Falling Skies - S3E2 - Collateral Damage
Previously, on Falling Skies: “On Thin Ice”
Ben and Dani find a nuclear reactor where an army of megamechs and beamers are waiting to refuel. Based on skitter intelligence I suppose, Ben states that the facility supplies fuel for the entire east coast. Therefore it must die. We see skitters tossing the bodies of harnessed kids in a pile as they drop dead presumably from radiation poisoning, due to working in the plant.
A plan is developed, supported by the Volm, to destroy the reactor, but Weaver raises concerns about the possibility of radioactive fallout. Good thing we have a lower level army officer to take into account glaring problems with a plan conceived by generals and professors. Luckily, we discover Charleston just happens to have an agoraphobic nuclear scientist running their power grid (Oooh, I bet he has to go outside later). Also, a big deal is made out of the fact that the Volm will not be participating in the assault themselves.
Meanwhile, back in Alexis: The Omen Part 12, Anne marvels at the baby’s marvelous hand eye coordination, then proceeds to gawk at her ability to talk, run away, and hide, all while giggling in a not-at-all creepy Gage Creed-type fashion. (Despite the terrible E-Trade baby facial animation, I must admit I’m quite enjoying this campy horror movie subplot we have going here.) Tom shows up later, and baby Alexis shows no evidence of playful maliciousness, prefacing a likely mommy breakdown at some point this season.
Matt and his JV army buddies play with dynamite in an abandoned old house, and after blowing a portion of it up, get yelled at by Anne, and sentenced to two whole extra hours of school a day. Dad chimes in later and says Matt has to help rebuild the house. I mean, I guess technically that makes them parents of the year in post-apocalyptic circumstances, if we take into account other recent examples (I’m looking at you, Rick and Lori), but I’ve personally received more punishment for pointing bottle rockets at annoying cousins.
We meet the nutty nuclear scientist, Dr, Kadar, who has come up with a plan to take out the reactor. If Tom will just show him the plans, he’ll point out the places to plant the explosives, which will allow the reactor to collapse on itself. Oh, but, you see, Mr. Agoraphobic scientist, the thing is, Tom doesn’t have the plans. Guess you’ll have to… GO OUTSIDE! (Muahahaha! Can I call them, or what? I should write these.) Settling down…
A plan is made for Weaver to go around the unguarded cliff at the back of the compound with a small group, and take out the compound. Shortly after everyone leaves, our blurry murdering mole, sneaks into the war room, and scans the plans left careless lying about. An eyeworm then slithers out of his hand, sprouts wings, and goes off to deliver the news.
Immediately we discover that the Weaver team was a ruse. As the Espheni redirect their forces to ambush Weaver, Tom and Maggie sneak in the front gates with Dr. Kadar. A brief battle with some radiation-deformed harnessed children ensues, during which one of the 2nd Mass soldiers gets injured and poisoned.
Hal, racing in when it looks most dire, saves Weaver’s team from his gun mount atop the armored vehicle. (I say we wire him into the vehicle, and make him sort of a cyborg centaur. It would be more interesting than this mind control bit, which was kind of played out with Ben last season.)
Dr. Kadan and Tom shutdown the reactor and blow the supports, striking a severe blow to the Espheni east coast operations.
Pope and his group distrust the Volm, for not participating in the battle, thus giving him a reason to be discontented this season. He argues the point with Weaver, and is shut down, but we’re left with the feeling that Weaver doesn’t exactly disagree. Later Weaver clearly states his doubt of the Volm’s intentions to Tom.
Cochise then enters and informs Tom that he is impressed with the humans’ resolve and capability, and that he believes that the mission to oust the Espheni, which he once thought futile, he now believes will succeed. As Tom and Weaver start to congratulate themselves on the fact that the Espheni won’t be bothering them for a while, Cochise abruptly states that the opposite is in fact true. That, if anything, the destruction of the reactor ensures a strike on Charleston will be eminent.
Maggie wakes up to find Hal gone, races outside and finds him sleepwalking into the woods. She wakes him up and takes him home, but the camera pans further into the woods where we see Karen and a skitter watching.
See you guys next week. I know I’ll be here.
