“Falling Skies” Season 5, Episode 3: “Hatchlings” Review By Sam Totten - Jul 21, 2015

Alien-human hybrids, biological weapons, romance, tragedy, death and torture. What is really going on in this show? It seems like “Falling Skies” is pulling out all the stops for its final season.

When we last left the 2nd Mass, they had stumbled upon a massive field full of alien hornets. What’s more, we also learned that the Skitters are using human DNA to make full-fledged Skitter-human hybrids biologically. The Espheni are

nd really stepping up their game—is there any hope for the 2nd Mass? For a full recap of Episode Two, click here.

The theme for the third episode, “Hatchlings,” was humanity. Humanity was especially a main factor in the brother-sister duo recently taken in by the 2nd Mass: Caitlyn and Brian. Brian has been recently Skitterized; however, he still maintains his human eyes. Even though Brian was locked up, Caitlyn pleaded his human self was trapped inside along with his ability to empathize.

Later on in the episode, Brian escaped, abducting his sister in the process. Tragically, Brian accidentally killed his sister after she jumped in front of Maggie to take a bullet. In turn, Brian pulled the trigger on himself. This begs the question: was Brian aware of his actions? Did he know what he was doing? Was he able to empathize?

Another test of human nature was shown when Anthony was left alone with the Skitter Overlord—and needless to say, he failed. After Denny’s death, Anthony went on a torture rampage toward the enemy. He has tortured every Skitter that the group has captured for the sake of making them pay for their crimes. It is clear that Anthony is suffering from PTSD. As punishment, Colonel Weaver took away Anthony’s gun and rank. Will this really solve problem? We shall see.

Perhaps, the best example of humanity was seen in the relationship between Pope and Sarah. This season, we have seen a transition in Pope. He has gone from bad boy anarchist to charmingly endearing and somewhat of a romantic— this is due to his love, Sarah. During this episode, Pope opened up about having a family prior to the Skitter War and told Sarah that he even wanted children with her someday. What a sweetie!

As awesome as it was to see Pope finally show his soft side, his time with Sarah was unfortunately cut short. By the time Pope makes it back to save Sarah, who was stuck in an Espheni fog swamp, he finds her eaten alive by flesh eating insects. On the plus side, she did have a fairly memorable death. Does this mean Pope will go back to his not-so-nice-guy ways?

Side note: the cast of the show appeared at San Diego Comic-Con 2015 for the “Falling Skies” panel to answer questions from fans. To get the scoop, click here. Image courtesy of Twitter @FallingSkiesTNT

For more “Falling Skies” news, stay tuned and follow me on Twitter @SK_Totten.