Clayton leaves Pope with Tessa’s father, who pulls out a knife and seemingly intends to use it on Pope. Pope, however, manages to cut his restraints and gets away. On the way out, Pope encounters the two escorts (now dead) sent along by 2nd Mass. to watch the children. Clearly they won’t be making it back to the base any time soon, nor will they be able to tell their old cohorts that the sanctuary isn’t quite where Clayton said it was. Pope cynically states, “Civilization, you gotta love it,” and heads off — but keep an eye out for him, because he's not gone for good.
It doesn’t take long for Tom (Noah Wyle) to become suspicious, especially since the 3rd Massachusetts — who were supposedly going to be joining the 2nd in a matter of days to ward off an imminent Skitter attack — don’t show, and neither do the above-mentioned escorts. Plus, there's not a single sign of aliens approaching. Who wants to bet that little attack last week was just a rouse by Clayton to get the 2nd Mass. kids? It seems very likely. As a result, Tom and Dai decide to check up on the sanctuary to make sure everything went well. Guess what they find? A big fat nothing. So they go out to look more in the area.
Just like his dad, Hal starts to suspect something is up, though he never voices these concerns until Lourdes finds the backpack of the boy Clayton gave to the Skitters at the end of the last episode. At first I wondered why it took them so long to notice that a little kid was missing, but then I realized that he was the son of the man who mugged Anne at the beginning of "Sanctuary, Part 1" and didn’t arrive with the other 2nd Mass. kids. Lourdes (who, I might add, is clearly jealous when Tessa flirts with Hal, not unlike Karen was when little Miss Perfect flirted with him early in the season — speaking of which, where the hell is Karen, and why does her boyfriend not seem to care she's missing anymore? Tangent, sorry…) and Hal express their concern to Mike, but he's hesitant to question Clayton, a man he’s served with and trusts.
Despite his hesitancy, Mike still breaks into a shed that is suspiciously locked and finds the belongings of all the children that have been given to the Skitters. Clayton catches him, and tells Mike the story of how they struck the deal. All I’ll tell you about it is that Clayton was actually telling the truth when he said Skitters nearly decimated the 7th Mass. After telling Mike, Clayton tries to get him on board with them, but you’ll have to watch the episode to see what side he chooses and what happens to the kids as a result.
- A de-harnessed Rick isn't quite as well-adjusted as Ben …
Another smaller subplot features Ben and Rick (Mike’s son), who were both harnessed. Although they were both harnessed and de-harnessed, Rick still acts like a zombie and even shows contempt towards those who were never harnessed. He scolds Ben for just eating the same food as them. Why are they so different? I honestly have no idea. Also, weren't there other kids who were de-harnessed at the same time as Ben? Where are they and how are they acting? At the very end of the episode, the two exchange some words that are simultaneously revealing and extremely thought-provoking. I was like, “What?! No, it can’t be over!” And now I have to wait two weeks to figure it out because I’m out of preview episodes.
(Editor's Note: TNT has yet to send us the final three episodes of Falling Skies for preview. As such, expect to see Katy's wrap-up of the Sun., Aug 1 episode post on Monday or Tuesday or the following week.)
Overall, "Sanctuary, Part 2" is by far the best, most-exciting episode of Falling Skies to date. Although, when I say it’s exciting, I don’t mean in the Michael Bay/everything-explodes-in-CGI sense. Instead, the characters do or say surprising things that are just awesome or mind-blowing, and that makes all the difference in the world.
