Falling Skies

? Falling Skies 2x02 ? Shall We Gather at the River Original Air Date on June 17, 2012

Checked you out from head to toe.

You seem perfectly normal.

Well, what if it wasn't something physical but psychological?

Could they have given me

some kind of posthypnotic suggestion?

And turned you into what -- a sleeper agent?

I don't think anyone,

even a supposedly advanced race of aliens,

could get Tom Mason to turn against his boys.

You've got a lot of faith in a man

who walked onto a spaceship of his own free will.

They threatened to take Ben away.

It was a lie. And I fell for it.

I left my boys to fend for themselves

for the last three months.

Tom, you have to believe, I-I tried to be there for them.

Oh, I know.

Truth is, your boys are amazingly resilient.

If anything, they've grown stronger.

And you?

I'm alive.

Can't say that for most of us.

Lost a lot of really good people right here,

right on this table.

The worst part of it is, I have trouble remembering

what they looked like, what they sounded like.

They're just fading away.

So I started pinning up their pictures,

trying to hang on to them.

Uncle Scott. Rick didn't make it?

I don't know.

One day he was there. Next day, he was gone.

If you're worried about Ben, do not be.

Ben hates the Skitters.

Weaver says he's one of our best fighters.

Yeah, but he's still got those spikes in his spine.

And the crusty skin is spreading.

If we had an X-ray,

I could find out what's going on inside of him,

but until I get my hands on a working machine,

there's no way to know.

Just like there's no way to know what's going on inside of me,

despite what you or Weaver or I would like to believe.

Bridge looks good!

I mean, considering.

We may have a real shot at crossing here, guys.

That's good.

Aliens have blown up every other bridge

within a hundred miles of here.

Got us pinned on this side of the river.

Better get back with the intel.

The longer we stand around, the closer the Skitters are

to finding us and turning 2nd Mass into roadkill.

Practicing operational silence?

Because you've hardly said a word all day.

You know, it's not your fault.

That's what everyone keeps telling me.

Hey, Ben, Jimmy! Let's go!

Who would have expected your dad to have been there

after three months?

It was dark, Skitters on our heels, something moved.

Anyone would have shot.

Well, it wasn't anyone. It was me.

Incoming!

Get down, Ben!

- Get it, Dai! - Damn it!

Nice shot, Dai.

20 Mike-Mike, armor-piercing discarding sabot.

Accept no substitutes.

Nice!

Well, I guess we can't cross here.

After we attacked that structure in Boston

the aliens want us like hounds on a fox.

Tried every trick I could think of to shake them,

but, uh, they surrounded us...

in Fitchburg.

It was a disaster.

They poured fire on us from all sides,

till Ben found a soft spot in their lines

and we managed to punch through.

But we lost a lot of people.

We lost more than a hundred.

My God.

And now the bastards are trying to do it again.

We got the Housatonic River right here.

It runs to the west, to the south.

We are here.

And their units have cut us off from the north and the east.

And they're moving in.

And if I don't find a way to get across that river,

they're gonna pin the 2nd Mass in,

and they're gonna destroy us.

And that is why I need you.

Yeah.

How have my boys done?

Thank God for Hal and Ben.

They really stepped up while you were gone -- both of them.

But they're young, and they're not ready to be my X.O.,

which is why I need somebody who can ask me the hard questions,

who can give me a swift kick in the butt if I need it, you know?

We can't afford another Fitchburg, Tom.

Now, the scouts should be back to camp pretty soon, and I...

I'm hoping that they found a way across this damn river,

and I want you at the debrief.

Dan, I can't.

I know that you're not completely healed.

- I'm not asking you to do anything. - No, no. No.

The wound's not the problem. I just nicked a rib.

Anne will have the stitches out next week.

Then what is it?

I don't trust myself.

And you shouldn't, either.

You giving me orders now?

I'll decide who I can trust.

And I'll put my money on the man

who pulled my ass out of the fire in Boston.

No, it's true. Dylan's alive.

He's holed up in a mine shaft in Minnesota,

rewriting his protest songs into war ballads.

Delvalle heard one of his broadcasts

over that crystal set he built.

Oh, man, that thing doesn't even work.

It couldn't pick up a conversation in the next tent.

Never mind a broadcast from Minnesota,

if there even was one.

Man, shut up. What the hell do you know?

What is -- how did you do this? Wrench slipped.

Thought you might come out here and kiss it, make it better.

Aah!

So, what's the deal with the Professor?

What do you mean?

Just kind of figured he'd give us all an oral history

in alien-interrogation techniques,

but all we got is brooding silence.

Well... What's up with that, now?

I'm a medic, not a shrink.

Scouts are back!

Let's hope they find a way across that damn river.

Good luck.

Yeah, this should be fun.

Is the Captain in there?

Thanks.

You can't even walk across this thing.

Dollars to doughnuts, the Beamers will

bomb the hell out of your work crews

10 minutes after they started trying to rebuild it.

Yeah, well, I didn't say I had everything worked out.

I said this is our best chance.

We may be better off probing for a weak point

and then fighting our way out.

Yeah, well, the Mech and Skitter columns I saw

weren't carrying any weak points with them.

So far, we've managed to stay hidden.

But they're looking hard, and they're closing in fast.

They're gonna be on us in two days. Tops.

Why don't they just nuke the whole damn

city and be done with us?

We might not be worth it.

We haven't seen them drop neutron bombs in months,

not since Boston.

They won't need a nuke if they trap us on

this side of the river. What about that boat

that you liberated from a sporting goods store, Jamil?

It was rubber, seats five, no motor.

Best guess, it'd take us 40 minutes, round trip,

across the river.

No, that would take way too long to get everybody across.

Plus, we'd have to leave all the vehicles,

all the heavy weapons -- wounded, supplies.

Yeah. Not acceptable.

Captain, it seems our best and only option is

to rebuild the bridge.

We don't have to rebuild it, Captain.

We could just patch it up.

You know, the supports look like hell, but I think they'll hold.

We can build decking,

bridge them over these gaps and drive across.

Doesn't have to last forever, right? Just one night.

We have no choice.

Start building the decking, Jamil.

Hey, man, what about the Beamers?

It's too bad they learned how to beat our jamming so quickly.

We'll figure out a way to deal with the air threat.

Once we get across, we have no idea what's in that forest.

Could run smack into an ambush.

That's why somebody's got to go across for a look-see.

Anybody up for a cold swim?

I'll do it. Maggie and I will take the boat.

We'll go across. We'll check it out.

It'll take you too long to paddle across.

I can swim it faster and not be seen.

Really?

You've been away, Dad. This is what I do.

He's right, Tom.

He's the best... man for the job, yeah.

You take Jimmy with you to cover your route to the riverbank.

Tonight.

Swimming across that river's nothing for Ben.

It's those spikes.