5.04: Falling Skies - Pope Breaks Bad

[REBerg]

Less John Pope! More Rebecca Mason!
I feel the series going off the mainline rails again. The vengeful Pope story ate too much of this episode without coming to a resolution, so it's destined to eat still more. For what?
Get over it, Pope!
Rebecca clearly has some vital information for Tom, but she's having some inexplicable trouble with delivery. Her message appears to be linked to what's going on in DC, which makes it more important to the final series outcome.
Spit it out, Rebecca!

 

[Dave]

I have to agree. Tom told Pope to leave before the morning, but he should have locked him up, or made him leave right away with a few days supplies. He is toxic but apart from Anthony, who is also clearly sick, no one else has any appetite to follow Pope, so there was no likelihood of a full-scale mutiny, and Tom had put a stop to that with the stand-off in any case.

Anne walking into that room with Anthony was plain stupidity. What was she thinking? Maybe she is overworked too? Even though she doesn't have all her medical equipment; even though the Volm have alien physiology; even though the father was supposed to go into a form of stasis, to simply fold her arms and sit back without continuing to monitor his vital signs seemed like a neglect of her duty of care.

I was disappointed in the whole storyline this week as it went no where again. How can they still find supplies of fuel and ammunition like that, and vehicles? Unless it was designed to be a trap. Which would have worked if they hadn't also conveniently left the Mace for them. If so, it felt rather like a MMORPG.

 

[REBerg]

Good thing Wyle is producing series. If GRMM had been at the helm, Pope would have pulled the trigger.

I absolutely agree that this episode went nowhere. I would think, with the end of the series in sight, they would be a little more motivated to keep things moving.

The 2nd Mass had cleared the way. They secured new vehicles, which could have been accomplished in the first 10 minutes of the episode. I see no need to set Pope up as another obstacle to progress and waste more time on that storyline.

 

[Jeffbert]

I cannot help but compare Pope with the Merle Dixon from THE WALKING DEAD. The likelihood of a vengeful Pope remaining a threat lurking in the shadows seems high. Anything that goes wrong might be blamed on him, all the while he might just as well have forgiven Mason; it would matter not, as the tension would still be high. all they would need to do is to show him every once in a while, just to remind viewers that he is there. He could be shown pitching a tent, fixing a car, combing his hair, it would not matter. Viewers are expected to suspect him. Any sabotage, etc., blame Pope, evidence not needed, just hunt him down, this has gone too far already, we should have killed him long ago. As for Merle, he was likewise shown on TWD, though I cannot exactly recall if any scenes of him doing just routine survival tasks were shown, I for one, would be wondering when he would next appear.