TNT’s Falling Skies is back with a big set up for a big Season 4. We meet what’s left of the Second Mass just as it crests the hill overlooking Charleston after weeks of marching to make it home from the aftermath of the third season. The Mason family’s still together and happily secure in their familiarity. Ben (Connor Jessup) is still superhumanly strong, Matt (Maxim Knight) is small but determined, Hal and Maggie (Drew Roy, Sarah Carter) still have relationship problems, and Tom and Anne (Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood) are still precious. Also, baby Lexi is still growing too fast (she’s now five or six years developed and only a few months old) and still creepy. Just as everyone looks relieved, little Lexi makes a creepy proclamation (“We don’t all have to die here”) and the Espheni attack once again. This time, instead of trying to kill everyone, the alien invaders trap most of the Second Mass and the Mason family is scattered.
• Miss the episode? See it online here
Cut to four months later. Tom is in a cell in solitary, with Dan Weaver (Will Patton) in the cell next to him. The captured Second Mass has been placed in a ghetto with no information on where their alien allies are or what the Espheni intend to do with them besides let them rot. Don’t worry, history buffs, the Nazi parallels won’t stop here. Hal has teamed up with Tector (Ryan Robbins) and they are working to overload the electric gate and get everyone to safety.
Meanwhile, Pope (Collin Cunnigham) has done what Pope does best and is concerned only for himself. Elsewhere, Anne is in the woods with the majority of the uncaptured freedom fighters and has clearly taken a turn for the hardcore. Driven to find her daughter, Anne drills her subordinates for hours and refuses to let them rest, trying to keep everyone on the move. Exhausted, some of the men ask for a break, but she only relents when she gets word from Ben’s sort-of love interest from last season that an armed truck is on the way and makes plans to stop it and steal ammo.
We meet Ben again just as he wakes up in a strange room with an unfamiliar girl standing over him. Maggie arrives on the scene to let him know that he has been in a coma for most of the time-skip and that they are now in a safe zone called Chinatown. The safe zone is full of clean, healthy people going about their lives as if there is no war for humanity raging around them and, as far as Maggie can tell, they have never been attacked by the alien invaders for no explainable reason. Ben goes searching for Lexi, who he last remembers carrying away from the battle field, but when he finds her she’s no longer a little girl. Lexi (Scarlett Byrne) is now approximately his age and has turned from a blonde to a brunette. She and Lourdes (who is also in this safe camp) talk about peace and safety against all odds, like they’re in some sort of weird, hippie commune and gaze around like they are on serious drugs. Lexi explains that she is now going to protect Ben and everyone else and that she is working towards unity, but unity between who is never explained. It’s all very creepy and Ben seems to be the only one remotely suspicious of this activity.
Matt, meanwhile, has been given a haircut and a uniform and put in school. All these things would seem like positives, except that the school seems to be less about STEM and more about alien propaganda. The videos the class watches inform them that the Espheni are their friends and that they want to help the human race rather than harm it, so the children should spy on their parents and turn in rebels. Ten points if you spotted the second Nazi Germany reference of the episode — and even if you didn’t spot it yourself, Matt helpfully makes the analogy to a new girl just in case you missed it. Never fear, though. Matt is still his spunky self and although the “team leaders” trust him, he is using his influence to start an underground rebellion at the school.
Back at the camp, Pope continues to be selfish … and Hal continues to hate him. Tom has found a way to sneak out of his cell and rides a dirt bike while wearing a mask, tracking the Espheni guards and trying to find their entrances. We learn he’s keeping a detailed map of the ghetto in his cell and hopes to find a way out for everyone in the camp. He also receives a message from their former alien friend (called “Coachies”) who explains that the Coachies are losing territory on other planets and can no longer afford to put resources into Earth, essentially stranding our rebels. Anne and company successfully stop the truck (killing a human in the process) but make the unfortunate discovery that rather than being filled with ammo, the vehicle is filled with living, unharnessed children. The remains of the Second Mass don’t know where the vehicle was headed and none of the children recognized the picture of Lexi as it gets passed around. Anne makes plans to get the children to safety and then follow the road the truck was taking to find the children’s original destination. With any luck, Anne and Matt will find each other next episode.
Ben is having less luck than the rest of his family, however, as he tries to convince Maggie that there is no possible way Chinatown could be safe. Maggie insists that she was skeptical, too, until a mech found the camp one day while Ben was sleeping and Lexi insisted that everyone be patient. Moments later the mech was struck by lightning and rendered useless. The empty shell stands in a courtyard surrounded by candles, completely harmless. Maggie explains to Ben that whatever happened that night, Lexi knew it was going to happen. Just in case the audience had any lingering doubts about Lexi’s creepiness, we cut to Lexi kneeling before a window in her room, apparently playing music on moonbeams and possibly sending messages to both her parents. Anne wakes up screaming from a nightmare, miles away from Chinatown and Tom stares at the moon as he begins to plan his final escape.
As the episode wraps, Hal and Tector meet another ghetto prisoner who claims to have escaped other compounds and the Espheni guards receive new instructions. Find the ghetto’s masked vigilante (Tom) or kill everyone in the ghetto.
It’s a tense episode but the far-flung action gives us the change of scenery so badly needed last season. With every member of the Mason family doing something different, the plot moves quickly and it will be exciting to see how all the moving pieces finally fit together at the end of the season. The Lexi storyline cannot get explained fast enough for me and I’m excited to see how Matt fairs now that he’s finally out from under his family’s shadow. You go little guy, lead your own band of rebels! Hal and Pope both need to get over their own egos and Anne is headed down a really dark path this season and I think it’s an interesting turn for her character.
How do you guys feel? Do you like the changes in the characters over the last four months? Are our alien allies gone for good? Does a TNT sci-fi show deserve to use so much Nazi symbolism? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!
New episodes of Falling Skies air Sunday nights at 10/9CT on TNT.
Photo © Turner Entertainment Networks, Inc. A Time Warner Company. Credit: James Dittiger
Just saying, the alien friend that Tom met at the fence…His name is Cochise and the race is the Volm