'Falling Skies' Season 1 Finale (Episodes 9 & 10) 'Mutiny' and 'Eight Hours' Recap

It seems that the showdown between Tom and Weaver has been building since week one of this summer sci-fi series, and the beginning of the two-hour finale confirms it. Tom is still worried about Weaver's increasingly erratic behavior, and Weaver is increasingly tough on Tom.

In fact, as the episode opens he tries to assign Tom and Hal to sentry duty...but when Lourdes reveals that Weaver has been taking both uppers and downers since Harris was here (thanks for warning us, Lourdes), both Tom and Hal doubt him even more. Tom sends Hal and Margaret out to make out--er, stand guard, while he confronts Weaver.

But Tom's lack of tact, and Weaver's straight-up craziness, lands Tom in the brig right before the attack. Oh, good. But Jimmy and Hal break him out, and the wounded Dai reveals that Porter (hey, remember him? From like, episode one?) said the attack should be aborted.

While Tom and Anne are coming to terms with Ben's possible transformation, Ben is starting to realize that he might not be completely human anymore as well. Things are confirmed for him when the radio makes him freak out, as if he were communicating with the skitters again. Rick, meanwhile, is still being a creep.

When Weaver finds out about the break-out, he goes after Tom, but Tom is ready. He distracts Pope, defuses the bombs he's been working on, and corners Weaver, finally convincing him to  give the 2nd Mass the facts, and take volunteers for the very dangerous mission. His impassioned speech even wins over Tom, and Weaver gets his strike force together while Tom, Hal and the remaining fighters stay behind to protect the civvies.

As the convoy leaves, though, Ben reveals to Tom that they found the interference frequency on the radio. The plan, it seems, is to catch up to the attack team and provide some jamming. But that plan has a wrench thrown in it--a shaggy-haired, creepy-ass wrench--when Rick crawls up the wall like a skitter and attacks Uncle Scott to protect his skitter bretheren. Worse than that, he grabs the transistor and runs off to tell the skitters all about where he's been. But he finds that he doesn't have a home with them, either, and they ditch him after he tells them everything. I guess that whole family is prone to screwing things up.

When Tom learns of the betrayal, he decides it's time to evacuate the civilians from the school and keep a small force behind to hold off the skitters and mechs. Cue Tom's Historical Speech #374: Battles of Concord and Lexington.

On the attack front, Hal and his chin discover that the other units have likely been wiped out, so it's all up to the 2nd Mass. Weaver orders Hal back to the school to warn everyone to evacuate, and to spread the word that "the 2nd Mass drew blood." If Tom were there, he'd be comparing him to Paul Revere.

Back at the school, the attack has begun as a mech shows up. Thanks to Pope's new ammunition, they fell the first one pretty quickly...but then another wave shows up. Apparently, the team wasn't equipped with many bullets (not surprising, those were all made by hand), so it's up to Ben and Scott to figure out the radio. Connecting it to the flagpole to amplify the signal works like a charm, and the mechs turn tail and retreat thanks to the interference.

And FINALLY, Tom and Anne make out. Geez.

Anyway, he tells her he's staying behind to take the radio in to the city to run some interference and support the strike team, and that she should take care of the kids. When Tom arrives on the scene, he finds Pope and Anthony badly injured. Pope agrees to take Anthony back for medical help, but not before handing off that wicked mech-metal RPG  to Tom. Looks like something's going to go boom today.

In fact, when Tom finds Weaver, he practically begs him for permission to fire it and try to take out one of the retreating ships. The chances of taking one out are slim..."about as slim as us making it this far?" Tom asks. Weaver gives the go-ahead, and Tom sure enough shoots one down, causing a mighty big boom in the hangar. It's not much, but it's still pretty darn satisfying.

On the way back to base, though, Tom and Weaver run into one of those tall, lanky fellows, with translation being provided by Karen. She explains that the harness is a process, and that they can call Ben back if they want to...but they won't if Tom goes with them. They find the resistance "interesting," as they weren't expecting this level of trouble.

Our season-ending cliffhanger has Tom walking, hand in hand with the harnessed Karen, following the alien into his ship as Weaver calls after him in disbelief. Looks like next summer we're going to be seeing a lot more of the aliens right off the bat. I don't know about you, but I can't wait...I'll gladly sit through another hundred of Tom's history lessons for it.