‘FALLING SKIES’ REVIEW: Season One, Episode Seven

Review of “What Hides Beneath” (01:07)

SPOILER ALERT!

Falling Skies, the new hit TNT series, delivers a powerful episode with “What Hides Beneath.” Everything is eagerly working toward the two-part finale and ultimate showdown between the ragtag group of survivors known as the 2nd Mass. and the alien ship hovering over Boston.

Much is learned in “What Hides Beneath.” Answers that have been bugging viewers for several episodes finally come to the forefront.

Captain Weaver (Will Patton) is enduring a painful heartache. He dreams of his wife, Linda, and his daughters — likely victims of a skitter attack. This hardened military man has an obvious soft spot for the people who mean the most to him in life.

Ben Mason (Connor Jessup) is displaying an unbelievable level of stamina and strength. His brother, Hal Mason (Drew Roy), catches him jumping rope for nearly three hours next to their camp-out at John F. Kennedy High School.

A welcome face returns in episode seven: Porter (Dale Dye), head of the all the Massachusetts regiments. But with him comes bleak news. The skitters have likely claimed the lives of the 4th, 5th and 7th Mass. units, and they are regrouping and readying an assault on the remaining survivors. Porter and the higher-ups want to attack first, so he sends Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) to form a recon group to scope out the huge alien ship hovering over Boston. In four days, Porter’s plan is to bring down that mother of a mother ship.

Meanwhile, John Pope (Colin Cunningham), still recovering from his gunshot wound, offers his expertise on explosives and detonation. Porter, a little uneasy about the two-faced bandit, reluctantly accepts his offer and tells him to investigate the ammunition for the attack. In the laboratory, Pope tests out the gun of a recently killed Mech. The resulting blast barrels through a nearby wall, and everyone realizes that the enemy means business.

Weaver decides to tag along with Tom and Hal as they go on their reconnaissance mission. Although his outward reasoning is purely militaristic, Weaver has a secret plan: He wants to visit his old house and find any trace of his wife and daughters.

As the men head out, Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood) discovers perhaps the biggest revelation of the series so far. While autopsying the dead skitter, she realizes that inside the body, underneath a maze of gooey guts, is a harness. Could the skitter have once been a harnessed child?

On the recon trip, Tom, Hal and Weaver make two important discoveries, both of them unsettling. They spot through their binoculars a new alien life form that looks humanoid. It’s bipedal, shiny and extremely tall with long arms. Whatever these new aliens are, they appear to be the leaders and the skitters appear to be the ground troops.

The second discovery is their encounter with a solitary survivor on the streets of Boston: Sonya Rankin (Blair Brown). She’s a mysterious woman who says she never left when the aliens started to attack. As Hal and Tom investigate Sonya a little further, Weaver skips town on one of the motorcycles and heads toward his old house.

When Tom and Hal finally reunite with Weaver, who is now drunk and on the verge of tears, the beleaguered captain finally opens up about his heartache. His wife, whom he separated from months before the alien attack, is likely dead. One of his daughters was harnessed, and Weaver pulled the symbiotic alien off her back, thus killing her in his arms. The guilt weighs heavy on the camouflaged man.

Right when it looks like Weaver is about to take his own life, a glimmer of hope enters the fray. The captain finds his wife’s only pair of glasses on the floor of his house. Did she come back from her safe haven down the block? Is she still alive? Perhaps Weaver’s second daughter is also among the survivors?

As “What Hides Beneath” finishes, we learn that Sonya has been taking food donations from the aliens, and Pope has figured out the best way to wreak extra-terrestrial havoc. The key is not to use human-made ammunition, but rather bullets made from the metal of Mechas. The revelation of how to kill the skitters upsets Rick, who seems to love his former captors.

“What Hides Beneath” is a near-perfect episode. Its successfully brings the entire series to the brink of its climax. The showdown is ready. The humans have decided to fight back, and, thanks to Weaver’s soul-searching, there’s something to fight for now. It’s not just about revenge. It’s about survival and hope.

Falling Skies is the type of show that dedicated viewers must relish. There aren’t too many cliffhangers, but there are enough revelations that the interest level in the series remains sky high. Tom Mason and company have proved to be a fascinating bunch of survivalists.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Falling Skies

• TNT, Sundays at 10 p.m.

• Created by Robert Rodat

• Starring Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Colin Cunningham, Connor Jessup, Maxim Knight, Drew Roy, Will Patton and Dale Dye

• Rating:
  

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