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We open up this weeks episode with the good doctor getting rolled for medical supplies by a family wishing to leave the protection of the 2nd Mass. They fear things are not safe after the death of Dr. Coward and the arrival of the harnessed kids last week. What a bunch of ungrateful bitches. Needless to say, they are able to leave, but a soldier stops them and confiscates the stolen medicine. Who was this mystery man you ask??? Well he turns out to be the Lieutenant Clayton, one of the few survivors of the 7th Mass, and he comes bearing bad news. Not only was a majority of the 7th Mass killed and their children taken, but a skidder attack is soon approaching. Don don dooooooon.
Don’t worry. All is not lost. The lieutenant has come with a plan straight from the man in charge, Porter. According to Clayton, Porter has ordered all the children in the 2nd Mass to evacuate immediately with Clayton to a ranch where the handful of 7th Mass. survivors are held up. The remaining adults and fighters will wait for the reinforcements from the 3rd Mass and hold off the impending skidder attack, in order to give the kids adequate time to reach safe haven, and then fall back to the ranch to rejoin the group.
This plan obviously does not sit well with our good man Tom, who has no intentions of letting his newly reunited family out of his site. While Captain Weaver orders the preparation of evacuating the school to begin and bolstering defenses to prepare for the attack, he puts the decision of whether or not to send the kids ahead of the evacuation in the hands of Tom. He believes the other parents will go along with his decision being Tom is a father of three. Quite the conundrum our friend is in? What well he do?? The answer in moment…
We also get a chance to catch up with Ben and hear a little bit about his time with the skidders. (Thank god, we spent 3 god damn episodes trying to rescue this punk so he better make it worth our while). After doing over a hundred push-ups without breaking a sweat, Ben tells his little bro Matt about how being with the skidders was almost like being a part of a family. They cared for the harnessed kids and even knew what they wanted/needed with out the kids needing to ask. He even went as far as saying he missed being with them in a way. WEIRD.
Hal, who is trying to sleep during this exchange, overhears this and is obviously alarmed. Hal shares his concerns with Anne about his brother not coming back from the skidders the same, but not much is made about it this episode. I’m sure this is something that is going to come back and haunt us further down the line. Maybe the kids are now some kind of Pod people controlled by the aliens? I can only hope.
Anyways, throughout the episode we start to see unrest spread through the civilians of the 2nd Mass. once word of the plan to separate the kids from the group spreads. We also watch Tom struggle with making the right decision in regards to Clayton’s plan, but something just does not feel right to him (FORESHADOWING). All the parents have the exact same reaction as Tom about separating the kids from the group, and do not hesitate to voice their opinions. We finally get to see the scene from the commercials where Tom stands in the gymnasium warns the civilians that if they start turning on each other now, its does not matter when the attack comes since it will already be over for them. What a leader!
After his speech, the skidder/mech attack begins as foretold by Lieutenant Clayton. There really isn’t much to say about this battle except insignificant fighter dies, and ‘Jimmy – the little orphan badass’ almost gets killed by a skidder. At the last minute though, is saved by Captain Weaver who turns the skidder’s head into a brain slushy with a shot-gun blast.
After the attack, the group starts to take the warnings of Lieutenant Clayton a bit more seriously. They start preparing for the worst, and Tom is one step closer to sending the kids off with Clayton despite his nagging bad feelings (FORESHADOWING). Only after a conversation with his son Ben, does Tom finally decide to go along with Clayton’s plan and send the kids ahead of the group before the next round of attacks. I guess we’ll see if there is anything to his “bad feelings” about the plan…
Just before the kids ship out, Hal decides to go along with the them to provide additional protection on the journey, and help fulfill a promise to his mother to watch over Ben. We then get to see Clayton explain on a map where the ranch is to Tom in order to meet up with them after the 3rd Mass arrives. I only mention this because on the journey to the ranch Hal happens to question Clayton as to which direction they should be going at a fork in the road based on the earlier conversation. Uh oh, something fishy is going on here….
The group of kids make it to the ranch without incident and start to get settled in to their new place just before night fall. Just as the show begins to come to a close we see Clayton in a room with a little boy named Eli. He asks Eli if he wants to see his family and to come with him. The two go out into the woods where a little girl is standing all alone on a trail path. She asks the little boy to come with her to meet his family, but when she turns around to lead him we see that the little bitch is harnessed. UH OH, Clayton is up to no good! Shocking! As the boy begins to struggle he is shot and stunned by a mech and is collected by a skidder.
The skidder then asks Clayton how many children he has gotten through the harnessed girl, and he replies “Enough.” Someone has made a deal with the alien devils. So now it appears our good friends have more than just aliens to worry about, as some humans are beginning strike alliances with the aliens. I’m willing to bet the skidders will keep their end of whatever bargain they made…
As the episode ends we see Clayton bringing food to man shackled to a table in a barn. Clayton sits down and thanks the chained man for being right about the amount kids residing at the school. As the man lifts his head up, we see its our good friend Pope, and he looks pissed. The episode comes to an end without any further explanation as to what is going on or how Pope came to be captured by Clayton. Stay tuned next week kids.
Overall, I would say this episode was ok, just like last week. This was a set-up episode to next weeks Part 2 and was very lacking in the little battle scene we got this week. I think the writers need to step up the action a bit before viewers get a little bored. To their credit though, I do have to say that the story itself seems to be going well, with the right amount of plot twists and providing the viewers just the right amount of answers to keep them coming back. 2.5 out of 5 grizzlies.
Grizzly Bomb 