5.03: Falling Skies - Hatchlings

[Dave]

The 2nd Mass discovers the source for the seemingly endless supply of enemy forces. With the Volm's help, Tom's leadership begins to spread to remaining human militias around the world.

Hmm! I'm not sure I would follow Tom the way he is acting now. He isn't very level-headed.

Last week, we saw from a distance whatever the source of the Skitters was. The Espheni have let loose their genetic experiments and

all breed of beast and mutant are running rampant on Earth.

 

[REBerg]

Quite a mix of victory and defeat. The 2nd Mass destroyed the Skitter factory, but sacrificed Sara's life. They captured an Overlord, but the brother and sister died. They found a method to extract information from the Overlord, but he was shot to pieces. Pope was being humanized by Sara, but will now be encased in a harder shell than ever.

Pope looked more psychotic than mournful as he stared at Tom through the flames in the last scene. I don't know if he will direct his anger at the Mason family or suicidal action against the Espheni.

 

[Dave]

You summarised the episode very well. You can see that Tom is still the old Tom at the end, as he wishes he had put Sara first, though he made the correct decision. Pope is still the old bitter Pope, now that Sara isn't there to lighten him. There was always a lot of relationship stories in this series, but with less than a season to go I really want them to concentrate on what is happening in the two blocked areas. Sorry, but Sara and Brian and his sister dying doesn't affect me, and I really don't care at all which brother gets the girl in the end. Do you think the alien Tom is seeing in his dreams is important and in what way?

 

[REBerg]

Do you think the alien Tom is seeing in his dreams is important and in what way?

That's a puzzler.
Tom's direct-view vision was his late wife, Rebecca; yet the mirror image of that hallucination was an eight-limbed alien lifeform. Maybe the messenger didn't anticipate the presence of the mirror, and Tom got a glimpse of something he was not supposed to see. Can a hallucination be reflected?
They went to the trouble of having Ben make a police artist-type sketch of the alien. Cochise quickly identified the alien as Dorniya, the original species the Espheni had mutated into Skitters, now extinct in their original form. (All police work should go so smoothly.)
Is the message there that Rebecca was not killed but turned into a Skitter who is now psychically communicating with Tom? Seems like an explanation too simplistic, not to mention far out, to be correct.
I'm guessing that the boy who was Skitterized but retained enough of his humanity to commit suicide out of remorse for accidentally shooting his sister, is somehow tied into this story element. That might explain the siblings' extremely short lifespans in the series.
Weaver, whose daughter, Jeanne, also retained shreds of her humanity after being turned into a Skitter, seems to be the only person who recognizes that all Skitters are not the complete monsters they are generally seen to be. That wouldn't apply to the mutant army that was being generated by the Skitter soup kettle in the factory the humans destroyed. Those babies were pure Skitter, through-and-through.
Will Tom eventually be reunited with Skitter Rebecca? Will she, Tom and Anne live happily ever after together? Do I foresee a post-Falling Skies remake of Three's Company?

 

[Judderman]

That was quite an exciting episode. Sara's death was rather sad and seems to be a way to give the 2nd Mass another challenge via Pope, as things were going relatively smoothly for a while.
I think one of the two older brothers will die before the end of the series, putting his life on the line for their love. I agree also that I would rather see the story concentrating on the alien storylines as we are nearing the finale.