Wow! Hal Mason is a bad ass. First, to lay there all calm and steady, not wetting his pants as the Skitter laid its hand on his forehead during his undercover mission to save his brother Ben.
Second, because he took down a Skitter with little more than a pocket knife and his wits. It was one of the more intense scenes in an episode filled with intense scenes.
It seems most of the main players get their moment in tonight’s episode. Whether it is Captain Weaver listening to the record to Lourdes being all melodramatic at the baby shower; everyone gets at least a little bit of playing time in tonight’s episode. Everyone, except for poor captured Karen – an update would be nice for sure.
When it comes to character screen time, we finally get more of Maggie’s back-story, and it’s a doozy. We know she is one tough chick, but tonight we learned she is a cancer survivor with a knowledge of greater Boston drug stash houses. There were also some sparks starting to fly between her and Hal near the end of the episode; Karen is going to be very jealous when she returns to camp.
In a show of too many characters, Falling Skies introduced a new character, Sarah the pregnant one. Rather than giving us new characters, perhaps Falling Skies should consider culling the herd a bit. This seems to be a trap genre shows fall into; they need to cover every demographic so they continue to add character, after character. It can get confusing, but it also keeps the audience from the characters they really care about.
We get to learn a bit more about doctor Anne in ‘Silent Kill’. It is revealed she doesn’t have anyone left. That’s right, as far as she knows, none of her family survived. Anne is a busy girl this episode, from teaching Tom and Hal Mason “Skitter Take Down 101” to de-harnessing a whole handful of kids; including Ben Mason! The way she cares about all of the survivors is genuine and adds a lot of depth to her story.
The other big “to do” in ‘Silent Kill’… Steven Webber’s Dr. Harris is no more! That’s right, the guy that most wanted to kill the captured Skitter, ended up opening the cage and was then killed. This is a good sign for ‘Falling Skies’; it shows no one is safe. When a character like Harris can be killed off so easily it shows a willingness to take some risks, which was a bit of a concern for me with this show.
‘Silent Kill’ was an action packed episode that showed us a lot about some characters we are coming to know and love. One big thing missing though (besides Karen), no mention of Pope this week. Where everybody’s favorite prison chef was is anyone’s guess. I’m sure we will see more from the questionable Mr. Pope in the near future.
Before I leave you, I want to say congratulations to the cast and crew of Falling Skies for receiving a 2nd season pick up from TNT. Now just because we know it will be back next year, that doesn’t mean you can stop watching.
