Season 1 left many of us wondering what the hell Tom was thinking getting on that alien ship. After the 2nd mass had several small victories against the aliens, they stopped Tom and Weaver on the road back to camp and explained they didn’t expect resistance on this level. They went on to explain that Ben wasn’t free from the harness yet. It was a process that was still continuing and if Tom didn’t go with them, they would take Ben back. They, in a way, promised Tom a way to stop this process and protect Ben. I think we can all agree they were not telling the truth.
Part 1 – World’s Apart
Season 2 starts us off right where we left off with Tom getting on the alien ship. We fast forward 3 months after and are looking at Pope and a few other soldiers on motorcycles riding fast and ducking from rocket fire incoming from a nearby Mech. It appears the 2nd mass has a new strategy for dealing with the aliens. Pope and his team lure them in, and the rest attack the skitters and mechs head on. Weaver calls open fire and the first group of fighters attack. As a mech comes in, a second group headed by Hal fires an RPG at the mech, destroying it. This is when we get our first look at Ben. At the end of season 1, Ben was fighting against the influence of the aliens that he could clearly still hear in his mind. It wasn’t until the very end that he disclosed this information to Tom and the others. He used it to their advantage to fight off the Mechs that were attacking the school.
Now 3 months later, Ben is not the same helpless teen we saw before. Pope has usual has his epic lines just like all of last season. It seems Anthony and Pope exchange a few lines, almost as if they were friends. If you remember at the end of last season, Pope saved Anthony’s life after he was hit badly during an attack on their convoy. With all the aliens apparently dead, Weaver calls them all out and says they have 8 minutes. Ben doesn’t stop shooting and Hal has to yell at him twice before he stops. Just as they are bugging out, Ben notices that one of the skitters is still alive but he can’t get a shot off. Hal wants him to ignore it but Ben ignores him and jumps several stories to the ground, pulls out a knife and kills the skitter with his bare hands.
Ben has grown into a ruthless soldier who appears to have a huge vendetta against the aliens and does so at the peril of others around him. He is obviously much stronger and much more alert than before. He seems a bit confused about the fact that he jumped down and killed that skitter, it seems that his rage towards the aliens is blinding him a bit. Just then they hear a gun shot and Ben can sense there is another skitter near by. One comes out from around the corner and Ben shoots it. To Ben’s shock the skitter falls to the ground and Tom is there, shot by Ben but alive.
Tom is taken back to the 2nd mass where Dr. Glass has to try and get the bullet out of him to stop the bleeding. Ben is very distraught over the fact that he accidentally shot his father. While Maggie and others try to convince him its alright, you can tell those around Ben are afraid of him and his continued disregard for orders. This is where Tom begins to have flashbacks. In an interview with Greg Beeman, he told us last year that they had made a decision not to use flashbacks pre-invasion because that had been done before and this was about the 2nd mass and what happens after the invasion. However for season 2 Greg said the flashback here was needed and still fit with their goal, keeping all the action from the point of view of members of the 2nd mass. They wanted to be sure that not one scene you saw wasn’t from the point of view of a member of the 2nd mass. In this case, the flashbacks cover Toms point of view during his 3 months on the alien ship.
In the first part of the flashback we find Tom asking about Ben and wanting to know how to stop the harness process. Here we meet a new friend, one that during our Vancouver set visit we heard little secrets about, ‘redeye’. This new skitter has 1 eye that is red and an apparent cattle prod that it uses on Tom. Nobody is sure yet what this skitter is or how he plays into the greater scheme but Tom asks Karen about helping Ben. She tells Tom that depends on him and if he takes the aliens on their offer. They want Tom and them to surrender. Tom takes this as a sign they are winning but Karen quickly corrects him and says that a few small victories are meaningless. They have already won and the resistance needs to accept that if they want to live.
Hal and Weaver discuss tactics. These attacks on the aliens were meant to be a holding pattern until they got new orders. They are getting boxed in and their escape windows in these attacks just went from 8 min to 2 min. Tom’s next flashback shows a discussion between one of the overlords and Tom. The alien knows Tom was a historian and the alien says they pulled from humanities own history to come up with an agreement that would end hostilities between them. The aliens would set aside a protected area for humans to live peacefully. Tom argues you cannot pull from the darkest moments in our history and if you do, what does that make you. The alien replies that oppression is in our nature, and they are the ones who will decide if the planet survives or is destroyed.
Ben is obviously still upset over having shot his father. Matt comes to Ben upset that he cannot fight with the rest of them. Ben makes a promise to him, that when they get back from their next mission, Ben will show him how to fight and use a gun. Hal and Maggie have their first flirty scene on screen with I’m sure more to come. Hal stops Ben and explains he understands it was an accident what happen but next time he must follow orders. Ben brushes him off and Hal doesn’t understand why Ben won’t listen. Tom always listened to Weaver despite his objections. Ben replies “Ill follow your orders, but your not dad”.
Out on their next ambush, something goes wrong. Before they are able to even lure the aliens in, a beamer comes flying in and targets the vehicles. Pope isn’t very happy that his Harley was destroyed, and the entire team has to bug out without even getting a chance to fight. Back at camp Hal explains to Weaver they targeted the vehicles directly, it seems the heat from the engines are giving them away and the aliens are getting smatter and targeting the only method the 2nd mass has to be mobile. This means they are stuck in place until they can find a solution and its only a matter of time before the aliens locate their camp. Weaver calls on a new face in the 2nd mass to discover a way to hide the heat from the engines. Jamil, played by Brandon Jay McLaren, has taken over the job of mechanic for Scott. If you havnt read the comic book that covers the 3 month gap between season 1 and 2, than you may not know that uncle Scott didn’t make it, along with nearly half of all the 2nd mass fighters at the Battle of Fitchburg. Uncle Scott got sick and they had no meds to save him.
In Toms next flashback the alien pushes him saying he will bring his people to the sanctuary the aliens had offered. Tom refused and said these are our only choices, surrender or die? The alien ask why Tom would expect better from them than he does from his own people. Tom tries to insult the alien by saying he expected that any species with the ability to travel to another planet would be more advanced, but he was wrong. Tom grabs the prod from the skitter and attacks the overlord before he is picked up by the skitter and thrown to the ground. Next Tom and a dozen others are let off the ship. Tom didn’t realize there were others. Tom quickly learns the aliens had taken leaders from each group around the world and offered them all the same thing. When the ship takes off, a mech and our red-eyed skitter are left and the mech takes aim. Tom and the other run but the mechs kills all of them but Tom. This only underscores my statements before that the aliens had no intention of helping Ben. Tom having been saved also indicates the aliens see something in Tom they need and they arnt going to let go of Ben any time soon.
We see Ben showing Matt how to hold a gun and begin to show him how to shoot it when Hal walks up with Maggie and is questioning what Ben is doing. Ben says he is showing Matt how to shoot. Hal questions why Ben did it without asking him, and Ben replied ” I may have to follow your orders on missions but not here”. Hal takes the clip out and finds it was in fact loaded with real bullets and sends Matt off. Hal tries yelling at Ben explaining Tom didn’t want that for Matt. Ben mentions that his mind may have changed after 3 months and that if he is old enough to load a gun, he is old enough to shoot one. Hal says they don’t know what dad would want and says “are you really the best person to be showing Matt, after he shot their father”. Ben says “the only way we win this war is to kill every skitter we see”. Than as Hal starts to walk away Ben says, “I don’t want Matt to be taken the way I was taken, or your girlfriend Karen”. Hal comes back at Ben to hit him but Ben takes Hal to his knees with just his bare hands and says “Im not he little math geek you use to push around, deal with it” and walks away. Ouch, Hal just got owned by his younger brother in front of his girlfriend Maggie.
Toms next few flashbacks cover his journey walking from Michigan all the way back to Boston in an attempt to find the 2nd mass. Tom helps a young girl along the way but the two separate as Tom nears his final destination. We get to see how Tom ended up finding Hal and Weavers team and how he ended up getting into a position of getting shot by Ben. After this final bit of flashback Tom wakes up. Ben is visibly still upset over what happen and Tom tries to consul him. Tom is back and most of the 2nd mass is happy, but Pope isn’t buying it. He tells Weaver, I would be throwing a flag on that play.
The title of part 1 is fitting from 2 sides. The first is Tom ends up states away from the 2nd mass, and having had a lengthy discussion with the overlords, finally learns how far apart they are in state of mind. The aliens have no desire to deal or help the humans at all. Ben belongs to them, and there is nothing indicating they will help him, only continue to change him. The second side is Ben. Bens actions and state of mind show a growing rift between humanity and alien in Ben. He is growing more angry and distant from his brother Hal and his actions could lead to someone getting hurt. Now our redeye skitter, is it perhaps a skitter disfigured from the ship crashing into the structure over boston? Maybe, but even we don’t know the answer yet. But what we do know is the skitter will have a connection to Tom and Ben that will shock everyone.
