Falling Skies Season 1 Recap

So, the season premier of Falling Skies is tonight, and, in case you're human and can't play ten hours of catch up in less then twelve, or you just wanna reminisce, I've got you covered.

Spoilers, obviously, but that's kinda the point of this post.

So, Aliens, no only as the Skitters, invade Earth unprovoked. First, they wipe out all electronics, then the Skitters, along with their robo-soldiers called "Mechs" take out 90% of the human population in a few days. They kidnap kids and put biomechanical harnesses onto their backs that control them so they can be used for slave labor. About a year later, the only resistance groups are state militias, such as the 2nd Mass, which the show follows.

So, Tom Mason (Noah Wyle, Donnie Darko) becomes 2nd in Command of the 2nd Mass after the state militias divides. His wife is dead, and he's got three sons: Hal, whose in the resistance with him, Ben, who got kidnapped and harnessed, and Matt, whose like 8 years old. Other group members include top dog Weaver, former pediatrician and group doctor Anne Glass, a lovable older man known as Uncle Scott, Hal's girlfriend and fellow fighter Karen, 13 year old soldier Jimmy and his dog Nemo, fighter and rider Dai, and fighter Mike Thompson, whose son is also harnessed. The team sets up shop/camp in an abandoned high school.

During a food run, Hal sees a bunch of harnessed kids, including Ben. But Weaver, being the jerk he is, says they can't get him until they get more weapons. Up until then, they hadn't even had a way to remove the harnesses without killing the kids, but then Dr. Harris, an old friend of Tom's shows up and says he has a way. And then you find out it's kinda Harris's fault that Tom's wife is dead. As for how well Tom reacted to that, I'll leave that to your imaginations.

When they get weapons from and old stash, the group runs into charismatic ex-con John Pope and his gang, which includes people who are clearly serve no purpose other than to get shot by sort of hostage Margaret (Sarah Carter, aka Jo from Supernatural) who REALLY wants to get away from Pope. She gets the chance when Pope heads out to raid the 2nd Mass and she, along with Hal and Glass, get to escape, but in the process, Karen gets nabbed by the Skitters. By the end of that story, Pope is now a prisoner of the 2nd Mass and Margaret is in the resistance.

Tom, Hal, Margaret, Dai, and Mike go to get Ben from the Skitters, but when they see Mike's son Rick, Mike winds up grabbing Rick instead and they have to leave. Tom winds up taking a Skitter as a POW, and only good things can come from that scenario. After de-harnessing Rick, it becomes obvious the harness did something to him, because he seems to want the harness back. Gee, wait to be grateful, Rick. In other shocking developments, Pope becomes the 2nd Mass's chef.

Then Pope goes and escapes during a run to get some bikes, but not before making some damn good bread for everyone.

And then another rescue mission goes through. This time all that harnessed kids, including Ben, get rescued after Hal's crazy-ass plan somehow doesn't end in death. The good news is that Ben, unlike Rick, isn't a total ingrate. But, once again, the harness clearly did something to him, seeing how former math geek Ben is now in peak physical condition. The guy does 104 push ups after getting maybe four hours of sleep and jumps rope for like 2 and a half hours, for crying out loud. Oh, and the spikes from his harness are still in his back, same with Rick.

After a run in with an all around former freedom fighter and all around bad guy who was selling kids to the Skitters in exchange for safety, Pope rejoins the group and Mike is left dead. Rick had no comment other then apparently he thinks he and Ben are actually Skitters.

On a recon mission, Tom, Hal, and Weaver see a totally different kind of alien that appear to be the Skitters bosses. Weaver nearly has a mental breakdown, Hal does not take it well when he sees a harnessed Karen, and Glass rather unceremoniously discovers that the harnesses actually slowly turn humans into Skitters, which is quite the buzzkill for Tom when he finds out.

In the two-part season finale, Weaver leads a mission to take out the Skitters tower in Boston, while Tom has to defend the camp from the oncoming Mechs using Pope's bullets made of Mech metal. How do the Mechs know where the camp is? Rick sells them out thinking he'll be re-harnessed, but no cigar. Fortunately, the kid realizes that he is human and the tough guys do cry after being ripped off. Uncle Scott, meanwhile, starts using radio frequencies to mess up the Mechs and Skitters, which communicate over radio-frequencies, but the signal hurts Ben like hell. Long story short, he was at the early stages of transformation when he was de-harnessed. Once again, the ultimate buzzkill.

Anyway, after fighting back the Mechs, Tom goes into town to find Weaver on his way back from the attack. They launch a bazooka at the Skitter tower, which leads to a nice explosion. But, on the way back to camp, a ship lands right in front of them. A commander alien for which we do not yet have a name and a harnessed Karen tell Tom that they didn't expect this level of resistance and that he'd better come with them or they will go after Ben. Tom knows they're telling the truth, and gets on the ship, leaving Weaver with his jaw on the ground.

So, that is the first season in semi-detail. If that sounds cool to you, check out the second season premier tonight on TNT.

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