Falling Skies Season 5 (1 Viewer)

The fifth and final season premiere tonight. I didn't get a chance to watch it yet. What did you all think?

I watched Halt and Catch Fire but it's sitting on my DVR. I'm hoping to watch it later today.

Well, the season premiere was as frustratingly mediocre as ever. I was sorry we lost Dani, as she was one of the most interesting of the background characters. The Hal-Maggie-Ben love triangle didn't get any less tiresome in the last year.


Having Tom not be the infallible leader who's never wrong might be interesting, though. Certainly his use of Scotty's corpse was beyond brutal, a desecration if ever there was one.


The decision to light the battle in Woodrow Wilson High School solely with the rifle-mounted flashlights was a brilliant choice, and something you couldn't have gotten away with before digital shooting.


I also like that the Second Mass isn't the largest militia on Earth.


It still seems strange to me that we spent a tenth of the remaining story for the series on a battle in a high school, though, for the purpose of killing one low-level overlord. It would seem like on the home stretch every episode would be full of bigger plays.

My guess is they spent this episode showing us that Tom really has changed and is ready to do what it takes to win.

I find that whole love triangle a bit of forced story point. They had been showing Hal & Maggie's relationship growing for whole time. Then when they get close all of the sudden she is attracted to Ben. Which makes no sense since we never saw any of the formerly harnessed victims attracted to each other.


Glad they are getting in touch with other resistance groups. Hope you hear other tales of what those groups have done. Since it looks like the Mass has done some of the big "attacks" that have turned the tide. Plus, the fact they are in contact with alien allies.


On a side note. Does anyone hope for some kind of epilogue? A 5yrs later deal where we see whats happened to Earth since the end of the war. Maybe, Tom as the leader of the US or even a world gov.

After falling behind on this one, I just caught up with the season. I continue to be frustrated that, as we approach the halfway point of the final season tomorrow night, the 2nd Mass is still bogged down in Chinatown with episodic plot lines continuing to be introduced and resolved. Remi Aubuchon's tenure as showrunner proved that it's possible to make a season of "Falling Skies" with the 2nd Mass on the run. I think a lot of the character work, especially with Tom Mason and John Pope, is necessary for this final run, but I wish the backdrop of the battles being fought could have been higher stakes. Instead we hear over the Volm that all of the other militias are doing the heavy lifting of winning the war while the 2nd Mass is under siege. A classic failure of telling rather than showing.


The most interesting story thread this season is the emerging sense that Tom Mason is not infallible. Through the four seasons, Tom Mason was a Mary Sue who always knew the right thing to do, with the drama coming from the other lesser characters surrounding him being too human to simply fall in line and accede to his wisdom. This season Tom has become too hard, too angry, too willing to make the smart but ruthless call in service of the greater mission. Not only does this development make Tom a more interesting character to watch, but it gives the always terrific Will Patton more to do as the moral center of the show has shifted to Colonel Weaver. The exchange at the fire at the end of the third episode, when Tom has prioritized the immediate tactical objective over rescuing Sara with the result that the Espheni have gnawed her legs to the bone by the time Pope reaches her to save her, is wonderfully concise bit of dialog that says volumes:


"Do you think we should have gone to get her first?" Tom asks Weaver.
"No," Weaver responds, before adding: "I just remember a time when you would've."


The stuff with Pope is a mixed bag. On one hand the last two episodes have given Colin Cunningham a lot more colors to play with, highlighting just how much his significant talents have been underutilized. On the other hand, the shameless cribbing of Walter White's five season character arc -- down to the bald head and the episode title "Pope Breaks Bad" -- into two episodes does not make for a flattering comparison. When you're a show that's passable summer entertainment at best, don't hold up one of the greatest shows of the decade as your measuring stick.


The storyline with the brother and sister where the brother had been skitterized underlined for me the show's significant failing, especially in the David Eick era, to learn what's working and what's not and adapt accordingly. The sister was an interesting character in an interesting situation, and the young actress who played her was far more talented than the generally subpar child actors on the show. We lose her character, but Matt continues to stink up the joint with his middle school play level acting.


My theory that the aliens who are communicating with Tom through his memories of his dead wife are the skitters before they were transformed by the Espheni appears to have been validated, though some of the things that were said to Tom makes it seem more complicated than that.

todd s said:

On a side note. Does anyone hope for some kind of epilogue? A 5yrs later deal where we see whats happened to Earth since the end of the war. Maybe, Tom as the leader of the US or even a world gov.

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Definitely. If the show just ends with the final battle, with no exploration of the aftermath, I will feel cheated as a viewer.

I'm enjoying this final season. It's tense and uneasy, as I watch Mason risk his soul in a final attempt to save the world.

I wish the writers weren't so lazy. Pope and Sarah follow Skitters back towards the source. En route, Sarah is trapped. Tom is going exactly the same direction to the same source. But he go help Sarah because it's the opposite direction. WTF!?! The writers are discarding the facts of their story to force drama.

Cochise is dying. Why? Because the story now requires Volm drama.

Tom has snapped. Why? Because it's the final season. Not that the character has been brought to this spot by narrative. Or maybe it's because the alien is manipulating him, and the real Tom, would never have gone this route.

I enjoy Falling Skies. I like the final showdown between Pope and Mason. But the timing is bad, distracting from the final arc. And the disdain the show runners have for their audience can be off putting.

The episode at the farm felt like a real holding pattern episode which would have been ok much earlier in the show, but not when things should be accelerating down the home straight.

Really...we have like 5 episodes left and they are wasting them on episodes with the renegade soldiers. This base should have been the backup and re supply they need for the final battle.

After 5 seasons I want an epilogue showing what happens after the war. I just don't want to see the espheni stopped and the screen cut to credits.

todd s said:

Really...we have like 5 episodes left and they are wasting them on episodes with the renegade soldiers. This base should have been the backup and re supply they need for the final battle.

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Yes... another week, another manufactured conflict that does nothing to advance the endgame against the Espheni. Dingaan's work with the communications hub was the only thing that moved the larger plot forward, and that was less than five minutes of the episode.


It's just inexplicable to me. They had the rare privilege of knowing they were ending with an entire season left to tell the final chapter. And David Eick seems dead set on wasting it. There are three episodes left, and with next week's episode focused on resolving this week's cliffhanger (how much you want to bet that Overlord in the final shot is controlling Captain Marshall through whatever's making her neck bleed?) and presumably the week after that resolving Pope's feud with Tom Mason, that means what should have been a season long arc is going to get stuffed into the final hour, leaving us more or less exactly where we'd have been if TNT had dropped the cancellation news at the last minute.


(EDIT: Sidenote, Katie Marshall is definitely Melora Hardin in Jan Levinson nightmare mode, not Trudy Monk angel mode)

Well we got 2 episodes left and as Adam said one of them will be Tom having to deal with Pope. I guess it will be a quick rushed ending.....still hoping we get some kind of epilogue.

Then we have Hal who has been with Maggie for 4yrs and he meets this girl for one day and goes with her....Whhaaattt!?!

The thing about the two-parter is that it would have been a perfectly adequate storyline in a prior season, but it's absolutely infuriating as two of the last four episodes of the series. David Eick apparently learned very little about serialized storytelling from his collaboration with Ronald D. Moore on the reimagined "Battlestar Galactica".

Still a few episodes behind, but enjoying the show.

We've got lots of skitters, but what happened to the "Mechs"? Did I miss something last season?

We've got lots of skitters, but what happened to the "Mechs"? Did I miss something last season?

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Spoilers for anyone who hasn't watched the end of last season and this year's episodes, but to answer the question...

Spoiler

When Tom traveled to the moon at the end of last season, Lexi sacrificed herself and destroyed the Espheni power core on the moon, which was a centralized power source for the invasion. This had the affect of rendering the war machine powerless. This season the Espheni have adapted to the loss of their power core by using more organic / biological weapons systems.

I am in agreement with the critique that this season has been wasted in side plots while the central war against the Espheni has not received nearly enough screen time. Pretty poor storytelling; but I guess it is almost over.


- Walter.

Well that seemed like a waste of time with Pope. So it looks like the finale will be Mason getting captured and taken to the Queen where he will kill her with the bio weapon. Then the show will end. No post war epilogue. That just stinks. Hope I am wrong.

todd s said:

Well that seemed like a waste of time with Pope.

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I've got to believe that he survived that blast and is going to make an appearance at the Lincoln Memorial in the finale. Otherwise, it was an incredibly anticlimactic ending for the character.

So it looks like the finale will be Mason getting captured and taken to the Queen where he will kill her with the bio weapon.

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The fact that they had to introduce this bioweapon as a deus ex machina in the penultimate episode points to the severe shortcomings in the plotting for this season. They should have found out about the queen in the season premiere, and the whole season that followed should have been about putting the pieces in place to take her and the Espheni down. But instead we got, as the episode itself said, a "magic bullet" instead.


The stuff with faux-Lexi was heartbreaking, and justified a bit the setup of the prior two episodes with Captain Marshall. I feel a bit bad that Scarlett Byrne never really got to play Lexi as a character, though, since she was always first and foremost a plot device.


I would love it if the queen is played by Jessy Schram. The first and still best antagonist the show has had.

It's fun show to watch, but definitely time to come to an end. Kind of like "Under the Dome", it has exceded it's run and needs to bow out gracefully.

Pretty much in agreement with Adam and Stan's last posts. If Pope doesn't come back for the finale I will be surprised and dumbfounded.


Despite the weaknesses of the show this season (in particular), I will give the writers props for one thing. The idea of staging the final battle at the Lincoln Memorial is something I find appealing. It might be a bit heavy handed; but given the show's reliance (especially in the early years) on history it really feels like a choice that will resonate with viewers.


- Walter.

Ended how I thought it would...a 3 minute epilogue about a new world. I wanted to see more of the aftermath. They wasted time on 2 story plots. The first is the introduction of Jeff Fahey's character. Did his character do anything to advance the story? Then the death and resurrection of Ann. Just a time waster that would have been better spent on a longer epilogue.

First they went with the old contrivance of a cave in to separate Tom from the rest of our cast, so the fate of humanity again comes down to Tom and Tom alone. And then they go with the Phantom Menace ending, where one well aimed shot defeats an entire global army. Pope comes back long enough for Tom to put his honorable hat of noble back on, cue happy ending.


What a wasted opportunity this final season was. The first eight episodes should have been about the human resistance assembling the pieces to defeat the Espheni. The ninth episode should have been executing that plan, with not everything going right but enough going right to carry the day, and the tenth episode should have covered the aftermath.


I'm glad you got your epliogue, though, Todd -- however brief it ultimately was.