Falling Skies, "Sanctuary Part 1": It's the wild west out there

A review/recap of last night's episode after I do 102 push-ups without breaking a sweat.

After last week, I was getting frustrated with the show, because each episode was practically the same thing (Tom wanting to find Ben, but first having to look for or save something or someone else instead). Now that he finally saved Ben last episode, I wondered if the episodes would still be the same or would they change.

Boy did they change. Last night's episode was a good episode that was a good start to the second half of the first season. The first half introduced the characters (not well) and showed us what the humans were up against. Now with this episode, it looks like we will actually see the humans fight the aliens.

But not before they fight the other humans who are helping the aliens. I will be honest, I did not see that ending coming at all, with Terry Clayton (Henry Czerny), a lieutenant in the 7th Mass. army (the show focuses on the 2nd Mass. army) trading children to the skitters. I knew something was wrong when he took the children the wrong way, but nothing to that extent. So now the 2nd Mass. army has to deal with the aliens and other humans.

The episode wasn't a spectacular episode by any means but it certainly felt like a great new beginning to the show. It seems like they are not trying to force the emotional, unknown pasts of these people down our throats as much, which definitely will help the show out. The episode did have a Jurassic Park feel to it. The chess board and pieces shaking as the mech is approaching the school bus is similar to the water vibrating in the trucks as the Tyrannosaurus Rex approaches in Jurassic Park. Also, when Jimmy (Dylan Authors) is running from the bus and is attacked and fights off the skitter is similar to the two children running from the raptors in the kitchen.

The Jimmy-skitter fight did give us a great symbolic shot of the skitter holding a globe and then crushing it.

I also think that the show should incorporate more war history as a part of the storytelling. They did it a little bit in the early episodes but I like the idea of almost basing an episode around a piece of history and mentioning it in the episode. In this episode, Tom is hesitant to allow Clayton to take the children away because he doesn't want to lose his own children. Ben reminds Tom of what London did when Germany would blitzkrieg bomb the city. The children would be taken to the countryside outside of the city while the parents stayed to fight. It does help that Tom was a history professor before the invasion.

Predictions:

• How long until Anne kills a skitter with the gun she learned how to use from Maggie?
• Will it be child-soldier Jimmy or Hal who realizes what Clayton is doing with the children?
• Is this the beginning of the Anne-Tom relationship, with the hand holding?
• How will Pope get out of his predicament and help the 2nd Mass.?

I'm glad that the show is looking like it will be better and that the last half of the season will be more interesting and entertaining. But most importantly Pope is back!