Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
After some questionable decisions soured last week's instalment of Falling Skies, smarter heads finally prevail. The pacing is a little slower however and there is a major focus on Maggie and Hal's relationship, which I didn't expect to like as much as I did. The big bombshell, the potential of a Human-Skitter alliance, is the real highlight and should have a lot of people talking.
Maggie and Hal have been flirting with one another for quite some time now so it was good to finally see their sexual tension develop into something more, sort of. There are a lot of barriers written into Maggie’s character and it seems like it may take Hal some effort to work through them all before they can have any sort of sustained relationship. The car scene was cute and Hal did a great job of handling the situation. Their first kiss ended up pretty much how I expected though, with Maggie throwing up a barrier and distancing herself from Hal. It makes sense considering some of the things we know Maggie went through with Pope’s group. Maggie and Hal did end on a strong note though. I don’t think I need as much time devoted to their budding relationship again, we got a lot of scenes with them this week, but they’ve established an interesting dynamic between the two and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes. Will it end badly? Probably.
It was good to see Tom getting pissed off at both Hal and Ben about keeping secrets regarding Ben’s strange behavior. Ben has a reasonable excuse but Hal really should have known better. Hal keeping Ben’s situation a secret almost seemed out of character last week so I’m glad he decided to do the right thing now, even if Maggie had to push him into doing it.
The big news this week is that the scarred Skitter is apparently the leader of a resistance group fighting against the Overlords. This has the potential to be a huge turning point for the series but I get the impression we will see this storyline dragged out for a little while. Especially with Ben planning on jumping ship and running back to the Skitters. I loved how Weaver handled the situation and that he brought up the ruthless nature of the Skitters that we’ve seen in the past. Allowing Weaver, Tom and the 2nd Mass to forget what the Skitters have done so soon would be disappointing. Hopefully Tom continues to approach this proposed alliance with a healthy bit of pessimism.
Actually, an exciting twist would be to have the Skitters proposed alliance turn out to be a clever trick. The alliance seems to be wrapped up a little too neatly and I’m starting to smell a swerve coming out of nowhere in the next few weeks. I’ve seen some speculation that the Harness creatures may actually be the ones leading this invasion. That’s an interesting idea but what if the Skitters are the ones really in charge and the Overlords are the slave race. Ok, that’s just crazy, but I’m hoping for something a little more exciting than a simple Skitter/Human team up.
Rick’s return was a neat surprise. Not much to his character though - he played the part of mouthpiece for a Skitter once again and ended up getting shot in the chest. I swear that kid could never catch a break.
There’s a great scene between Tom and Weaver at the end of the episode. Their candid conversation about what may have to happen to Ben if he proves to be a liability had some strong emotion to it. Tom was on the verge of breaking down at the thought of his son being a potential traitor and Weaver wasn’t handling it much better either. I like that their tackling the potential of this issue early and it was a good lead in to the final scene with Ben planning to leave the 2nd Mass.
What bugs me about Ben is that he likes to get his brothers into trouble. Last week he asks Hal to keep a secret for him, now he’s asking Matt. Hopefully Matt has the good sense to tell someone before Ben runs off. I don’t need to see another episode with Tom tracking down one of his missing kids.
While one less Maggie and Hal relationship scene might have helped with the pacing, “Love and Other Acts of Courage” was an improvement over last week. A little less action but the developments this week could have huge repercussions over the course of the rest of the season.
Source : ign[dot]com
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