Holy craaaaaap! Saul Tigh is back and he’s regrown his eye!
Seriously, good to see Michael Hogan back.
Episode Summary from Falling Skies Wiki:
[i]It begins with a major battle between humans and the Espheni Mechs. Hal Mason and his girlfriend, Maggie, are involved. Tom takes one of President Hathaway’s captured soldiers to watch the battle. She sees the humans using Volm weapons to push back the Espheni. Tom hopes to convince her that the alliance with the good aliens is a good idea. Anne is getting a swab of baby Lexie’s saliva to conduct DNA tests. Anne hesitates, unsure of her distrust of her baby. “I love you, Lexie,” she says. We hear the new born baby reply, “I love you too, mommy.” Either Anne is going crazy or the baby is definitely part-alien.
In Tom’s office, Pres. Hathaway’s soldier tells Tom she is impressed by what his troops can do with the help of the Volm. She wants to get in touch with Hathaway via short-wave radio. She is able to get through to the President and Tom briefs him on what they have done lately. Hathaway suggests they have a face-to-face meeting. The only way to get to the meeting is to use an airplane owned by Pope. Pope says he wants to go along to protect his property. The plane will carry Tom, Pope, Gen. Bressler (who is a pilot), and the Volm leader Cochise.
There is a side plot involving Ben Mason trying to decide if he is going to let the surgeons remove his “spikes” that are left over from when he was “harnessed” to the skitters. He is reluctant because the spikes give him enhanced strength and other abilities… though they may also be slowly killing him. Anne goes to visit Dr. Cadar (Robert Sean Leonard) to see if he can devise some special DNA tests to see if removing the spikes will remove all the alien DNA from the hosts. I wonder if she is really trying to find a test that can determine if Lexie has any alien DNA.
Tom and the plane bunch arrive at the secret rendezvous with Pres. Hathaway. The military under Hathaway’s command get really angry when they see Cochise. But, before they can act, Hathaway comes out and orders them to stand down. Actor Stephen Collins is playing the President! He explains that he cannot take any chances with an alien and orders his men to keep Cochise under guard while he speaks with Tom. Tom does not like it, but Cochise says it is ok. Hathaway explains that he has been able to communicate with small groups of resistance fighters. He is not yet convinced that they can trust the Volm. Tom explains that for seven months he has fought alongside the Volm and are making progress, which is better than what other resistance groups are saying. Hathaway goes to speak to Cochise himself. He asks why the Volm are helping the humans. Cochise relays a pretty good story about his home world and a flower that grows there. He explains that though he will never see his home world, he hopes that someday the war with the Espheni will end and his children’s children will see it. Hathaway seems impressed.
Back in Charleston, Ben has decided that he wants to keep his spikes, even if it might kill him in just a few years. Meanwhile, Hal is having conversations with himself in the mirror as he wrestles with the reality that he might unwittingly be the mole for the Espheni. It is a classic split-personality story and at the end of the conversation, it appears that his alter-ego has taken control of Hal.
Col. Weaver is on the short-wave radio with Tom. Tom explains that he and Cochise are going to stay with Pres. Hathaway for a while in an effort to convince more and more people that the Volm are the good guys. He gets to spend a few moments speaking to Anne and tells her he wishes he could be with her. She says she understands, but seems upset. She will have to deal with the creepy alien-baby on her own. Alt-Hal is firmly in control. He tells Maggie he has no plans to tell anyone about his nightmares about working as Karen’s spy.
Dr. Cadar tells Anne about the DNA tests. All the samples look 100% human except one that has alien DNA running through it. She looks horrified. Dr. Cadar guesses correctly that the DNA comes from Lexie. He wants to tell everyone about what he has found, but Anne hits him over the head with a metal wrench first. She runs off with Lexie’s sample. Anne goes back to her room, where Lourdes has been taking care of Lexie. Anne spikes Lourdes’ drink to knock her out. Anne runs off with her alien baby. Tom and President Hathaway are talking when they are informed that Eshveni aircraft are approaching. Everyone needs to escape and fast, despite Tom’s protests, Hathaway takes Cochise with him. Anne and Lexie have fled Charleston and a Skitter and a harnessed child meet them, Alt-Hal is there too and the harnessed child acts like she knows Lexie already. As Tom, Pope, and Gen. Bressler are flying away from Hathaway’s camp, the Espheni attack. They manage to knock out one of the plane’s engines and it crashes in the forest…
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Please use this thread to discuss the series’ twenty fourth overall and third season fourth episode At All Costs. Rule: Please keep spoilers limited to those revealed during the series up to this episode only.
There is NEVER a dull moment in this show. Each episode is amazing. I know I keep saying that but each episode deserves it to be said.
In this episode alone we learn that 1) There are other survivor groups out there 2) That the survivor groups has a primitive communications network 3) That Alexis is part alien 4) We meet COL SAUL TIGH again (aka General Donovan) 5) That the Volm have some pretty cool hand-held weaponry 6) Hal is taken over by his alter ego 7) We meet President Hathaway
Oh, and let’s not forget that Mason and Weaver are concerned about the Espheni tactics (walking into a known slaughter), That Anne goes all BSG-Tori and cold cocks Dr. Kadar with a metal wrench and drugs Lourdes, and that Pope has a cool Hula girl on his Beachcraft dashboard. The Deni-Ben de-harnessing story line is awesome too.
SO MUCH AWESOME!
Looking forward to the next one!