Falling Skies #4-05 Recap: Brotherhood

<p>This week&&num;8217&semi;s episode of <em>Falling Skies <&sol;em>is the best one I&&num;8217&semi;ve seen for the season yet&period; The previous episodes have been enjoyable&comma; but the fragmented storytelling and excess plots held them back from being really great&period; While these problems were still very much present in <em>Mind Wars<&sol;em>&comma; the show was finally able to find a way to devote the entirety of an episode to developing a singular plot that lead to some legitimately exciting character drama&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The focus of this episode was on Tom&comma; Matt&comma; and Colonel Weaver&comma; and while some of their stories have felt drawn out recently&comma; this week absolutely nailed it&period; After discovering that Hal and the rest of the 2nd Mass had moved on from what was their home base&comma; Tom finds Hal&&num;8217&semi;s clue and begins to make his way to the same safe-haven that Hal is heading towards&period; Which&comma; as I&&num;8217&semi;m sure you know&comma; is where Lexi is with her peace-loving Espheni father-figure&period; Unfortunately for Tom though&comma; he&&num;8217&semi;s low on food and rations&comma; and the need for supplies quickly becomes his most important objective&comma; especially with both Matt and Weaver along with him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So&comma; when our heroes come across a pair of brothers in the woods who are loaded with food and supplies&comma; Tom is forced to make a temporary alliance with them in order to feed his son and friend&period; This is where the episode really excelled&comma; as the audience had to look at these two strangers the same way Tom was&period; While both of them were happy and more than eager to share their resources with a legend like Tom Mason&comma; you couldn&&num;8217&semi;t help but feel like something was just off about them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Which&comma; surprise&comma; surprise&comma; there was&period; As soon as night fell&comma; Tom was knocked unconscious by the older brother&comma; the obvious leader&comma; while the younger brother was left to murder Matt and Weaver in their sleep&period; Thankfully&comma; Matt and Weaver had caught onto the scheme and escaped without being noticed&comma; leaving our dastardly brothers believing that they were both dead&period; Despite their actions&comma; I was never quite sure what to think of the two brothers&comma; and digging deeper into their personal motivations and backstories was one of the episode&&num;8217&semi;s most rewarding features&period; While it was obvious that they were far from good guys&comma; the younger brother&&num;8217&semi;s pained expression upon firing an entire clip of bullets into Matt and Weaver&&num;8217&semi;s sleeping bags was awfully telling of his actual character&period; Even the older brother&comma; who showed little remorse&comma; seemed to only be focused on protecting his brother no matter the cost&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;07&sol;05085324&sol;falling-skies-mind-wars-tom-rifle-sights&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-64123" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;07&sol;05085324&sol;falling-skies-mind-wars-tom-rifle-sights&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Falling Skies-Mind Wars" width&equals;"642" height&equals;"360" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The reveal that the older brother had made a deal with the Espheni to turn over his family&comma; including his brother&&num;8217&semi;s kids&comma; to the aliens in order to save himself from being turned into a Skitter-hybird was not a shocking surprise&comma; but an appreciated one nonetheless&period; The character development for both these characters was fantastic in this episode&comma; and I really enjoyed seeing them crack and fall apart as Tom continued to challenge their decisions and beliefs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I also loved seeing Matt struggle with his desire for revenge against the brothers for taking his father away form him again&comma; and it was another great bit of development for his character this season&period; His anger was totally understandable&comma; and while I never expected him to actually take the shot and kill one of the brothers in cold blood&comma; having Matt stare them down through the scope of a rifle was a fantastic way to push his character to the limit&period; The episode also ended with a climax that was far darker than I expected&comma; but I can&&num;8217&semi;t help but appreciate that the writer&&num;8217&semi;s for the show really committed to the story they started with the episode&period; Yes&comma; having the younger brother discover his brother&&num;8217&semi;s betrayal and then murder him in cold-blood was brutal&comma; and even a little hard to watch&comma; but it was also the kind of surprise needed to give it the extra shot of energy that it so desperately needed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As for the rest of the episode&comma; well it was just more of the same&comma; unfortunately&period; Hal and his team&comma; along with Cochise and his alien commandos&comma; figured out a way to get into Lexi&&num;8217&semi;s encampment without getting caught&comma; which was momentous&comma; but fairly predictable and not as exciting as it should&&num;8217&semi;ve been&period; The same can be said of the story between Anne and Lexi in the encampment&comma; as their family bickering was basically just a rehash of what we saw last week&period; However&comma; seeing Anne brutally assault her Espheni prisoner was surprising&comma; even more so once we discovered that&comma; through some kind of leftover psychic link&comma; she was actually hurting Ben&period; Another dark and surprising moment that showed just how far these characters are willing to go in order to get what they think they need&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; <em>Mind Wars<&sol;em> was a step in the right direction for <em>Falling Skies<&sol;em>&comma; and it took some much needed risks that paid off in a big way&period; The show still needs to iron out some of its storytelling techniques&comma; but in terms of its characters&comma; <em>Falling Skies<&sol;em> is getting better and better with each episode and I can only hope this trend continues going forward&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;