Noooooooooooooooooooooooo – not Jimmy! Why!?!?!?!?
Not little orphan Jimmy. Anybody, but Jimmy. Who is Captain Weaver going to love now??? Tell me it’s not true… Oh, but it is true. This week, we kick off the episode with the death of Captain Weaver’s beloved Orphan Jimmy. How did Jimmy get himself offed you might be asking? Well, he decided to make a poor life choice. He decided to tag along with the alien-boy Ben on Skidder hunting trips of instead of patrolling the perimeter as ordered. We see the two have a successful hunting trip in the opening of the episode, but guess who pressed his luck one too many times. RIP little soldier, RIP. 
In addition to the loss of Jimmy, we also see the exit of another from the group in this weeks episode. The group’s token ‘lovable bad ass’ Pope decides to stir up enough trouble to facilitate his exit from the 2nd Mass. The rift between Pope and Mason finally comes to a head in this episode when Pope and his group of Berserkers decide to kid-nap Mason and try to force him to leave the group since Pope feels he cannot be trusted from his time with the aliens. Pope gives Tom two options, either walk away now or die. Luckily for Tom, his son Ben and the then alive Jimmy are returning from patrol just in time to save him. What luck. After discussing options with Captain Weaver as what to about the Pope paranoia situation, Tom convinces Weaver to assign him to Pope’s Berserker unit in order to keep a better eye on him.
Mason vs. Pope, Round 2 comes after Mason finds that Pope has taken Jimmy’s compass. When Pope refuses to give up the compass, Mason unleashes hell on Pope’s face and has to be forcibly removed from on top of the smart-ass biker. Man got the compass back though. Not bad for a history teacher.
Anyways, upon council with Weaver about the situation, Pope is given the opportunity to leave the 
group and go out on his own which he takes. Surprise moment of the night… Pope’s band of merry misfits decide to stay with the 2nd Mass. instead of follow Pope to where ever. Didn’t see that coming. Pope doesn’t go alone though, Anthony decides goes with him in order to ensure Pope does not cause any trouble for the 2nd Mass. Don’t worry your pretty little heads out there Falling Skies land, this split is only temporary. Pope needs the 2nd Mass. just as much as they need him. I would be shocked if he didn’t rejoin the group in the next 3 episodes. He’ll be back…..
Now it might seem that this episode is all just doom in gloom, but it’s not. We also receive a small sliver of hope from a mystery plane that finds the group. Out of no where an old prop plane emerges from the sky and brings the group a message of hope. According to the pilot, a continental congress government has been assembled in Charleston and
is ordering all survivors to make their way south in order to form a central resistance to fight the alien invaders. The ‘Paul Revere-like’ pilot has also brought along fantastical stories of hot showers, electricity, and communications with Europe via short wave radio in Charleston.
All of this news is met with great skepticism from Captain Weaver. Before the pilot arrived, Weaver was planning on taking the group up in mountains in order to hide and ride out the winter, but now he has a big decision to make. In the end, Weaver decides to begin the trek to Charleston and put his faith in the message of hope. Hopefully this isn’t a decision he will soon regret. Me being the cynical, pessimist that I am, there is NO WAY in hell this works out for them. It’s probably some alien trap trying to round every survivor up. We shall see.
One final thing of note we saw in this weeks episode to keep an EYE on is the red-eyed skidder that apparently can control Ben through the spikes still attached to his back. We saw this happen at both the beginning and end of the episode when Ben finds himself face to face with the skidder and his spike begin to glow blue. It appears as if Ben cannot move and just gazes into the eyes of the skidder. What ever is coming of this can’t be good for Ben’s sake, much less the rest of the group. 
Overall, I’d say that the episode was pretty solid this week. It had a very good mix of drama, sadness, character development, internal conflict, and hope. The alien action was little light for my taste, but the story still carried well despite it. I am excited to see what comes of the trip to Charleston and see what, if anything, actually is awaiting them.
4/5 Bears
Also, Tom finally made a move.
Grizzly Bomb 