Review: Falling Skies, S2, Ep. 209 – “The Price of Greatness”
Air Date: Sunday, August 12, 2012, 9/8c on TNT
Rating:
“Trust me, I have no intention of making Mayberry my permanent residence.” — Pope
Terry O’Quinn as Arthur Manchester
The 2nd Mass gets a hero’s welcome when they arrive in Charleston, the new capital of the new United States. But the bountiful meal and standing ovation are mere pretenses and things get very real, very quickly. What the 2nd Mass hoped would be a new mecca is nothing more than a haven for cowards.
Arthur Manchester (guest star Terry O’Quinn), Tom’s (Noah Wyle) former college professor, is (now) the elected leader of Charleston, a city built under the ruins of the once prominent southern city of Yore. The formation of a true government seems more like tyranny once you lift the veil of friendship. If you comply, you’ll be fed and clothed and taken care of. Sounds more like a controlled prison sans the bars.
When Arthur’s military find a de-harnessed boy near the perimeter, Tom thinks it may be his son Ben; however, Arthur’s reaction to finding out about Tom’s son being part of the rebellion doesn’t sit well.
When Tom tells Arthur about the Skitter rebellion, Arthur adamantly informs Tom to keep mum on the subject. Arthur’s primary concerns are getting reelected in an upcoming confidence vote meeting. He’s a brilliant man who’s been clouded by his own hunger for power. He’s also diluting himself to the fact that there are still aliens on the planet; if he thinks they’ll just go away if the denizens of Charleston “play dead,” he’s sorely mistaken. I love O’Quinn’s performance. His portrayal is so convincing I wanted to reach through the screen and choke the life from him. His overbearing tone and self-righteous attitude chaffed me.
What truly revved me up in “The Price of Greatness” is Pope (Colin Cunningham). Despite his disagreements with Tom in the past, he doesn’t sell him out to Arthur, even after being given a fine meal of steak and all the trimmings and bottle of wine. What he says in response to Arthur asking for any information to implicate Tom is laudable: “The truth is, Tom Mason is a pompous, semi-erudite history buff with delusions of grandeur, and if anybody is gonna knock him off his pedestal…it’s gonna be me and not some two-bit dictator of Charleston, S.C. Salud.” I wanted to stand and applaud! The look on Arthur’s face is priceless.
Pope may be a jerk at times and a bit unhinged but if you put all the pieces together, it’s understandable. We know, from season one, that his kids live in Florida. Does he know if they are alive? Does anyone? And it’s obvious from his vocabulary that he’s educated. His previous culinary training and perhaps former lifestyle also shows when he neatly places the white napkin in his lap before grabbing both knife and fork to cut his steak. Despite the scarcity of good meals, let alone a juicy steak, Pope doesn’t shovel the food into his mouth. Given Pope’s filthy exterior, I think Arthur expected Pope to be some untrained mongrel ready to chomp at the bit after receiving some fine dining. There is so much more to Pope and I truly hope the writers delve into his back story in season three.
Anne (Moon Bloodgood) and Lourdes (Gabrielle Seychelle) listen intently as both Jean and Tom speak to the citizens during the council meeting.
One of my favorite scenes in “The Price of Greatness” is when Anne (Moon Bloodgood) confronts an obnoxious heart surgeon who’s the resident doctor in Charleston. He haphazardly hands her patient charts and condescendingly refers to her as just a pediatrician. Wrong move, doc. Anne isn’t a push over or just another pretty face. Quite the contrary as she aggressively retorts, “Hold on. I’m the combat medic from the 2nd Mass who is gonna have you walking bow-legged unless you talk me through each patient’s chart!” Who else wanted to smack that “heart specialist” upside the head?
One bright spot is Cpt. Weaver (Will Patton) being reunited with his daughter Jean (Laci J. Mailey). However, her behavior clued me in to the true nature of what’s going on in Charleston. Her relief at seeing her father wasn’t just that of a daughter who misses her father but of someone looking to her savior. And her warning to Tom and Anne when they go through the cafeteria style food line was a blinding red flag. Why is everyone in Charleston so complacent living underground? And what ever happened to Avery (Camille Sullivan), the pilot who visited them in Virginia who told them about Charleston in the first place? She said she had plans to go to Europe – did she ever get there?
The season finale is next week I have some questions. Is the military in Charleston truly going to back up the 2nd Mass? Gen. Bressler (guest star Matt Frewer) and his loyal Sgt. Clemmons (guest star Ty Olsson) seem to be hungry to see some real combat but they have no idea what it’s really like to face the aliens as the 2nd Mass has. Is young Matt (Maxim Knight) right – was coming to Charleston a huge mistake? By all appearances, it looks that way.
Tune in to the season two finale of Falling Skies, Sunday, August 19 at 9/8c, only on TNT.
For more on Falling Skies go to http://www.tnt.tv/series/fallingskies.
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Photos ©2012 TNT/Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
Judy Manning
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