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Falling Skies 2.02 "Shall We Gather At The River"

Episode 2.02

SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER

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Writers: David Weddle & Bradley Thompson

Director: Greg Beeman

THE ONE WHERE : Tom continues to deal with the after-effects of his capture – and discovers he’s carrying a passenger in his eyeball… The 2 ^nd Mass, meanwhile, face alien fire as they attempt to cross a damaged bridge.

THE VERDICT : An episode that’s heavy on the body horror, from the sight of Ben’s disfigured spine to the truly grim moment of invasive eye surgery that reveals the strange cyber-insect lurking within his aqueous humour. Noah Wyle continues to be the soul of the show – he’s particularly effective in the scene where he grabs Hal and confesses that he’s afraid for his own actions. He gives good spasm, too. The battle of the bridge delivers more of the kind of setpiece action sequence that enlivened the last episode – interesting that the episode offers no moral judgement on little Matt going all The Expendables with the machine gun, an opportunity that the show’s soppier first season certainly wouldn’t have missed.

RANDOM MOMENT OF JOY : Love the throwaway rumour that Bob Dylan is “holed up in a mineshaft in Minnesota, rewriting his protest songs into war ballads.” Please let this be a cue for an appearance by His Bobness in a later episode, singing Subterranean Homeskitter Blues.

ALIEN LORE : Are the invaders changing their tactics? We hear they haven’t dropped a neutron bomb in months, not since the battle of Boston. Skitter sexuality seems to be a matter for debate too…

BEST LINE :

Tom: “If all you’ve got left is hate then they’ve already changed you.”

Falling Skies is now showing on FX

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.