Falling Skies – “Silent Kill” – review

Falling Skies delivered a very strong story for its latest episode. At no point did “Silent Kill” drag on or feel overly forced when it was giving us answers about the aliens. The characters anchored everything, and I’m extremely grateful for that.

It was a refreshing change of pace to have Hal step up and come up with a plan to rescue Ben. He’s a smart young man and is just as brave and quick thinking as Tom, but he thinks a little more recklessly, which is exactly what they needed for this particular mission. Without his ideas, they might not have ever gotten as close to Ben as they did. With Hal showing that he can strategize as well, it opens up some possibilities that could seriously improve the show, mainly taking some of the burden from Tom’s shoulders and turning Falling Skies into more of an ensemble show.

One of the first things I noticed is the building of a possible love triangle between Hal, Karen, and Margaret. With Karen out of the picture for the time being, Margaret and Hal are awfully flirty. She’s a few years older (at least), but these are dark times and that little detail shouldn’t matter. This triangle is a heck of a lot more interesting than the one they were building in the pilot with Lourdes. Her character wasn’t likable enough for me to believe she was anything close to a threat to Karen, but Margaret is cut from the same cloth as Karen, making her more of an equal. Also worth noting, Lourdes was seriously toned down this episode. I don’t think she made a single religious remark, even at the baby shower where it would have been mildly appropriate. It was kind of nice.

“Silent Kill” gave characters other than Tom a lot more to work with emotionally. Anne, for example, was dealing with the loss of her son, which we never saw her struggle with before. It was smart to use her grief to fuel her desire to discover the best way to kill a Scitter. Moon Bloodgood did a fantastic job showing us how frustrated and empty Anne was feeling.

I wasn’t really into how unceremoniously Harris was killed off. Yeah, he was annoying and kind of a cocky douche, but the way he died was not a proper way to say goodbye to a notable guest star.

Hal’s mission to rescue Ben gave us some bizarre revelations about the Scitters. Using a harness strapped to his back, Hal infiltrates the hospital where the actually harnessed kids live and sneaks into their group. The Scitter in charge acted like a very concerned dog protecting its litter. It laid on top of them, stroking their hair, and it was very odd. The relationship between a Scitter and its harnessed children goes deeper than just slavery, and I want to know more about this aspect of them, but Hal had to kill the Scitter before we could learn more. We did get one juicier bit on info, though:  when you kill a group’s controlling Scitter, they begin to die, as well. Out of the six kids, only five were saved.

One of the five was Ben and, unlike Ricky, he immediately recognized his father. I think it’s because the controlling Scitter is dead, but I can’t be certain. Next week is the first of a two-part episode. Hopefully the show will continue giving us answers at the current rate it’s been going.