Falling Skies #4-07 Recap: Casaulties of War

<p>After the previous episode&&num;8217&semi;s intriguing setup regarding Lexi&&num;8217&semi;s alien transformation&comma; but frustrating character drama&comma; <em>Falling Skies<&sol;em> came back with an episode that finally began to take advantage of the new season&&num;8217&semi;s potential&period; <em>Saturday Night Massacre<&sol;em> started off with a satisfying bang&comma; and kicked things into high-gear by immediately delving into the aftermath of whatever Lexi&&num;8217&semi;s transformation did to her&period; Not only have her powers been upgraded&comma; but she seems to have lost touch with even more of her humanity than ever before&comma; although I&&num;8217&semi;m sure things won&&num;8217&semi;t be as black and white as they seem at first glance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Still&comma; Lexi killing Lourdes like she did seems to leave little hope for Lexi still being on the side of her human family&comma; and while <em>Falling Skies<&sol;em> will probably find some way to rationalize it&comma; I almost hope they don&&num;8217&semi;t&comma; as seeing Tom&comma; Anne&comma; and Hal struggle with Lourdes&&num;8217&semi; death was some of the season&&num;8217&semi;s best moments so far&period; Even though Lourdes herself has never been a very consistent character&comma; I appreciated seeing Anne and Hal genuinely mourn her loss&comma; as they have both had their own unique friendships with her over the past couple seasons&period; It was a somber and touching moment to see unfold&comma; and no matter what becomes of Lexi and her relationship with the Mason family in the future&comma; I hope that this event isn&&num;8217&semi;t just glossed over and forgotten about&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From there&comma; however&comma; the plot quickly moved on&comma; as the 2nd Mass spent a considerable portion of the episode preparing for an assault from Espheni forces&period; The invasion event seemed a bit random at first&comma; but it lead to some fun and intense&comma; albeit brief&comma; action sequences later on&period; <em>Falling Skies<&sol;em> has sometimes stumbled in creating tangible suspense&comma; but this time saw a definite improvement&comma; as the tension leading up to the Espheni attack felt a lot more real&comma; and paid off in a really satisfying way in the end&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m still waiting for the show to make me emotionally connect with the main characters more&comma; but in terms of its action and set pieces&comma; <em>Saturday Night Massacre<&sol;em> was very entertaining&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;09&sol;05072751&sol;04046557046c49b5c9445f5699410d79&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-66719 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;09&sol;05072751&sol;04046557046c49b5c9445f5699410d79&period;jpg" alt&equals;"FS-aftermath" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"335" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While it did come to an abrupt end&comma; with a gas leak leading to a giant explosion that killed both Espheni and members of the 2nd Mass&comma; I appreciated just how much of an effect the invasion had on everybody&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s starting to become clear that the 2nd Mass is cracking at its core&comma; with Maggie&&num;8217&semi;s disappearance and the loss of Lourds&comma; Dr&period; Kadar&comma; and Tector all bringing the survivors even closer to their breaking point&period; And speaking of Tector&comma; I was genuinely disappointed to see him leave the show&comma; as he&&num;8217&semi;s been a really great character this season&comma; and his sacrifice at the end actually caught me off-guard&period; He was a clever and thankfully levelheaded character&comma; and I&&num;8217&semi;ll probably miss seeing him the most out of all the characters we&&num;8217&semi;ve lost so far this season&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There were still a few issues I had with the episode though&comma; with the obvious one being the side-plot regarding Ben&&num;8217&semi;s attempt to chase after Lexi and bring her back home&period; This was a heavily underused addition to the episode that felt oddly out of place amidst everything else&comma; and it really didn&&num;8217&semi;t go anywhere meaningful&period; While Ben being taken to the alien mothership with Lexi could prove interesting&comma; it was so rushed that I almost wish it had been saved for a future episode where the repercussions could&&num;8217&semi;ve been better understood&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Other than that though&comma; <em>Saturday Night Massacre<&sol;em> was the most effective and enjoyable episode <em>Falling Skies<&sol;em> has released this season&comma; and the action and suspense really lived up to the episode&&num;8217&semi;s bold title&period; Even though the character&&num;8217&semi;s who died weren&&num;8217&semi;t influential to the plot&comma; the effect their loss had on the rest of the cast imbued the story with a much needed level of reality and drama that I hope to see continue with the remaining episodes of the season&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;