'Falling Skies' Season 2, Episode 6 Recap - 'Homecoming'

At this point, we might as well rename Murphy's Law to "Falling Skies"s' Law. Anything that can go wrong on this show, will go wrong.

Case in point: this episode has Weaver falling ill from, apparently, a toxin from the harness that has entered his bloodstream. This has not been a problem for anyone else, mind you... just Weaver.

The solution is to pump Weaver's blood out, heat it to 108 degrees and kill the pathogen, then cool the blood and pump it back in. This would all go swimmingly if, of course, it weren't for the fact that 2nd Mass happens to be nearly out of fuel for their generators. So of course, the generators go out right after they start Weaver's delicate procedure.

Why didn't they plan for this? Tom was well aware that they were low on fuel. Surely a backup generator could have been set up in the room in case of a blackout. But no: nobody makes sound decisions on this show, and any time something inconvenient can happen to manufacture drama, it will.

This leads to a lot of very conveniently placed accidents, attacks and acts of God that set our heroes back, and honestly I'm pretty sick of it. It's lazy writing, and what's worse is that by now it's completely predictable. Did someone mention low fuel in the generator? You can bet that will run out by the end of the episode, at the worst possible moment!

Weaver's little side story aside, some interesting stuff happened with Karen, which would all have been great if it weren't for the fact that apparently a side effect of having a harness removed is that you start speaking in overly florid generalities and act like a know-it-all asshole all the time. Rick certainly did, Ben definitely does, and now Karen is doing the same.

If it wasn't obvious enough from the "previously on" segement that Karen would be showing up (she was featured two or three times), the fact that Hal and Maggie were out in the woods talking about their relationship right after a scene in which Tom mentioned Rebecca in front of Anne should have been a good indicator.

Sure enough, Hal and Maggie happen upon a pile of dead de-harnessed kids, one of whom is Karen. Turns out she isn't dead, though, as she bolts up awake. Ben is the first one to question all of this when Karen is brought back to camp, and rightfully so: she just happened to be nearby the hospital, and just happened to be the only one alive? The same girl who was the personal interpreter for the fish heads (Pope's term)?

She and Ben end up bonding, though, over their shared experience. They also end up connecting with their glowing spikes, and then briefly making out before Hal bursts in and Karen falls to the floor in an unconvincing faint. It quickly becomes clear that whatever powers Ben got from being harnessed, Karen has them tenfold.

Later, it's Maggie's turn to be a total asshole as she comes into Karen's room and whips out not one, but two pistols. This is easily the most ridiculous thing I have seen on this show. Seriously, rewind that moment a few times on your DVR and watch it again. It's completely absurd.

It also ends up being useless, as Karen does all kinds of flips around Maggie and then throws her into a wall. Ben offers Karen the chance to run away, and they do... right after Ben chokes out Hal on the rooftop. What a couple of jerks.

After all of this, Pope shows up at the hospital injured, and when he comes to, he reveals that some of the fish heads showed up along with Karen very nearby, and they're coming for the 2nd Mass, specifically for Ben. The implication: Karen planned the whole thing. The reality: none of it was necessary, as a proper force of mechs and skitters could easily wipe these guys out, as long as the aliens know where they are. Yeesh.

Next week: more conveniently placed problems and poorly made decisions.