Last week left us with Tom Mason and the boys heading off to find Anne and Alexis. Ben takes this momentary solitude to question his father on their future. Tom seems to think that they won't be returning to Charleston; a half-alien baby won't really be welcome.
While Ben agrees, he seems perturbed by this decision. I think he's missing Deni, don't you? Tom finally assures him that they'll worry about it after they find Anne and Lexi. Unfortunately the rebel skitters that were to meet them have been attacked by the Espheni. A survivor shows up and warns them before he dies. So the Mason's mount up and ride off, only to get ambushed again. This time it's by humans. Looks like a hillbilly holdup. Some masked men take their horses and all of their gear and leave them on the road.
Things aren't going so awesome in Charleston either. Pope's new success as a businessman has made him a bunch of useless money. He figures they need to find another community to trade with, like the real President's people. Just as he sits down to contemplate this, some soldiers show up to tow his bus away.
Seems the new President of Charleston is making some changes. Pope finally seems to be gaining an appreciation for Tom.
A fight is avoided by the timely arrival of Cochise carrying the Real President of the United States through the gates. Pres. Hathaway is duly grateful for Cochise's assistance and is ready to put the Volm weapon to good use. Miranda isn't so keen on the idea. She adamantly declares her reservations about the purpose of the weapon, but Cochise declines to give her any further information. Hathaway commands that they proceed with the plan after he sees the weapon for himself. Miranda seems flummoxed.
Tom and the boys meanwhile have tracked down the Pickett's, the hillbilly family that stole their stuff. Turns out it's just a family trying to survive. The Mason's find the farm and Ben does an excellent job of subduing most of them. Hal has some trouble with Uncle Gil though, and Matt shoots him when it looks like he might knife Hal. Unfortunately, the Masons find that these are just a simple family that has never left their little mountain since the invasion. Ben tries to save the wounded man, but it doesn't go well. Suffice it to say that the hillbillies double-cross Tom's generous spirit, and more fighting breaks out.
Pope is organizing a worker rebellion against Miranda. He even gives a nice speech in his bar. Weaver has to put an end to it though. He gives a speech of his own. He informs them all that what they are doing threatens the safety of everyone and is therefore illegal. He arrests Pope for civil disobedience. I find that amusing. Especially when he says “You have the authority, sir. But you do not have the right.”
Cochise takes Hathaway, Miranda and Weaver to see the weapon, and we finally learn a few tidbits. The weapon's purpose is to destroy the Espheni energy grid. This grid will put up a sort of force field around the entire planet with a lovely side effect of killing all organic life except for the Espheni. The extra power going into the weapon is to overload the grid to destroy it. Of course there's another fun and exciting possibility; the weapon might accelerate the force field instead of destroying it. Weaver doesn't appear to buy all of this story though. He goes off to visit Pope in lockup and tells him that he may have been right about the Volm. Having had this little heart to heart, he releases him.
The President is still in the hospital. Lourdes changes his fluids and they chat briefly about Anne. Lourdes then leaves the room and puts on some gloves. She enters a room immediately under the President's and pulls out a concealed Volm gun and shoots the President through the floor. She takes herself off to the church and pretends to pray while little alien bugs crawl all over her face. Looks like we've found our traitor. Miranda doesn't really seem to upset that she's back in charge.
The Mason's have meanwhile left the hillbilly family, but come across some skitters and mechs roaming the area. The aliens are headed straight for the Pickett's house. Tom, being the humanitarian that he is, decides that he is going back to warn them. When he gets there he finds a skitter welcoming party waiting for him.
Did you guess the identity of the traitor right? There are three episodes left this season, who knows how many there might be left to find!
The next episode of Falling Skies, “Strange Brew” airs Sunday July 21 at 9PM ET on TNT.