Falling Skies - S4E4 - Evolve or Die
Hey everyone, this is Jim from BaldMove.com, filling in for Chanse this week. I hope you enjoy the recap.
After escaping the ghetto last episode, the new 2nd Mass is dodging Espheni search parties in an effort to rendezvous with Cochise. Along the way, Weaver thinks he sees something following them but there’s no time to investigate. Once they meet up, Cochise tells Tom that his son, Matt, is being held in a children’s camp to the north.
Up north at Camp Hitler, Matt is being held in a very unsanitary room. Team Leader brings him some food as a gesture of goodwill in hopes that he’ll reveal the names of the other children involved in the previous episode’s daring “escape plan”. Matt refuses but is left with the notepad and a lingering question about whether his puny child-mind can handle the truth.®
With the 2nd Mass safe, Tom prepares to retrieve Matt. Weaver invokes his daughter Jeannie to convince Tom to let him come along forcing him to leave Hal in charge. He gives him strict orders not to move until he gets back. On the road, Weaver sees, but doesn’t see, another mysterious presence following them.
In Chinatown, Anne blames herself for letting the Espheni turn Lexi into the freakish abomination she has become but Lexi doesn’t see it that way. Anthony and Lourdes burst into the garden loudly because Anthony has been told he has to give up his weapons or leave Chinatown. Anne tells him to set up camp at the perimeter and she’ll be out shortly.
Noticing that the Volm didn’t leave them many supplies, Hal reaches out to the 2nd Mass for info on where they could find some close by. A farm near the perimeter (there’s always a perimeter) is suggested to have fuel but Hal is under orders from daddy not to leave this location. Pope takes matters into his own hands and speeds off with in a truck.
Tom, Weaver and Cochise arrive outside Camp Hitler and scope it out. They comment on the efficacy of the Hitler Youth program just before Cochise is attacked by the creature that has been following them. It savages his face before Tom can take a shot, injuring it and scaring it off. Cochise decides to take a several-hour nap in order to heal.
Dingaan plays Hal a message he picked up on the radio. The voice is Lourdes. She describing Chinatown and reading its coordinates. Tector busts in with news that the Espheni will be on them in 24 hours and the Volm are leaving.
Pope arrives at the farm and prepares to load the fuel into his truck when he’s accosted by a woman with a gun whom we later find out is a former graphic designer named Sarah. He doesn’t take her seriously until she offers him a beer. It’s been a while since Pope has had a drink so his tolerance is low and he passes out on the table… Either that or the tranquilizers she put in the beer knock him out.
Anne, struggling with the notion of her daughter being a rapidly-aging obscenity, has her worry compounded by Ben and Maggie who tell her that Lexi is meeting secretly with the Espheni. Anne is furious but Ben sees it as an opportunity to learn more about what the Espheni did to her.
Pope wakes up tied to a chair. Before Sarah can leave with the truck, the fuel and supplies, Mechs show up and she’s forced to release Pope.
Pope leads Sarah out to the truck and they escape together.
Apparently having left Cochise to compost into top dressing, Tom and Weaver break into Camp Hitler. They search the bunks where they find about 30 whistle-blowing kids. They run into the hall where they find Mira who leads them directly to Matt. Weaver stops in the hall when he finds the blood of the creature that attacked Cochise in the woods and is pulled into a room by it. Tom gives Team Leader a beatdown before a tearful reunion with his son.
Hal tells Dingaan that the moon keeps him company and that he’s afraid to make a tough decision because he got someone killed the last time he did. Ignoring Hal’s lunacy, Dingaan fires up the story machine and tells him to do what needs to be done.
Tom is unable to leave Camp Hitler because the exits are guarded by Skitters. After promising to come find Matt when she graduates, Mira uses her whistle as a distraction allowing Tom and Matt to escape.
Weaver comes to and finds himself on a pile of dirty mattresses. The skitterized creature is staring at him. It jumps over him to attack an approaching Skitter but Weaver has to save the day and kill the Skitter with a steak knife when it sees the creature losing the battle. In a horror scene like something out of The Fly, the creature turns out to be his daughter, Jeannie, in skitterized form!
On the road back to the new 2nd Mass, Pope reveals that he has taken the bullets out of Sarah’s shotgun and forces her out of the truck. She wins him over with her charm and some fake karate and he lets her back in, this time with him behind the wheel. It’s a metaphor, me thinks.
Hal is explaining to the new 2nd Mass that they’re heading out dark and early when Pope shows up with the fuel. Hal is furious at Pope but Sarah takes charge and knocks him down a few pegs, completely winning over Pope in the process. Thanks to Pope, the Mechs are on their way and they have to leave now.
Anne confronts Lexi about meeting with the Espheni. The Espheni who conducted experiments on Anne and Lexi takes control of Ben to translate. He says that the Espheni just want to be friends and it’s all for the greater good. When Anne tells Anthony to subdue the Espheni, Lexi freaks out, complete with a leafy windstorm and lightning. The Espheni calms her and releases Ben who claims that he’s lying.
Hal leaves a message for his dad encoded in history before the new 2nd Mass heads out toward Chinatown.
Cochise is back on his feet when Weaver finds his way back. He tells Tom that the creature was Jeannie and that the plan to turn humans into monsters is flawed because they can’t control us.
Gemenus, the Espheni that Tom roasted, uses a handful of dirt as a communicator to contact the Espheni that Anne captured. He is informed that Lexi is almost mature and will be more powerful of a weapon than they anticipated. She is completely under Espheni control.
Proving the point, we see Lexi looking lovingly at the Espheni who is tied up.
You can find Jim at Bald Move where he and his partner A.Ron podcast some of the best TV including Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Mad Men, Fargo, and more.
