The Defiant Ones

Sunday night's episode of Falling Skies, "Search and Recovery" gave us a look at Hollywood's distant past and a lesson on how two opponents can learn to survive together.

The episode begins with the immediate aftermath of the plane crash involving General Bressler, Tom Mason and John Pope.  Bressler has died in the crash which means the two uneasy allies in the form of Pope and Mason are left to fend for themselves in the wild.  They are hundreds of miles from Charleston so they have to travel through difficult and unfriendly terrain in order to make it back safely.

While Pope and Mason fight along side each other the animus between them is no secret.  Mason sees Pope as an undisciplined wild card, a lone wolf that cares little for others.  For his part Pope sees Mason as a rigid authoritarian that is bookish and afraid of taking chances.

It's not long before their uneasy alliance for survival takes a bad turn and the two rivals come to blows as their latent mistrust for each other surges forth.  Their fight is a vicious one and it quickly turns from fists to knives.  I was a bit taken aback by this.  The knives signal this is a fight to the death.  While I knew Mason and Pope didn't like each other, I didn't think it would turn deadly.  There is a lot of hate there apparently.

 
 Before I continue let's take a look at the cultural antecedent that preceded this Falling Skies episode.

"The Defiant Ones" was movie released in 1958 and starred Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis.  It predated the Civil Rights movement of the Sixties and paired a white man and a black man in chains forced to survive with each other after their escape from a prison truck accident.  The conceit of the movie is the exploration of what would happen when two men that were seen as polar opposites were forced to depend on each other for survival.  At that time racial bigotry was still in full swing and the pairing of a white man and a black one learning to fend for each other was seen as an impossibility. 

This was actually a brave approach by the movies producers.  The pairing of these "polar opposites" drew great curiosity by the movie going public and garnered the movie eight academy award nominations winning two of the golden statues.  It seems while America was still steeped in racism the seeds of tolerance were beginning to bloom and many people were either secretly or openly hoping these two men could learn to live with each other.

The similarities between the two protagonists of "The Defiant Ones" and our "Falling Skies" heroes is unmistakable.  Polar opposites thrown into an extreme situation and having to rely on each other to survive.  By the time "The Defiant Ones" was coming to a close the two partners had come to an impasse and decided to part ways.  Mason and Pope had also reached their own impasse and parted ways. 

Yet as in "The Defiant Ones" our two heroes decided it was better to survive together than to go it alone.  The character played by Tony Curtis in the Defiant Ones learned his partner was in imminent danger and returned to rescue him.  Pope played a similar role in this episode and returned to defend Tom against the Skitters.  The bond they forged in their ordeal was too strong to break.

The Defiant Ones ended up back in prison but their friendship was sealed forever.  Mason and Pope made it back to Charleston and as Mason slept for two days Pope stayed by his side.

Perhaps now the two have learned something from each other.  The animus can be set aside as there are larger issues at stake.  A new stronger future can be built together led by a new generation of defiant ones.