Under relentless Skitter attacks, the 2nd Mass loses their food supply leading to a desperate mission to get some food. Tom continues down the path he started on last week, Matt finds a new way to be useful, Maggie makes a false promise, and Tom and Anne make a horrifying discovery...
Am I the only one who was severely disturbed that Tom allowed Anthony and everyone else to torture that Skitter? I get the whole no-holds barred thing, but that was going way too far. The anger is understandable, but (as Weaver noted) there is the practical consideration that uncontrolled anger leads to bad decisions. Then there is also the moral dimension. Torture of any sort is never the right thing to do. Is it occasionally understandable or necessary? That is debatable. But the gang who were torturing that Skitter had no justification for what they did. The old Tom would have stopped them, but this new Tom, just stood there casually while they beat it. I found that profoundly disturbing and scary. At what point do they go too far and lose what makes them human? Is that really the legacy they want to leave for future generations? Once you start down that path, it becomes way too easy to stay on it because that sort of thing twists the psyche of everyone who participates in it.
It was nice that Anne gave Matt something useful to do while the girl was sick. While it was undoubtedly busy work, it also was something that she needed to examine the bug that injured Tom last week. That was a crude microscope, but it was a very good given what he had to work with.
Did Maggie do the right thing by lying to that girl about her brother? That is a harder call. The Skitterized brother was (is?) undoubtedly dangerous and the 2nd Mass really needed that food, so I would say that she had a decently good reason for the lie. The one thing I don't get is why Ben didn't use his enhanced abilities to disarm the girl. Actually, that is a major issue I have with the show. Ben and Maggie both have enhanced strength, reflexes, and abilities that never seem to be used. While I don't want them to be used as deus ex machina plot devices, it doesn't make sense to me that their abilities aren't used at all, particularly when the two of them were sent along specifically because they are enhanced.
Where exactly did all those Skitters that Tom and Anne saw at the end come from? I thought that the Skitters were humans or other aliens transformed by the Espheni. Did the Espheni really capture that many humans or have they come up with a new way to make Skitters? The other problem is that the Skitters don't seem to have an Espheni Overlord with them, which would explain why they attacked with the strategy of using their numbers to overrun the 2nd Mass.
Until next week!
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