Falling Skies: Season Five, Episode Four – “Pope Breaks Bad”

First Aired July 19th, 2015.

Pope (played by Colin Cunningham) silently grieves at the grave of his dead girlfriend, Sara (played by Mira Sorvino). Tom (played by Noah Wyle) tries to console him but is met by steely silence.

Cochise (played by Doug Jones) informs everyone that his vital organs are failing and he’s slowly dying. Although he’s resigned to his fate, Anne (played by Moon Bloodgood) refuses to let him die and suggests an organ transplant. Cochise speaks with his father, Waschak-cha’ab (played by John H. Mayer), who rejects the idea, believing Volm die when they are fated to and accuses Cochise of favoring human customs to the Volm’s. Eventually Waschak-cha’ab decides to volunteer himself for the organ transplant but makes Anne operate. Anne successfully completes the operation but Waschak-cha’ab fails to start healing after it’s done. Anne is unable to revive him, but he and Cochise share a brief telepathic goodbye. Meanwhile, Pope teams up with Anthony (played by Mpho Koaho), who’s still mad about being benched for PTSD, in order to turn people against Tom. While out gathering supplies, Tom’s group is attacked by a swarm of mutated alien insects who devour one of his men. They nearly get Tom but he remembers they have human eyes and uses mace to incapacitate them. When they return to camp, Pope uses the man’s death as another example of Tom’s bad leadership.

Cochise hasn’t been the focus of an episode for a long time, probably since season four, so having him front and center was a nice change of pace. While his life or death operation provided some drama in the episode, there was no chance of Cochise dying because of how abruptly it was introduced. It seemed like the writers wanted to make sure Cochise got more screen time this season and came up with this. Even the explanation that he was dying felt rushed. If this had been stretched out over at least two episodes the dramatic value would have been much higher. Pope has been through this routine several times before: he gets pissed at Tom or believes he is dangerous and wants/tries to kill him. What makes it different this time is how personal it is. Tom’s decision directly led to Sara’s death. There won’t be any backing down now that Pope has lost the one person he truly cared about. His list of people who died because of Tom is somewhat accurate but realistically whatever plan Tom comes up with there’s a chance someone will die. But Pope isn’t dealing with that. He just wants to drum up support which is definitely working, especially with Tom coming back one member short of his group.

Pope accuses Tom of always putting his family above the rest of the group, noting that his sons and Anne are still alive while others have lost some or all of their loved ones. Eventually, Tom has enough of Pope’s ranting and dares him to shoot him then and there but Pope doesn’t pull the trigger. Tom declares that he and Pope are officially done and orders him and anyone who wants to follow out of Chinatown. Anthony lures Anne into a trap set by Pope, who has shaved his head having snapped completely. He plans to kill Anne to hurt Tom but she tells him that her death won’t hurt Tom because he wants to create a legacy for his sons. Pope then lets her leave. Meanwhile, Tom has another vision of his dead wife, Rebecca (played by Jennifer Ferrin), who confirms she’s an image projected by an alien species called the Dornia. The Dornia were invaded by the Espheni and believed to be extinct, they use Rebecca’s form to communicate with Tom because they’d die in their true form. Although they seem to be allies against the Espheni, Tom is hesitant to trust them.

The verbal showdown between Pope and Tom wasn’t as epic as I thought it would be, watching them trade barbs about leadership style only to back down is repetitive. I hoped to see something new like the camp dividing into two factions each led by Pope and Tom respectively, but I was happy to settle with Pope quietly and meticulously planning his revenge.He is so unhinged that for a minute it did seem likely that he would kill Anne. As great a character as she is it would have undoubtedly been a major turning point for the show. I can see why the Dornia would have been introduced to the show as a way for Tom to get back to Earth. That said, there are already a lot of alien and human characters. The season is halfway over so unless there’s an episode that really goes into the backstory of the Dornia they’ll never be actual characters.

Anne tells Tom about what Pope did and when they can’t find Hal (played by Drew Roy). He realizes Pope kidnapped him and Tom goes after them.  Pope leaves Hal trapped in the woods similar to the way Sara was before she died. Pope plans to keep Hal alive long enough for Tom to find them so he can kill Hal in front of Tom, and then kill Tom. I can’t see any way Pope can find redemption and become one of the good guys. He’s now directly threatened two members of Tom’s family. There’s no way Tom and him will be able to work past this so it can only end in bloodshed. The real question is whether Pope will be able to take Hal out or anyone else Tom cares about in the crossfire.

Quotes & Thoughts

“Seems that whenever somebody dies around here it’s usually because of one of Tom Mason’s big plans.”

Apparently there is a super-secret Espheni plot brewing in D.C. What else could they possibly come up with this late in the game?

“I’m starting a pool, I’d like to see who might be next to be sacrificed for the greater good.”

Pope looks both really evil and really ridiculous with his new bald look.

If you enjoyed Manny’s skyfall, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.

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