Falling Skies - Season 5: Discussion and Spoilers

[propita]

The whole Pope-arc points to a victory for the humans, but then Pope kills Tom and/or his family. Anne said that Tom was doing this for his kids--so Pope will kill the kids, "negating" Tom's purpose.

I don't like where they're going with Pope. And the bald cap on Pope? Hideous from rear and angled shots. If that's really his head, grow hair.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Yeah, that side shot was really bad.

I'm really disappointed with what they've done with Pope. Four years of character development and now he's worse than when the show started. I think Anthony will come back from it, but Pope is too far gone now. He's a lone psycho. What a shame.

 

[Procutus]

I agree that the direction they've taken Pope has been poorly executed, although I suppose part of me saw it coming. It seems that rather than have him and Tom put aside their various differences as victory nears, now regretably Pope is likely to die in a conflict with Tom.

And at this point, it would feel too contrived for him to sacrifice himself at the eleventh hour the way Lexi did to save everyone. He's gone off the deep edge now, so a selfless act such as that is unlikely.

The season started off good, but it's starting to nose-dive now. I expect the body-count to become even higher before the end.

 

[Morpheus 02]

I also wonder if it's a subconscious jab at the writers...as in a way it REALLY been about the Mason family, and other than Lexi, they've been doing pretty good (in universe, as well as time/story wise as characters).

Pope's shave reminds me of Shane in the Walking Dead...wonder if he & Tom will get in a fight, but then Pope gets taken & Skitterized

And has Anthony gotten any real characterization in all 5 seasons? He seems like Lourdes -- a familiar character that's conveniently used to provide conflict when the story gets stuck.

I guess they already had conflict with an existing earth group... a skirmish with a Mason Militia (i.e. one that went off the deep end) would seem repetititve, right?

 

[Aragorn]

Anthony's never really been a character. I know he used to be a cop. Was it his friend that Pope's gang executed in the pilot? Otherwise, Anthony and Dai were just the recognizable faces that would go out on missions with the other characters who got all the dialog.

 

[auntiehill]

^^ Yeah, that side shot was really bad.

I'm really disappointed with what they've done with Pope. Four years of character development and now he's worse than when the show started. I think Anthony will come back from it, but Pope is too far gone now. He's a lone psycho. What a shame.

Yeah, even Hubby, who has loved this show from start to finish, turned to me while we were watching it last night and said, "Wow. The writing here is awful. This totally cliched. How boring."

He still wants to watch it until the bitter end, but I'm so disappointed with the direction. All the characters are acting like morons; the whole storyline with Pope is just laughable. It's like the scripts are written with Mad Libs or something.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ A friend of mine, who loves the show and especially Pope, feels the same way. She hasn't even been able to review the episode yet. This is the worst mistake they've made since killing Lourdes.

 

[Procutus]

^^

It wasn't so much the fact that they killed Lourdes, but the way in which they did it. IMO, there was really nowhere else to go with her character arc, but to have her essentially drink too much of the Kool-Aid at the feet of Lexi and die in that manner... Not the route I would've chosen, had I been writing.

Plus, that act, to me, took completely stripped Lexi of all her humanity. She might've believed the Espheni's party line and all the crap they were throwing at her, but deep down, Lexi had to know that what she did was wrong. And that was not the way to rid Lourdes of her pain.

Hell, if that was Lexi's idea of ridding her of pain, she should've done it at the end of Season 3, instead of just pulling the bugs out of her.

I'm just sayin'.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Pope may still be alive, but his character just got assassinated. He's this season's Lexi (the uncontrollable threat from within) and Anthony is this season's Lardass, blindly following his lead in complete contradiction to his prior behavior.

And how about Anne throwing Tom's kids under the bus by incepting Pope with the idea that killing her is pointless because Tom's doing all of this for his kids? I was like "Anne, stop giving him ideas!" OK, I didn't actually say that, because I'm already too embarrassed that I'm still watching this meandering garbage scow of a show to compound that by talking to the screen, but you catch my drift.

Tom should have just straight up executed Pope after that stunt. He's got to establish the Ricktatorship before shit gets out of hand, like Rick did with Shane on Walking Dead.

 

[RJDiogenes]

It wasn't so much the fact that they killed Lourdes, but the way in which they did it. IMO, there was really nowhere else to go with her character arc, but to have her essentially drink too much of the Kool-Aid at the feet of Lexi and die in that manner... Not the route I would've chosen, had I been writing.

Plus, that act, to me, took completely stripped Lexi of all her humanity. She might've believed the Espheni's party line and all the crap they were throwing at her, but deep down, Lexi had to know that what she did was wrong. And that was not the way to rid Lourdes of her pain.

Hell, if that was Lexi's idea of ridding her of pain, she should've done it at the end of Season 3, instead of just pulling the bugs out of her.

The whole Star-Child thing was way too V. I don't think there was nowhere to go with Lourdes, but I agree that the method of execution just added insult to injury.

 

[Procutus]

The whole Star-Child thing was way too V.

I know. Every time she was on-screen, I kept waiting for her to stick a forked tongue out her mouth.

 

[RJDiogenes]

She actually looked like an Espheni, but she was wearing a really amazing rubber suit.

 

[Aragorn]

This is an odd show. The first four seasons were very Spielberg-esque family friendly and Mason family-focused. Then suddenly in season five it's on at 10 p.m., characters are swearing and humans are killing each other (which realistically there should've been a lot more of in the lawless apocalypse). But the sloppy and inconsistent writing remains the same.

Also...

Pope: "As long as Mason's running the show, people die for no reason. I say enough is enough."

Pope's first day in charge of his own gang:

Pope: "Is he hurt?" BANG!

 

[bigdaddy]

The show has sadly gone through 3 show runners in 5 years, i really wish the season 2-3 guy was still around. Not perfect but I think there was some type of plan.

I gave up in season 4, is there any reason to bother watching it if I have pissed 15 episodes?

 

[Aragorn]

Depends on if you really care to see how the show ends. It's probably the worst show I currently watch but it's almost over so I'm sticking with it to the end since I've already come this far.

However, I also watched Grey's Anatomy for 11 seasons and dropped it just like that without any hesitation because enough was enough. I guess it depends on how much of a glutton for punishment you are.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

I have the last two episodes sitting on my DVR, I've just not had the gumption to watch them. Really I'm mostly blasé about it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I've kept watching it because I've always enjoyed it in a B-Movie kind of way. I've always gotten from it exactly what I expected, so I was seldom disappointed.

But this Pope thing is bizarre. Not only is it a disappointment in terms of character development, but it just keeps going. I thought this week would be the Big Showdown between Tom and Pope, but Pope survives to be even crazier and more vengeful. We've only got a handful of episodes to wrap up a freakin' alien invasion and apocalypse and it's all about crazy Pope.

Weaver's story this week, on the other hand, was very good. I knew that guy's family was dead right from the start, but it was a great illustration of how far Weaver has come as a character, unlike Pope. Maybe that was the writer's intention: To show that adversity builds character in some and destroys it in others.

 

[Reverend]

Weaver's story this week, on the other hand, was very good. I knew that guy's family was dead right from the start, but it was a great illustration of how far Weaver has come as a character, unlike Pope. Maybe that was the writer's intention: To show that adversity builds character in some and destroys it in others.

I think the distinction is rather that Weaver has already been through the crucible and come out stronger, while Pope is still going through it...and probably won't make it out the other side.

I agree though, the whole Pope and Anthony thing feels very much out of place and lazy, at least in terms of execution.

 

[Aragorn]

Weaver's story this week, on the other hand, was very good. I knew that guy's family was dead right from the start, but it was a great illustration of how far Weaver has come as a character, unlike Pope. Maybe that was the writer's intention: To show that adversity builds character in some and destroys it in others.

The idea was there, the execution wasn't. One crazy guy who acts like his family is still alive uses a bunch of ammo on them to try to get ammo from them, and then none of them can shoot him on the balcony even though everyone unloads on that location? After everything they've been through, there's no way that he should've gotten the drop on them, let alone make them do so many things.

 

[Tom]

Weaver's story this week, on the other hand, was very good. I knew that guy's family was dead right from the start, but it was a great illustration of how far Weaver has come as a character, unlike Pope. Maybe that was the writer's intention: To show that adversity builds character in some and destroys it in others.

The idea was there, the execution wasn't. One crazy guy who acts like his family is still alive uses a bunch of ammo on them to try to get ammo from them, and then none of them can shoot him on the balcony even though everyone unloads on that location? After everything they've been through, there's no way that he should've gotten the drop on them, let alone make them do so many things.

Also, no snipers in the group?