We have almost reached the final episode of season 2 and all I can say is that ten episodes go by so fast!
But my haven’t the team behind Falling Skies used them well this season.
The 2nd Mass. have successfully traversed the eastern seaboard of the USA, from Boston, Massachusetts to Charleston, South Carolina (which is quite a distance – see below; I love the fact that episode 9 “The Price of Greatness” included an “Are we there yet?” moment when Matt Mason (Maxim Knight) asks his dad Tom (Noah Wylie) if they have arrived at their destination), all the time under threat of annihilation by the alien invaders.
Forged enduring relationships, many romantic, which are all the more poignant given what so many of them have lost, and the fact they live in an age when it would be very easy to abandon all hope.
Joined in with a Skitter rebellion against the gangly yet imposing alien overlords, despite all the fear and paranoia in the world urging them not to, believing that this represents their best chance to grab our planet back from the usurpers.
And bonded ever more tightly as a group, even in the face of fears Ben and Tom Mason may have been compromised, or it might be best to simply hide and let the aliens do their thing. Against every test they have faced, the 2nd Mass. has drawn together, the odd wavering and times of dissension aside, and faced down all threats real and imagined, and in the process forge bonds that will not be easily broken.
That was very much in evidence in “The Price of Greatness” but becomes even more starkly clear in the final episode for this season, “A More Perfect Union”. In the sneak peek below, we witness the 2nd Mass., who have essentially become the moral centre of humanity in an age when simply pretending the aliens have gone (as many in the underground city in Charleston have done) or hiding from them look like increasingly appealing options, step up, prepared to lay their lives down for what they believe is the only way to save humanity – joining the Skitter rebellion.
It is a powerful moment as first Tom and then Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood), Lourdes (Seychelle Gabriel), Capt Weaver (Will Patton), Hal Mason (Drew Roy), Maggie (Sarah Carter), and so many others rush to form a circle around the Skitter rebels, led by Red Eye and Ben Mason (Connor Jessup), without a thought for their safety knowing it’s the right thing to do.
It is a triumphant re-assertion of basic humanity that has almost been lost in the desperate scrabble to survive since the aliens invaded, and sends a message not just to the military forces arrayed around them, but also to the Skitter rebels that mankind is capable of holding onto the noble facets of its character even in the face of genocidal threat.
I found it inspiring and the perfect summation of everything that the 2nd Mass. has represented throughout the first two gripping seasons of this masterful show.
And here’s the preview of the episode which foreshadows an impressively epic end to the season and ushers in what will likely be a dramatic season 3.
* my thanks to the awesome Robert Prentice at threeifbyspace.net for his consistently excellent coverage of Falling Skies and for the information that inspired this post. Keep up the great work!