FALLING SKIES Gets the Band Back Together!
Episode 406: “Door Number Three”
[photos by James Dittinger/TNT]
Our episode this week begins with a short wet dream of Ben Mason’s, where he makes out with Maggie before a wounded Hal bursts into the room.
Back in reality at the enclave, Lexi and Lourdes discuss the after effects of the Hood’s escape last episode. Lexi is also beginning to physically change, with Lourdes discovering her in a translucent cocoon attached to the wall, presumably of her own making.
Hal, “Shaq” and his remaining Volm, as well as the other human survivors under his command arrive on the outskirts of the enclave. Hal witnesses a green flash emanating from the moon though no one else witnesses it (Foreshadowing!). As they are confronted by the enclaves’ guards, Tom, Matt, and Dan Weaver also appear, bringing those two plot tangents together with the third. And before we can catch our breath, familiar faces from the enclave come out to meet the arriving survivors. So the band is back together for the first time this season. Let’s see how long it lasts…
The reunions continue with Maggie and Hal having a tender moment, much to Ben’s chagrin. Anne takes Tom to introduce her to Lexi, but they discover her in her cocoon. Dr. Kadar compares her cocoon to a caterpillar’s chrysalis and suggests a repressed memory exercise with Anne to determine how to free Lexi from the Espheni cocoon safely just as Anne was freed last season.
Meanwhile, Lexi’s cocoon starts to heat up (always a good sign). In standard 2nd Mass fashion, the rabble is already starting to rouse, led by Maggie and (who else?) Pope. Maggie tells the newly-arrived survivors about Lexi’s powers and her meetings with an Espheni. Tom confronts them, grabs a gun, and warns them off doing anything against Lexi until they know what’s going on. This drives a wedge between Tom and Hal because Hal wants Tom to treat Lexi like Tom treated Karen, as a liability rather than a really, really big question mark.
“Shaq” of the Volm has experience with these cocoons that he shares with Hal. The Volm destroy any cocoon they find without hesitation, as Espheni hatchlings are particularly violent. In addition, the cocoons heat up as they sense danger (Ruh-oh!). He and the remainder of his exposition devices, er, I mean “team”, withdraw out of the enclave for their own safety So Hal, Pope, and Maggie confront Tom, Ben, and Dan about Lexi, determined to do unto her before she can do unto them. However, due to Ben’s influence, Maggie switches sides and the recalcitrant members of the 2nd Mass back down.
Concurrently, with Dr. Kadar’s help, Anne’s first flashback is of the loss of her son Sam, as she reads to him the day the Espheni and their allies invade, just before an explosion that apparently killed him. Anne ups the dosage of the drugs they are using to induce the flashbacks. Her second flashback is from the Espheni ship, when she and Lexi were captured by Karen and cocooned as part of the Espheni Hood’s experiment. She comes out of this second flashback, instead of awakening, she has an out-of-body experience. Disembodied, while consoling herself for having failed to save both her children, she is confronted by Lexi. Lexi takes Anne into her memories to show her that when presented the choice of going with the Espheni or staying with Anne, the young Lexi chose to stay with Anne. With that, Anne comes back to consciousness.
The episode ends with the Mason family and their closest allies gathered around the cocoon as Anne places her hand on it and isn’t burned. Lexi places hers on the other side of Anne’s and her eyes open, displaying bigger irises, with the world’s oddest cocoon stay coming to an apparent end.
I’m glad my fears about plot fragmentation were dispelled, with everyone brought together quickly at the start of that episode. I appreciate that. The stories are more interesting when the group is all together than fragmented into 3 or more pieces. That being said, there are a lot of hanging threads to resolve in the next 6 episodes. When do we get back to the fascist camp? What about the skitterized humans and the dueling Espheni? And just what the hell is up with Lexi?
This was the first Anne-centric episode this season and we finally get to see the oft-referred-to Sam who we’ve heard about for several seasons. His death appears to have been particularly jarring and violent.
At Comic-Con, the cast and creators of the show shared some tidbits about the remainder of the season, hinting at further Espheni-driven genetic manipulation like we’ve seen with skitterized humans and mutated children, as well as Lexi’s transformation (actresses Scarlett Byrne and Moon Bloodgood, who play Lexi and Anne, jokingly referred to Lexi’s transformation as her “period”), as well as the expanding love triangle between Maggie, Ben, and Hal (that’s been telegraphed out all season long), and the fractious relationship of Espheni overlords (producer David Eick did something similar with the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica, with “good” and “bad” ones and the dynamic interplay between them).
Halfway done with this season and while I still don’t know exactly where we’re headed, this was a solid episode.
Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”
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