Falling Skies - Shoot the Moon - Review

   

     With Tom & Lexi off on a space adventure, the rest of the Second Massachusetts is left to combat a new type of enemy. Dingaan was lucky enough (or unlucky enough depending on how you look at it) to see the Espheni’s new method of creating human skitters (On a side note, who would want to create human skitters? Aren’t the regular skitters fast enough?). Even after Dingaan’s warning, a few of the nameless idiots of the Second Massachusetts (and Pope!) were dumb enough to let themselves get caught in the mist. I found the mist to be a cool threat. However, I couldn’t help but ask why the Espheni haven’t used that sticky mist stuff before? Nitpicking aside, the writers used a great plot device to impose a threat on the characters. With the entire cast split up into small groups , they were forced to fight off the human skitter makers. I enjoyed the love triangle team working together, but was completely bored with Matt & Weaver’s cheesy chant. Similarly I thought forcing Pope to bite into the “earthworm on human growth hormone” to save Dingaan was hilarious, while the fact that Anne just happened to have a flamethrower was just plain stupid.

     While the Second Massachusetts faces off against the new Espheni threat, Tom and Lexi have problems of their own. Whether it be trusting each other or understanding what their actual plan is, Tom and Lexi are less than an effective team. Standing in front of an unprotected overlord with a gun, Tom is too slow to simply shoot him and Lexi’s powers are deemed utterly useless in space. While I found the start of this section of the episode to be a bit underwhelming, the fight scene on the ship was well done and the drama between Lexi & Tom was excellent. Their scenes in this episode were arguably the best the show has had in a while.

     I’m disappointed that Lexi will not be in the next season because of the amount of potential that her character had, but I’m also happy that the writers will be able to move past her character next season. I say this, not only because as they go into the final season, the show will find new footing, but also because the ending to this episode was quite good. With Lexi out of the picture, the Volm’s entire force on the way back, and the Espheni greatly weakened, the writers should be able to start moving towards a good conclusion to the story.

     Overall, this was not the amazing season that I expected after having watched the first episode of the season. Lexi’s character, while well acted by the beautiful Scarlett Byrne, had an arc that was simply not as cool as it should have been. I expected a lot more from her character as she was an Espheni/Human hybrid but the writers stuck her with cheesy dialogue, a slow paced introduction, and a confused storyline. The season started off with a perfect 10/10 score and has unfortunately fallen to a 7.9/10 for the finale. It certainly was not the worst episode of the series, but it was far from the best as well.

Rating: 7.9/10

About the Author - Brandon Rowe

Brandon is a freshman in college and enjoys watching a lot of TV. Brandon likes to write articles about his favorite shows which include Falling Skies, The Bridge, 24, Suits, and more than can be written on this page. Brandon also managed the "In the Hot Seat" competition here on SpoilerTV in 2012 and would like to do it again in 2015 if possible. Feel free to use the Facebook, Twitter, or G+ links below to contact him.

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