(Full Spoilers Below)
With Evolve or Die, Falling Skies continued the progress started in last week’s episode and thankfully moved the plot forward in some fun and interesting ways. I’m still a bit frustrated at how fragmented all the different story arcs tend to be, but I did appreciate how this episode tried to bring a sense of unity to them, even if it didn’t quite succeed in the way I was hoping it would. But still, Falling Skies seems to be starting to find its footing again, and if it can keep up with the pace it’s setting for itself, I really hope we can see the season get truly exciting very soon.
The story picked up this week with an absolute breath of fresh air, as it was such a relief to finally have Tom and his team move on from their prison and start doing something new. Their reunion with Cochise was nice, albeit expected, but it was Dan’s discovery of a strange creature that proved to be the most interesting plot this week. It was an unexpected twist, but one that turned out to have quite a bit of intrigue to it, and even though it did take kind of a backseat to Tom rescuing Matt, I still liked how it ended up. It was all a bit weird, and relied a bit too heavily on some horror-movie cliches, but the reveal that the human-alien hybrid monster was actually Dan’s daughter was quite the surprise, and a dark turn of events I really didn’t see coming. Dan has had a rough road this season so far, and now that his daughter is dead, after being mutated into some kind of monstrosity, I can’t imagine what kind of trauma the poor guy’s going to have to go through for the rest of the season.
Hal also had his own little side story this week, as he was left in charge of the camp while Tom was out with Dan and Cochise. While nothing monumental happened, I liked how they discovered a radio signal coming from Lexi’s ‘Place of Peace,’ which I can only hope was a tease that all the plot lines will finally come together soon. Although, with Pope going off on his own as well, and eventually coming across a crazy lady that tried to kidnap him, I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon. Still, seeing Hal struggle with the title of leadership was a nice little bit of development for his character, and although it could’ve been done better, it was a good first step I hope gets fleshed out next week, especially now that Hal has to manage both Pope and his new lady-friend that he brought back with him. Which is odd, considering they were about to kill each other just a little before…
The mystery surrounding Lexi once again proved to be one of the episode’s highlights, however, and it was nice seeing Ann back with her daughter again, especially since her struggle to comprehend her daughter’s strange condition, and her even stranger relationship with the Espheni, felt really genuine. This particular story has been using a slow-burn approach in regards to its suspense, and for the most part it’s worked really well, but I think something’s going to need to change soon or else I fear the story will be dragged out the way the prison was earlier. But, there were still enough tantalizing teases in play here to keep me interested, and even though nobody knows where Lexi’s strange telekinetic/weather powers are coming from, they are fun to watch and definitely amped up the tension in the confrontation scene with her Espheni master at the end.
As a whole, Evolve or Die moved the plot forward in some very nice ways, and it was great to see some of our heroes finally reunite after spending so much time apart, but the show still seems to be dragging its feet a bit in some of the plots. The final scene did leave us with some intriguing details however, as the prison warden Espheni actually reached out and contacted one of his brethren through some kind of psychic link. The two of them definitely have some nasty plans in store for the Mason family, that seem to be centered around Lexi’s alien powers, and I am very interested to see how it will all unfold in the following episodes.