Recap
This episode turned everything upside down and why not, it is the foundational episode of the season leading up to the 2-hour finale. Tom finds himself at odds with everyone, including his own family as he tries to dictate who will go on the mission to the moon to destroy the enemy power core. Everyone wants a fair shot at going and possibly saving the entire human race.
Matt has entered his teenage rebellion stage, which is news to Tom, who hasn’t been paying attention for some time. It was great to see Maxim take the Matt character to the level of defying his father in a more adult manner than simple childish rebellion. He wants to help and no matter what Tom says he will do so. He manages to pop open a hidden panel on the beamer which turns out to be the control panel for the flight controls.
It is decided by popular vote that everyone will put their name into a drawing where 2 will be picked to go on this mission. Tom only agrees to it after being outvoted by everyone. Matt wants to put his name in, since it was his idea but Tom refuses with a rather funny line, “You have to be 15 to fly an alien space ship and you don’t have your learners permit yet.” Weaver catches Pope trying to take names out of the draw, because he wants to be the one to go. After everything he has lost, after everyone who has died, he wants to make a difference. This is the first time we see a truly noble side to Pope, which is rare, but it comes across as genuine and another great Weaver/Pope moment.
Despite the fact that it was Maggie who kissed Ben first, Hal will not forgive his brother, even after Ben goes to him to try to explain. The show always does well when the drama between characters is strained and Hal and Ben are a great example of that. Later once the drawing of names occurs and Ben is picked first. Hal realizes he may never see his brother again. Tom of course finds a way to fix the drawing and he is the second person to go. Can we blame him? It was his son who was picked to go, so it seems only fitting Tom would go with him. Later on the ship, Maggie goes on board to say goodbye to Ben and this time, Ben goes in for the kiss, and Hal sees it. Just as they are preparing the ship for takeoff Ben finds Hal on board and Hal finally tells him that he forgives him and that Maggie cannot be told who to love, that’s up to her. Ben tries to explain that he does in fact have feelings for her and he can’t help it. However, he does try to help Hal by telling him Maggie doesn’t have those same feelings but he doesn’t care at this point.
Lexi wakes from a nightmare where Ben appears to have been mutated through the human skitterization process, much to Lexi’s horror. The monk continues to train her to hone her abilities as she is able to de-materialize a tree and control gravity. Later she overhears another “mordor-style” conversation between the 2 espheni brothers and finds out that they are not interested in peace and that the Monk is ordered to kill her. In their last training session, just before the Monk attempts to kill Lexi, she de-materializes him, breaking free of his control.
Everyone says their goodbyes to Ben and Tom as they get ready to take off, but suddenly alarms go off as a squad of beamers are seen heading towards the town. Everyone runs into position to start shooting but before they can shoot, suddenly all the beamers start exploding in mid-air. Lexi appears from behind the rubble, having returned to them, having saved them, but can she be trusted?
Review
This episode sets up the events for the finale and the horrors that await everyone. Normally this would be the final episode of the season, but this year we got 12 episodes and the final 2 air next week as a 2-hour finale event. The love triangle appears to be done with, and while Hal has forgiven Ben, it remains to be seen just how their relationship as brothers will continue.
Everyone was very passionately against or for the Ben/Maggie relationship leading up to tonight’s episode. Understand that last week I had to act as though I had not seen tonight’s episode. And based on what we all knew at that point, Maggie was the one who started everything, not Ben. We see with tonight’s episode that Ben truly did have feelings for her and he acted on them tonight. That is a decision he will have to rectify with Hal, hopefully before it’s too late for either of them. Hal also went a bit too far with Maggie unwilling to listen to anyone. He was hurt, for sure, but it seems his insecurities are more in play here then what either of them did.
I say this every year but the Weaver/Pope moments on-screen are just perfect every time. Pope hides all of his emotion behind the sarcasm and bully-ness but he truly respects Tom for surviving as long as he has and that’s part of the reason he is still around. Matt has really grown up as well this season. He is bull-headed and stubborn like his brothers and his father and is going to do what he wants. Maxim deserves a lot of credit for the progression of Matt.
The one thing that I will say I disliked about tonight was the quick and sudden bad to good turn around of Lexi and that story line. Many people have hated Lexi’s storyline from the start, but after all that build up of the Monk and how he was controlling Lexi, and then to just kill him? I mean we had the whole Ben gets injured when the Monk does, I thought to myself there just had to be something more to that story. It just all feels so wasted. It was poorly wrapped up and is disappointing.
However, fear not, because next week will have you on the edge of your seat for 2 hours. So don’t forget to tune in and be sure to watch out for our review and what story lines we want to see in season 5.
