Tom is having nightmares and not really sure if the aliens had done something to him. Anne checks him out again and finds nothing, but Tom isn’t convinced that he is 100% okay yet. Anne talks about the many people that the 2nd mass have lost, Uncle Scott was among them. Rick is missing but Anne isn’t sure where he is or if he is alive. She said not to worry about Ben, he hates the skitters and has become one of Weavers best fighters. But she agrees with Tom that he isn’t out of the woods, the spikes are still there and the skin on his back is growing even more.
The 2nd mass have a problem, they are stuck on 1 side of the river with the enemy closing in and they must find some place to cross. Jimmy pokes at Ben when he remains completely during their survey of a nearby bridge. Ben is still upset over having shot his father and despite everyone telling him its okay, he isn’t taking that into account. A beamer shows up and Dai has to take to the 50 cal to shoot it down, but the bridge was damaged in the process leaving them unable to cross.
Tom, Weaver and the others go out to see if they can patch it to get across and Jamil thinks he can. Weaver needs someone to cross the river and check the other side to make sure its safe. Hal says he and Maggie will but Ben chimes in and says he would be much faster to swim it. Tom is a bit shocked by this. Remember that Ben was a bookworm and not even close to an athletic or fit person. But Ben says thats what he does now. Bens increased strength is benefiting the 2nd mass, but at what cost to Ben?
Ben and Jimmy are a good team, Weaver has kept them both together since Fitchburg. In a conversation with Hal, Tom explains how he is worried that he might do something to hurt them. Hal ignores this but Tom wants him to promise to restrain him if he does anything to anyone in the 2nd mass. Matt overhears Tom saying this and becomes afraid of his father. When Tom gets angry his eye starts to bleed and he goes into convulsions. Anne and Lourdes work on finding out what is wrong with Tom. Matt questions Hal about Tom hurting them and Hal tells him not to worry, those ‘fish heads’ couldn’t change him if they tried.
Anne finds something in Toms eye, but its not a cyst, its moving! Anne pulls it out of Toms eye as he fights back. This scene was one that Noah and Moon commented to us in a recent interview saying:
I got to tell you as an actor, the difficult scenes for me to do sometimes the ones that are more emotional, that stuff where I get to fight or scream, or pull things out of people’s eyes. I am like fearless, it doesn’t scare me; it excites me, it’s very physical, it’s so different. I am actually the opposite, in that I am more scared of the emotional stuff that’s really vulnerable and close to your heart. So, that stuff was fun, that was easy peasy. I was more trying to make sure I just looked like I was a doctor, I don’t know what the hell I was doing in front of Noah.
After it is removed, Toms requests that he be put in restraints for everyones safety and Weaver does it. After swimming across the river, Ben goes into the woods to scout for any alien patrols. All of a sudden he gets a sound in his head, not unlike the jamming signal he used previously to stop their attacks and it was coming from the downed beamer near by. When Ben opened it up, he found it was piloted by a creature very similar to the harness that are being put on the kids but it was moving. The aliens were remotely controlling the ships and that explains their ability to assert control on the kids. After Ben used the signal to jam their mechs, the aliens learned quickly and the 2nd mass was no longer able to use that trick. They also no longer had the facilities or the equipment to make mech bullets which left the 2nd mass much less protected then they would like. With all the control the aliens can have remotely, how much control do they still have on Ben? And what exactly did that device do inside Tom?
Ben finishes taking pictures when he comes across a remote station used for beamers and mechs to base out of. Back at camp Matt does not want to see his father and runs off when Pope stops by and refuses to let Tom go with them across the river. Guns are drawn and Pope is out matched 3 to 1. Ben comes to see his father, after the recon mission. Ben explains he had nightmares too and he simply stopped sleeping to get past them. Ben tells Tom his secret to keeping the aliens from controlling him, hate. He hates what they did to him, turning him into a freak and he hates what they did to Tom. Tom trys to comfort Ben telling him he is not a freak but Ben shows him his back. Unlike season 1, Bens back has progressed a lot, and its apparent an exoskeleton of some form is forming. Tom tells him you cannot use hate, because if all you got left is hate, they have already changed you. Ben doesn’t agree and walks away without saying a word.
In a meeting with Weaver, Hal and Jamil, they look over the photos Ben took of the downed beamer and the alien hanger. They are trying to find a way to take it out in order to make it safely across the river. Ben is asked if he saw or heard anything that might help figure out how they are piloting the ships. Ben says no. Ben is hiding the fact that he is hearing more and more of the aliens and the look on Hals face indicates he knows Ben is holding back. Maggie makes an interesting comment about how the skitters are keeping their numbers up. We know the skitters were here the day the invasion started so they are not the kids, but if they are from another planet, how are they keeping their numbers?
As the 2nd mass starts to move out, we see the creature from Toms eye, escape the jar and fly away to our red eyed skitter friend. The question remains what is it? Its keeping tabs on something and it seems its purpose was to gauge Tom and possible get a look at how Ben is progressing. Unlike Rick the aliens have yet to reject Ben and let go of their hold on him. There is something different about Ben. In many ways, Ben is progressing exactly as they have intended. But what is the ultimate goal for the kids?
Hal, Maggie, Dai and Ben go into the forest to knock out the communications array. Dai realizes they are too far to make a clean shot with the RPG, so he moves closer and takes the shot, knocking out the communications. The beamers which were nearly ready to attack the 2nd mass, fly off seemingly in a pre-programmed pattern without any communication signal from the array. Pope returns and the aliens are on their way to attack. The 2nd mass must scramble to make it across. The bus gets stuck on the bridge and Tom needs Matt to cut him loose, but Matt is afraid to do it.
Behind the scenes footnote
During our interview with Maxim Knight, Matt, he commented that the bus did more than fall through as the scene called for. Prior to the time it was suppose to, the backend of the bus actually did get stuck and they had to pull it out, taking several hours to pull it out, and reset the shoot.
After Matt does cut Tom loose, he runs to the 50 cal and starts shooting heavy at the skitters when one jumps on the truck and goes after Tom when suddenly it gets shot several times. Tom looks back to find Matt with a rifle shooting at the skitters. Many fans were wanting this last season, stating it didn’t make sense not to allow him to have a gun to protect himself given the situation the 2nd mass was in. Now the fans have gotten what they wanted. After everyone is across, Weaver realizes Tom is still at the 50 cal shooting and there are a shit load of mechs and skitters bearing down on him. He starts running back and tells Weaver to blow the bridge but he keeps Jamil waiting wanting Tom to make it back. Pope comes up behind Jamil and grabs the detonator and blows the bridge with Tom on it. Hal tries to run out towards Tom but Weaver stops him, while Ben holds Matt back. Oddly enough Bens response is much less emotional and more deer in the headlights. This goes back to his only source of humanity being hatred. And his hatred of the aliens grows even further.
Hal tries to comfort Matt when Pope walks up and tries to give a half-hearted apology for killing Tom and Hal turns around and decks him hard in the face. I think we have all been waiting for that scene for awhile and Pope deserved every bit of it. But did you really expect Tom to be dead? Nope, he made it by jumping into the river.
What have we learned
People had complaints in season 1 over things that felt too easy or out of place when it came to plot points. The first point that bothered people was Popes mech bullets. Many people felt that was too easy and humanity would have figured that out long ago and used it if it was that simple. The issue was it was already written into the story, so how do you take it out without it feeling strange. The 3 month gap between seasons helps make that possible. You are able to change characters, remove elements and make things mesh when you have a 3 month gap to work with. You are expecting that the people have changed and don’t feel strange when you see them different. Ben is the perfect example of this. With the 2nd mass on the move, they no longer have the supplies, or are staying put in any one place long enough to make those bullets anymore, so they simply no longer have them.
The next thing that bothered people was the lack of interaction with the aliens in season 1. Yes we had episodes with plenty of interaction but we never got an inside look at the aliens and their inner workings. It was a long standing approach of the show to avoid giving us point of views that weren’t directly from people in the 2nd mass. I have to agree it was a great approach. In season 2 we get to see Toms flashback from the 3 months he was gone. If you remember they avoiding showing us a flash back of the invasion but they felt in this case, since Tom was there, it only made sense to show us what went on. Noah told us in a recent interview they wrote themselves into a corner when he walked on the ship. But the writers with the help of Remi Aubuchon did an excellent job of making up for that, and coming up with a really neat way of explaining what happen to him.
Season 2 has already provided us with tons of alien action, more mythology behind the aliens and Bens transformation and more fighting back. Aubuchon commented in our direct interview about season 2:
Our main objective this season was to amp everything up, putting more pressure on the members of the 2nd Mass, and upping the stakes. If the first season was about dealing with the trauma of the alien invasion, this season is about coming to terms with the realities of the fact that they’re not leaving any time soon and figuring out how to survive in the world as it is now. Noah Wyle’s character, Tom, will have more challenges as he becomes more determined to bring the fight to the Aliens.
I think all the way around the fans got what they wanted. What did you think of the 2 hour opener to season 2? Sound off below. Post your theories and your thoughts and if your theory is right, you could win cool falling skies prizes.
