Recap
Tom and Ben separate from the others to meet up with the rebel leader who has reached out to them about where Anne and Lexi are. Ben is nervous when he is channeling for the skitter, as he is very impatient. A rebel skitter shows up injured and warns them to hide, an enemy patrol is out looking for them. Ben is considering going back to Charleston after they find Anne and Lexi, he has made many friends there but there is concern that the rest of Charleston won’t like a half alien baby being around.
Cochise and the president return after having hiked the long way from the plane crash to Charleston. Apparently the Volm are a bit more resilient then we first knew, able to handle large impacts without damage to their bodies. Having been briefed along the way about the weapon being built by the Volm the president feels they should continue to push forward. Weaver and Marina both express their displeasure over the lack of disclosure about the weapon but Hathaway wants it to move forward regardless.
Since Tom left, Marina has been making Popes life a pain but forcing his caravan and bar to move to the out skirts of town. Pope sees where her rule is going and decides to stir up the rest of the people in Charleston and gets all the mechanics to go on strike, causing delays and breakdowns of vehicles and functions in Charleston. Weaver and Pope have a talk and it seems that on the surface there is some agreement between Weaver and Pope on where things are going, and thats not a good thing.
Tom, Ben, Matt and Hal are hijacked on the road outside Charleston having all their weapons, horses and most of their supplies stolen. Tom decides to go after them and get their supplies back and they all make the hike to the farm the family is staying at. Each member of the family goes out and surprises the thief’s and holds them at gun point. Hal gets into a struggle with a knife and Matt being afraid for Hal’s safety shoots.
Pope continues to stir up the population at his bar trying to get them to stop working altogether in order to protest the new rule of Marina. Weaver comes in and talks with everyone about how doing so threatens not only the safety of everyone in Charleston but theirs as well. Weaver takes Pope under arrest.
Tom and the family talk about not staying on the farm and how they should go back to Charleston. Tom doesn’t feel that he can trust them and they think staying on the farm will keep them safe from the aliens. His brother is dying after having been shot by Matt and when Tom lets them talk, he grabs a shotgun and takes the Masons hostage again.
Tom, Ben, Matt and Hal are lined up facing the wall as he is prepared to shoot them all. Tom tries to convince him that shooting all them in front of his kids is something he will regret the rest of his life. The daughter refuses to do this and in the confusion Tom and Ben take over the guns from them and they let them go.
Cochise reveals the weapon to Hathaway and Marina. The Espheni platforms at each city are part of an energy grid, which when activated will surround the earth preventing the Volm ships from entering the atmosphere but also radiate the surface of the earth, killing all organic life forms. Cochise reveals this however will not effect the Espheni or their harnessed slaves as they are biologically engineered to withstand the radiation. The excess power the Volm weapon has is to overload the destroy the Espheni network. But if the tower is not destroyed, that extra power could accelerate the process. Once active, they only have 3 months.
Weaver visits Pope in jail and confesses that after hearing the Volms plan, he feels in agreement with Pope that things are about to go down and it’s not looking good. Weaver lets Pope go. Maggie and Pope have a little confrontation after Pope tries to warn Maggie.
Hathaway has a brief talk with Lourdes while she changes out his IV. He compliments the fact that she has taken over as doctor for Anne and how she is the future. Lourdes leaves and heads downstairs. She puts on a pair of gloves and positions a gurney in the room below and lays down on it after pacing out her steps. She pulls out a Volm modified gun and shoots through the floor killing Hathaway. LOURDES IS THE MOLE!!!!
When someone comes to notify her that Hathaway was killed, she is praying and you can see that she is infested with eye worms just like Hal was. Marina, Weaver and Anthony realize that Hal was not the mole and they must restart the search for the mole. Weaver and Pope both feel that Marina is the mole trying to regain power, unaware of the mole close to them.
On the road to Mechanicsville, Ben spots mechs and skitter patrol near by. Tom decides to go back to the farm to warn the Pickett family. With Tom heading to the farm, Ben and the others go on to find Anne and Lexi. Tom arrives at the farm to find it abandoned, however outside he is caught by a group of skitters and a mega mech.
Review
This episode had the Mason family on the move again, brining back memories of season 1 when the 2nd mass was always on the move trying to find a place to hide before the school. Ben has mixed feelings about leaving Charleston and whether or not to go back as he had finally made some friends.
Matt’s character has a little darkness added to it as he shoots and kills someone who was attacking his brother. This scene did flash back to a scene with Carl from The Walking Dead when he shoot a boy. The most heart breaking scene was Ben, Hal and Matt lined up like a firing squad ready to get shot.
The return of Cochise and the explanation of the weapon was a great expansion to the alien mythology and finally gave us some perspective on just what is going on and what the Espheni are up to.
The distrust within Charleston is growing and we got to see some great scenes between Pope and Weaver again this week. We really need to have more of this in season 4 because they really are a great pair on-screen. And just a minor spoiler, you will get more this season ;).
Tom is captured, yet again by the aliens. I have to wonder if he doesn’t do it on purpose. I mean seriously, the Mason family collectively has been captured more times than I can count. However what I find rather revealing was a comment from Cochise about the radiation caused by the Espheni energy grid and the fact that the harnessed slaves would survive it. That means Ben will be unaffected by it. I have a feeling if they are going to win this war, it will have to be Ben who can get close enough to Karen and the Espheni to destroy them along with the rebels.
The Mole is revealed.
Based on the poll results throughout the season, most of you thought Marina was the mole. Up until we saw this episode, we thought it was either Jeanne or Marina. Lourdes was very unexpected and I have to give huge props to the writers for making this reveal a huge shock to everyone watching. Many times the red harring approach can turn people off or come off as so obvious an attempt that people guess the true identify of the mole. In this case, it was done right and paid off.
Seychelle’s character has not had the ability to grow as much as some of the others have over the past 2 seasons, so it was a nice change of pace for her character to get her hands dirty.
Remember we are the only ones who know she is the mole and we have to wait and see how long before everyone else finds outs. There are a lot of unanswered questions including when was she infested and turned and are there others within Charleston’s ranks?
