'Falling Skies' Season 2, Episode 4 Recap - 'Young Bloods'

Another down week for "Falling Skies" it seems, as we seem to be pretty heavy on the sentiment lately and short on action. There was a bit to get excited about this week, but a lot of it was bogged down in emotion based, once again, on characters that we don't even care about, or barely even know.

It all starts when 2nd Mass has a run-in with a group of kids who steal their bikes. When Hal and Ben go to get their stuff back, they invite the leader, Diego, and a few of the other kids back with them to resupply. As it turns out, Diego's girlfriend is Jean, Weaver's daughter whom he thought was dead.

So, nice day for Weaver as he gets his daughter back, right? Not so much: when Diego et al return to their camp, it turns out that the skitters came in and abducted all the kids. Wow, so you left a bunch of children alone and the aliens got them? What a surprise.

This spurs a very rushed rescue mission by Diego, which spurs another rushed rescue mission from Hal, Tom, Weaver and Maggie as Jean and Matt rushed off with Diego too.

Matt is pissed, you see, since Tom sent him out on a mission with a squad of guys we've never met before but seem to enjoy beatboxing. There's your first sign of trouble, right there. These bozos use Matt as bait and kill some skitters, which upsets Tom. So... send your kid out on a military mission, but then get pissed when he's put in danger? Makes sense, Tom.

Anyway, Matt and Jean nearly get their own harnesses in a scene that shows us the origin of the strange things. It turns out that they're actually biological. They're big wormy slug things that the skitters keep in a tank and distribute down chutes so that they can leech onto the kids' backs, at which point they start looking a little more mechanical.

Ben gives up his little glowing secret as his spines light up when he's near the harness tank. Hal manages to catch a glimpse of it and confronts him later, but to no avail... Ben is still being a pain in the ass and a pretty unbearable character.

Weaver reunites with his daughter again, gives her Jimmy's compass (guess we're over Jimmy now), and then she sets off with Diego because apparently nobody wants to go to Charleston. Sigh.

But the absolute worst thing about this episode was Lourdes. We're re-introduced to her (because she never does anything important and is easy to forget) as she interrupts a tender moment between Tom and Anne. Oops! How adorable!

After that, the World's Most Useless Character asks Diego what happened to her hometown in Mexico, which he says was wiped out. She's upset and blows past her boyfriend, who is also a new character whom I don't care about in the slightest. Later, they actually get THEIR OWN SCENE in which she talks about her feelings and he gives her some vague encouragement about hope.

In short: Lourdes needs to die soon. Worst. Character. Ever. But that's just my opinion. Thoughts?