Episode Report Card Potes: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT What's the Frequency, Benneth?
By Potes | Season 1 | Episode 9 | Aired on 08.07.2011
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.In the second part of the Falling Skies finale, everyone makes the mistake of leaving Scott alone with the radio transmitter and Rick attacks him! From the ceiling! Scott isn't dead, though, and soon everyone knows that Rick was the alien-loving culprit. Rick should really learn to finish a job. Ben goes to find Rick, and Rick says he knows Ben can hear the aliens calling. Ben wants the Skitters out of his head, but Rick really wants the harness back. He thinks that Ben wants it back too, and proposes that they go off together and find their spidery step-parents. Ben is not into this plan, and he chases Rick as he tries to run off. No one can stop Rick, but Ben almost gets shot by a crazy guy while trying.
Rick makes it into the woods and finds our old friend Megan, who's starting to turn scaly like a Skitter. Rick wants to go back with them, and Megan says that first he has to tell them everything about the Second Mass. Rick, of course, is such a fool that he does, and Tom finds him yelling for Megan to come back. Turns out that she left him, because the Skitters don't really want him, either. Rick occupies two worlds, and belongs in neither. Wah wah. Rick gains some sympathy from Tom when he says how much he misses his dad. That sympathy is soon lost, however, when Tom learns that Rick gave the Second Mass up for real. Inexplicably, he doesn't avail himself of this perfect opportunity to shoot Rick execution-style.
Meanwhile, the Second Mass fighters are on the road, but the Fourth and Fifth Mass don't show up at their meeting point. This probably means that they're already dead. Weaver tells everyone to make their own decision about going forward, and Hal is one of the first in. Weaver breaks them into four squads, and tells them that at 2100 hours they are to light their bomb fuses and get out, and then everyone goes back to the school on foot. I can't tell you why they'd have to go on foot. Also, judging by my calculations, that's like a 26 mile walk. And Weaver claims that he's no longer a speed freak!
Tom returns from the woods to tell everyone else that the Skitters know where to find them. I wish he would just say that it's Rick's fault so everyone would tear him limb from Skittery limb. In any case, they're going to evacuate the civilians, and Tom and a small group of volunteers will stay behind to try to hold off the aliens. Of course the best soldiers have already gone with Weaver, but this just provides Tom with ample opportunity for a historical parallel and really long quote. I'm sure it was very inspirational in person. Meanwhile, Weaver orders Hal to go back to the Second Mass and tell them that the Fourth and Fifth are gone, and that they should evacuate. He and the other soldiers will go forward, to give the remaining civilians hope that they can draw blood from the aliens. Wait, so the best way to give people hope that they can win a post-apocalyptic war is to send all of your best soldiers on a suicide mission? Okay, then.
And then in the middle of the evacuation freaking Matt needs a father-son talk. What an asshole. Sarah and her baby are doing fine, though, FYI. With Mechs inside a mile, Ben insists on staying and helping Scott figure out the frequency stuff, since the Skitters keep changing it up. Tom is dubious, but eventually realizes that it's probably the only way Scott's cockamamie plan has a chance of working. A Mech attacks, and the fighters left at the Second Mass get a chance to try out their Mech bullets. And they work! After firing quite a few shots, the Mech falls. But then. The whole building starts shaking, and there's half a dozen or so Mechs coming down the road. Scott and Ben work on the frequencies, but determine that their signal is too weak. They need a bigger antenna. Ben suggests a flagpole, and goes out to clamp a connector to it. And then it totally works! The Mechs get confused by the frequency situation and retreat.
Hal makes it back to deliver the message about the Fourth and Fifth, and tell everyone that Weaver and his fighters are going ahead with the mission anyway. He says that the roads were clear, which is further evidence that the frequency jamming worked. Tom decides to take the radio to the structure and help the men in the field, but he doesn't want to take Ben along. That makes zero sense. What makes more sense is that Tom takes a minute to start making out with Anne! On the lips! She gets a little post-apocalyptic tingle.
When Tom gets near the structure he finds Pope with Anthony. Both have been injured, and so Tom gives them the car to go back to the school. Pope saw Weaver leave for the structure but never heard a bomb go off, and so the outlook for him is not so optimistic. Pope can't figure why the Skitters didn't finish them off. It was the magic frequency, of course! He leaves Tom with the rocket propelled grenade, armed with a fancy Mech bullet.
Soon, Tom finds Weaver alive, though wounded. Weaver says that a ship took them out, and that their bomb is no good. They're really close to the Skitter Bay Luxury Condos now, and Tom decides to take a shot while the aliens are still confused due to the jammed frequency. And then, I shit you not, Tom fires the RPG and hits an alien ship, which then flies directly into one of the arms of the Skitter condos and sets it on fire. I mean, not that this show has ever been overly concerned with plausibility, but he might as well have flung an Angry Bird to take the whole thing down. This finale is the worst.
On the way back to the school, Tom and Weaver run into harnessed Karen. She says that the aliens brought her here because they don't understand. And then a big, skinny alien gets out. Karen says that they didn't expect resistance on this level, and find it interesting. They just want to talk. Tom and Weaver both freak out like so many Tom Cruises to a glib Matt Lauer. They point their guns, and Karen tells them not to kill the alien because of Ben. He's not free from the process, and they'll call him back unless Tom goes with them. Even Weaver isn't enough of a speed freak to buy this plan, but Tom starts to walk with Karen to the ship. Does anyone else have "The Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind" stuck in their head?
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We open with Uncle Scott tooling around with his radio and telling Tom that the Skitters must have changed their communication frequency again. He says that if they find the right signal, they should be able to stop the Skitters and Mechs right in their tracks. And spoiler: This is exactly what happens! And here we've thought all season long that Uncle Scott was just an annoying, folksy old fart in a fishing vest who enjoyed twiddling around with vintage electronics. But nay! He is an alien-fighting genius. Much like how all the action of the penultimate episode could have taken place in exactly eight minutes, this episode could end right here and be just as satisfying.
Anne comes walking in, probably because she needs to talk to Tom as always. Oh, actually he needs to talk to her this time. Tom tells Anne how Ben can hear the radio signals and she's basically like, "Weird. I got nothin'." Anne wonders if Tom thinks that Scott's idea could work, and he just says that Scott is hopeful and Hail Mary passes seem to be the order of the day. Another spoiler: He is not kidding. Tom whines that setting gun positions and barricades and coming up with an evacuation plan is a long way from the lecture hall. But Tom's primary skill is turning any place in which he stands into a lecture hall! Way to adapt, buddy. Anne knows that Tom is worried about Hal, but says that he's a smart kid and will back off if Weaver's mission isn't right. The thing is, we already know that Weaver's mission isn't right! And Hal volunteered for it! Though Hal LOOKS like he's 35, we must remember that he's really only 16. Tom agrees with me, and says he knows that Hal will follow it through if he can, because Tom himself would do the same thing. He notes that it should be about eight hours until Weaver and the fighters go in and says he just wants to get through the day. That's exactly what I say at, like, 10:15 a.m. during a normal work day. There's usually not a good possibility that everyone I know will be dead by 6:00, though.
Scott starts squawking because the generator is out of gas, which I guess means the radio won't work. Tom thinks there's a spare can in the storeroom, and asks Ben to give him a hand with it. Anne heads back to the clinic, which means Scott is alone in the principal's office. He stands there being a doddering old guy per usual as a shadow passes over his face. You can tell he's getting a creepy feeling, and so turns around to see Rick scrambling backwards up the wall! From a corner of the ceiling, Rick says, "I won't let you hurt them," and launches himself right at Scott! Yeah! Best moment of the episode by far, and it happened less than two minutes in.