Login or Register for free.
The UHF of the film world.


agentorange [Cathode Ray Mission 08.02.11] Tuvalu post apocalyptic review scifi

Pin It Share on Google+


[spoilers] And the revelations just kept coming! [spoilers]

Just when my interest in Falling Skies was seriously beginning to wane, who steps in to save the day? None other than producer Mark Verheiden (BSG) who writes the show's most intriguing and answers-filled episode yet.

Revelation #1
In usual Falling Skies fashion, "What Lies Beneath" focuses on father/son duo Hal and Tom going on a recon mission. This time though they head to the big city where the Skittles have started retreating to their giant alien tripod structure for some reason. Because of this, the resistance has decided to go on the offensive and will attack in four days.

During the mission we learn that the alien structure is built not-unlike our own architecture - that is, with steel and concrete, copper pipes and wires. So the show's first revelation is that the harnessed kids who were collecting raw materials were doing so to help build/maintain the structure. Not the show's biggest reveal, but case closed nonetheless.


Revelation #2
As suspected, the hoards of Skittles who roam the land and sleep on piles of children are not our true alien overlords, but servants to an entirely different species of grey "Skinnies" who look not unlike the skinny aliens from Star Wars: Episode II's Kamino planet.

We don't get to learn much about them, but we get a nice little scary close-up when we see they are holding the long-lost Karen prisoner. My guess is she'll get a rescue in whatever episode they attack the structure.


Revelation #3
The aliens are big on recycling. At least that's what we learn when Pope (who is quickly integrating into the resistance) when he discovers that Mech bullets are made from old earth shells with a "mech metal" head. We also learn that by turning Mech metal into bullets the resistance can finally penetrate their hard exteriors. Is this a turning point for our human heroes in the fight against robot monsters? Fingers crossed!


Revelation #4
At the end of the episode, Dr. Bloodgood takes that goody-goody religious chick into an operating room and starts to dissect a dead Skittle. Why? Because she's got a hunch that... dum, dum, dum.. they may be harnessed just like the human kids!

This revelation on its own isn't that big simply because many viewers already suspected as much. The intriguing revelation is that the way they look may not be how they always looked. That their long-term contact with the harness and its drugs may have morphed their appearance and that the same will eventually happen to the human kids. Need proof? Ben's getting a crispy-chicken back... but will he sprout four more legs, is the real question.


Until next week, keep watching your kids!

avatar

Ugh (9 months ago) Reply

Thank you Falling Skies writers for finally delivering an really interesting episode! I hope it stays that way :-)

avatar

Omar (9 months ago) Reply

I don't know if you are trying to be funny or not, but it's not "skittles" it's "skitters" refering to how they skitter along the ground not that they are small candies.

avatar

agentorange (9 months ago) Reply

I know. I prefer to call them Skittles.

avatar

rbk (9 months ago) Reply

Still not interested in revisiting this after school schlock.

avatar

Anonymous (9 months ago) Reply

I honestly think this show is crap!
this is what the writers could come up with.
Really there 1000 times better stories out there have been written that could have been used to create a show.
total joke!

avatar

Anonymous (9 months ago) Reply

There is an easy solution if you don't like the show. Just don't watch it.

avatar

Anonymous (9 months ago) Reply

i like how the human resistance can stay at a school in an abandoned city and not even try to "hide" for months and the aliens never find out. i mean they have guys walking around on rooftops and shooting guns every day in an EMPTY CITY and those dumdum aliens never figure it out. plus, didn't the aliens already attack that school once? i guess they uh forgot about them or something. dumbest show on tv right now. the writing is godawful. and i really, really wanted to like it, too. p.s. if they call the guys with guns "fighters" with any more earnestness, i might hurl.

avatar

Anonymous (9 months ago) Reply

How did I not see it before.

I'm replaying Mass Effect 2. The skitters are the Keepers! The race enslaved by the Reapers.

avatar

Daverat (9 months ago) Reply

I've been so successful at blocking those horrible Star Wars prequels from my mind that the first thing I thought when I saw those aliens was those things at the end of A.I. Artificial Intelligence since they are both from Spielberg. Though I will admit that Episode II was the pathetic best of those three stinkers.

avatar

Anonymous (9 months ago) Reply

Whoever posted this is right on the money....

i like how the human resistance can stay at a school in an abandoned city and not even try to "hide" for months and the aliens never find out. i mean they have guys walking around on rooftops and shooting guns every day in an EMPTY CITY and those dumdum aliens never figure it out. plus, didn't the aliens already attack that school once? i guess they uh forgot about them or something. dumbest show on tv right now. the writing is godawful. and i really, really wanted to like it, too. p.s. if they call the guys with guns "fighters" with any more earnestness, i might hurl.

avatar

Valpouet (9 months ago) Reply

I prefer "skittles" too. Bad sf bad names ;-)

avatar

ToeCutter (9 months ago) Reply

Yeah, I can't see this one getting renewed for a second season. I mean, despite really looking forward to this show, it just hasn't delivered. Not nearly as bad as "V" (the all-time low watermark for major network SciFi), but just not at all what I expected. So much lost potential.

The entire first season can be summed up as: "Aliens invade, and the last bunch of ex-Army guys and civilians spend weeks arguing about where to run to next".

Why are the aliens here? And why haven't we had a SINGLE invasion flashback? I mean, aliens have invaded and no one seems scared shitless, not even the kids?

Speaking of which, who wouldn't have already popped the creepy, harness-loving kid?

It's really too bad, as Falling Skies will become the excuse for major networks not doing big SciFi series.

(Although we just might get another vampire romance series....)


Leave a comment








Related articles
Posted on Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 16:33 GMT By agentorange
Posted on Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 22:24 GMT By agentorange
Posted on Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 19:48 GMT By agentorange
Posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 21:09 GMT By agentorange
Posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 22:48 GMT By Ben Austwick