BY MELISSA HARKNESS
At last, the season finale is here. We've been promised answers, but which ones? And how many new questions do you think we'll end up with?
We rejoin the 2nd Mass and friends en route to the big attack. Pope and Weaver are on a train headed to Chicago having a nice conversation about pizza to pass the time. Oh, and they have Lourdes with them. She is looking very zombieish, reduced to growling and grunts.
It is not long before they run into some mechs. The rest of the 2nd Mass are on a tanker floating down the river to Boston with the Volm weapon. Dr. Kadar is 94% sure he can get the thing to work. After a slight delay, it fires and does manage to collapse the tower. This brings the grid down and signals the approaching Volm ship to come for a visit, which it does.
In fact, it plops down right on top of the downed tower. Well, that was easy. This kicks off a big party complete with drumming and dancing right out of some Ewok celebration. The party is briefly interrupted by the return of Weaver's decoy team thanks to Cochise and the new Volm soldiers.
The next morning Tom, Weaver and Cochise get to meet with the Volm Commander. It's a total PR piece of crap. He greets them friendly enough and thanks them for saving his son. That's right, Cochise is his son. He then dismisses them and turns to leave. Tom immediately speaks up wanting to compare notes for the continuing fight with the Espheni. At this point Cochise starts to look a little sheepish. Here it comes, folks. The pathetic little humans are informed that they will not be fighting anymore.
The Volm intend to send the little humans off to “camps” in Brazil where they will be safe. As you might expect Tom doesn't like this plan. He grabs hold of the commander and is immediately smacked down. Cochise does try to keep the soldiers from shooting Tom and Weaver, so he does like them a little. Instead they just lock Tom up.
Weaver hurries back to camp and informs the 2nd Mass of this new twist in their lives. He orders them to pack up; they plan to escape before the Volm come to collect them. While in Tom's tent, Weaver clutches his arm and staggers around before Jeannie comes in and helps him take a nitroglycerin tablet. Looks like Weaver has been hiding a heart condition from everyone. That's bad news during the Alien Apocalypse, you know. The Volm unfortunately show up before they can make their escape. Cochise demands that Weaver tell his people to lay down their weapons. When he sees that Weaver is reluctant to do so, he takes him aside and reminds him that he is a soldier and he will follow his orders. With this veiled threat, Weaver gives the order. He then has to suffer through the typical abuse from Pope.
Tom eventually gets his alone time with the Volm commander. He is understandably bitter at Cochise's perceived lies. The Commander doesn't understand why these little humans aren't grateful for the safety the camps will offer. After suffering through one of Tom's impassioned speeches, the Commander confesses to being confused and promises to talk with him again. Tom, as always, is looking forward to any chance to talk some more. Meanwhile, back at camp, Hal visits Lourdes. She still looks like a zombie, but appears to be lucid. She screams for him to get the worms out of her head and he promises to take care of her. Maggie suggests they just put her out of her misery. Hal frowns but there's no time to argue; Cochise is back to load everyone up into the transports.
Cochise leads them through some wreckage to Tom who is being guarded by one of the Volm. Incidentally, I guess the Volm officer's have blue glowy lights on their armor and the grunts have red glowy lights. Maybe they'll be like Redshirts in Star Trek next season! Anyway, instead of loading them up, he gives them their weapons back and tells them they can go. As they leave, Cochise and his father have a talk about the humans. The Commander bemoans that they swore an oath to protect the indigenous lifeforms that the Espheni attack and that the stupid humans will die out there. Cochise assures him, that they would die in captivity. They shrug and walk away, leaving the pathetic little humans to die one way or the other.
The 2nd Mass proceeds out of Boston with even Lourdes in tow. Dr. Kadar is complaining about Lymes disease when Ben warns them that something big is approaching. On cue, Lourdes starts seizing and falls to the ground. It would appear that Tom was counting on Karen finding them through Lourdes and they are prepared. An Espheni ship lands and out walks Karen with a white flag tied to a stick.
Really? A stick? They're space-faring aliens with energy weapons and the best thing she can find is a stick?
Anyway, she tries to convince him to join her against the Volm. To that end, she says she has a gift for him. She is mid-speech when she is suddenly gut shot by Tom. This sets off the skitters and mechs. Ben uses the Volm weapon Cochise gave them and they win the skirmish of course. Tom hears his name and runs off into the woods searching for the source.
Everyone runs after him except Hal and Maggie. They are watching Karen, who's gasping out her last breaths. She's is trying to tell Hal that she's sorry and reaches out a hand to him. As Hal kneels down beside her and compassionately takes her hand, Maggie thinks it's an excellent time to put two more bullets in her. Hal stares at her astonished and she just walks away. I bet this doesn't cause any problems at all, huh? Unsurprisingly, Tom finds Anne in the woods. The surprising part is that little baby Lexi is now about 6 years-old. Anne doesn't feel any need to explain this though so everybody just shrugs and welcomes them back.
To close the season off, the 2nd Mass is back to scrounging for cars to caravan around in reminiscent of the first two seasons. And Lexi has new special abilities. She walks up to Lourdes, who is being kept in a cage like a rabid puppy, and lays her hands on her. As she cups her little hands under Lourdes chin, worms come pouring out of Lourdes' eyes and fall into them. Tom and Weaver watch horrified as she crushes them into a black powder and dumps it on the ground. She then turns and smiles beatifically up at her daddy.
With this new and exciting fun, they head off to look for the rest of the humans to reform the “human resistance” movement.
So, was anyone surprised by any of this? Cleared everything up, didn't it? No? I guess that means you'll have to watch next season to find out the rest!
Season Four of Falling Skies will be back next summer on TNT with 12 episodes and David Eick of Battlestar Galactica taking over showrunner duties from Remi Aubuchon.