What is the Price of Greatness?

Mild spoilers ensue.

Tonight is the penultimate episode of the second season Of Falling Skies.  It's been titled "The Price of Greatness".  Pictured above is a familiar face especially to those that followed the TV show "Lost".  Terry O'Quinn will appear in the last two episodes of Falling Skies and with this addition let's hope the stakes are raised for our hardy band of survivors.

O'Quinn apparently plays an authority figure of sorts in the surviving underground US government.  He also seems to have ties with Tom Mason judging from some of the internet spoilers that have been circulating.  A former mentor?  Perhaps an academic superior or even a former professor of Tom's?  If so, this figure could exert a certain amount of influence on Tom.

So what would the price of greatness be for Tom?  It seems Tom's reputation has preceded him as they enter Charleston.  Will his former mentor thrust greatness upon Tom in the form of an exalted leadership position in the underground government?  Will he have to sacrifice his time to his sons with new responsibilities?  Looking at the picture above, Tom has been asked to speak for the 2nd Mass and to the collected survivors of the collective resistance.  Note the backdrop to Tom, excerpts from the Constitution or Declaration of Independence?  I actually hope its from the Gettysburg Address, that way Lincoln's phrase from that passage, "the last full measure of devotion" would resonate more clearly as it refers to those that died for the cause to preserve the Union.  This scenario also serves to illuminate some of my suspicions of the new government in Charleston.

If we take a look at the promo picture above we see the Southern United States in the background to O'Quinn.  We already know the new seat of government is in Charleston which also happened to be the birthplace of the American Civil War.  (It also reflects where the war has moved to much like it did in the American Revolutionary War.)  If you read my last post you are familiar with this information.  I also noted the introduction of the skitter character of "Tyler" who was a US president that was sympathetic to the Southern cause and actually served in the Confederate congress.  

With these tie ins can we suppose that the "price of greatness" is to join a US government that is complicit with the Overlord invasion?  Are they to betray the basic tenets of the Union and compromise their ideals much like the Confederacy did.?  Does this new government owe their refit and reconstitution to the world's new masters?  So why hide underground?  Well, if they do owe the Overlords with their resurgence if could be because as the proxies of the Overlords they would be extremely unpopular with any survivors especially if they act as a human police force or army with semi-autonomous power as long as they keep the rest of the resistance groups in line.

Would Falling Skies as a TV show be willing to go to this extreme?  I'd love to see it but it would be a gutsy leap.  Humanity has a long history of collaboration.  See Vichy France, the Holocuast and those who serve with the US Army during the American Indian Wars.

Another scenario would be that this government is working with the Skitter resistance.   This would be fun also.  It would paint the new US government in a better light and would be in keeping with our collective American mythology of fighting the oppressors and joining forced with those that are similarly oppressed.  As a "Mason" Tom would naturally fit in as one of the new founding fathers and help form a new goverment representative of the people.  Unless, of course, this new government is much less than representative and that is the "price" Tom has to pay is to join a government that doesn't truly reflect his ideals.

Whatever the latest iteration of the US government is, it looks as though Captain Weaver is on board.  In the above picture he is sporting a brand new uniform of the military.  Tom however as Weaver's number two is still in his civvies.  Was he not invited to join the fighting forces despite his fighting for the resistance?  Or is the "price" Tom has to pay is quitting the armed faction and joining the civilian government?  This would be more in line with the way Falling Skies is written.  Safely.

Whatever Tom's decision is, to quit the military faction and or join the new government, there are people that still look up to him.  Maybe the cost will be too high and the 2nd Mass will decide to leave Charleston if it doesn't fit in with the way they feel.  We may even see the civilian faction break away and the military unit stay behind.  There are only two episodes left and since we are getting a third season I suspect another cliffhanger is in order.  They have their work ahead of them if they can top last years.

So there you have it, what is the "price of greatness"?