[sc:bctop]

The penultimate episode of Falling Skies was chalk full of surprises! From the Dornia ship to Lexi’s return to Anthony regaining his sanity, our favorite alien invasion drama television show really feels like it’s coming to a close. It won’t end before everything comes to a head, though, and we know things need to get a little worse before they can get better. In this installment of Berserker Cast, Darrell and Emilee (me), discuss season 5 episode 9 entitled: “Reunion.”

I expressed on the podcast how low it was for the writers to go here with Lexi. After everything that has happened to the Masons, they were not afraid to push the knife in a little bit farther. As if we needed a reason to hate the Espheni any more! In many ways, Falling Skies has similarities to End Times prophecies in the Christian Bible. Not in every way, of course, but certain themes, such as this one, remind me of the many warnings against deception in the end times. There are warnings of false prophets and, of course, of the Antichrist, but also of Satan’s commitment to deceiving the inhabitants of the world until the very end. He does not want God to win, and does not want people to obtain the destiny God set in motion from the beginning, and so he deceives people so that they might lose sight of God’s promise to redeem the Earth.

[The beast] performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. Revelation 13:13-14

This passage just reminds me of how Lexi is used in this episode. Of course, the Espheni desire is to kill Tom, the head of the snake, but they have come to understand humans and how they can be manipulated through love. Using Lexi as the next clone to infiltrate the 2nd Mass thus serves two purposes: to get close to Tom and to distract members of the 2nd Mass long enough for them to let their guard down. There is a desperate need to remain vigilant through this time and not be distracted by the “smoke and mirrors” that the Espheni are putting up (great words from Colonel Weaver). Because that is really the only ploy they have left now. Humans are gathering numbers and can take on Espheni forces. Deception really is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

Another not-so-surprising reunion concerned that of the most controversially-handled character of the season. Perhaps of any TV show in my repertoire, in fact. We have not been shy about expressing our dislike for Pope’s arc this season, it has been disappointing from start to finish. However, toward the end of the podcast I was beginning to see another side to Pope’s storyline, one that isn’t absolutely fulfilling, but might at least help me to cope with the changes he’s undergone. As a fan of television, of stories, I like to be entertained and I like to see resolution. I like to see the impossible come to fruition and I like to see happy endings. Happy endings aren’t always fulfilling, and I acknowledge that, but it doesn’t change the fact that I want the people I’ve come to care about obtain what I believe they deserve.

When I think back about Pope, I don’t think I fully allow myself to think about the truly depraved nature of his beginnings. Pope was never a “good guy”; he was a criminal, a selfish lowlife, and quite possibly a rapist. That is the implication, anyway. In season four, as we’ve talked about, there was an intentional push to draw Pope into the family dynamic of the 2nd Mass. But on the scale of which Pope he’s been for a longer amount of time, Family Man Pope was a mere breath in comparison to Criminal Pope. One person can make a difference in our lives, but can we really say that the person changed us for the better if we resort to the person we were before after they’ve gone? Sarah brought out the best in Pope, and we saw that there was a good side to him, but that is not who Pope really is.

In that same vein, I don’t believe that the insane Pope is the real Pope either, but the depraved nature is certainly more in line with the Pope we were introduced to way back in episode 2 of season 1. It’s just interesting to me to think of it that way because when I do, I don’t know if I want Pope to be redeemed, nor to I think that it would be fulfilling to see him redeemed. If Pope really is dead, maybe his end was fitting. Maybe it was appropriately anticlimactic. Lord Voldemort’s death was appropriately climactic, but the death itself was not. In that final chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rowling writes:

““Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing.”
Excerpt From: J. K. Rowling. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

In the end, Voldemort is drug out of the Great Hall and set apart from the other dead because he was still flesh, even though he’d mutilated his soul. His body had to be disposed of like every other dead person. Dead is dead.

If he’s not dead… I’m sure we’ll have plenty to say on that next week.

Finally, I never got a really great look at what the Dornia actually look like until this episode, so here is a screencap of the lone survivor. I can see how the Skitters were transformed from that figure. I like the almost translucent nature of the epidermal layer, and that it sort of has a body like a human. It seems to me that when the creature is out of focus from Tom, that is when it’s true form appears. But it is able to force its illusion on Tom when he’s focused on it.

Next week
The FINAL episode of FALLING SKIES! WOW!! Entitled “Reborn”.

Feedback
You have ONE WEEK remaining to send us any reactions you’ve had about Falling Skies EVER. Whether it’s one line or five minutes of ranting and raving, we want to hear from you! Please use our feedback page to make that happen!

[sc:bc]