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Episode: 3.07
Writers : Heather V Regnier & Jordan Rosenberg
Director: Sergio Mimica-Gezzan

THE VERDICT: Yet another episode of Skies that prioritises small-scale human drama over the bigger picture. Anyone tuning in for SF spectacle may be left feeling increasingly short-changed but this is a rewarding if low-key watch that plays to the show’s strengths. The Pickett clan is clearly positioned as a parallel to the Masons, choosing to retreat from the world rather than take the fight to the invaders, and it’s a powerful moment where Tom pleads for the life of his family, desperately searching for a common bond of humanity. It would have been easy to play the Picketts as wild-eyed rednecks but it’s all the more effective to see them as an ordinary household, nudged closer to darkness by circumstance. “We’re not monsters. We’re just a family. A family trying to survive.” Good to see Matt’s arc continuing to tick away in the background as the boy soldier discovers the emotional cost of shooting someone.

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Delgado’s assassination of the President – and the revelation that she’s the traitor – is a masterstroke of a rug-pull. Who ever suspected the blandest character on the show? Well played. And that’s a wonderful visual as she prays by candlelight, Espheni bugs crawling and swirling on her skin.

Are we beginning to seriously distrust the Voln now? Or is that Charleston paranoia just contagious?

TRIVIA: When Cochise appears with the President in his arms that’s actually a foam dummy of Stephen Collins that he’s carrying. The real Collins would have been too much of a struggle for poor, prosthetics-buried Doug Jones to lift.

BEST LINE:
Tom: “You’re mountain isn’t high enough and there isn’t a hole deep enough. There is no hiding.”

Falling Skies is shown on TNT on Sundays in the US and on FOX on Tuesdays in the UK

Nick Setchfield is the Editor-at-Large for SFX Magazine, writing features, reviews, interviews, and more for the monthly issues. However, he is also a freelance journalist and author with Titan Books. His original novels are called The War in the Dark, and The Spider Dance. He's also written a book on James Bond called Mission Statements.