( Even assuming those kids wo n’t all decease instantly , the moment the alien are no longer open them the drug we were evidence they were all hooked on , back in season one . )
Anyway , eventually the harness girl sees her “ brother , ” who looks like a Skitter , and run off with him , her harness glow again . I think that ’s the “ A ” plot of land of the episode .
Here are the other secret plan :
Hal and Maggie drive ahead as lookout man , with Pope in the back of the truck dismiss beer cans as a track for the Second Mass to follow . ( How much beer can Pope pledge in an time of day ? Where are they getting that much beer ? Questions best entrust unpondered . ) Their fomite break down , and Hal has to go off to get water for the radiator — leaving Pope alone with Maggie , to goad her about the secrets of her yesteryear that she ’s been maintain from Hal . So when Hal hail back , she finally spills .
A big point of the Hal - Maggie relationship this season has been Maggie ’s conviction that she ’s not good enough for Hal . And now , at last , we find out why . It ’s not , as they ’d seemed to be hint , that her relationship with Pope was deeper or more complicated than we ’d been say before . Rather , it ’s that after Maggie ’s cancer was cure , she felt messed up and at betting odds with all the fake charge plate smiling mass out there . So she became a Troubled Youth and begin doing drug and stealing , and finally she went to a correctional installation , where it turn out she was pregnant — and she really had the baby , who is presumably off being harnessed somewhere now . Hal basically react to this by being kind of a jerkwad , with the aforementioned “ It ’s chilly ” number .
Maggie is one of the cooler characters on the show , but this whole revelation feels a bit underwhelming somehow . peradventure because we already knew she had been a baffling kid , and the show has always plump out of its way to remind us that Maggie has been a spoiled apple in the past tense — even ahead of time in last dark ’s episode , when she ’s enjoin Hal he does n’t screw how to be really gloomy . Maybe it ’s also just because her backstory feels like a mish - mash of cliches that have been switch on in different episodes , include “ teen Cancer the Crab subsister ” and “ pregnant drug addict , ” and it feels like the show is seek to milk some drama out of all this that ’s not quite there . I think of , there ’s been a freaking alien invasion . Almost everybody on Earth is dead . I ’m not sure that “ cancer - subsist pregnant teen junkie ” even registers compare to that .
Anyway , the episode ’s “ C ” patch is the aforesaid thing where Weaver is render to visualise out why Tector wo n’t call him “ sir , ” and Weaver infer that Tector is ex - military . Weaver wants Tector to abuse up and take more of a leadership role , and there ’s some actual good clobber between the two valet — although it kind of spirals down into cliche , when we discover out just why Tector is so unemotional about step up and ostentate his awesome military experience when he ’s surrounded by gaming - playact civilians like Tom . It turn out that Tector walk his world into an ambush in Afghanistan , and he feels responsible — until Weaver decides to use reverse psychology , tell Tector it really was all his geological fault , so Tector can insist it really was n’t his fracture and have a breakthrough .
I do n’t do it . I wish that this show is endeavor to develop so many of its characters — and I ’m hoping that Tector is being set up to be killed off , so Anthony or Dai does n’t have to be the next uncalled-for destruction . ( Although where ’s the installment where we turn over into Anthony ’s psyche ? Anthony probably has a lot of excited damage that we ’d find interesting , too . Right ? )
And the episode ’s “ D ” secret plan is about Lourdes feeling bummed that her boyfriend Jamil is dead . Lourdes is tend a wounded guy who ’s suffering from dehydration , and it sort of looks as though Lourdes is n’t really give it her good elbow grease , since she keeps walking off from her patient role and search sulky when she ’s supposed to be hydrating him . And then he dies , and she cry at Anne , articulate that Anne should terminate saying that masses are dead , because it ’s a timeworn line . after , she apologizes .
All in all , pretty much none of the theatrical role exploitation in last night ’s episode felt refreshed or emotionally literal to me — although I ’m not entirely sure why . It just was n’t clicking , somehow . The characters sense a bit like one - dimensional archetypes that have been blown up to full magnification , rather than three - dimensional eccentric .
In any character , just when everybody is giving up , we detect that Charleston really is there — it ’s just conceal , because the humans are n’t quite dumb enough to have a closure of thousands of people that can be go steady from the strain . Porter shows up and gives Dan some strawberry , and enjoin Tom that he ’s becoming a legend . ( Based on what ? I guess we ’ll find out . ) And then we ’re off to Charleston ! Where , hopefully , the show will return to telling story about people make tough decisions in the face of an alien intrusion , instead of just fairly shopworn revelation about the terrible affair people did or saw before the invasion happened . We can hope , anyway .
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