This week’s episode of Falling Skies seemed a lot simpler and easy to follow than the season premier. That being said, this episode in no way lacked important revelations. We’re already seeing some plot lines advancing much further than we though; but that only makes us fear about what’s to come. Mankind has 48 hours before the Espheni’s latest plan kicks into actions. Is there anything they can do; or is it already too late?

Group 1 – A Ghost Of a Chance (Tom, Weaver, Hal, and Pope):

It looks like business as usual when the episode begins. Tom and Weaver are still in solitary; yet Tom’s sneaking out to be the vigilante known as Ghost. Though the situation is quickly changed when the Overlord releases all the prisoners from solitary for a special announcement. Greeted by a harnessed young adult, the slum residents are told that their food rations won’t be delivered unless they turn over Ghost.

The situations quickly gets worse as people start fighting over the little remaining food that remains. Even Pope has only managed to hide away 8 cans of beans. They know they wont last so Tom develops a plan that will not only restore their food rations, but might also lead to their escape.

Hal introduces Tom to Dingaan, the mysterious man from Johannesburg, South Africa we met last episode. Not only does Dingaan seem trustworthy; but he is also brilliant. All of his past attempts have been successful due to his building of a Faraday suit – a suit that negates electricity by rerouting it around the suit. Tom knows that there will never be enough suits for everyone, so he decides to merge this item with his preexisting plan of taking down the wall.

After going on board the Eye in the Sky – the Espheni surveillance ship – Tom realizes that if they can sever the tether, then the wall will come down. It’s going to take some teamwork; but it might just be possible to break the wall and then sneak everyone out through an underground tunnel Pope and Weaver found – that is currently cut off by the electric fence.

Checking In With The Volm:

While devising a plan of action, Dingaan tells Tom that he has an old fashion transmitter that could be used to radio someone on the outside. Tom uses this opportunity to contact Cochise, who is still traveling with the other Volm recon teams.

Cochise has learned that the Espheni have indeed begun work on a new power source; but unlike the last two, this one will be made for full on offensive capabilities rather than defense/signal jamming. What the new Espheni war machine looks like, we don’t know; but thankfully Cochise had some good news too. His team has found groups of children being sent to a facility nearby, which they believe is where Tom;s youngest son Matt is being held. Cochise promises Tom that he’ll leave for Matt’s location very soon – which is good because Matt’s going to need all the help he can get.

Group 2 – Problems At Camp Espheni (Matt):

As for how things are going at Camp Espheni, Matt’s fitting in and even has a little girlfriend it seems; but Matt’s situation is starting to deteriorate quickly. While on his way to another resistance meeting, Matt discovers one of his friends is gone. On the bright side we get confirmation that Team Leader is indeed a bad guy – there was always a 5% chance to the contrary.

Matt’s going to have to be more careful about his meeting, especially now that Team Leader will be keeping an eye on him. Though the problems don’t end there. One of the brainwashed kids received a message from her parents and is going to go off to meet her folks with the sole intent of turning them all in. I don’t know how much more Matt can take of this, so hopefully Cochise gets there before Matt snaps.

Group 3 – Team Anne (Anne and Anthony):

Speaking of people snapping, Anne’s pushing the boundaries of ‘desperate mother’ and is becoming even more unhinged with each passing moment. Between running her team ragged and killing a defenseless skitter – while one of her team members was mentally linked with it – Anne’s desperation to find Lexi is outweighing the needs of everyone else around her. Again, this is to be expected of a mother searching for her child; but these are not the qualities a leader should exhibit in a situation such as this.

When Anne went to apologize to Denny for not considering Denny’s mental state while connected to the murdered Skitter, it seems rehearsed – like Anne is just repeating someone else’s words. When we see Anthony looking at this exchange, it becomes almost certain that he is the one who told Anne to apologize. Anne doesn’t seem to get what she is putting her team through. Hopefully Anthony will take over control soon.

Beyond Anne’s blatant disregard for her team’s welfare, we get some important information from Denny who was linked with the Skitter. When Anne was asking about the ‘hybrid’, the Skitter became afraid and a darkness ‘came from the West’. Whether this darkness is fear of the Hybrid or the greater threat – that I’ll talk about shortly – remains to be seen. All we know is something bad is coming for Humans, Volm, and Espheni.

Group 4 – Team Cult Lexi (Ben, Maggie, Lordes, Lexi):

Remember when Lordes used to be a really cool character who always stepped up to the challenge and was the moral compass of the group? Yah, well she’s not going back to that any time soon. The eye worms might be gone, but Lordes is still acting just as crazy as ever.

The good news is that this whole ‘sanctuary’ isn’t an illusion being fed into Ben’s subconscious. The bad news is that 90% of the sanctuary is crazy for Lexi and have started worshipping her as their God – and Lordes is the nut behind it all. Ever since Lexi predicted lightning to strike that Mech, Lordes hasn’t allowed anyone tp come near her, especially Dr Kader who was previously monitoring Lexi’s rapid growth spurts.

When this is first brought up, it seems as though Lordes is just protecting Lexi and hnoroing her wishes; but as the episode progresses we see Lordes is the one assuming power. She blatantly remarks how only she (Lordes) can consent to what Lexi should do – not her brother or even Lexi herself.

Whatever this cult is doing, Lordes is the main instigator of it; and there’s no telling what she might do next. We’ve already seen how she holds the power of the mob and threatened Ben multiple times. I’m fairly certain she try to kill Kader – or Ben – soon. In fact, I was afraid she was going to do it this episode.

After all the madness with Lordes and Lexi’s screaming blood, Maggie sees that Ben is still his old self and that she can trust him. These two have another ‘moment’; but nothing decisive yet. Either way, we know some awkwardness is coming between these two; but considering what we just witnessed from the rest of the ‘sanctuary’, Ben and Maggie getting together is the least of the problems.

The Espheni’s True Plan:

 While Tom was doing some recon during his time on the Eye in the Sky, he met the new Overlord in charge of Charleston area; and we got some startling news for where this season is going. It turns out the Espheni have been after a much different enemy this entire time. The humans, Volm and all the other species they took over were just stepping stones in order to prepare for a much greater enemy – a “common enemy”.

What the Overlord meant by this – and if this is the same thing as the ‘darkness from the West’ that Skitter was talking – is still a mystery; but there are more pressing issues at hand. The Overlord also talked to Tom about how they have given up on harnessing children as the process takes too long and the results are too varied. Instead, the Espheni have decided to use human adults and transform them to suit their needs.

What the Overlord means by this is also unclear; but we know that it’s already begun and the transformation will be complete within 48 hours. Oddly enough, 48 hours is equal to two days; and two episodes from now we have an episode entitled “Evolve or Die”. The time frame seems too perfect to ignore. We’ll have our answers soon; but you have to wonder if there’s anything Tom and the others can do to escape this.

The Overlord said that the process has already begun and anyone who refuses to serve will do so in a less conscious matter. It seems like whether they want to or not, the transformation will take place one way or another. The only thing that remains is allegiances; and the Espheni already have a plan for that.

The final bit of info we learned is that the Black Hornets are actually further mutated Skitters who have had all freewill removed. The test subjects for these were the rebellious Skitters we met in the past two seasons. If the Espheni could bring these rebels back into the fold; then a similar fate probably awaits the evolved humans as well.

Theory Check #1 – Bridge Between the Species:

Last week I gave my theory about Lexi and her role as the bridge between the species. Well, some got major support this episode; whereas other parts took a slight step to the right.

In case we didn’t know it before – with the extracting eye worms, crushing them, reflecting moonlight, rapid aging etc – Lexi has powers; but not all seem miraculous. After Dr Kader took Lexi’s blood and Lordes stormed in creating a commotion, Lexi’s blood erupted out of the test tube and scattered across the wall screaming. If this seemed Espheni, we got our confirmation a little later on.

It appears that Lexi powers are from the Espheni as we saw her talking to an Overlord in disguise and begging it to ‘take away her powers’. This Espheni is most likely the ‘higher power’ she was referring to earlier when Ben was questioning Lexi about listening to Lordes. We don’t know if this Espheni is a rebel – its possible – or like all the others. Ben mentioned how Lexi’s innocence makes her an easy target for manipulation and this Espheni is making full use of it.

It’s still hard to know what species of Alien Lexi is merged with (Volm or Espheni); but as Dr Kader said “1 + 1 = 3”. This not only demonstrates that new traits can emerge from nothing; but also incorporates the three warring races.

The final thing to note from last time is my theory that the symbol on the tree in ‘The Enemy Within’ mini-webisodes was the inverse of Lexi’s necklace that only showed the spots where the rings intersect. At the end of this episode we saw Lexi make this design before the Espheni, which would trace the tree symbol back to the Espheni. Throw in the fact that this episode gave us the idea of brainwashed kids operating as recon troops in human rebel groups, and the whole ‘Enemy Within” series was definitely an Espheni spy.

Theory Check #2 – Don’t Eat the Food

The other theory I came up with last week was that there was something in the food. We didn’t get any confirmation this episode; however, we did hear the Overlord mention that the plans for the human evolution had already begun and it was unstoppable. Again, this would be perfectly explained if whatever the Espheni were going to use was in the food.

As for whether all humans would be changed is unclear yet. Maybe something else has to be added to the equation. The Espheni seemed pretty adamant about Tom not being one of the evolved freewill-less humans. They instead want him to serve as the human link between the Espheni and their new and improved soldiers.

Whatever is going to happen, it’s coming soon. Lexi even confirms that everyone will be reunited soon; but we’ve yet to see if their reunion will be under good or bad circumstances. Overall, I was happy with this episode. It was much simpler to follow than the last even though it kept cycling through all the splintered groups. This season honestly looks like a lot of fun. I’m just nervous to see what this 3^rd alien species will be and how/if the Espheni try to explain away their attempted genocides.