Falling Skies: "Mutiny"/"Eight Hours"

Season 1, Episodes 9 & 10

The dangers of double billings

As a rule, I’m not a fan of double-bill finales that consist of two regular length episodes aired back-to-back, because it usually tends to screw with the natural rhythms of the television narrative. (The only real exception is when series premiered double up, as this generally allows for an introduction that can double down of depth and quickly expand the show’s world.) TNT’s decision to double book “Munity” and “Eight Hours”, for example only helped to highlight the show’s inexplicable tendency to have all action take place in the second half of any given hour, and made for an overall rocky viewing experience. It was also a move that seemed to rob the episodes of some of the tension and pacing that might have been present had they aired separately.

For all intensive purposes, “Munity” seems to be the weaker of the two episodes, but only slightly. Much like “What Hides Beneath” before it, the major problem here was the show’s sudden focus on Weaver. Sure, given that Weaver had a breakdown last week, it should make some sense for the show to continue in that vein. The problem is that the show went from depicting Weaver as a man haunted by his past to a man strung out on pills. Certainly a character can be both things at once, but for the show to change Weaver’s motivation for why he’s acting like a crazy person all of a sudden only bolsters the out-of-left-field nature of this plot development. What’s more, since this Weaver’s sudden mental instability is meant to kick off tonight’s A-story, it kind of sucks the believability out of the whole proceeding, something that wasn’t helped by the contrived manner in which Weaver was brought back to his senses near the hour’s end. (And don’t even get me started on the fact that Weaver was already off his meds while all this was happening.)

The mutiny itself, however, was exciting, and far more entertaining than it had any right to be. Not only should it have been brought down by its connection to Weaver, but considering how much of a holding pattern last week’s episode was, I feared at the top of the hour that we were going to be treated to yet another placeholder of an episode, something that would have been extra frustrating considering the expectation that the second hour would be full of action (more on that in a bit.) But sure enough, right at that half-hour mark, as Tom breaks free from Danner’s watch (and who the fuck is that guy?) and begins to take down Weaver and his army, that’s when things got interesting. Not only was it visually exciting (as most action scenes are), but it also played back into the army vs. civilian dynamic that the show teased us with back in the premiere and then just kind of let drop out of sight.

What’s funny here is that the episode ends on a high note, as we see all of those aligned with Weaver rolling out to go blow up the structure in downtown Boston. It’s a cliffhanger of sorts that would have worked much better had it not been immediately followed by the next episode, something that took away from the tone that ending was supposed to be expressing, and just left it feeling limp. Of course it didn’t help that the division of the army and civilians camps wasn’t exactly surprising, apart from Hal going with Weaver, and that was an obviously calculated move to tug at our emotional centers.

The other major plot of “Munity” – that’s right, there were only two tonight for some reason – was the increasingly creepy conversations between Ben and Rick, and the new fascination with the radio scanner/frequency jammer, but that, along with the runner about Pope and Matt, is better in served in…

…“Eight Hours”, the second hour of tonight’s finale. Much like the hour before, the momentums of the hour didn’t set in until about halfway through the episode (when the Mechs attacked the school), but this episode at least started off on a bit more of a positive note, as we finally see the fallout of Rick’s apparently unbreakable connection with the Skitters. Now, the fact that that connection apparently does get broken once the Skitters reject him and that suddenly makes Rick sad for his dad’s passing was a very tone deaf move, but it at least kicked off the last leg of the season in a reasonable fashion.

Less interesting was Ben’s side of that equation. While I was generally looking forward to how the show was going to play out Ben’s in-between state, his fear of his Harnessed nature and his desire to turn that into something good, here it fell flatter than I would have liked, which is mostly just the fault of the role he had to play. Even if it matched up with the A- plot quite nicely, watching Ben help out with a frequency jammer just does not make for exciting television, especially with the worst possible consequence for him is a really bad headache.

But that A-story? That was some pretty decent sci-fi storytelling from a show that has been disappointingly weak in that department on more than one occasion. It accomplished several things within the space of an hour. It moved the humans out from the school hideaway, which will hopefully open up the show’s world next year. It saw the resistance turn the tide on the alien invaders, both in downtown Boston and at the school. This turnabout was both believable (in that the Mech ammunition was just some magical fix), and it still means that the resistance is still in an uphill struggle for their freedom, which means that there is still room for new stories next season. Certainly I was bummed that the Boston battle was taken off-screen (in a glaring instance of the limits of the show’s budget), and Tom’s takedown of a Skitter ship with a rocket launcher was just ridiculous, but it was still action. Plus, it pales in comparison to…

…the hour’s cliffhanger-y, twisty sort of ending, which sees Tom climb aboard a spaceship with a New Alien. I get that Tom would do such a thing in order to save his son, but I’m not sure how I feel about this plot development in regards to the show’s narrative. Part of this is because I don’t quite know why the New Aliens came to earth, or exactly what their relationship with the Skitters is, but for them to suddenly parlay with Tom because the humans have put out enough resistance seems like its motivated more to make sure the show gets a next season rather than out of any sort of narrative consideration. I’ll hold off on final judgment until the show comes back next summer, but considering this reveal meant that the Boston attack  just kind of limped out, this better be leading somewhere good.

Leftover Thoughts:

So one plot hole that kept bugging me throughout tonight (and I can’t believe I just now thought of this): How is it that Rick and Ben are the only two kids that where harnessed for so much longer than the others? Where are the other first round kids? Did they die? Or did they get moved elsewhere while Ben and Rick were forced to stay behind for whatever reason?

For the record, yes I am upset with the show for playing up the romance between Tom and Ann when it wasn’t exactly warranted, but at least they didn’t try to make any will-they-or-won’t-they arc out of this. So, points for that.

So that whole “Matt’s hanging around Pope” storyline kind of fizzled out. So glad we spent so much time on that one. At least Pope was smart enough to know that a) Matt hanging around would likely bring all sorts of shit down on his head and b) that he should try to get the kid to bugger off.

“Great, suddenly up the beneficiary to some pre-adolescent rebellious streak.”

“That’s pretty sweet, getting put in your place by an eight-year-old.”

“I’m not a big fan of Super Cop here, but seeing as how Christmas is right around the corner…” “Actually it’s a few months off.”