"Prisoner of War"
Season 1, Episode 3
Episode	3
Air date	June 26, 2011
Written by	Fred Golan
Directed by	Greg Beeman
US Viewers	4.20M
Episode Guide
previous The Armory	next Grace

"Prisoner of War" is the third episode of Season 1, and overall the third episode of Falling Skies.

PlotEdit

Dr. Michael Harris joins the 2nd Mass with a theory about what might save the teenagers abducted by the aliens. But the plan could be derailed when Tom starts digging for answers to questions that have haunted him since the early days of the invasion. The 2nd Mass comes face to face with Skitters and Mechs when they attempt to rescue Ben.

During the rescue attempt, Mike sees his son and runs after him, deviating from the original mission objective, which was to retrieve Ben. Tom goes along with the plan, and helps successfully rescue Rick, but is knocked unconscious by a missile blast from a Mech when he tries to go back and find Ben. With a Mech hot on their tails, the group leaves Hal and Karen behind as they drive off with Rick.

Tom is outraged when he regains consciousness and discovers that the Hal and Karen had been left behind. Tom gathers his ammo and belongings and proceeds down a dark tunnel back towards the hospital. However, he is attacked by a Skitter in the tunnel. Tom wins the battle by following Pope's advice to aim for the legs, and then knocks the alien out with his rifle. He drags the Skitter back to the school to give Captain Weaver their first prisoner of war. Knowing he has two sons and a scout back at the hospital, Tom heads back there, alone.

Hal wakes up on the ground beside Karen and sees two harnessed kids pulling her away, one of whom is Ben. Struggling to get up and go after him, he shouts after Ben. A Mech shines a bright light on him, and five harnessed children line up in front of it. A Skitter walks in front of them, points at the line of children, and then the Mech proceeds to kill at the Skitter's order.

Back at the school, Dr. Harris and Dr. Glass prepare to start work on removing the harness from Rick's body. Using makeshift technology, Dr. Harris explains that the idea is to expose as much needle as possible, and cut, instead of pulling them out. Using a blowtorch to cut the needs, he explains his theory that the needles synthesize a drug, that when pulled out, cause the kids to go into shock from withdrawal. He predicts that using morphine to keep the kids under, and cutting back the dosage slowly over time would keep the kids from going into shock when the needles are cut. The needles in Rick's back are explained to be part of his living tissue, as the harness somehow grows itself into the host's nervous system. Rick starts coughing and convulsing and Michael Harris administers a sedative.

Tom arrives near the hospital and runs into a tormented and distraught Hal. He explains what happened, and blames Tom for leaving him behind. Tom explains that the murder of the children and Hal being let free was there to send a message, 'Take one, and we'll kill the rest.' Tom therefore resolves to take all of the children.

Captain Weaver watches as the prisoner is locked in a cage, when Commander Porter shows up and tells them they need to study it. He mentions that Michael Harris will be staying with the 2nd Mass a few weeks longer to study the captured Skitter.

Pope, having finally gotten a chance to make himself useful, prepares his first meal, which he receives with less praise than he expected. Weaver tells him he may actually have a chance to prove himself useful to the 2nd Mass, but for now, he's still to be kept under lock.

Tom gets back and sees Rick lying there, stabilized but still alive. Although Anne wants to clean him up and talk about what happened, Tom is more interested in finding Harris. He finds Harris drinking in front of the captured Skitter, disgruntled and pessimistic. Tom gets angry at Harris for running away and hiding, having essentially left Rebecca to die in order to save himself. Harris denies this, by saying he wasn't with Rebecca, but finally admits that he thought he was more useful than Rebecca was and left her to die in order to save himself. He also tells Tom that he should have been out there instead of Rebecca. Realizing that Rebecca's death may save Ben's life due to Harris's expertise, he puts a picture of Ben up on the wall of missing children.

The episode ends with a shot of the operating room, and Rick's still body and a shot of the sleeping skitter. Both open their eyes suddenly at the exact same time.

Did you Know?Edit

• Karen Nadler was captured by the Skitters.
• Rick Thompson was freed from the Skitters.

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