Review: Falling Skies, S2, Ep. 210 – “A More Perfect Union”
Air Date: Sunday, August 19, 2012, 9/8c on TNT
Rating:
“…my vision of the new United States doesn’t begin with a military coup.” —Tom Mason
“A More Perfect Union” isn’t the best season finale but it’s pretty damn good. It moves the entire story arc forward, yet also provides many questions that need answering. With Falling Skies sort of mimicking historical events of the early United States, it’s hard not to see all the political and military aspects of the show. Although, Falling Skies is a very compelling alien invasion series. The way all the parties interact with one another in the face of political uprising or usurping—on both the human and alien fronts—makes it so interesting to watch each week. The show doesn’t solely focus on the alien attack and subsequent invasion; it focuses on humans trying to deal with a new day and age while giving a glimpse into the alien point of view—to see why earth was invaded and what their end goal might be.
L-R: Tec (Ryan Robbins) and Tom (Noah Wyle)
As “A More Perfect Union” unfolds, the Skitter rebellion is in full swing. The Red-Eyed Skitter seeks Tom’s (Noah Wyle) help but he doesn’t come alone. Along with other Skitters, Ben (Connor Jessup) also returns to help facilitate the communications between Skitters and humans. Jessup really has encapsulated this role as if he were truly a harnessed kid. He portrays the conflict between obligation and family with such candor; it’s hard to believe he’s only a teenager at times. I’ve said it before, but the child actors in this series are amazing. Their portrayals are all very convincing and meaningful.
I am not sold yet on the Skitter rebellion. I feel like something isn’t quite right with the whole scenario. While I believe there are Skitters who want to be free of the oppression of the humanoid overlords, I think they may have their own agendas once the overlords are defeated. After learning from the Skitters that the overlord is creating some sort of weapon, it makes me wonder if the Skitters are leading the 2nd Mass into an ambush. When the 2nd Mass goes into the alien compound to try and kill the humanoid overlord, things go from bad to worse, fast. We lose someone and Tom learns Anne’s (Moon Bloodgood) secret. As an aside to this, I wondered at Comic-Con when I saw Bloodgood if they would work her real-life pregnancy into the story. I guess now we know.
Hal (Drew Roy) wakes up after being unconscious from Karen’s kiss.
And Karen (Jessy Schram) gives Hal (Drew Roy) a powerful kiss which renders him unconscious. This is the part that makes me question the Skitters. If you recall in a previous episode when they extracted a bug from Tom’s eye, that same bug escaped and flew into the eye of the Red-Eyed Skitter. Now, Hal’s been compromised and I can only wonder if Karen put this bug into Hal which may contain the final plans from her master, the overlord. Are the Skitters conspiring with Karen to gain the humans trust only to destroy them completely? If that were the case, it would have been so easy to kill the 2nd Mass while they were all hanging from the ceiling. Again, I’m on the fence with the whole Skitter rebellion and I can only imagine what Hal’s going to be like going forward.
Tom and Anne have a lot to discuss about their future
The ending confused me a bit but also intrigued me, even more than I want to admit. With the death of one humanoid overlord, does this mean the fight has now been leveled for the humans? And with Anne and Tom’s news, is repopulating earth a good idea now? The future is unknown not just for the 2nd Mass, but for Charleston, and earth. What was the purpose of the weapon the overload was creating and does it have anything to do with the new visitor? Will the new visitor bring peace or destruction? The smile that graces his peculiar face doesn’t seem ominous—quite the contrary. Now…we must wait for season three to find out.
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Photos ©2012 TNT/Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
Judy Manning
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