Oh No They Didn't!

They Smile in Your Face, All the Time They Want to Take Your Place, The Back Stabbers!

Did they just hand the keys to the kingdom to the mole in this last episode of Falling Skies?

I'm saying they did.  Back in my June 16th blog entry Karen, Karen, Karen I posited that Gloria Reuben's Marina was a good bet to be the mole.  She asks all the wrong questions and she's always where she shouldn't be.  Or as far as she's concerned, all the right questions and at the right place at the right time.

Well played Marina, well played.

The Falling Skies Facebook page has been listing various characters as suspects but much of the suspicion fell on Hal.  He even proclaimed himself as the mole once the bio-nano-bug was removed. 

Naturally, everyone bought into it, even the ever taunting Pope. 

By the way, earlier in the episode, Ben put Pope's lights out for a brash remark.  So when does this guy get a bullet?  Seriously, is he that important?

After rescuing Tom Mason the previous episode and sitting by his bedside for two days he is now running book on the Mason family survival during the hostage standoff.  He even gets close to Weaver with a gun when Weaver catches him at his grim game.

Is Pope a sociopath or does he just have a poor memory?

Sorry, back to Marina.  So now she is the new president, she has the plans to the Volm device and the entire Mason family is out of the picture.

How convenient.

If that doesn't scream mole what does?  Will she be outed as the mole by the next episode?  I think not.  We seem to be stretching things out a little this season.  My guess she'll be outed by the penultimate episode.

So what is our movie tie in for the week?  A lot of digital ink has been spilled over Hal being HAL, the homicidal computer from 2001 A Space Odyssey.  A natural enough comparison. 

I think rather, The Manchurian Candidate from 1962 is a better candidate.  The character of Shaw played by Laurence Harvey is similar to Hal.  Both were brainwashed to some degree and both are being manipulated by puppet`master women.  For Shaw it was his mother.  For Hal it is his former girlfriend Karen.

There is also a presidential angle to each entry.  Shaw was to assassinate the presidential candidate so his dupe step father could vie for the job.  In this past episode of Falling Skies, Tom, Hal's father is the president.  Remarkably similar. 

There is another amazing similarity between the two vehicles.  As pictured above, Laurence Harvey uses a scoped rifle to exact his nefarious deed.  In a bit of a twist, Falling Skies puts the nominal assassin, Hal, at the wrong end of the rifle.

In this case, Tector has Hal lined up but fortunately for all things Mason he doesn't pull the trigger.

There is a unique solution to the Manchurian Candidate conundrum.  Laurence Harvey's Shaw decides to fight the brainwashing and puts a bullet in his own head.  The mind controlled Hal follows a similar path.  His solution is also to put a bullet to his own head.  However the twist here is that mind controlled Hal doesn't want to be captured.  His aim is just a little off and good Hal eventually returns to the fold.

Too bad Karen, nice try.  Where has she been lately anyway?  Watching Sixties movies for her next plot?  We'll find out next week!