Falling Skies S2 Ep3: Compass
The story so far:
Last season Tom was taken on the spaceship. When he returned not everyone trusted him,
including himself. His boys have grown
up and grown apart in his absence. Tom
brought back a parasite from the spaceship, but it escaped and disappeared into
the eye socket of a Skitter, Red-eye.
Recap:
Ben and Jimmy are out sniping
Skitters. Tom and Captain Weaver discuss their next
move. Weaver wants to hide out in the Catskills
for the winter; Tom wants to continue the fight.
 |
| Leave or die |
Pope and
the Berserkers (minus Anthony) kidnap Tom and take him out in the woods. Pope tells Tom he needs to leave or die. Ben and Jimmy attack and disarm Pope and the Berserkers. Weaver wants to kick out Pope but Tom argues
for them to stay, and is assigned to the Berserker group. Somehow I doubt this will end with a show of
mutual respect.
 |
| Bad day for Jimmy |
Ben and
Jimmy are out sniping again. The first
two go down with no trouble, but the third is Red-eye. He smashes Jimmy into a tree, and then paralyzes
Ben somehow with the remnants of the harness on his back. Red-eye leaves rather than killing Ben, but
Jimmy is impaled on the tree. That is
not good. Ben gets Jimmy to the Doc and
she goes to work on him. With the fit
that Weaver throws in his tent, I was reminded how close he and Jimmy were in
the first few episodes of the show.
The Berserkers
go to the kill site and Tom finds Jimmy’s compass. Tom also overrides Pope’s authority, and he’s
right, of course. Surprise, surprise, surprise. Ben is acting all surly and talks back to Hal. Tom gives Ben Jimmy’s compass. An airplane arrives, and with an overdramatic
reveal…the pilot is a girl! J Avery
Churchill tells the 2nd Mass about the new government and resistance that has
formed in Charleston. Tom wants to head
that way, but Weaver thinks it might be a pipe dream.
In a
truly shocking moment, Jimmy dies.
Quietly, with no big dramatic moment.
I kept waiting for a hero save, but none came. Weaver digs Jimmy’s grave by himself. As Ben dresses Jimmy’s body for a funeral, he
notices that his compass is missing. Tom
finds Jimmy’s compass around Pope’s neck.
When Pope refuses to take it off, Tom beats the holy hell out of
him. I did not expect the alpha dog
problem to be solved so quickly and so definitively. Pope is thrown out of the 2nd
Mass, when the rest of the crew refuses to leave with him, Anthony leaves with
Pope—ostensibly to keep an eye on him.
Tom
meets with Doc in the medic bus and they share a little smooch. All 176 members of the 2nd Mass
come to Jimmy’s funeral. Weaver gives a
very stirring speech. He and Ben remain
at the gravesite and Ben finally breaks down, showing Weaver his grief. It’s good to see Ben acting like a human, and
a kid, rather than a cold, alien-killing machine. Weaver decides to take the 2nd
Mass to Charleston, as if there was any other real choice to be made. Ben is still at the gravesite when he is
again paralyzed by Red-eye, but Hal interrupts before he can do much more than
look at him. Again, Ben refuses to admit
that it is happening.
 |
| Red-eye and Ben |
Opinions:
I’m really upset about the misuse of the Jimmy
character. I really liked the dynamic of
a child soldier that Jimmy presented in the first few episodes of the show, especially
since he was of the age that he should have been harnessed by the Skitters. However the soldiers of the 2nd
Mass treated him like an equal and he was.
His dynamic with Weaver was really interesting too. Weaver treated him like a soldier, but also a
little like a son. By the middle of the
season Jimmy had been relegated to hostage and “child in peril” duty, which really
weakened his character. I wish instead
of being killed, Jimmy would just have been badly wounded and had to be taken
out of active duty, like have him lose an arm or something. Then he could have been used as a drill sergeant
or something. It would have been funny
to see him training the kids of the 2nd Mass, like a tired old drill
instructor, even though he was only 15 years old. RIP Jimmy, you deserve better.
The other interesting plot turn was Avery Churchill and the Charleston
government. Mymissy thinks that she is a
double agent, sent to bring people to the camps. I suggested that she was being controlled by
the Skitters, but she thinks she speaks too plainly to be being
controlled. However, I would think that
ANYONE who shows up on the door of the 2nd Mass would at least be
inspected for a harness. With all of her
long hair and bulky jacket, she could easily be wearing one. I hope I’m wrong, but I just don’t expect any
good luck for the people of the 2nd Mass anytime soon. The Charleston plot at least gives them a
sense of purpose.
 |
| The Hero Reveal of Avery Churchill |
Grade: The episode
itself was pretty good. I’m excited
about the Charleston plot. I’m sad about
the death of the Jimmy character that never was. I hope eventually Ben stops being a surly
shit, but I’m not counting on it. B-
Thanks to Three if by Space and Seriable for the pictures!
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