24 replies to this topic

[fester01]

1. A nod to The Defiant Ones, starring Pope and the black cop and their journey to catch up with the Second Mass.

2. Weaver returns to the 2nd, where there are a hundred new faces, survivors from the other units that were supposed to attack the alien condos.

3. Rick, Matt, Ben, and Lourdes are traded to a survivalist in exchange for a dog-eared military survival guidebook and a slightly-used spork.

4. Tom rejoins the group, and we are shown in flashbacks how the aliens took him to various ancient battlegrounds, and listened while he explained how each battle was won and lost.

[Make It So]

4. Tom rejoins the group, and we are shown in flashbacks how the aliens took him to various ancient battlegrounds, and listened while he explained how each battle was won and lost.

Hee!  May I add that subsequently Tom's speeches are broadcast throughout the aliens' 'hive-mind' and their ships all over the world simultaneously begin to crash and burn, while all the Skitters turn onto their backs and curl up and die like insects that have just received insecticide. War over!

What - 9 more eps to go? Each of the survivors should celebrate Earth's victory hugging one another. That should take care of the season.

Edited by Make It So, Aug 12, 2011 @ 10:59 AM.

[Accord64]

Tom emerges from one of the spacecrafts after a few weeks of captivity. He was successful in negotiating their unconditional withdrawal. When asked how he managed to do this, he explained that all they really wanted was to be hugged.

Honestly, I think a big reset button is needed. Maybe Tom wakes up from dreaming all of this and the real show begins.

[Doom]

How should it start? With stupid kid drawings, of course! But this time, baby skitter drawings. "Well you know my name is Herm-ie, and I like to do drawrings".

[Perfect Xero]

"As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system. And regrettably, your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition."

[Elysiannn]

Tom returning from escaping the alien ship with a book which is decoded to be "How To Best Serve Humans." With drawn butter.

[Make It So]

With an enlightened understanding of how the Skitters were merely pawns (or prawns - heh) who were forced into service by the Grays, Tom returns and conducts a memorial service for poor beat up, stabbed up, deceased, autopsied Hermie. Dr. Anne provides the eulogy. Rick plays Amazing Grace on a bagpipe.

[mac123x]

Honestly, I think a big reset button is needed.

I was thinking that too. Move the focus to a Resistance cell in New Jersey. Introduce some new (and competent) leadership, and have the remnants of the Second Mass wander into their territory. They could have some nice drama resulting from the conflict between the free-wheeling laissez-faire Mass-hats and a more organized, ruthless, focused-on-survival NJ regiment for a couple of episodes, then have Hal accidentally discover a naked and amnesiac Tom wandering the streets of Newark in a dun dun DUN! cliffhanger at the end of episode 4. Spend a couple of episodes with Tom recovering his memories of the aliens.

Sure, it’d be a ripoff of Fire in the Sky or Frank and Betty Hill, but it would give them ample opportunity for hugs.

[Danny Franks]

4. Tom rejoins the group, and we are shown in flashbacks how the aliens took him to various ancient battlegrounds, and listened while he explained how each battle was won and lost.

The final shot being, the aliens just flying off without him at Ticonderoga, because they've had more than they can stomach of Tom constantly comparing every single thing they do to something that Stonewall Jackson or Ulysses S. Grant did a hundred and fifty years ago.

Really, I have no idea how he'll escape, but I'm guessing he'll bring Karen back with him. Possibly just in time for Hal to have doinked Lourdes and/or Maggie. Cue romantic angst-o-rama.

[Elmick]

guest star Chuck Norris rescues Tom, right before he gets his prostate checked by the tall naked alien overlord.

[taiko]

A winter scene as it seems like the 2nd Mass had grown but still unprepared for cold. Turns out it is all the survivors of New England and we find the new commander of the Continental Army is General Weaver, hero of the Boston Tower Battle. Pope is his Adjutant for discovering the Mech killer bullet. As we find out the main battle has shifted from the conscripted Skitters to human slavers willing to sell children for tea Tom Mason is paroled after the Grey's interrogation and instinctively knows where to find his boys. Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

[sleekandchic]

A winter scene....

taiko, I agree because I think Tom laid the groundwork for a winter's-on-its-way scenario. During the finale, another character asks "is this Christmas?" (or something like that) and Tom replies, "that's two months away." It seemed to be such a forced/unusual little bit of dialog that I thought it must have been written for a reason? Then again, who knows.

Edited by sleekandchic, Aug 10, 2011 @ 9:40 PM.

[furrylump]

Oh, that's good. S2 can pick up about three months after the S1 finale, with the aliens getting sick of Tom's speechifying and historical parallels and kicking him out so he can annoy the 2nd Mass instead. In a shocking twist, when he makes it back, their total lack of preparation for winter has come back to bite them in the ass... They've all frozen to death. Well, except for Margaret, because I like her and she actually seems to have enough common sense to stockpile firewood (actually, the 2nd Mass as a whole did this too, but used all of it for a lovely Christmas bonfire, with chesnuts) and warm clothing, but she's bugggered off to hunker down someplace warm-ish, and when winter's over, look for a group with an average IQ of higher than 54. Tom is so distraught by the death of his kids that he goes to the Skitters to volunteer to join their "family." Next episode, Margaret finds a resistance force who are a little more concerned with their own survival than being heartwarming, and we follow them for the rest of the show.

[distantWatcher]

My guess is that Tom loses his memories and Pope must use hypnosis to get his insight of the aliens.

Meanwhile Anne has bonded with Tom's kids and Maggie has bonded with Weaver and Jimmy in the kind of surrogate family the aliens, or Pope, could tear apart.

Plus, children all over the world start to dream about joining the alien which threatens the few resistant cells left.

[TWoP Howard]

I just hope the aliens don’t start off by opening Tom’s back to look for his harness. "Oops, I guess this species doesn’t reproduce by harness. Close him back up, guys."

I would like to see them fighting in winter, and the mechs slowed down because they didn’t bring any 5W-30 motor oil.

[Elysiannn]

I'm hoping they don't rerun V's plotline where Julie was captured and "interrogated" or StarTrek where Chekoff had a sand worm in his ear when he returned. But you know Tom is going to escape. A cool idea might be the silver surfers wanting to "breed" more Humans and force Tom & Karen but then that would be too much like V. Obviously, Dr. Anne has to be dilly-dalling waiting for Tom so when Pope comes back with Anthony, she can fix him up. I just wonder how all the groups will reconnect. And where - another high school? Please, no. And I'm hoping they don't start up S2 several months later with flashbacks. Writers shouldn't be able to use that ruse just because they can't write for darn.

[Shades of Red]

I thought of the Tom/Karen hookup as well, particularly since she took his hand and held it all the way into the ship. In any case, I just want Jessy Schram back on my screen. I know that they did what they did with Karen because JS can act, making her mind-control all the more spooky yet convincing, but I missed her after she was captured and she has to come back somehow.

I enjoyed the first season quite a bit, particularly the last three eps, and hope that the writing in general gets an overhaul. Oh, I don't want Porter to be dead, either.

I'll go with Tom and Karen escaping and finding the rest of the group somehow. Karen's harness was different, both in appearance (there were plenty of shots of JS from the back in the last sequence to establish this - - it was orange-ish, not green) and in apparent function (she referred to the aliens as "they" and seemed to have retained more of her original personality), so perhaps there's no danger of her Skittering if they remove it.

I do not think that Noah Wyle will be offscreen for more than one episode.

Additionally, I think that some widening of the scope of the conflict might be in order. The claustrophobia of the first season worked well, I thought, but I wonder what would happen if they opened it up a little bit and somehow made contact with resistance cells from other states - - or better yet, some remnant of the government, working underground (sort of where the execrable V remake clearly wanted to go in its "not so fast" third season).

Edited by Shades of Red, Aug 14, 2011 @ 10:20 PM.

[Gordian Knot]

Here's a thought. The first season was a terrible nightmare that Tom had. None of it really happened. The second season has him waking up, sweating in bed, and the real resistance story follows. One that actually makes sense!

[Elisende]

The first season was a terrible nightmare that Tom had.

Are you sure the first season wasn't a terrible nightmare we all had?

I'm going to have to vote for amnesia as the most likely scenario. We'll probably enter S2 6 months after Tom has returned/escaped from the Greys. It'll be spring and they'll all have survived the winter somehow. Tom will be sitting in the sun, a bandage wrapped crookedly around his head, smiling vacantly at a flower. There will be a lot of worried conversation between Annie, Hal, Ben and Matt. Ben will be determined that they 'not give up on Dad cause he wouldn't give up on me.' Matt will hug Tom and whisper brokenly, 'Please come back to us, Daddy. We miss you.'

[Make It So]

From your lips to TPTB's ears! Actually, I'm sure they're scrambling to re-write their first ep as we speak (type).

I just hope there isn't some outlandish escape by Tom from the alien vessel. There has been enough deux ex machina employed in this show. I'll even take that the aliens drop him off unharmed just because they enjoy the sport of his "resistance".

Edited by Make It So, Aug 17, 2011 @ 8:33 AM.

[Glass Ocean]

According to the supposedly "true" tales of alien abductees, the folks who get beamed up feel paralyzed or like their bodies are not under their own control. Altho' their lips [if they have them] may not be moving, they Mind Grok with their captors and completely understand what is happening to them. Then they get examined and probed in every possible body aperture -- THIS I want to watch on screen. Eggs and sperm are harvested, so ditto to this procedure. Sometimes they are shown where the aliens have come from and why they have visited earth. The abductees generally suffer amnesia and "missing time" when they return.

I would enjoy a major plot twist where the Silver Dudes have somehow turned Professor Tom to their side and they now have his allegiance. Maybe he has to watch as earthlings like Karen are impregnated with his sperm while the mothers carry a special maternal skitter harness, turning the fast-growing newborns into alien babies who can call Tom "daddy". A nice riff on paternal feelings and duties.

He could return to the 2nd Mass with new empathy for the other side and what hell they've been thru. He'd appear the same on the outside, but have mind melded with the upper echelon of leadership, a higher level Ricky II, but without the zombie side show. He's just slightly different, knows things he couldn't possibly know about the other side, so his old comrades are not sure whether or not to trust him since he still seems dorky yet a little smoother. He finally shaves, comandeers some hair gel, grows a small lounge lizard mustache, and sweeps Anne off her feet with his cool tango moves.

[Doom]

I would enjoy a major plot twist where the Silver Dudes have somehow turned Professor Tom to their side and they now have his allegiance. Maybe he has to watch as earthlings like Karen are impregnated with his sperm while the mothers carry a special maternal skitter harness, turning the fast-growing newborns into alien babies who can call Tom "daddy".

Yow. Uhm. If things turn all Giger meets Lachapelle, that's it for me.

Edited by Doom, Aug 17, 2011 @ 8:24 PM.

[Archipelagos]

Honestly, I think a big reset button is needed.

I'm in complete agreement with this. I understand that the chances of this happening are zilch but one can hope. Ideally, for me, Season 2 would start with a major cull of the cast. I dislike almost all of the current roster: exceptions being Anne & Margaret. Tom being killed would be a brave start, kind of like the aliens sending the survivors a brutal message. And please let the new homebase be less out in the open. Oh and for the love of ponies, if Tom survives, cut down on the amount of times he hugs his sons per episode. I swear you could make a drinking game out of it. He seems to hug his kids at least three times every single episode. Maybe a shot for whenever Matt argues that he's not a child and can help out.

Edited by Archipelagos, Aug 31, 2011 @ 11:37 AM.

[LEBWC98]

OK, did anyone else catch the season 2 promo about halfway through last night's Walking Dead premiere?? I looked up just in time to see Maggie, and Anne (I think), and Tom, standing out in a field, looking perplexed, saying something about he thinks they did something to his mind, and I yelled something about historical parallels. Then my cable company, because they hate me, cut off the rest and it didn't re-air.

This was an entirely new promo, not the thing made up of shots from season 1 which has been masquerading as a promo for season 2. Did anyone else see it, or is it a figment? Thanks.

Edited by TWoP Howard, Mar 11, 2012 @ 3:37 PM.

[JackiFL]

I saw that Season 2 preview at the movie theater.

June 17th cannot come soon enough. Curiousity...