Why you can trust 12DOVE Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.
Episode 2.08
Writer: Heather V Regnier
Director: Seith Mann
THE ONE WHERE: En route to the promised land of Charleston, the resistance encounter a harnessed girl. Baited by Pope, Maggie shares the secrets of her past with Hal.
THE VERDICT: Quite a comedown after last week’s exemplary slice of Skies, this sets out to be a self-contained character study but ends up as grindingly talky, built from bluntly written monologues and on-the-nose personal revelations. The sub-plot of the harnessed girl’s brother goes nowhere while Maggie’s confession of a pregnant junkie thief past feels weirdly underwhelming after all the tantalisingly dark hints dropped by Pope. The episode’s lifted by the wonderful, hope-shattering visual of the ruins of Charleston (or what the resistance believe to be Charleston – that’s a neat piece of misdirect too).
ALIEN LORE: The harnessed child refers to her Skitter as her guardian, and reveals that alien enslavement carries a powerful appeal for anyone craving a family.
BEST LINE: Maggie: (to Pope): “I don’t know what you’re planning, but I’d rather swallow glass than be a part of it.”
Falling Skies is now showing on FX.
