TNT’s Falling Skies – Review: Episode 3 ‘Prisoner of War’

This episode picks up where last week’s premiere left off with Tom and a small group attempting to save his son Ben. Things get off to a rough start as Tom and company are doing some recon of what they’re up against and someone knocks a piece of masonry off the building to the ground alerting a mech who opens fire. Before they’re driven off they saw the harnessed children including Ben gathering up scrap metal.

After the return to their base, Col. Porter briefs a group on how various other resistance groups are now in touch across the country. He also explains that the skitterers are setting up shop in every major city too and he wants his soldiers gathering intelligence on them and anything that their resistance can use. Tom stays after to tell them he has found Ben and a lot of other kids and Porter tells Tom they have a scientist that thinks he can remove the harness without killing the children, but needs one to try it on… you’ve probably guessed that its gonna be Ben. Tom gets the go ahead to rescue Ben only and bring him back for the harness removal. Then it turns that Tom even knows the guy who can remove the harness! Gasp in astonishment people!

Dr. Michael Harris tells Tom how he came to be in the resistance and apologizes about the death of his wife. Something tells me there’s more behind what happened to Tom’s wife, but it’s plainly obvious to all viewers. Afterwards its off to get Ben. Of course shit goes all awry as one of Tom’s buddies, Mike, sees his own son and blows their cover in his stupidity to save him. A mech is all over their ass at this point and they have to leave, Hal and Karen(?) getting left behind in the process at the mercy of another Mech.

Tom plans on going back after they get away, running headlong into a Skitter in the process and having to throw down with the ugly sum-bitch. Tom shockingly gets the upper hand by blowing off a couple of the skitter’s limbs with a shottie and then bludgeoning his face a little bit. He then returns to base with a prisoner of war – a live skitter. I can’t wait to see what they learn from the ugly turd in the next episode. Very exciting indeed!

Hal wakes up in the night, watching the harnessed kid carry off Karen as a mech shines a light in his face. As several harnessed kids march in front of the mech, a skitter points at the children while looking at Hal and saying something in its own language. Then I’m front of Hal the Mech proceeds to completely annihilate the kids with its cannon. Wow.

Doc Harris manages to get the harness of Mikes son by welding it off and leaving the needles from the harness in the kid’s back, the reasoning being that they withdrawal from whatever is in the harness and that is why they die. This way they wean off slowly and use morphine as a bridge between.

Tom finds Hal and he tells him the skitters let him go. Tom explains it’s what the Nazis sometimes did that with Allied prisoners to send a message: take one and we kill the rest. Tom then has a confrontation with Doc Harris who admits he ran and left Toms wife to die. His reward? Pow! Right in the kissa from Tom! At the end as the captive Skitter opens its eyes, the harness free child does too. It would seem the skitters still have a level of control even with the harness off.

I give this episode 4 out of 5 bears as we learned more about the aliens and it looks like we’ll learn a lot more in the next episode. The action was great and the acting was decent. Sure some of the scenes were cheesy as mice turds but it still good. I’m loving the above average effects in the show and animatronics they use with skitters along with cg. I’ll still be a watcher next week for sure!