The Road to Victory

In my last blog post for "Battlin' Boston" I promised you that I would divulge the "secret" behind the "Red Eye" skitter or as some would call it in the blog-verse "Scarface" for the scar that runs down the face of our favorite skitter.  Well, I guess it isn't much of a secret if in my first feedback response to this blog is thinking along the same lines as I am.  Thanks Lynne, great minds think alike!

I would dearly love for this skitter to be the "deceased" wife of Tom Mason.  But as most skitters seem to be evolved from harnessed children that would seem to be impossible.  The rules would would have to be broken as we understand them.  But since we don't fully know all the rules there is always an outside (waaay outside) chance that Red Eye could be Tom's wife that was flipped to the other side.  If Lynne and I have any chance for this to be true it would be evidenced in the scene from last season where we saw a skitter involved in some sort of nesting ritual with the newly harnessed children one of which I think was Ben.  Awfully maternal don't you think?  That skitter was also seen to be stroking and cooing to the children.  It was a little creepy but it does support the theory to some degree.

As Lynne also speculated in her feedback, the Red Eye skitter could also be a former pupil of Tom's.  I like how Red Eye let Tom go in the first episodes of this season.  Sadly, everyone else was gunned down but Tom was allowed to live.  Does Red Eye owe Tom a favor?  Did she slip from the monkey bars and get a nasty scar over her eye ( I say her but I really don't know what "sex" this skitter is or used to be) and was Tom the first to render assistance? I'm sure we will finally get an answer to the identity of Red Eye.  The eye and the scar are just too obvious a marker to let go of.  Tom is bound to notice the red eye and scar and make the connection.  I bet it will be in a face off that will determine the fate of Ben.  Tom and Red Eye will make a claim to the permanent "ownership" of Ben and the truth will come out then.

Here's some observations from the most recent episode of "Falling Skies".

• Wouldn't you know I title this blog, "Battlin" Boston" as a tribute to the locale of Boston and Falling Skies and the 2nd Mass promptly marches out of Boston and Massachusetts altogether to start season two of this series.  The show-runners must have thought a beleaguered band of fighters on the run is more dynamic than staying in one place.  They're probably right but I'm going to miss all the local reference to the Boston area.  I know those places!
• Many on the internet have noticed (as have I) how the events of Falling Skies mirror those of the American Revolution.  The Revolution started in the Boston area but the fighting eventually moved south.  The 2nd Mass seemed to be in the Virginia area as of the last episode judging by the Robert E Lee wall mural seen in the episode "Young Bloods".  If that's true the show-runners missed a chance to follow the fighting that took place in New York, Trenton and Princeton during the Revolution.  But as winter is coming they still have the opportunity for a "Valley Forge" type of episode for the 2nd Mass and maybe we will even get another river crossing that leads to a skitter defeat much like Washington crossed the Delaware and defeated the Hessians on Christmas day. 
• In addition to continuing the theme of the war moving to the South, I'll be looking forward someone to be named "Francis" or "Marion".  The "Swamp Fox" of Revolutionary War fame was named Francis Marion and was credited with harassing the British of that time period in Colonial South Carolina so it fits.  You'll be able to pick out a lot of nods to historical figures in this show.  Even though Winston Churchill wasn't a figure from that era, we did get a nod to that inspirational figure and ally of America when we met the pilot "Andrea Churchill" of the South Carolina resistance.  Tom Mason is also a shout out from the Revolution as all the founding fathers were Masons from that period such as Washinton etc.  Keep an eye peeled for more of these names!
• Don't you love how the CGI has evolved for this show?  The success of the first season must have afforded the show some extra bucks.  Case in point the skitters that chased down Matt in the last episode weren't animatronic anymore. The the one that was hanging from the ceiling was far advanced than anything they did last season.  A very nice closeup of them in action.

• BTW, the trap Matt was involved in was classic guerrilla tactics and the same fighting was employed by the revolutionaries during the Revolutionary War.  The British hated it as they wanted set piece battles to confront the Americans.  Those battles eventually came about but like the Minutemen of yesteryear the 2nd Mass isn't ready for that yet.  The British did counter with Banastre Tarleton (seen above) who was infamous for "Tarleton's Quarter" which is to say no quarter or prisoners at all.  A vicious fighter that had no mercy for the Americans.  We may see a skitter figure of the same nature in the future.
• Oh, and speaking of Revolutionary War figures, do you suppose John Pope will take on the role of Benedict Arnold?  Arnold started out the war as a hero of the early New York battles but felt unappreciated by Washington et al.  Now that Pope is on the outs do you think he'll turn traitor on our hardy band.  Benedict Arnold is synonymous with treachery.  In real life he gave up the plans to Valley Forge to the British.  Like I said, "Winter is coming" and it may be Pope's time to betray or heroes.