Falling Skies - Season 3 Premiere - Recap

Falling Skies - Season 3 - Episode 1 & 2 - Recap - On Thin Ice & Collateral Damage

After the shocking arrival of a new race of aliens at the end of last season, we've all spent the off-season wondering where our heroes will end up next, and how they'll adapt to this new status quo. With teasers (like the one above) promising new enemies and new allies, it was sure to be a thrillride regardless.

Episode 1 opens with Lourdes (Seychelle Gabriel), Ben Mason (Connor Jessup), and Colonel Weaver(Will Patton) attempting to sabotage a march of slaves. Of course, these rocket scientists send in a kid, Ben's little brother Matt (Maxim Knight), to do the dirty work of laying down some fancy alien tech bombs. The situation, as these kind of situations  tend to do, escalates, and our ragtag crew soon becomes overwhelmed by CGI alien robots. Then, pow! A one-two punch of cavalry blows in; first, a swarm of friendly Skitters (helpfully marked by war paint on their gross bug faces), then, President Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) and a troop of literal cavalry.

Naturally, the day is won. They've got a full two hours to burn through in the premiere tonight; can't kill anyone important right away! Afterwards, we get some down time back at base. John Pope (Colin Cunningham) expresses some doubts bordering on treason, Matt is congratulated on his work earlier, and President Mason catches up with his main squeeze, Dr. Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood). Dr. Glass has just removed a Harness from a human who was rescued during the earlier battle. She asks Tom  to stay, and he agrees.

Of course, the day is always full for a President, even after the alien apocalypse. War meetings leading into war meetings leading into more war meetings. Suspected traitors! Aliens allies! Secret liaisons! We learn that the bad guys have a new overlord, a human (presumably Karen). A lot of stage is set, and the burn is slow, promising payoff in the form of big battles and perhaps a season-long mystery. On top of all this, we're given a few hallucinations (?) Hal has of meeting the traitorous, alien-possessed Karen. After his infection last season, it's hard to know if he's on the right side or if he's become a mole for the aliens against his will.

Anne goes into labor, and at the same time, Arthur Manchester (Terry O'Quinn) approaches President Mason with a list of potential traitors. He's dismissed, and while Anne is giving birth, Manchester is killed (complete with typical "It's you!" right before his death) by the shadow-obscured traitor. The new baby is announced to the population, and one scene later is suspiciously standing in it's crib smiling a real creepy smile.

Despite his war cabinet expressing doubt about President Mason's trust of the new aliens, the Volm, he is steadfast. At the end of the premiere's first hour, President Mason and his Volm pal (played by Doug Jones) reveal their secret weapon to Colonel Weaver: an under-construction gun supposedly capable of ending the war in one go.

At the top of episode 2, Ben discovers a base filled with enemy mechs, and reports back. Tom and Weaver go to an eccentric scientist who tells them how they can destroy the base without leaking radiation from the nuclear reactor present at the base. Meanwhile, Anne's new baby continues being really weird. A week old baby should not be able to say "mama", even with the help of some dodgy CGI.

The prep for this demolitions operation takes up a solid chunk of time, but then as everyone is moving out, we get some more shadowy traitor stuff, with this unknown entity sneaking in to photo some maps and plans. This, of course, is all part of the plan, as Weaver leads his forces into the well-prepared defenses as a distraction for President Mason's smaller sabotage squad. Mason's squad comes up against some Harnessed kids, and there's a really rough emotional moment as one of the kids comes out of his possessed trance just in time to die in pain. Yeah. I know.

Mason splits his crew, sending two of them back to the rendezvous with an injured soldier, leaving just Mason, one soldier, and the eccentric radiation expert doctor who helped put the plan together. The crew is ambushed, making the doctor drop his glasses. Yes, he does say "I can't see a thing without my glasses" and yes the next scene is an entirely tense and awkward action sequence where Mason has to act as the doc's eyes while they shut down the reactor. They succeed, they escape, and (of course) Pope has nothing but bad things to say about the President when Weaver's crew reaches the rendezvous point.

More heartbreak once everyone is back to base, as Tom says goodbye to the death's bed man his smaller crew lost. Maggie promises to keep the fallen soldier's dogtags, much to Hal's chagrin. While Weaver and Mason share a few drinks (in victory and in memorial) and a healthy debate over the trustworthiness of their alien allies, they're interrupted by, surprise, their Volm pal. The Volm informs our humans that he expects a massive retaliation for the attack on the base earlier. The episode closes out the main plot with a heart-to-heart between father and son as Matt is chastised by and apologizes to his presidential father Tom. Matt and his pals had been fooling around with explosives earlier in the episode and destroyed an old house that had been prepped for restoration. Matt's real sore point, though, was how he reacted to Anne when being caught (a really harsh "You're not my real mom!" sort of moment). He apologizes, the family spends some time with the new baby.

As a last minute teaser in the episode, Hal is caught sleepwalking, and his earlier meetings with Karen are revealed to not have been hallucinations at all! Overall, this two hour premiere was more about establishing a new status quo for the series than it was about delivering on any serious game-changers or big action set pieces. The coolest scene by the end of it was still the opening battle. The rest of the season should ramp up with plot now, though, since we've got the new normal firmly entrenched from the two-hour premiere. Check back here next week and we'll find out together!