Falling Skies Recap: “Collateral Damage”

by Merrill Barr:

Falling Skies Recap: “Collateral Damage”
Original Air Date (TNT): June 9, 2013
Season 3 Episode 2

That baby creeping’ anyone else out? No, just me? Cool.

Having seen all the ground work that was laid in the previous one, it can easily be assumed this is the kind of episode the writers will be using to fill time between addressing major plot points in the show. The Volm will come to Tom and his military consultants with intel, and the Berserkers (led by Weaver or Tom himself) will carry out the objective, the objective in this case being the destruction of a nuclear facility the Espheni are using to fuel the mechs and megamechs.

Of course that plan is easier said than done for a few different reasons. The first being the fact that the facility can’t simply be destroyed without causing a nuclear melt-down, cue Dr. Roger Kadar (played by a completely unrecognizable Robert Sean Leonard), a nuclear scientist and agoraphobic providing electricity to Charleston. Kadar informs Tom and Weaver than the only way to bring down the facility is with a controlled demolition, and because of this, Kadar must be convinced to come along on the mission to help guide the team.

Then of course there’s the “mole” element. Because of this fact, Tom and Weaver come up with the brilliant(?) plan of using the Berserkers as bait while Tom and his team infiltrate the facility, which of course ends up leading to casualties on the human side. But what the episode does brilliantly is further expand upon the Espheni fighting force within the world. The harnessed children of the last two seasons have begun mutating in extreme ways, to the point where now an attack from them can be toxic to normal humans, an element I’m sure will be explored in future episodes.

While Collateral Damage does have an episode specific A plot, there’s still plenty to chew on outside of it, one of those elements being that creepy, rapidly growing baby Anne gave birth to a week ago. Unfortunately, there’s nothing to really speculate on at the moment, instead we just get to marvel at her creepiness… but she wasn’t the only Mason child running amuck in this episode. Matt has begun letting his delinquent adolescence come out and play by blowing up the side of a house (something he is immediately caught doing). This leads to a new thread, the classic battle of kid vs step-mom, a thread which (for the moment) is quickly resolved with a tearful Mason family hug at the end of the episode.

And speaking of the Mason family, let’s talk for a moment about Hal. While I expected the whole wheel chair thing to take up a few episodes, to my surprise, the thread was resolved just one episode after its introduction. But I do honestly hope there’s more to it than what is presented because if there isn’t, it makes me wonder what it’s purpose was in the first place. In all honesty, there were simpler ways to say Hal’s mind was rejecting Karen’s probe (although now we know those dreams weren’t dreams).

Finally there’s the third Mason boy, Ben, who like in the last episode is left… not doing much of anything. Clearly the writers are building something with his new buddy Denny, but until that relationship is given a few more episodes to gestate, there’s not much to discuss.

And let’s not forget the big reveal at the end, a reveal I hope isn’t dragged out for too long. The Espheni are planning a retaliation attack on Charleston for the destruction of the nuclear facility. Now as we’ve already learned, the Espheni have tried attacking Charleston three times in the past to no avail (mostly thanks to the Volm weaponry), this makes me wonder why Tom and Weaver are so concerned this time around, because the Espheni are coming with more forces? That would have always seemed like a logical next step if they were ever attacked again. We’ll just have to wait and see.

All and all, this was a solid one-off episode of Falling Skies that did introduce some new elements that should make for some more fun side-missions in the future.