Note: Full spoilers for the Falling Skies: Season 2 finale follow.
The story picks up right after the exciting conclusion of last week’s episode with Bressler taking Manchester into custody and the 2nd Mass hoping for an opportunity to team up with the Skitter rebels. Unfortunately Bressler has different plans and immediately places Charleston under martial law. Thus begins the exciting finale of Falling Skies Season 2.
What’s immediately striking about the opening few minutes of “A More Prefect Reunion” is the complete 180 the story takes from the passive attitude that Arthur Manchester (Terry O’Quinn) endorsed last week. General Bressler (Matt Frewer) is all about taking action. On the surface that seems like a great turn of events for the 2nd Mass but it quickly proves to be just as frustrating. Bressler has no interest in hearing them out regarding an alliance with the Skitters and decides to throw them in the cells anyways.
Taking the events of last week and turning them on their head so that the military is in control is a neat idea but it suffers from Frewer’s Bressler being a little too thick headed when faced with the option of joining the Skitter rebellion. If the Skitters can sneak into Charleston undetected, it would stand to reason that they could have probably killed all the humans before they had the chance to fight back. Bressler complete ignores that logic however and plays the classic ‘strong headed’ military type and secretly orders an attack on the Skitter rebels while they sleep.
Later, we’re given a little tidbit of information regarding the death of Bressler’s son that I think would have served more useful if it was expanded upon earlier in the episode. The death of Bressler’s son at the hands of Skitters explains his motivations but his actions and the death of a few harnessed rebel kids left me still feeling cold towards the General.
After seeing the actions of both Manchester and Bressler, the 2nd Mass have no interest in taking commands from either one of them and state they are going to go along with the plans presented to them by the Skitter rebels. Everyone suits up, including Tector who has dumped his military fatigues and crawled back to the Berserkers. His story arc from fearful ex-military to dutiful soldier and eventual return was a little mishandled, to say the least. I was excited about Tector’s story in “Death March” but they seemed to have bungled his arc these last two episodes.
We actually receive a pretty big information dump from Red-Eye, the Skitter rebel with who we’ve been seeing all season. The Overlord race is given a name that I couldn’t even begin to attempt to spell. It’s also revealed that the Overlord brain is akin to a supercomputer and one Overlord can be responsible for controlling portion of the continent. Convenient but it does make the Overlords seem incredibly silly. If my brain held that amount of information and control I wouldn’t allow myself anywhere near the enemy. I’d be hiding behind an army of pawns.
The attack commences on what appears to be a giant surface to airgun that is mysteriously pointing towards the skies despite the fact that the U.S. Air Force has been wiped out. We’re made aware of this via an incredibly obvious hint that they’re there for another reason.
Where is Admiral Ackbar when you need him?
As expected, the attack doesn’t go so well… no wait DAI!!! So, they killed Dai. I had this horrible feeling that Dai was finally going to bite the bullet but I was hoping he’d survive to see another season. This silent badass has easily been one of my favorite characters on the show. He’s no nonsense and gets the job done, not to mention he’s the best fighter that the 2nd Mass had. Jamil’s death didn’t bother me one bit, but Dai going down is a big deal in my books. He will be missed.
As for the rest of the 2nd Mass, they are captured and tied up in some strange tubing that can be controlled mentally by Karen and the Overlords. Karen’s return is most welcome as she’s grown into quite the mouthpiece for the bad guys. Jessy Shcram is obviously having a lot of fun playing the villain. It was definitely a smart move turning her bad.
Karen partakes in a fun bit of torture that leads to Tom learning that Anne is pregnant. Just an aside, but I’m always a little nervous when it comes to post-apocalyptic story pregnancies. They generally lead down the same path of, “Are we doing the right thing by having this baby?” storylines. We saw it on The Walking Dead this past year and it just seemed so forced. I hope Anne and Tom come to a decision without dragging out the complications as a story arc.
The surprise attack by the Skitter rebels leads to one of the best action scenes I’ve seen on the show. Effects wise, this didn’t look cheap, as there are a lot of Skitters on screen and the interaction between them and the Overlord looked great. It’s not a long scene of course, but it works and Tom beating the Overlord to death was a great, if violent, moment. Karen’s ridiculous looking escape was unintentionally hilarious, as she skitters up a wall. After this appearance, Karen is cemented in my mind as a cartoonish villain. That’s actually a good thing. I’m surprised she didn’t shake her fist and proclaim, “This isn’t the last you’ve seen of me, Mason!” What we did get was pretty close though.
Now that the 2nd Mass are successful, Bressler and the rest of Charleston greet them with open arms. I’m glad that the 2nd Mass still have no intention of staying but I hope this means we won’t be hearing about civilian concerns all the time. The 2nd Mass as more of an offensive team instead of on-the-run would set up an interesting Season 3.
One of two big cliffhangers is the reveal that Hal is being controlled by one of those creepy spider-like creatures that Tom had earlier this season. We’re not given much beyond an evil grin but I’m interested to see where that goes.
The other cliffhanger is a biggie. Apparently that anti-air gun was keeping an entirely new alien force at bay. I get the impression these guys are friendlies, but that might be too easy. Their armor is interesting to say the least. It’s two parts awesome and one part Beetleborg. Whatever they are, I’m definitely excited to find out more about them next season.
Source : ign[dot]com
I was devastated when Dai died! Actually, this whole episode had me on the edge of my seat even though I had to stop halfway through so my husband and I could switch TV’s so that he could watch football on the big screen. Our Hopper lets us start a show at one TV and finish it at another, so it didn’t bother me at all. I don’t know what to think about the new aliens, but I have a feeling that Tom is going to have to choose between believing them and believing Hal at some point in season three. My boss at Dish thinks that season three will have a battle of the brothers between Hal and Ben, especially since Ben decided that he was going to hang out (despite the fact that earlier he said his place was with the Skitters). I wouldn’t put this past the writers, but I think that they have so much to work with that there’s no doubt that season three is going to be better than the first two seasons.
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