Falling Skies recap: The Skitter Inside Me

This week’s episode of Falling Skies padded its typically lackluster formula with a number of moments that were meant to pique viewers interests going into the season’s final hours. We got a revelation about the skitters which a number of you in the comments have been calling for weeks and some convenient plotting that will help the survivors defeat the mechs. So join us, won’t you, as we delve into another mildly interesting episode of Falling Skies.

Something is wrong with Weaver. For a few weeks now, there have been vague hints that the commandant has been abusing his Cialis prescription, and now we find out he hasn’t been sleeping. Tom even asks Dai if he’s noticed anything off about Weaver. There’s something weird about Weaver, you say? Is he acting like an alien all the time, barely speaking and just generally creeping everyone out? Is he doing hundred of push-ups and jumping rope for hours on end, despite an awkwardly soft physique? No? I must be thinking of Rick and Ben, who clearly aren’t taking the whole formerly-harnessed thing well, but Tom notices that Weaver’s been a little schleepy instead. Rick could literally run around yelling, “I’m a skitter. I’m a skitter,” and all anyone would talk about would be how great Hal used to be at football.

It doesn’t even seem to concern Anne that much that Ben’s spikes have developed the look of crusted-over Play-Doh. (I liked how comfortable she felt stabbing Ben in the back with the scalpel on a hunch.) The hard skin does make her suspicious though, so she calls on Lourdes, the utility supporting character, to help her with an alien autopsy. They dig through the goo, finding things that are similar enough to what humans look like on the inside. Anne has her theories confirmed when she finds a harness lodged deep inside the skitter. I’m not sure what led her to suspect that there might be a harness in there (maybe she reads the comments on these recaps), but she seemed pretty confident that it proves the skitters used to be something else. That something else is presumably humans, a popular theory among viewers. Is this just one more attempted surprise that completely falls flat?

NEXT: “I think that girl is what’s-her-face,” says Hal.

Porter arrives at the school to inform Weaver and Tom that a nationwide coordinated attack on the structures over the cities is happening in four days, and the Second needs to get their set of explosives ready. Pope is the only man for the job, but immediately gets distracted and conducts some of his own experiments. (Matt is involved somehow, but we haven’t cared about him at all throughout the series, so why start now?) It turns out that the ammunition used by the mechs is repurposed human ammo with a dab of mech metal added for zing. Like any good fantastical baddies, nothing hurts more than a piece of themselves.

The episode’s only kind-of refreshing storyline comes when Weaver, Tom and Hal set out to do some recon on the structure above Boston. Weaver used to be in construction and recognizes many human building techniques and materials incorporated into the design—which probably has to do with the skitters’ status as former-humans. We get even more of an insight into that when the trio spies a new type of alien with the same body dimensions as Gabe from The Office and the face of every generic alien character ever. These are the guys that are running the show. We know even less about them than we do the skitters, so when the assault on the structure inevitably goes wrong—thus necessitating the already-greenlit second season—we get to find out all about them…next year.

But this is Falling Skies, so you don’t get an intriguing story development without a sideplot so mind-numbingly boring and meaningless that it cancels out the cool one entirely. After Tom, Hal and Weaver spy the alien version of Kareem Abdul Jabbar, we’re introduced to Crazy Tea Lady. She’s crazy and enjoys tea. She also betrays people to the skitters from time to time because she’s lonely. While Tom and Hal try to get some information out of her, Weaver takes off to visit his old home. Tom intuits this somehow, and they give chase. Once there, they find Weaver, who gives a speech (surprise!) and a mech shows up, like clockwork. Anyway, Weaver stumbles across his ex-wife’s glasses which means that his oldest daughter and ex may still be alive somewhere, as if they had to spell it out for you.

Were we supposed to recognize that harnessed girl who came to the lady’s door? She look familiar.

A quick review the series’ earlier episodes would remind us that the girl is Karen, Hal’s long lost girlfriend and one-time significant cast member. She finally makes a reappearance after weeks of literally no one giving a damn that she was missing at all, especially Hal. Convenient that she emerges right before the season finale. I wonder if Hal is going to attempt a big rescue mission just in time for the end of the season? Nah. Knowing him, he’ll probably chat up another cute survivor next week and forget all about his captive girlfriend until he crosses paths with Karen again by complete coincidence and feigns interest for a moment or two.

So, are you getting excited for the season’s final two hours? Any more predictions, since you all have guessed most of the major plot points so far?