Falling Skies - S3E6 - Be Silent and Come Out
Previously, on Falling Skies: “Search and Recover”
This week’s episode is “Be Silent and Come Out”… or “The Rise and Fall of Evil Hal”.
Last week, we left a recently recovered Tom with the news that his baby is the devil, and his crazy wife had beaten up all of his scientists (Lourdes and Dr. Kadar as far as I can tell comprise the entirety of scientific knowledge in the camp) and run off with her. So, this week of course, we open with a crazed Tom Mason ready to bring Heaven to its knees to get back his girls! You can’t stop him! Nothing can get in his way! Except maybe 45 seconds of reasonable logic from his son and best friend. Tom agrees to wait 24 hours to see if the rebel skitters can find out anything more, and Marina picks just that moment to hit Tom with the fact that she broke into his desk and showed Dr. Kadar the pictures of the Volm device. Tom proceeds to take out the remaining aggression from his stifled rescue mission on Marina, assuring her that she has no idea what she’s talking about!… How dare she!… yadda yadda yadda. Just then, Evil Hal pops out of nowhere, bitch-slaps Marina, and kidnaps his dad!
Evil Hal throws Tom into a Humvee and proceeds to race out of the base. Maggie catches on quickly though, jumps on a .50 cal, and forces them to wreck. By now, the whole settlement is hip to what’s going down, but Evil Hal pulls Tom from the wreckage, and manages to haul him at gunpoint into a nearby building. He informs his father that Karen has Anne and Alexis, and if he wants to see them again, he’ll spill the beans on the Volm plan.
Back outside, Maggie comes clean about Hal’s implant, stirring up dissension amongst the ranks. (Well, mostly stirring up dissension amongst Pope, but that’s never far away.) Pope goes off on an alien-hating tirade, advocating shooting Hal, and accusing everyone of favoritism for not taking him out. In my favorite non-devil-baby moment yet this season, Ben feeds Pope his fist.
Weaver steps out into the open to attempt to negotiate with Evil Hal, and it becomes clear that Nice Hal isn’t out of the game just yet, forcing Evil Hal to occasionally struggle for control. In one such fit, Evil Hal finishes by popping a couple shots off at Weaver, prompting the Berserkers to unload on the building. Weaver, unhurt, commands them to stop before they manage to kill Tom, and orders the entire hothead squad out of the area. Pope leads them all back to The Nest and begins taking wagers on the likelihood of either Masons’ survival. Marina informs Weaver that if push comes to shove, and he cannot bring himself to order Hal’s death, she will relieve him and give the order herself.
Tom, noticing that Evil Hal is having a bit of trouble keeping control, resorts to mind games and reminiscences to try and get Nice Hal to override the implant’s control. Meanwhile Matt, Maggie, and Ben have managed to sneak into the building. Matt and Maggie enter the room, compounding the mind games. Evil Hal, struggling for control, threatens Matt with the gun. Nice Hal fights him off, forcing the gun to his own chin. Ben uses the distraction to grab him from behind. Everyone rushes in, and the gun goes off. After 2 minutes of advertising filled suspense, we learn that Hal took the bullet, but he’s not dead yet.
In a cut to The Nest, Pope is in full ringmaster mode, now taking a second round of wagers on whether or not Hal will be charged with anything, given that the revelation of the implant forces everyone to assume that Hal was responsible for all mole-related activity. In the middle of this, Weaver walks in, bringing the bar to a shameful silence. In the uncomfortable quiet, Weaver orders a whiskey, and after a moment, Pope makes to apologize. Weaver snatches him by the collar, and with the calm of impending violence, informs him that should anyone attempt to “affect the odds” of the death wagers, he will be held personally responsible. A cuckolded Pope sends Berserker #1 to protect Hal in the infirmary.
Evil Hal attempts to claim that he is no longer implanted, pleading with Tom and Maggie. Knowing that something must be done, the rebel skitters offer up a “treatment” that they have used to rid themselves of implants in the past. Tom is informed that it is risky at best, as it was not designed for human physiology, and also that if the treatment is introduced and no implant is found, it will certainly kill Hal. Tom wrestles with the decision, but finally settles, as he must, on giving Hal the treatment. The rebel skitters provide Lourdes with a chunk of amber. Still with no indication of what is inside, she drills into it, ultimately releasing what appears to be a swarm of tiny insects. The bugs swarm under Hal’s eyelids (because that’s obviously the easiest way in), and begin to violently scour his body for the implant. The expulsion of a silvery goo seems to indicate the treatment was a success, but Hal’s heart stops on the table.
After yet another “Hal might be dead, but you know better, because these writers are pansies” commercial break, Hal is alive, but doesn’t remember anything since episode 4. So Maggie tells him he was very bad, and this makes him very sad.
Skitter intelligence informs us that the Mason women are being held in a compound in Mechanicsville, which prompts Tom to resign his position, and march off with all of his boys to rescue them. He gives Marina the entire file on the war plans, imploring her to trust the Volm. We close on Marina being sworn in as the new President, taking over a Charleston that is empty of Masons, but not of moles, and leaving me intrigued for the first time all season.
See you next week, when it appears we’ll find that President Hawthorne, and possibly Cochise as well, are not as dead as we thought.
