Fallen Skies: Silent Kill
This week we finish the “Rescue Ben” story arch as the episode begins with the resistance returning successfully acquiring the drugs needed not only to remove the harness from the children, but critical medical supplies as well. Meanwhile the study of the “skitter” continues as Dr. Glass and Dr. Harris debate the means of which the study should continue. It is confirmed the aliens do communicate via radio transmissions, but that seems to be all they know. It is mentioned that they would not be able to use their transistor radio as an early warning device.
After the skitter makes a noise that was new to Dr. Harris he investigates only to be killed by the alien. Dr. Glass is able to keep the others from killing the alien, but she is given 24 hours to find out what she can or Captain Weaver will kill it himself.
A rescues plan is decided on after a few ideas are tossed around. The rescued harnessed child tells Hal that the children are left with only one skitter at night at that as long as a harness is attached to the child the alien would not notice. After reluctance from Tom, it is decided Hal will attach a harness to himself and sneak in with the other children. However, for Hal to be able to escape with Ben and the others he will need to kill the lone skitter without alerting the others.
We learn that Dr. Glass had a child who was killed during the invasion. Her pain over her son and the need to learn how to silently kill the skitters leads her to make a bold move. Dr. Glass recalls that when punched in the jaw the skitter was knocked unconscious and believes the alien could be killed by stabbing that soft pallet. Dr. Glass stuns the alien and then opens the cage before stabbing the alien with a medical scalpel. Dr. Glass survives the encounter and the alien is killed without much noise giving the rescue team what they need to succeed on their mission.
Hal infiltrates the hospital where the children are being held and finds Ben, the other children and the skitter. We learn strangely enough that the skitter sleeps protecting the children and even caressed their heads as if their own child. Tom and the others worry as it is taking far to long for Hal to signal them, but thanks to an additional entrance provided by Margaret they are able to make their way to Hal.
Meanwhile Hal begins to make his move, but Ben awakens and alerts the skitter. After a brief struggle Hal, with assistance from Margaret and Tom, kill the skitter. We learn after the skitters death that the children feel a bond to the skitter and are saddened by its death.
Six children are taken to Dr. Glass who begins the harness removal process, but only five, including Ben survive. Dr. Glass is saddened by the loss of the child and does not know why it happened. At the end of the episode we see Ben awaken fully remembering that Tom is his father.
I thought the pacing of the episode was better this week as was the continuing stories of the main cast. I regret that Dr. Harris was killed as it seemed for no other reason than to give us a reason to kill it. There was also a side story of one of the resistance members having a baby shower that I assumed was tossed in as a “ one dies as one soon lives” kind of analogy.
I am most curious about the relationship between the skitters and the harnessed children. It does seem as if the skitters care for the children much more than we released. The contrast is when a group of children was killed after one was rescued. Perhaps this will become a plot device in the future or may even cause a divide between the aliens.
Where do we go from here? The next episode is titled Sanctuary and is a two parter so that should be interesting. For those wondering, there are ten episodes in the season so we have five more to go. Even though the ratings are still down it is much less of a drop than before with episode four bringing in 4.20 million viewers and episode five brining in 4.07 million. Also, on July 7th TNT announced that Falling Skies was renewed for a second season of ten episodes so at least we have that to look forward too.
Perhaps cable television is the place for sci-fi after all.
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