*** SPOILERS AHEAD (and possibly aliens … ya never know) ***
After the big bang, All aliens! All action! All intrigue! Even a creepy baby! look of the first two season 3 episodes, “On Thin Ice” and Collateral Damage”, Falling Skies took a giant narrative chill pill for episode three “Badlands”.
While there is nothing wrong with what is known in industry terms as a “ship-in-a-bottle” or just plain old “bottle” episode – the term derives from Star Trek where an episode would take place on already-existing sets with core characters – since, done well, they can give you insights into a character or situation you wouldn’t necessarily get in a more action-heavy plot, the key thing is they must have that special something that justifies the lack of the show’s usual storytelling bells-and-whistles.
Alas Falling Skies, stripped off the aliens, the running and shooting, and the overpowering threat to life and limb, came off as a pale imitation of itself.
There were still of course those deeply touching moments that the show is known for.
The death of one of the more prominent of the show’s secondary characters, Crazy Lee (Luciana Carro), of Pope’s loved-and-hated Beserkers, was a beautifully nuanced, perfectly balanced moment of loss, giving us a look beneath Pope’s often blustery devil-may-care exterior that humanised him a little bit more, saving him form becoming a black-and-white cardboard-cutout caricature.
Let’s hear it for fleshing out a character beyond the cliches!
And Matt’s reaction to Crazy Lee’s death – he was trapped with the Beserkers out among the ruins of Charleston when a rogue sniper opened fire upon the 2nd Mass, who were on guard for a rumoured Espheni attack, causing Crazy Lee to fall backwards onto a head-impaling metal rod – while limited a little by Maxim Knight’s not quite flawless acting skills (to be fair he is learning the craft and getting better with every episode), was quite affecting too.
It underscored once again how fragile everyone’s grip on life, even more so when the threat comes not only from the genocidal alien interlopers but from fellow humans.
Yes folks, the sniper, who was caught thanks to a well-aimed bazooka shot by Colonel Weaver (Will Patton) is a flesh-and-blood human being, one Lt. Catherine Fisher (Luvia Petersen, Continuum) who claims allegiance to Ben Hathaway, the man who was President of the United States at the time of the Espheni invasion, and see the good folks of Charleston as alien collaborators thanks to the presence of rebel Skitters and the Volm.
While Tom Mason (Noah Wylie), taken aback somewhat by the fact that the President possibly still lives, does his best to disabuse a less-than-talkative Lt. Fisher – it’s name, rank and serial number only in response to every question – she refuses to accede to his authority or version of events.
So out of the ashes of Crazy Lee’s beautifully told and framed death, and the emotional repercussions it brings with it to a man who gives the impression he is bullet proof (Pope) and to a young boy dealing with the sort of emotional issues someone of his age shouldn’t have an inkling of, comes a great big dollop of intrigue that will hopefully be used well by the show’s writers.
After all, there is nothing more dramatically acute than facing enemies from within and without.
So far so good.
Unfortunately these emotionally-rich moments were sandwiched in between plot lines so banal you could practically hear the paint drying on a rainy weekend.
What was clearly intended as a way of giving the superb Moon Bloodgood, who plays Dr Anne Glass, a meaty role into which to sink her talented acting chops, descended into near farce as Tom and Anne’s new baby Alexis continued to only play the evil “Look Who’s Talking Now” card when mum was around.
To dad Tom and medical colleague and friend Lourdes (Seychelle Gabriel) who confides in Tom her concerns for Anne’s emotional wellbeing, Alexis is a cute-as-a-Muppet, sweet newborn and a bright shining beacon of hope for beleaguered humanity but to Anne, she is verging on becoming a monster that only pulls her talking and walking tricks when no one but mum is around.
It should be creepy.
Or it should be a chance to give Anne Glass some truly memorable moments as an anguished mother beset by post-partum depression, unable to bond with her innocent daughter.
Unfortunately the way it is tracking it is neither, with the potential dramatic trajectory fizzing out before it even leaves the launching pad.
It’s a pity since this narrative thread is ripe with all sort of dramatic possibility.
Not even Alexis’ sly grin and twinkling eyes when the Espehani launch a surprise aerial attack at the end of the episode – on that score, no one was keeping watch? No one at all? Really?! – when everyone is solemnly marking the dedication of a monument to the war dead, The Liberty Tree, is enough to save what is turning into a laughably bad dead end of a storyline.
I can only hope the writers have some ace up their sleeve that will rescue it soon and very soon.
“Badlands” was not a total waste of an episode thanks to the poignant death of Crazy Lee, and the revelation that the original president of the USA may live – in the meantime Tom appoints his right hand woman Marina Perlata (who I am tipping as the mole) as Vice President – but its dramatic impact was lessened considerably by wishy-washy pacing, and by the misfiring story lines involving demon spawn baby Alexis, and Hal (Drew Roy) and Maggie (Sarah Carter).
As bottle episodes go, it was unfortunately becalmed at sea and a partial waste of what could have been, properly executed, a beautifully- realised character-centric episode.
Let’s hope the Espheni attack puts the storytelling cat among the pigeons once again and returns to the show some of the vigour and narrative momentum it lost with “Badlands”.
Here’s the preview for episode four, “At All Cost” …