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Noah Wyle in “Falling Skies.”




Out of nowhere, Tom Mason sails a boat into Charleston harbor. I guess he sailed back from Boston rather than walking. Tom greets his three sons and tells them that he saw the bodies of Anne (Dr. Boring) and Creepybaby Lexi. He vows that the family will use their anger to their advantage and go after Karen with a vengeance.

Tom goes to talk to Weaver and Gen. Porter. He wants to convince them to target the Boston Eshveni tower, which is where Karen is located, rather than one of the other towers. He makes a compelling case, saying that his recon indicates that the Boston tower isn’t nearly as guarded as they thought. Weaver and Porter are considering it but they don’t know if they can trust Tom. It is possible that Karen put a bug in Tom’s brain.

Tom goes and talks to Pope, who says he expects Karen did put a bug in Tom’s head. He says the moment Tom starts acting funny, he will kill him. Tom thanks him because he would not want to endanger the people he loves if a bug takes over his brain. Before their conversation can continue, there is a large explosion nearby. Tom and Pope are badly shaken, but alive.

The explosion was the Volm complex. Looks like that weapon isn’t going to help anyone. It appears many of the Volm are dead, but they find Cochise laying on the ground. They take him to the hospital where, Lourdes, who is the Mole, is supposed to treat him. Cochise is badly hurt but says that his body will repair itself in time. He then lapses into a coma.

Lourdes plants some kind of device near Cochise’s room. She probably plans to finish the job of killing him. Weaver almost catches her, but doesn’t quite see enough to make him suspicious. The device seems to grow, like a plant, until explodes and causes part of the hospital to collapse. It falls on a room containing Hal and Maggie.

Tom is searching through the wreckage and finds Pres. Peralta. She’s hurt, but seems ok. Outside, Ben is using his super-hearing to listen through the wreckage for signs of life. When he hears people trapped under the rubble, he directs the rescue efforts to the right place.

Tom and Peralta find Lourdes among the wreckage. She’s badly hurt too. It turns out that some of the bottom levels of the hospital are undamaged, but everyone down there is cut off from the surface. Tom, Peralta, Porter, and a whole bunch of other folks are trapped.

Lourdes is taken to a room to recover. She is put right next to Cochise. She smiles an evil smile.

Hal and Maggie are trapped even lower in the wreckage. They are running out of air. They waste some oxygen fighting over their relationship.

Dr. Cadar is trapped with Tom and all the rest. But he has a plan to get out. He wants to blast their way out.  Tom goes to see Lourdes. She cries a bit about not being able to help Anne more. I think something she says makes Tom suspicious. He tells her to rest and walks away. She eyes Cochise again.

Lourdes pulls out a scalpel and is about to cut Cochise when Tom walks up. He leads her away and guards pull guns on her. He tells her that she gave herself away when she said that Anne died “where she started.” Tom points out that Lourdes could not have known that Anne died in Boston. “You’re the mole,” he yells. Lourdes pulls out an Eshveni weapon and Tom fights with her. The weapon goes off and the blast ricochets into Lourdes.

Ben and Mattfro (his hair is standing even more on end than usual in this episode) are wandering through the sewers, trying to see if there is a way to reach the trapped people. Meanwhile, Hel and Maggie are almost out of air. They are about to die side-by-side. Ben and Mattfro hear them banging on a pipe and go to get help. Maggie is able to open the pipe and get air.

Lourdes wakes up and begins to taunt Tom. She says he is to blame for everything. He gets angry and storms off. He activates Dr. Cadar’s explosives, even though it might collapse everything on top of them.

(side note:  the commercial break includes the GEICO Camel/Hump Day commercial, which is my favorite ad on TV right now… winning!!)

It comes as no surprise that Tom’s rash actions worked. The blast clears a path and everyone is able to escape. Maggie and Hal make up too.

Cochise has repaired himself. He stands outside and looks at the wreckage of the Volm base. Tom points out that the weapon was being stored in a place where it would have survived the blast. Cochise says it would take a herculean effort to recover it and all his engineers are dead. Tom says he thinks Dr. Cadar could help finish building the weapon if they can dig it out. Cochise agrees, it is their only hope.

And the episode is over!

Well, this was a much better episode. It felt like lots of the stuff that happened really mattered. The mole was discovered and neutralized. There was a good bit of action and drama in the hospital collapse and rescue operation. Everything is set for next week’s finale.

So, do you all agree that this was a turn in the right direction? I am not saying it was great, but at least it did not stink. The previews for next week make it seem that we will find out a lot more about what the Volm are really up to. At least a lot of this stuff will be wrapped up. I encourage all of you to join the robust conversation we’ve been having in the comment section. I’ll see you there!



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