Falling Skies: Molon Labe

Posted on July 23, 2012

You know what we love about this show, when it’s hitting on all cylinders, as it was last night? When we scream at Pinthe characters to do something, they do it. Like last night, when Big Fish Head Overload was taunting Tom in his cell, Lorenzo shouted “JUST SHOOT THE MOTHER–!” And before he could finish his vulgar plea, Tom did just that. We momentarily considered that Lorenzo has some sort of special fiction-warping power, but discarded that hypothesis for something a little more likely: the writers know what they’re doing.

Maybe not always and in all instances, but when they want to move the story along (as they clearly did with this episode), then things get moved the hell along. What started out as a standoff quickly turned into one of the worst – and most horrifying assaults the 2nd Mass has ever suffered, and when the dust had cleared, one character was dead and another left the group.

We knew we were in for a treat of an episode when Tom noted the dark corridors and basements which suddenly became so prevalent and said “It almost looks like an Alien movie all of a sudden.” Tom’s own fiction-warping powers must have kicked in at right that moment because suddenly ALIEN SPIDERS. WITH FAPinCES. AND TEETH.

ALIEN SPIDERS WITH FACES AND TEETH.

One of the great pleasures of wallowing in a post-apocalyptic fictional world is to wonder what you would do if you were in the same situations as the characters. We are more than comfortable proclaiming that if we were being chased down an airshaft by alien spiders with faces and teeth, we would first, shit our pants, and then simply melt away from fear. It’s a hard thing to face, but apparently we won’t be much good to you all if the aliens invade and bring their teethy spiders with them. We kind of hated that little kid for being braver than us.

But Anne got herself a Science Girl moment as she faced down the aforementioned teeth-baring spiders with clever pluckiness. Unfortunately, Lourdes lost her man in the battle because this is science fiction and he’s black. This Pinmeans that Lourdes, who used to get on our nerves by spouting Bible verses, is now going to get on our nerves for being defeatist. Not that we can blame her, this was one of the worst nights the 2nd Mass ever faced and it throws the whole war into question. Sure, the fish guys are still bad, but the question of the skitters remains wide open. We keep saying that it feels like the 2nd Mass are being played by the invaders and if we want to continue that level of paranoia, it could be argued that everything that happened last night was planned down to the wire. The group is even more torn over the idea of partnering with the skitters and Tom is demoralized because Ben is out there somewhere playing Neo. And they continue to march onwards to Charleston, where their fate awaits them for good or for ill.

Awesome episode. The first A+ of the series and a real taste of how far this story and show can go. More, please.

 

 

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