# Falling Skies Season 5 (Spoilers)



## JohnB1000 (Dec 6, 2004)

Glad the show is back, though for some reason I thought it was done. I enjoy the show, and enjoyed season 4, though my memory of the ending is sketchy (as I mentioned elsewhere, being an easy going TV watcher makes me easy to please, that and other things )

I haven't watched the first episode yet, I did not even realize it was back until I saw a review on Den of Geek. Wanted to make this post so others did not miss it. Probably will wait until the season is done then go for the binge.


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## dwatt (Jan 11, 2007)

JohnB1000 said:


> Glad the show is back, though for some reason I thought it was done.


This is the final season if I remember correctly.


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## classicX (May 10, 2006)

This show deserves specific episode threads.


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## JohnB1000 (Dec 6, 2004)

classicX said:


> This show deserves specific episode threads.


Deserves ? I think that just naturally happens if there is enough interest. 5 or 6 threads over the last two seasons suggests not.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

I reset a season pass because it is the final season after I bailed last summer (or maybe it was even the year before that...)

Personally, I'd find it far more interesting if it all turned out to be a dream and the alien war was just a metaphor for fighting breast cancer.


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## mrdbdigital (Feb 3, 2004)

Were the other 4 seasons shot with the "shaky camera" handheld technique? That really drives me nuts at times.


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## squint (Jun 15, 2008)

mrdbdigital said:


> Were the other 4 seasons shot with the "shaky camera" handheld technique? That really drives me nuts at times.


I'm pretty sure they weren't because I noticed the difference immediately.


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## MikeCC (Jun 19, 2004)

mrdbdigital said:


> Were the other 4 seasons shot with the "shaky camera" handheld technique? That really drives me nuts at times.


Oh god, yes! I hate that technique. Used _very _sparingly, the viewers might feel as if we are looking through the eyes of a participant right there.

But often, the result is obnoxious, and makes the viewer feel nauseated and practically seasick. Too much "shaky-cam", and the technique tries to mimic the handheld camera of the oh-so-earnest and pompously self-important documentaries beginning in the 1970s.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

mrdbdigital said:


> Were the other 4 seasons shot with the "shaky camera" handheld technique? That really drives me nuts at times.


 I never noticed anything. Now I'll need to take another look at it. Usually I will notice if there is a shaky camera.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Just watched the season premiere. Things were way too easy for the 2nd Mass. I've got to assume they're being set up.


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## n548gxg (Mar 7, 2003)

DevdogAZ said:


> Just watched the season premiere. Things were way too easy for the 2nd Mass. I've got to assume they're being set up.


Or they are trying to wrap things up in 10 episodes.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

n548gxg said:


> Or they are trying to wrap things up in 10 episodes.


That's my point. If they want to stretch this for 9 more episodes, they can't have the Espheni be so easily defeated.

It was cool that they removed the guns from the Mechs and were able to use them in the gym shoot out, but I couldn't help wondering where the ammo was being stored and how long they could keep firing without running out.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

So much for having it easy...


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## RGM1138 (Oct 6, 1999)

Yeah, I think they were a bit over the top on the Skitter invasion. It was like watching a scene from The Alamo. I don't think they could have killed their way out of that situation.

Tip of the week: Don't eat barbecued Skitter.


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## classicX (May 10, 2006)

It looked to me like they were collecting and repacking shells as a way to explain how they have so much ammo. It doesn't explain where they get the rest of the materials, but I guess it's not really important.

I wonder how they are gonna get skitter boy to start fighting with them...


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

So the Espheni apparently figured out how to grow fully-mature biological creatures out of vats of liquid, and without using any of the liquid. Where does the mass for the biological creatures come from?

Have we seen that "Espheni Fog" stuff before? They were talking about it like it was familiar, but I don't remember it. 

Pope is definitely going to cause problems now for Mason and the 2nd Mass.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

I may or may not have seen this past Sunday's episode, but I have to say, I'm so far enjoying this season more than I have the last couple. It feels much more like the first season than the last couple has where they are focused much more on survival than on stupid plot devices such as the daughter going to the dark side. We've seen the obvious attacks by the skitters, but also having their food supply cut and having to find ways to survive. I like this much better.


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## classicX (May 10, 2006)

DevdogAZ said:


> So the Espheni apparently figured out how to grow fully-mature biological creatures out of vats of liquid, and without using any of the liquid. Where does the mass for the biological creatures come from?
> 
> Have we seen that "Espheni Fog" stuff before? They were talking about it like it was familiar, but I don't remember it.
> 
> Pope is definitely going to cause problems now for Mason and the 2nd Mass.


I'm not sure that the liquid wasn't being replenished somehow. I figured they were being grown from "eggs" or something else, and nourished in the liquid at an accelerated rate.

The mist was seen in previous seasons, and there was some kind of creature that could move through it. I don't know what the butterfly-things were that ate her legs up, but as I recall they were new.

What bothers be most is the notion that the skitters have absolutely NO intelligence unless there is an overlord around. We haven't seen that to be true in the past.


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## n548gxg (Mar 7, 2003)

DevdogAZ said:


> Pope is definitely going to cause problems now for Mason and the 2nd Mass.


I am so glad this is the last season. This whole Pope's revenge storyline is stupid. I signed on to an alien invasion series not this nonsense.

They only have 10 episodes this season, you would think that would have spent the time on defeating the aliens not creating annoying subplots.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Pope has always bothered me. The show seems to have forgotten that when he was introduced, he was a brutal psychopath who murdered people for fun and kidnapped women to use as sex slaves. Then, he magically transformed into a likable rogue, and since has veered back and forth. So at this point nothing he does surprises me, because he has never had a consistent-enough character to have reasonable expectations as to what is "in character."

But there's been a lot of perfunctory stuff this season, things that happen purely for the sake of setting something up without any real effort made to make it fit in with the story. E.g., Sarah getting stuck in the goo just as they were leaving for the attack was awfully convenient, and Cochise's father's abrupt (and off-screen) change of heart and sudden death seemed forced. And yeah, coincidences are part of the Hollywood toolbox, but they seem to be coming fast and furious lately...


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## stellie93 (Feb 25, 2006)

I still like this season better than the stupid alien baby sister thing. 

Funny how they always portray alien races who are way more technologically advanced than us as needing to learn human emotions. Star Trek always did this in the 60's and it still seems stupid to me today. Plus they never thought of organ transplants? Please.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

Being that the whole show is based on alien invasion they could pretty much invent whatever they want. I'm fine with that. As I said earlier, I like that for the most part, they've gone back to what worked season 1. But, I hate the Pope storyline. I agree, he seems to waffle back and forth between likable rogue and ruthless jerk. Since Sawyer on Lost, every one of these shows has to have a character like this. They even have the prototypical long hair and scruffy facial hair (well until the last episode). I guess they felt since it's the last season they have to put the Pope as anti-Mason storyline to bed once and for all. 

The other character that they've complete changed is Weaver who went from the leader of the 2nd Mass, to Mason's Lieutenant. That's always kind of annoyed me too.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Steveknj said:


> Since Sawyer on Lost, every one of these shows has to have a character like this.


The difference being, Sawyer was a genuine character...who developed over the course of the series because of a subtle mix of the character growing and our understanding of the character growing.

Whereas Pope "developed" over the course of the series because "Well, I guess we need him to be a villain this year, so now he's bad again."


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> The difference being, Sawyer was a genuine character...who developed over the course of the series because of a subtle mix of the character growing and our understanding of the character growing.
> 
> Whereas Pope "developed" over the course of the series because "Well, I guess we need him to be a villain this year, so now he's bad again."


Totally agree. My point was that a lot of these shows feel the need to include a "Sawyer like" character. Some are done better than others


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Steveknj said:


> The other character that they've complete changed is Weaver who went from the leader of the 2nd Mass, to Mason's Lieutenant. That's always kind of annoyed me too.


That at least has a plausible explanation. It goes back to the season when Tom was elected president in Charleston and became the leader of all the survivors they knew of. Although that civilization no longer exists, the leadership role that Tom assumed has remained. Tom's and Weaver's relationship is kind of like that of Commander-in-Chief and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

This whole distraction with Pope is ridiculous. The Espheni are amassing some kind of huge power in DC and Pope is so selfish that he would rather deal with his petty grief than let the leader of the 2nd Mass lead his soldiers against the enemy.

I would have liked to see the reaction of the rest of the Volm when they found out Cochise's father sacrificed himself so that Cochise could live. From what we know, Cochise helping the humans isn't a super popular thing with the rest of the Volm.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

DevdogAZ said:


> That at least has a plausible explanation. It goes back to the season when Tom was elected president in Charleston and became the leader of all the survivors they knew of. Although that civilization no longer exists, the leadership role that Tom assumed has remained. Tom's and Weaver's relationship is kind of like that of Commander-in-Chief and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
> 
> This whole distraction with Pope is ridiculous. The Espheni are amassing some kind of huge power in DC and Pope is so selfish that he would rather deal with his petty grief than let the leader of the 2nd Mass lead his soldiers against the enemy.
> 
> I would have liked to see the reaction of the rest of the Volm when they found out Cochise's father sacrificed himself so that Cochise could live. From what we know, Cochise helping the humans isn't a super popular thing with the rest of the Volm.


I got where the Weaver / Mason dynamic came from, but, it was never really explained how Mason ever became president in the first place, which is another curveball the show gave us without much explanation. It just "was".

While the Pope thing is ridiculous, aren't there people just like him in the world who's personal problems to them are considered much more important than the world's problems? I think the one thing that Pope said kinda rang true (and we did see it early in the series, and Weaver alluded to it in passing). If a Mason boy was in trouble, Tom would drop everything to go save him, even at the expense of missions laid out by Weaver. We've seen him do it numerous times. So the argument could be made is what we are seeing here is how Mason "grew" and Pope's didn't. But the back and forth schizo way they've written Pope makes it seem stupid.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

Nothing on last week's episode yet? I thought it was pretty good and hopefully this could be the end of the whole Pope thing, but I doubt it. Hopefully they can get on with the main story and save the world.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

It's hard to believe there are only a few episodes left for the entire show. With the last episode not progressing the story line anywhere.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> It's hard to believe there are only a few episodes left for the entire show. With the last episode not progressing the story line anywhere.


From Next Week's Previews:



Spoiler



It looks like they will get to the heart of the Esphenie's power core which will disable them and I guess kill them. So the final battle looks like it will start next week.


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## Gerryex (Apr 24, 2004)

DevdogAZ said:


> . . .
> This whole distraction with Pope is ridiculous.
> . . .


I just caught up with the last two episodes and I was almost tempted to FF through all the Pope stuff. Fighting the bad aliens is much more interesting than Pope kidnapping Hal and beating him up while Hal is all chained up and can't even fight back. I was hoping that Tom would take Pope out, but of course it was only a flesh wound and Pope is still seeking revenge. And then the flying alien picked up Tom and I couldn't help it but I started to laugh . . . a lot!!!

Anyway, not the greatest Sci Fi show ever but I've seen worse!!!

Gerry


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

I thought it was odd that for the majority of the series, the 2nd Mass has been depicted as being pretty much the only surviving humans in the area. There was the Charleston period a couple seasons ago, but that ended.

But then in the last couple episodes, they've suddenly run into the sister and skitter brother at the food bank, and then Pope & Co. ran into a town with a small band of survivors, and then Weaver and crew get attacked by the guy in the hospital. It's just odd that they've apparently been surrounded by pockets of survivors all this time and had no contact with them.


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## RGM1138 (Oct 6, 1999)

Wow. Really? That was the end of Pope? A two minute walk-on to turn him into a crispy critter? Did anyone check the body?

It's a shame they had to kill off Lexie. Again.

I'm surprised that the finale is only an hour.


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## mrdbdigital (Feb 3, 2004)

Since we actually didn't see Pope's dead body:



Spoiler



I predict Pope will be back in the last episode, and will perhaps be instrumental in the humans winning. (I have no prior knowledge of this, just a guess on my part).


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## Unbeliever (Feb 3, 2001)

mrdbdigital said:


> Since we actually didn't see Pope's dead body:
> 
> I predict Pope will be back in the last episode, and will perhaps be instrumental in the humans winning. (I have no prior knowledge of this, just a guess on my part).


We don't have to spoiler speculation. Ignore the spoilerphobes.

My speculation is that the "instrumental" part will be insane Pope shooting up the place with a "nobody but me kills Mason!"

But overall, this last season is "10 pounds of 'stuff' in a 5 pound bag."

--Carlos V.


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## mrdbdigital (Feb 3, 2004)

Unbeliever said:


> We don't have to spoiler speculation. Ignore the spoilerphobes.


Almost every time I post something like this, someone always jumps down my throat.


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## Unbeliever (Feb 3, 2001)

mrdbdigital said:


> Almost every time I post something like this, someone always jumps down my throat.


Speculations are not spoilers unless you're part of the show staff. Or you're good at speculation that you prognosticated the future, but even if you're that good, it's still not a spoiler unless you bat 1.000 and get a reputation for it.

--Carlos V.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Unbeliever said:


> But overall, this last season is "10 pounds of 'stuff' in a 5 pound bag."
> 
> --Carlos V.


Totally agree. I'm only watching because I knew it was the final season and was curious how they'd wrap it up. But it seems like the final season thing maybe caught the writers off guard, because they clearly had more than 10 episodes worth of material they're trying to speed through this season.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

This show, the first year or so, seemed like a gritty "realistic" SciFi show about life after the invasion. Then it turned into the typical TV SciFi show with unbelievable story telling and stupid tech introduced. It looks like the final episode is going to be more on the stupid variety. I'll watch to see how they wrap it up, but I'm thinking I'm going to hate it.


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## Gerryex (Apr 24, 2004)

mrdbdigital said:


> Since we actually didn't see Pope's dead body:
> 
> I predict Pope will be back in the last episode, and will perhaps be instrumental in the humans winning. (I have no prior knowledge of this, just a guess on my part).


I was thinking the same exact thing!



DevdogAZ said:


> Totally agree. I'm only watching because I knew it was the final season and was curious how they'd wrap it up. But it seems like the final season thing maybe caught the writers off guard, because they clearly had more than 10 episodes worth of material they're trying to speed through this season.


Yes! It was a much better show in the earlier seasons. Lately the only reason I'm watching is to see how it ends!!

Gerry


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## SeanC (Dec 30, 2003)

I bailed last season as I couldn't take it anymore, but I am interested in how it all ends, I'll just be checking into this thread to see.


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## RGM1138 (Oct 6, 1999)

You're not gonna watch it?


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## mrdbdigital (Feb 3, 2004)

I think Pope's humanity (what little there is of it) will overcome his hatred for Mason in the end.

He was standing behind that concrete pillar (that *might* have protected him from the brunt of the explosion), and although he might have been badly burned, without seeing his dead body, I think he'll be back.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

mrdbdigital said:


> I think Pope's humanity (what little there is of it) will overcome his hatred for Mason in the end.
> 
> He was standing behind that concrete pillar (that *might* have protected him from the brunt of the explosion), and although he might have been badly burned, without seeing his dead body, I think he'll be back.


While I agree it was odd that we didn't see the body, I can't imagine that everyone single person in the 2nd Mass, as well as every single soldier that was previously at that base, would neglect to go look for the body after the smoke cleared. If Pope shows up alive in the series finale, that will simply be too much ridiculousness.


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## VegasVic (Nov 22, 2002)

Pope as the hero at the end is too predictable. So it will probably be what happens. He'll probably end up dying (for real this time) while taking out the aliens.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

VegasVic said:


> Pope as the hero at the end is too predictable. So it will probably be what happens. He'll probably end up dying (for real this time) while taking out the aliens.


Pope as the hero in the end, predictable and disappointment with the writers for once again taking the easy way out.
Pope dead from the blast and not in the finale? gutsy move that rewards us long time viewers.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

DevdogAZ said:


> While I agree it was odd that we didn't see the body, *I can't imagine that everyone single person in the 2nd Mass, as well as every single soldier that was previously at that base, would neglect to go look for the body after the smoke cleared.* If Pope shows up alive in the series finale, that will simply be too much ridiculousness.


This is TV, surely we've seen stupider things  This show already has shown us they can completely neglect common sense and go for the totally unbelievable.


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## SeanC (Dec 30, 2003)

RGM1138 said:


> You're not gonna watch it?


Me? No. I stopped watching middle of last season, I just found the story overwrought and soap opera-y. I don't need to watch it, I'm only vaguely interested in how they wrap it up.

Aliens won, Eathlings won, stalemate and everyone lives uneasily together from then on, Sol goes supernova and solves everyone's problems... whatever.


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## sbourgeo (Nov 10, 2000)

Well, that was interesting...

-No idea how pregnant Anne got injured, but the helper alien healed/resurrected her just fine.
-The reappearance of Pope added nothing to the story.
-Oh, so the queen looks like a spider but gives birth to humanoid overlords?
-Primitive humans were able to stop the initial invasion in the past, but the combined modern militaries of the world folded like a cheap card table during the next invasion.
-Wasn't there supposed to be a connection to the Nazca lines? Did I miss an episode?


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

The incredible abruptness of this season, and especially the last two episodes (where we learn A) there is a Queen Espheni, and B) if you poison her all the Espheni die) makes me wonder if they didn't plan for an entire season, and were caught off-guard by the short order...

The Pope stuff was just weird, even by Pope standards.


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## RGM1138 (Oct 6, 1999)

Yeah, I'm thinking that somebody owes me for the 5 years I spent on this show. The finale was just bizarre.

The super virus not only killed the Sphenz, it made them explode into a dazzling, celebratory fireworks display. Remotely!

I thought that when the Kraken took Moon under the waves for so long, she was gone for good. But, no, she pops up at the party, no worse for wear. And still pregnant.

I guess that since borders longer mean what they used to, America is now a cosmic Casablanca. I'm assuming that was the meaning of the pins everyone was wearing.

Pope. WTF?

Earth the only habitable planet in the entire galaxy? Ain't we special?

So nice of the Queen Mother to give Tom the whole backstory before trying to suck his blood.

With that final zoom into the stars, I can imagine a sequel with other intergalactic vermin, once again, coming to try and wipe us out.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

sbourgeo said:


> Well, that was interesting...
> 
> -No idea how pregnant Anne got injured, but the helper alien healed/resurrected her just fine.
> 
> -The reappearance of Pope added nothing to the story.


Anne was hit by shrapnel or flying debris when the grenade was launched and the tunnel collapsed. It was really dark in that scene and hard to see, but there was a really quick shot of her wincing.

As I said in the thread for the previous episode, the fact that Pope survived is completely ridiculous. Are we really supposed to believe that not a single person on that base went over to where Pope had been hiding behind that pillar to make sure he was dead and/or provide medical assistance if he was injured and/or take him into custody if he was alive?

When they were sneaking in the tunnel, Hal asked Maggie to marry him. Then in that final scene, Hal was standing by himself and Maggie was holding hands with Cochise. WTF?!?


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## Craigbob (Dec 2, 2006)

How much time elapsed between the exploding Espheni (sounds like a good punk band name BTW) and the speech?

I also think this season was a bit choppy and abrupt and missing large chunks of information.

I've got the perfect explanation as to how killing the Queen made all the Espheni go boom. They're all quantumly entangled to the queen. It's now been confirmed that quantum entanglement is real. http://www.iflscience.com/physics/einsteins-spooky-action-distance-confirmed-new-quantum-experiment.

Pope's death reminded me of Roy Batty's in Blade Runner. All this threat (though in Pope's case more bluster) and then he just up and dies.

I think this finale was intended as a longer 2 hour version and they had to cut a lot out to make it fit in the 1:06 time allotted.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Craigbob said:


> How much time elapsed between the exploding Espheni (sounds like a good punk band name BTW) and the speech?


Apparently not much. Anne knew she was pregnant before she "died," so she was at least a month along. Then in the final scene, she appeared to only be about six months along.

Either that, or the weird aliens kept her underwater for a while and then she came back in the same state she was in when she "died."

Or she came back having lost the baby and then she and Tom made a new one.


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## VegasVic (Nov 22, 2002)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> The incredible abruptness of this season, and especially the last two episodes (where we learn A) there is a Queen Espheni, and B) if you poison her all the Espheni die) makes me wonder if they didn't plan for an entire season, and were caught off-guard by the short order...


Four of the five seasons, including this one, had 10 episodes so I don't think it was necessarily a short order. I just think they tried to do too much this season. They announced in July 2014 there would be one last 10 episode season so the show runner/writers had plenty of time, they just didn't do a great job of it.


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## oscarfish (Mar 2, 2009)

I'll take 15 pounds of story in a 10 episode season over 5 pounds of story in a 10 episode season any time.

Last year when they announced that this season would be their last I thought that was a good idea. I guess I still think that was the right decision. My only reason to regret what I wanted is that I thought this season was so improved (minus the Pope stuff) over last.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

What a bizzare mishmash. Maybe one of the worst endings I've seen for a series, but I should have expected it, as the series went off the rails about 3 seasons ago. I would have much preferred all the human armies meeting up (instead of one motorcycle gang) and them having one last bloody battle instead of a poison alien grenade magically appearing in the penultimate episode and used to take out the queen right before Tom Mason dies. The best part of the first 2 seasons was the daily battles they had with skitters and mechs and their struggle to survive. It turned out to be a typical bad Sci Fi ending that just didn't work with what they established. Oh well, should have quit as soon as it got bad.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

Eh, I didn't think it was THAT bad of an ending, they moved a bit fast but hit the right notes, even Pope not being dead and then dying was handled in about the only way they could without it being a huge issue and I was going to be pretty hard on the writers with Pope returning.

I liked the way the bioweapon really DID work the way they said it would with no huge "gotcha" or disappointment, so it hit the marks, ended with a happy ending, I won't give it a great grade, but if I graded on Pass/Fail it gets a Pass.


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## Gerryex (Apr 24, 2004)

The series finale was OK. I think it could have been better showing all of the different militias joining together in one last push against the bad aliens. Looking at the map where they had the pins indicating all the different groups coming together and it looked like they had an awful lot of manpower but the only extra people we saw was the motorcycle guys.

Also, the bio-weapon almost seemed like a deus ex machine. It would have been more fulfilling if the good guys were able to defeat the bad guys by themselves.

Gerry


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

Gerryex said:


> The series finale was OK. I think it could have been better showing all of the different militias joining together in one last push against the bad aliens. Looking at the map where they had the pins indicating all the different groups coming together and it looked like they had an awful lot of manpower but the only extra people we saw was the motorcycle guys.
> 
> Also, the bio-weapon almost seemed like a deus ex machine. It would have been more fulfilling if the good guys were able to defeat the bad guys by themselves.
> 
> Gerry


Yeah, to me, it felt very anti-climactic. They fought for all these years and in 2 minutes the whole war was over. It would be like if WWII ended with one bomb....oh wait....


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Not to mention that the Espheni knew where Mason's crew was as evidenced by the hornets attacking the Norfolk base. So why did the hornets stop attacking? How did the 2nd Mass get from Norfolk to DC without being attacked? If the Overlords had even the slightest strategic bone in their bodies, they should have been sending hornets, mechs, and skitters nonstop against the Norfolk base and never let the humans get anywhere close to DC.


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## stellie93 (Feb 25, 2006)

It's reasonable that they didn't think the humans stood a chance against them. Any race as advanced as them couldn't really be permanently defeated with guns, etc. And they didn't know they had the magic bullet. So it kind of makes sense as the only way we could have won.....

I don't know how much time had passed, but it seemed like the infrastructure and the population recovered pretty fast. I'm surprised there were that many people within traveling distance and/or communication range of Washington.


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## oscarfish (Mar 2, 2009)

Does anyone happen to know what sort of road map this series had originally? I have no knowledge on the subject which is probably pretty obvious . I ask because it seemed to me that the first two seasons (or so) were very purposeful. Somewhere along the way it felt to me like someone said "now what, we didn't think we'd be on this long".

Over the years there have been quite a few shows that make much more sense, after the fact, knowing what was originally planned for and what had to be done on the fly. TCF is really the only place where I read about such stuff.

I'm not trying to complain about anything. I can see how it would be really difficult to tell a story when you don't know if you have 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 episodes to do it in.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

I don't think this show ever got the type of media coverage that would uncover whether the creator had any kind of long-term roadmap for the series. But you should know that any kind of long-term plan for a TV series is extremely rare. And even successful creators and showrunners advise against it, because thinking that you've got a great plan and sticking to it precludes you from exploring other possibilities that will inevitably be presented by talented writers on the staff.


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## LaurenLMHC (Aug 28, 2013)

Definitely disappointed in that finale, so much so that I NEEDED to come on here and see what everyone else was thinking. I agree it was over so damn quickly. Way too easy to kill the queen, and how unsatisfying to not see the other militia! This season was really good up until the very end. Sigh


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## alyssa (Dec 7, 2003)

by that premise, the new show blindspot should have a great run since they don't know where it's going LOL

i forget where i heard that- 

I was very glad they wrapped Falling Skies up- they didn't leave us with any questions- if i had anything neg to say abt the finale it'd be that the last battle was too pat. Almost to easy-by taking all the secondary characters out of the battle & making it a confrontation between Tom & the Queen it somehow lost the 'fate of humanity is in the balance' edge.

idk, maybe there wasn't a lot of money left for a big battle & they needed a one set conclusion.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Well, that was underwhelming. Not even one of the better episodes of the season, really. And so poorly lit. I dunno what I was expecting, but... something more.

I'd like to think Pope's reappearance was just a delusion/fantasy of Tom Mason.

But now, I am curious about what happened 1500 years ago. It seems to have gone surprisingly unrecorded by people of the time, unless we're supposed to count the Nazca lines? Is that the only trace left of the first invasion?


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## RGM1138 (Oct 6, 1999)

Another thing I found odd: There was a sh*t load of Espheni Overlords who were suspiciously absent at the last battle. All I saw were the Queen Mother and her dragonflies.

And cave paintings from _1500_ years ago? That seems off by several thousand years.

Jeff Fahey and his Krewe didn't add much to the fight. But they did show up for the champagne.

And they did manage to get Abe glued back together for the celebration, so all is well, I guess.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

I tuned in for the series finale after giving up on the show around when the kid magically grew up.

This really has to be one of the stupidest sci-fi shows ever made.

They bomb Pope in the last episode and he shows up in the last 5 minutes?
(and as an aside the last time I saw Pope he was fighting with the Masons and had long hair ... when did he become their enemy AND bald?)

They kill Anne 10 minutes before the end and then she is alive? why bother?

and wow Jeff Fahey has gotten old. when did that happen?


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Cainebj said:


> (and as an aside the last time I saw Pope he was fighting with the Masons and had long hair ... when did he become their enemy AND bald?)


Arguably they were always enemies. But, what led to Pope's defection is, he'd finally got a girlfriend, and she fell into an alien trap, and Tom Mason prioritized some other urgent mission over rescuing her, and she died.

Pope shaved his head shortly after defecting, for no real apparent reason. I guess he wanted to look more aggressive or something.


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## RGM1138 (Oct 6, 1999)

wmcbrine said:


> Arguably they were always enemies. But, what led to Pope's defection is, he'd finally got a girlfriend, and she fell into an alien trap, and Tom Mason prioritized some other urgent mission over rescuing her, and she died.
> 
> Pope shaved his head shortly after defecting, for no real apparent reason. I guess he wanted to look more aggressive or something.


Well, let's not forget that Pope is the one who set her on fire when the bugs started eating her.


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## mm2margaret (Dec 7, 2010)

The show lost it's way somewhere towards the end of season 4 (at least for me), and at that point, it was pretty much over. You could tell that the writers had given up, and that was the beginning of the end. I think they ran out of ideas, or, there was a change in the writing staff. This last season was a mess, and the final episode was just thrown together just to put it all to bed. So, it's over, and it's just as well. 

But the first two seasons were really good, in particular the first.


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## Wil (Sep 27, 2002)

wmcbrine said:


> Well, that was underwhelming.


I'd say you nailed it.


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## pkscout (Jan 11, 2003)

I feel like the writers had two seasons of stuff they wanted to do when they found out they only had one season left. Rather than reducing the number of things they would cover, they tried to cover everything superficially. I guess in that sense the succeeded.

They could have dropped the Pope going evil thread, the son finds another love (and then ends up with Maggie anyway), the queen stuff (and the associated "legend says aliens landed here"), and even the new aliens to save the day. Basically every new things they introduced the last season. A clever crash landing of the ship at the beginning of the season and a decent final battle would have made the whole thing work better.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

To me lost it's way after S2, when we open up S3 (I think it was 3 anyway) with Tom Mason as "President" and all of a sudden out of nowhere we have "good" aliens helping them. No explanation how they got there, not even a blurb that they jumped ahead x number of years or months or whatever. It just WAS. It went from being a show about surviving an alien apocalypse to the weird Sci FI that it became, complete with half alien daughter and mysterious eggs and all that. We never saw that kind of stuff the first 2 years.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Steveknj said:


> To me lost it's way after S2, when we open up S3 (I think it was 3 anyway) with Tom Mason as "President" and all of a sudden out of nowhere we have "good" aliens helping them. No explanation how they got there, not even a blurb that they jumped ahead x number of years or months or whatever. It just WAS. It went from being a show about surviving an alien apocalypse to the weird Sci FI that it became, complete with half alien daughter and mysterious eggs and all that. We never saw that kind of stuff the first 2 years.


Actually, IIRC, it was the final scene of the S2 finale when the humans met the Volm (Cochise), and then the opening scene of S3 was Cochise explaining who the Volm is and why they are the enemy of the Espheni and therefore want to help the humans.


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## Gerryex (Apr 24, 2004)

DevdogAZ said:


> Actually, IIRC, it was the final scene of the S2 finale when the humans met the Volm (Cochise), and then the opening scene of S3 was Cochise explaining who the Volm is and why they are the enemy of the Espheni and therefore want to help the humans.


Yes, that's correct!

Did they ever explain why they called him Cochise?

Gerry


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## Unbeliever (Feb 3, 2001)

Gerryex said:


> Did they ever explain why they called him Cochise?


Because his alien name (Chichauk Il'sichninch Cha'tichol) is too long/hard to pronounce and Mason is a history buff.

--Carlos V.


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## Gerryex (Apr 24, 2004)

Unbeliever said:


> Because his alien name (Chichauk Il'sichninch Cha'tichol) is too long/hard to pronounce and Mason is a history buff.
> 
> --Carlos V.


I guess I must have dozed off during that dialog!!

Thanks,
Gerry


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