Falling Skies recap: The Boy Who Kicked The Skitter's Nest

Before I begin recapping this week’s episode of Falling Skies, let me get your most pressing questions out of the way. No, Steven Weber did not get punched again. Yes, it was incredibly disappointing that Steven Weber did not get punched again.

There. Now that that’s settled we can get into this week’s episode, “Grace,” a name that has no connection to the episode other than the last minute.

When we last left our intrepid survivors, Tom had just channeled his inner Omar Little and did a little handy work on a Skitter with a sawed-off shotgun. The team decided to bring their new POW back to the school… which is filled with civilians. (I know it’s their base, but couldn’t they have gone with a holding cell a little farther removed from the women and children, not—you know—where they live?) The objective is to learn to communicate with the Skitter. As they wheel the alien through the school in a cage, Dr. Steven Weber and Anne wonder how intelligent it may be. They suggest that it is probably swearing at them in its own language. (TNT apologizes to all offended viewers who speak Skittish.)

The main storyline for the episode emerges when Pope tells Weaver of a bike shop he knew of. The Second’s command agrees that the unit could use more motorcycles so they can look cooler and edgier. Tom still wants to go after his captive son, Ben, but Weaver has different priorities. Doc Weber is using all of the drug supply to keep Mike’s definitely-evil son, Rick, unconscious, so they’ll need more drugs to get more harnessed kids. To get the supplies, the team needs the bikes, and Tom is forced to bring Pope along.

Anne checks up on Rick, who, I will remind you, is definitely evil now. It seems the harness cleared up his cystic fibrosis.

As the bike team prepares to leave, Matt tries to join up with them to fight, but Tom shuts him down. Personally, I think a ten-year-old with an AK-47 is just what this show is missing. They continue on toward the shop, and Pope is a little more upfront with his racism this week. “Bloods, Crips, Slytherin?” asking which gang Anthony was in, making it this week’s first of two Harry Potter references.

Lourdes continues her role in the story as the girl who prays but does little else, except talking about praying.

NEXT: Shhhh, be quiet! We’re hunting Skitters!

Meanwhile, Tom and friends come across a nest of Skitters sleeping upside down on a highway overpass. Pope, being Pope, wants to kill them, but Tom sees it as too much of a risk with mechs in the area.

Back in the examination room, Anne tries to communicate with the Skitter using pictures of Earth and the Milky Way. (I’m glad the Kodak kiosk at Walgreens is still working.) Harris, acting curiously like a Steven Weber character, thinks it’s a good idea to show the corpse of the dead Skitter to the live one. This upsets the prisoner and leads to one of this week’s more important discoveries. The outburst occurs at the same time that a large amount of static shows up on the radio Uncle Scott and Matt are working on.

Once again, we get some Lourdes shoved down our throats. Weaver, who apparently is busy with not much at all, takes time to talk to her about faith. Maggie, who I think is around to talk in a monotone and eventually sleep with Hal, approaches to question the captain about his choice to let Pope go with Tom to the bike shop. He asks if she has a problem with that. “I don’t, but they will,” she replied before walking away. Who does that?

When the boys arrive at the bike shop, they have to take inventory and check which cycles have gas. Instead of helping, Hal finds something he says Karen would have really liked: a keychain. Karen just got a little less interesting in my mind. Who really likes keychains?

Definitely-evil Rick finally wakes up back at the school and sadly, doesn’t recognize his father. Mike decides to take matters into his own hands by confronting the Skitter to try to communicate. When the Skitter doesn’t understand English, Mike is offended and decides to give the alien “some motivation,” more specifically, the muzzle of a rifle. He sticks the gun in what is presumably its mouth. It also could have been its anus. Still not clear on that point, but it passes out and causes more static.

Pope is finally let off his leash when he escapes from the group to go do what everyone watching the show wanted to do. He tosses a gas can attached to a couple grenades into the Skitter nest they found earlier.

Poor definitely-evil Rick! Left alone with the Skitter, he wakes up just itching to put that harness back on, and he does, in the episode’s scene most likely to make you wiggle your own spine. The Skitter in the room now has control of Mike’s son. When the radio in the next room starts acting up, Mike knows there is something wrong. They find Rick attempting to spring the Skitter. For the first time, we see a Skitter actually talking through one of the harnessed kids. He says that they either need to let him go or kill him. Mike can’t stand watching and rips the harness off Rick with his bare hands in the episodes newly crowned scene most likely to make you wiggle your own spine.

Pope’s explosion curiously and conveniently sent the harnessed kids straight to the bike shop instead of the scene of the blast that happened a few miles away. And this time, the kids are packing heat. One of them even catches Dai in the leg. None of the fighters can bring themselves to shoot the kids, so they organize an escape. As Tom and Dai are about to take off, the Skitter controlling the kids arrives on the scene just in time to get blown away by the injured Dai.

At the base, Weaver relents and gives Tom the go-ahead to go after the drugs next and then Ben and more of the harnessed kids.

The next scene upset me deeply. After Hal admires his brand new keychain for a bit, he talks to Tom about the copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows he carries. Not so fast, Falling Skies. The book looks nothing like HP7. I’m on to you.

The episodes concludes with everyone literally breaking the bread Pope left behind and saying grace, finally giving the creators something to call this episode.

So what did you think? Does anyone miss Keychain Karen? What do you all think of the Skitters having radios in their heads? Does it bother you that South Africa was so much better at fending off similar aliens in District 9?