Falling Skies Cast: Falling Skies Episode Three Prisoner of War Recap

Zombie teens with harnesses pilling up scrape metal. Ben is on the roof. Maggie questions why the aliens would come this far and turn kids into slaves, for old toasters and copper wire. Tom says that there must be some reason for it. Anthony wants to know how many kids they’re going to try to grab, and Tom wants to get as many as they can.

We see a Mech followed by six kids. Antony says there are two out front patrolling, and one in the back of the building. A skitter out front and one more Mech inside. Antony is trying to reason with Tom about coming back later because they’re tired and low on ammo. Karen knocks a tile of the side of the roof. One of the Mechs opens fire. Hal says that they’ll be back and they’ll get ‘em.

They arrive back a JFK High School. Anne welcomes Tom back, and asks about Ben. Tom says that he’s alive. Anne says that she has some really good news, when Tom is stopped by a father asking if Tom had seen his daughter. The team is quickly surrounded by more people who are holding photos saying their kids are missing as well. Mike quieted the crowd. He and Tom both have missing sons. Tom promises that they’ll do everything possible to get the kids back. Anne tells the people to start using the school bulletin board to post photos. Antony tells them to write their name, weight, hair color. Tom adds last time you saw them to the list of things to write. Tom says that all the squads will check the board before each mission.

Border, their commander is back earlier than expected, and Anne says that he’s the one who brought the good news she mentioned earlier. Tom enters the briefing in the command post, and takes a seat. Weaver and Border are sitting on a desk in the front of the classroom. He informs the group that one of the runners they sent out ran into some resistance fighters just outside of Chicago, and that group had made contacts with groups in Texas, Oklahoma, and California. They are not in this fight alone. The bad news is that alien structures like the one over Boston over going up over every city that they know about. Weaver asks if anyone had figured out what they for and they have not. Porter says that they are to gather intelligence on the enemy. He wants info about their plans, their tactics, their weapons, and their technology. A secure base of operations means that they can start collection war materials: motorcycles, weapons, explosives, and camouflaged gear.

Weaver says they are break their units down into search and requisition teams of 4 to 6 fighters, and that he’ll give them assignments tomorrow. Porter calls Tom over and says he got a report that he spotted a bunch of harnessed kids. Tom says that they were tracking the kids and they found his son. At night, they have them in a hospital off of route 9 . By day, the skitters have them salvaging scrap metal. Porter says they’ve gotten reports of the kids being used as slave labor before. He goes on to say that the science team is struggling with the harnesses. They were able to remove three harnesses from kids, but they died a few hours later, but the chief surgeon thinks he has an answer to the problem. They need a harnessed kid to test the theory. Tom has a hard time thinking about them removing the harness from Ben, and finally says that he doesn’t want to go back and rescue just one kids, he wants to rescue them all. Porter says that they will. Weaver doesn’t like them going out there after the kids at all. Tom says there are hundreds of people out there with missing kids, and if they rescue those kids it will keep these people’s hope alive, but if they give up on those kids, those people will lose their hope. Weaver doesn’t seem to care about the kids at all. He says that if we save a few dozen kids and lose the war they’re no better off. Tom says that They’d die free. Porter says to get just Ben this time. Weaver walks out and Porter tells Tom that he was due to retire when all this happened, and he was looking forward to golf, travel and a stack of spy novels. He tells Tom to get Ben and to be careful.

The older kids are having class. They are learning about cells, while some of the younger children are playing. Tom finds Matt sitting on the bleachers. Matt asks about Ben, and Tom tells him that they found him, he’s safe and they’re going to go back for him. Matt is slow in telling his dad, but finally admits that at school today some of the kids said that they when you take the harness off the kids die. Tom says that was before a smart doctor learned how to take them off safely. Ben wants to know what doctor. Tom says he came here today with colonel Porter, and that he’s going to teach Anne how to do it too. Matt figures out that Ben will be okay.

Pope is washing up and a guard and Anne’s Uncle Scott bring him some food. Pope takes a couple of bites and spits it out, he asks if this is skitter ala’ king. He then goes on to give Scott a lesson in the culinary arts about the proper way to prepare chicken. We learn that Pope is a certified culinary artists, a chef. Scott looks bewildered.

Scott and Kate go to Weaver to bring the news about how Pope could be a useful asset to the 2^nd Mass as a chef. Maggie testifies that when we see could stomach eating with degenerates and scumbags, the food wasn’t bad. Pope told Scott that he trained in prison, and wants to put him to the test. Weaver doesn’t seem to accepting of this idea, saying they already have people who can cook. Scott says yes, they can cook, oatmeal, and adds he’ll be under guard at all times. Weaver tells the three of them to go, and has Pope sent in.

Pope tells Weaver that he’d love to cook, but what they’ve got is 50 cans of lima beans, 32 cans of tuna fish, and chicken and rice. Weaver asks what they ate, and Pope says that they hunted. Antony is a little hostile towards Pope, oh course Pope’s brother killed his friends, Click. Pope says that he cooked Thanksgiving dinner for three cell blocks, that’s 170 inmates. Weaver offers him the deal to cook or go back to lock-up and Pope says he’ll do it, but he needs olive oil.

Tom goes to Anne to ask about the good news about the harnesses. Anne says that he’s smart, capable and the best man for the job. Tom says, I suppose he was good looking too. Anne asks Lourdes and she says yes from an older man, like 40. Anne gets a laugh. Dr. Michael Harris is the medical genius. Tom is surprised that he’s alive.

Michael explains to Tom what happened when he and Tom’s wife were out looking for food. They spilt up since there hadn’t been any attacks, but soon the airships came and he couldn’t get to her. His arms was badly injured, and the second wave of the attack started and he hide in a collapsed house and passed out. Some resistance fighters found him the next day and he became their medical officer. Tom says thanks for telling me, but he looks angry. Michael aks about his boys, and learns that Ben is harnessed. Tom says that he’s nearby and they are going to try to get him tonight. Tom says that when they found Rebecca, they were going to look for him but there were Skitter patrols everywhere. Michael says you don’t owe me an apology. Bring Ben to me.

Tom’s squad plus Mike are about to go out on their mission and stop by the missing kids bulletin board. We see the harnessed kids still scavenging scrape metal like zombies. We see one Skitters/ Tom says that they didn’t see the explosives in the car. Dai is waiting nearby in a truck. A Mech walks past the area. Tom doesn’t see Ben. Another group comes in and Mike sees Rick. Mike , the idiot yells for his son, and grabs him. A Mech comes up and Tom blows up the car taking the Mech down. The team moves towards the trucl. Hal and Karen are not with the group. Tom is about to go after Ben, when a Mech fires a rocket at him. Karen and Hal return fire to the Mech on the roof, that jumps down in front of them as we cut to commercial break.

Tom is awakened in a building. Dai , Mike and Rick are with him. He wants to know where they are? He has to go after Hal and Karen. He asks Mike, what he was thinking. Dai left the rest of the weapons in the truck. Tom takes off alone with a gun and a flashlight. In the dark corridor he hears something and calls out. A Skitter is infront of him , and he is attacked. The skitter is beating Tom doen pretty good, but Tom takes Pope’s advise and shots off two of it lets before beating it’s face in with his gun. He left the thing alive.

Antony tells Weaver and Porter that Dai and Mike are back with one of the harnessed kids, they expect it to be Tom’s son, but Antony tells them it is Mike’s son and they are in the clinic. In the background, people are yelling about Tom being back. Tom is dragging the living Skitter down the hallway, like Will Smith dragging the alien in Independence Day. Tom tells Weaver that he brought him a prisoner of war. Tom says that he did this by himself, and Weaver asks how. Tom says you’ve just got to get close enough, and wants to trade his gun in for an automatic. Tom says that he still ahs two sons and a scout out there. Weaver offers two fighters, but Tom says its safer if he does it alone. Matt heard everything and tells his dad to go get ‘em. Hal wakes up on the road, with Karen nearby. Two zombies kids, one of which is Ben ,grab Karen and drag her off. A Mech shines a light on Hal, as five kids and a Skitter come close. The Skitter points at the kids and the Mech kills them.

Rick is on an operation table. Michael and Anne are about to start the procedure. Michaels thinks that if they had a modern hospital and a lab they could have had this figured out in a matter of hours. Weaver says pulling them out kills them. Michael says that he learned that the hard way. Weaver says so did a lot of people. Michael has been working on cutting the needles and leaving a portion of them still embedded, instead of pulling them out. Michael is going to use a blow torch to cut the needles. Dai and Lourdes lift up the harness, as he melt the needles. Michael says that the harness synthesizes an opiate. He says if you cut off the needles, you cut off the drug and the kid goes into shock – killing the kid. Anne has a morphine drip going as a bridge. They get the little harness creature off, as it struggles a bit. The blood pressure is still 110/70, and Weaver walks out.

Michael says that one the needles reach the spine, they soften and grow roots and become a part of the nervous system. They don’t understand it, perhaps nanno engineering. If they wear the harness long enough they become one. Rick goes into some convulsions, as expected by Michael and he administers some more drugs.

Tom is out looking for Karen and Hal, and finds Hal walking down the street. Hal explains that they were stunned when the truck drove away, and when he woke up they were taking Karen to the Skitters. Tom explains what happened, that Mike grabbed his son. Tom says that he had to hit the explosive or they would have both been killed, and then he got knocked out he wouldn’t have left. Hal is glad he came back. Hal is then says that they killed those kids, not Ben, another group the one Mike’s kids was a part of it. Then they let him. Tom the history professor said that the Nazi’s sometimes did that with allied prisoners of war to send a message, take one and we kill the rest. Hal says we cant just take one, and Tom says we come back and take them all.

Antony is working on a holding cell for the Skitter. Weaver says that if it were up to him, they’d kill it. This is the first time they’ve ever had a one alive. Porter says that this will be dr. Harris’ call what they do with it. Porter is leaving him here for the next three weeks., so he can study the Skitter. Scott, Kate, Lourdes and Antony try Pope’s cooking and they all think that its good. Pope might be of some use to them. Weaver says that he’ll give him a week.

Rick is still on the operating table. Anne has fallen asleep at her desk. Tom gently wakes her, and she tells him that he’s stable. Mike takes a walk. Anne takes a look at Tom, and he tells her that they captured Karen. Hal blames himself. Anne says that Harris knows what he’s doing. Tom finds Michael Harris looking in on the prisoner. He tells Tom that Porter wanted him to stay around longer and study our conquerors, but that’s not what Porter called them. Tom says that we’re not conquered, unless we give up. Tom wants to know about the morning of the attack. He says you ran away and you hide to save yourself. Tom found her, and she was still holding onto the duffel bag that was too heavy for her to carry by herself. Michael made a spilt second decision, that the community needed his medical skills. Tom punched him in the face. Michael tries to make Tom feel guilty about that day, saying Rebecca told him that it was Tom’s morning to go looking for food. Michael says that Rebecca’s death may save Ben’s life. Tom says that the Skitters won’t win. Tom says that no matter how we survived, maybe, we owe it those who didn’t to become the best of mankind.

Tom goes back to the wall and posts a photo of Ben. He walks into a hallway, where Hal and Matt are sleeping and sits against the wall.

Rick and the Skitter are shown. The Skitter opens its eyes, followed by Rick opening his eyes.

QUESTIONS:

Harnessed Kids

Do the Skitters still have control/link to Rick? Can a harnessed kid ever be freed? Is that just to make us think the Skitter is control Rick as a cliffhanger?

Missing Kids Bulletin Board

Six months too late? Should this have been done when the 2^nd Mass was first formed? How long have they known that kids have been harnessed? Has no one gone out looking for them before now? Is it because they haven’t had a secure base of operations before?

Alien Structures Over Cities

Apparently they are being built there, not landed. Is this why they are collecting all the scrap metal? What is there purpose? What are they going to do the cities, the people, the planet?

Character Questions:

What happened to Weaver’s family? It sounds like from his brief exchange with Michael that perhaps his kids were harnessed and he killed them by removing the harnesses.

Falling Skies and Pop Culture:

Florida Billboard