Falling Skies Episode 1x04 Review

Overall Season Rating: B
Episode Rating: B-

Tonight's episode was titled "Grace", and the moral was  "prayer makes everything okay".  Yes, that's right, religion has shoved it's way into an otherwise very well done science fiction survival story. More on this later in the spoiler section. Other than religion, this episode gives us more information about the Skidders. I'm liking the way they're revealing things about them. Instead of some cliche'd exposition we are learning who they are through experience. To put it another way, we are learning about them just as our characters learn. This keeps the tension and the mystery exciting. The dark nature of the show continued as well, and like I've said this will be the strength of the show.

I also continue to be impressed with the special effects. We get a very close up view of a Skidder throughout this episode, and for a cable TV show it looked excellent. There are some negative aspects though. For one, the show seems to be falling into old troupes and devices used in these types of stories. The battle over how you learn more about the Skidders would be much more interesting I think if the characters involved were more developed. Since it's only the fourth hour we know very little about them, making their arguments seem completely one-dimensional. For the most part I think the acting has been good, but we can't have a deep argument about morality when we don't have enough information to know the motivations for these people.

Another good episode, but certain events lead me to believe they may not have the guts I hoped they did.

Spoilers below the fold

As the episode begins we see the captured Skidder in a cage. It looks pretty pissed. Mason walks up to it, smashes on the cage and says "I remember you too". I wonder if it does remember him. The joke about another race always is that they all look the same. It would be hilarious if the Skidders can't tell us apart anymore than we can tell them apart. If they can pick us out individually I think that would show a certain superiority in them. After this Weaver orders Mason to take his crew, including Pope, to go get motorcycles. Mason is not pleased that he has to take Pope, but he agrees. Meanwhile, Mike is tending to his son Rick. I find this set up to be totally insane. I know there are not a lot of rooms where they are, but who decided it was a smart idea to keep the possibly violent Skidder in the same room as the injured, and once Harness'd child. It makes no sense to me. In what universe is the jail and infirmary the exact same room? That's like putting an amusement park next to a waste disposal facility. We also find out that Rick had Pulmonary Fibrosis, but now has been cured by the Harness. Why do I sense that the Harness will become the central part of a religious movement at some point in the series. A device that cures all disease, and joins minds? Yeah, that has cult written all over it.

Anyway, we then get two pointless discussions that are meant to move certain stories along, but I feel like they are just so we don't feel the show is only about Mason. I hope the show doesn't focus on too many people. I've seen shows die a very slow death because they tried to get too many people in each episode. Blonde girl who was found with Pope says that she would have shot Pope, or something. We get it, she doesn't like him. I would say that he sexually assaulted her at some point, but I do think Pope is a future hero of the series, and that would not compute. We also get the first religious discussion. Apparently the only religious person to survive is also devout, and prays for all the pictures of missing people. She also comes from a part of Boston where people lost their faith. I don't know what this means exactly. Does she mean they lost their faith because fraking aliens attacked and killed everyone? I would say not only that that would be understandable, but it also wasn't that small section of Boston. It was the whole planet, so get over yourself. More on the religious aspect later.

Mason and his crew come upon some sleeping Skidders. They sleep upside down, and in the middle of the day. Mason points out that they sleep whenever they can "just like regular soldiers". It is decided though to leave them and not attract attention. I liked this scene. It was a good way to teach us more about how the Skidders live. The next scene though, not so much. Anne, the pediatrician, is attempting to communicate with the captured Skidder. Why she was chosen, no one will ever know. There has to be one person in the group of 300 who has some linguistics training, or understanding. She is not even close to qualified, other than being a member of the main cast. Michael though has a different idea, and he brings in a dead Skidder to scare the crap out of the captured one. This brings about the whole "We should talk to it" vs. "we should cut it open" argument. Michael as a doctor is very qualified to dissect and examine the Skidder, and Anne is qualified to...well pretty much the same thing. They are at war. The Skidders attacked them, and kill them on sight. Something tells me taking a year and a half to learn to communicate won't help Humanity survive. If the Skidders wanted to talk, they would have tried I'm sure.

Mike's son Rick then wakes up, but remembers nothing. Mike being pissed off about this attacks the Skidder, and in doing so finds out that they have a soft pallet at the top of their mouth. I'm sure this will never become important again *sarcasm*. Back with Mason, they've hit motorcycle gold, but Pope has different plans. He knocks out one of the guys and takes off to blow up the sleeping Skidders. "The Sleeping Skidders" would be a great name for a band btw. Mason and his crew are not pleased about this since it will attract a lot of attention. I like a lot that there wasn't any of that "morality" discussion going on here. These guys understand that they are at war, and the only way to win is to survive.

Back at the Jail/Infirmity Rick wakes up again, and puts the Harness back on. You may wonder, how did this happen? Well friends, that's why you don't leave a sick and injured kid with a giant alien unsupervised. With the amount of attention they were giving to that room, the Skidder could have gotten out, killed Rick, and escaped. Did no one think to leave a guard on the frakking alien prisoner???   This is very exciting though because Uncle Scott and young Matt believe the Skidders can communicate via radio. This seems likely when the Skidder begins talking through Rick. Mike then rips the harness off of him! I am not sure if Rick died in this scene, but it certainly did not look good. Since the episode ends with a sweet scene I doubt he's dead, but wow. Big risk there.

Back with Mason they are attacked by Harness Kids. This was a pretty great scene. Seeing the power of the Harness, and how brutal the Skidders are in their use of it. Mason and his crew get away however without having to kill any kids. However, the fact that it was even suggested that they shoot the kids shows the greatness that this show could be. When he gets back he tells Weaver he plans to get enough drugs for operations, and then go get the other kids. No one apparently has told him that even if the Harness is off, the kids still seem connected to the Skidders some how. But hey, that would ruin the pointless religious moment at the end. Before that though, Tom and Hal sit down and talk about Ben. Ben was a big fan of Harry Potter, and I'm sure the mention had nothing to do with the movie coming out in a couple weeks. Whatever, it was cool nonetheless.

The episode ends with the religious girl leading them all in prayer. I guess no Jews or Muslims survived the attacks. In fact, the character might be more powerful if she were Muslim. Instead of just another character saying "Jesus saves" it would be a character you wouldn't expect. Maybe even some small prejudices would remain. Although, if they focused on those too much I would be equally upset. I hope they don't do too much with the religion aspect because it does nothing to further the story, or the characters. Unless they win the war because of Moses like miracles then it's only pandering to religious members of the audience. I'm also annoyed that there is no backlash in the show. If there was a massive alien invasion, and almost everyone died, I'm sure there would be people who would rush to religion, but there also would be people who would abandon it. There was no one like that in the show. No one calling it a waste of time, or asking "where was God" that day. None of that happened, and the episode ends with everyone holding hands and praying, because that will take down the Skidders for sure.

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