TV Review: TNT’s Falling Skies 4×3, “Exodus”

There are certain movies that most types of people can get behind:  bank robbery movies and prison escape movies.  It is funny to realize this, given that bank robbers and those escaping from prisons can be seen as bad guys, but you generally root for them anyway.  It may come down to a natural desire to see the defiance of authority and see the little guy win, but regardless, it tends to be quite exciting.  In “Exodus,” we get to spend a lot of time watching Tom Mason lead a full scale escape form the ghetto and it is in fact very exciting.  All the pieces are setup nicely and it pays off well.  We check in with the other groups too, but it is fairly inconsequential, compared to the enjoyment of Tom pulling a Steve McQueen with a brighter outcome on this week’s Falling Skies.

The majority of this episode does revolve around Tom Mason and company explaining their plan to escape the ghetto and following through with it, so that is mainly what I want to talk about.  There is not much to say about the other groups this week, but real quick:  Matt is going to deal with some heavier re-education at the Espheni/Hitler Youth camp, thanks to his decision to keep Mira safe and own up to stealing wire cutters that he did not steal.  Also, Ben, Lexi, Maggie, and silly Lourdes get angry about the secret meeting with “Grim Reaper Espheni” from last week, which is eventually washed aside by the return of Anne, who went into a mini exhaustion-coma, before having a creepy dream and then being pushed in the right direction to find her daughter.  Oh, and Cochise found the re-education camp, so hopefully we can get a move on it and get the hell away from that crazy place.

Moving on, the first half of this episode intersperses these other groups with scenes showing what Tom, Hal, Weaver, and the others will be up to, if they want to escape the ghetto.  We get another explanation of what the Faraday suit will do, along with some history lessons from Tom, who recounts a story about Geronimo.  It is the kind of story that no one really has time for, but Noah Wyle sells these moments, even when a much simpler explanation would have sufficed.  Tom was a history teacher and this show will not let us forget that, but I did like how these early scenes played out.  The same can be said for the model setup scene, where the entire plan is laid out, only to have Pope provide some Pope-isms, leading to Tom just barely keeping his anger in check, while keeping everyone in line and insisting that everyone needs to trust each other.

At this point, aside from the brief check-in with unconscious Anne, who manages to summon evil Karen (Jessy Schram) in her creepy pregnancy dream, the episode puts the ghetto plot front and center, which allows for a lot of excitement to take place.  We get to see the plan in motion and while I am not the biggest fan of episodes that go the ‘in medias res’ route of presenting a key episode moment at the beginning, before cutting back to hours/days/whatever earlier, I was happy to see how much led up to that moment of Tom torching a bunch of skitters.  As I have seen Tom riding around on his motorcycle for a couple weeks now, more gripping, actually, was seeing how the Dingaan side of things played out.

As great as it was to hear how this plan should work, in theory, I had little doubt that I would not be seeing Pope involved in some way and sure enough, Dingaan got a bump on the hand, leading to our favorite jerk filling in as the Faraday suit alternate.  What follows is a fairly tense sequence of Pope climbing over the wall, getting knocked unconscious for a bit, only to wake up and set off the bomb that would take out the tether keeping the entire wall up.  Adding on an extra layer of trouble, we had Hal fending off skitters and protecting the population trying to escape, while Pope dealt with finishing off what the bomb started.  The icing on the cake could have been Tom’s crazy plan of blowing up a building full of skitters, but the visual effects work to show him jumping off a building into water, while the explosion took place, felt a bit too TV, compared to Falling Skies usual ability to really sell its big action (I would say the same about some of the Faraday suit effects too).  Regardless, this was all really fun stuff, with some nice action direction to keep things moving.

So with all that, the death fence came down and everyone managed to escape the ghetto, except for one old man, but Tom makes sure to tell Hal that he should focus on the people that he did manage to save and he is basically right.  Not that it is not sad (which it really isn’t, regardless of the old lady tears that we see, because who the hell was this old couple anyway?), but Hal is on track to become a leader, something that is becoming more and more apparent in every episode.  Stealthy skitter implants from last season aside, Tom knows what his son is capable of, let alone the fact that he won’t always be around.  Tom is also just as weary as Weaver is at this point.  Weaver may be older, but Tom has been up close and personal with the Espheni many a time and the constant threats against him and his family have to be weighing down on him.

With all that said, I cannot emphasize enough how solid a job Noah Wyle consistently does with this role.  I can go back to comparing this show to The Walking Dead, because as solid as that show is at accomplishing certain things, making me like the characters appears to be its hardest sell and that is just not the case for Falling Skies.  It may have other issues, such as certain subplots feeling tired, but the core family dynamic, particularly with the Masons, is always quite strong and something I can appreciate.  Now we can only imagine what will go on in Chinatown, with Anne and Lexi back together.

This was another solid episode of Falling Skies overall, as it continues to settle into the groove of this new season.  My praise is clearly focused on the prison escape plot involving Tom and the gang, though I am still intrigued by what is to come elsewhere.  Still, seeing Pope pull off an action guy moment, Tom blaze around town on his motorcycle for the last time, and Hal continue to step it up in the leader game made for a strong section of this episode.  The other plotlines are still progressing, but at least we are down to 3 main groups now, as opposed to four, because who really wanted to see Anne walking around the woods for another week?  Now hopefully next week we can finally see Cochise do something cool.

Other Thoughts From The Desk Of Tom Mason:

• I keep meaning to point this out, but don’t the skitters sound a lot like Jurassic Park raptors?
• “Shut up Lourdes” was obviously my favorite line from the episode.
• One major dumb moment that I have to point out is the Espheni leader and his translator making the decision to meet Tom on the ground, only to be horribly burned by Tom.  C’mon big & tall alien, wise up to meeting with the human that equips himself with a flamethrower and has yet to agree to your terms.
• Okay, two dumb moments, the other being Maggie and Ben interrupting Lexi’s teachings.  Make your point, sure, but there’s no reason not to wait, as opposed to feeling the wrath of Lexi’s wrist-crushing hands.
• Matt, there are ways to get the girl, but taking the fall for stealing does not seem like one of the better ones.
• “Son of a bitch, pigs can fly” – Weaver’s surprised face emulated by this dialogue.
• That said, Weaver knows what rumbling bushes sound like when he hears them! Stay tuned!
• Next week, it’s time to “Evolve or Die” #TNT BOOM!