After pretty much everything went wrong last week — Mike ruining the mission to get Ben for the sake of his own son; Karen getting kidnapped and probably harnessed; Hal being traumatized — this week’s Falling Skies episode, “Grace,” explores some of the aftermath. Tom tries to coax Hal through his guilt over Karen, making a valiant effort but ultimately failing. (It’s the thought that counts.) And after removing the harness from his son Rick, Mike is dismayed to find that the procedure didn’t have the desired effect (other than the boy living through it, that is). As hinted in the very end of the last episode, removing only the external portion of the harness did not destroy the skitter’s control over the boy. While this tears Mike up — and he does some pretty ill-conceived and brash things because of it — it results in an interesting exchange with the skitter that I will definitely have musings about for you next week.
This week, we also learn even more about the alien invaders, due in part to the skitter Tom captured during the last episode (I bet you quickly figured out why the episode was called “Prisoner of War”). One of the main plot lines of this episode is devoted to Dr. Harris and Anne as they attempt to communicate with the skitter — in very different ways. While Anne attempts to show compassion toward the prisoner, Harris’ methods are much less sympathetic. This isn’t surprising after last week — Harris is pretty much an arrogant jerk. He’s not very nice to anyone, let alone to one of the creatures that invaded Earth. I will say, however that Harris’ brand of tactics evokes a greater reaction from the skitter and ends up teaching the humans more about how the aliens communicate and control the harnessed kids.
This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 6, 2011.