“You know, I actually thought about buying in this neighborhood once upon a time?” This line, uttered while Clayton’s troops are preparing to kill Hal, is a good summation of where this episode went. The characters just aren’t serious enough to be inhabiting this apocalyptic world, creating a mismatch of potential and reality. The situation of humans cooperation with skitters demanded potential, but instead, the episode turns towards the usual plot of people running and shooting. There’s clearly defined good guys and bad guys, and the good guys win in the end.
Want to buy time for kids? Wait until you’re surrounded so your son has no father. Kids tired of running from men who’ll give you to skitters? Stop at the house beside the road and play Battleship. No urgency whatsoever.
At this point, it probably wasn’t too surprising that the episode wasn’t interesting. The pathos didn’t work for the hundredth time and the plot was similar to the previous ones. Clayton and his men are not humanized so we can empathize with them, and they’re practically human version of the skitters, faceless things that have to be defeated.
Score: 8.2/10
