Mercenary girl was not saying Nahuatl; she was saying Nagual. The whole thing was specifically about the shape shifters, not the language. Why would they be talking about Nahuatl?

Oh, I forgot: the fourth episode last season (when Kenya was kidnapped and forced to hallucinate so her abductor could harvest her adrenalin) mentioned a stratocarrier. It wasn't clear what it was because it was in ruins, but it's basically a low-flying antigravity vehicle! Apparently humanity developed antigravity in…

Yeah, that's what's kind of pitiful: Berlin is a brand new character, and already Tommy is just her sidekick. That's pretty sad.

Yep, it's a very manipulative type of placation.

Yes, the scope of the world-building is much broader than what's in the show so far. The video game has access to more of the technological advances in the world, and I'm hoping that those eventually show up in the TV series. The historical timeline hints at a much grander scale than either medium has actually tackled.

They do have hailers, so they can still call for local help. It's long-distance that's gonna be less instantaneous. Doc Yewll called San Francisco last season via hailer relay.

The interactive map is still up on Syfy: 2047 map.

I actually didn't know that an Espheni actually shows up. That makes me a bit more interested now. I'd only read that the Espheni are undertaking new moves to deal with the humans, but I didn't know the specifics. I thought maybe the Skitters or a new human thrall was being used again like last season.

Yes, it's an idiosyncrasy that I appreciate, because I know people like that in real life. The smile isn't fake; it just isn't meant to be an expression of geniality. It's a passive-aggressive means of appeasement, and it can be very condescending.

Well, I'll wait to see how Tommy's role plays out, but as it stands at the moment, he doesn't seem to have anything to do. All the lawman stuff goes to Nolan. All the crime and thuggery goes to Alak. You'd think that—given Tommy's past—he'd be the bridge for both those narrative threads, but really he's just kind of…

I, too, haven't gotten around to Falling Skies, and I don't know if I'll bother. I'm too burnt out on the Mason clan, and the fact that they're the focus is very off-putting. However, I've noticed some online chatter that seem to imply that the Espheni are prominent again, so I might check-in on the story further into…

… he's the only E-Rep true-believer of the original cast.

He seems fairly pro-E-Rep …

I hope that's the case. He is currently not very interesting, because the show keeps undermining his importance. So far, Berlin is a more active part of the plot than Tommy.

Yeah, I can see Tommy is being used as generic romantic interest. He's completely interchangeable with random locals who wander in and out of a scene with minor dialog.

Hah, yeah, I was thinking that Tommy's being reduced to be the all-purpose local resident role, just to avoid having to hire more extras for minor speaking parts. He's basically narrative spackle that utters flavor dialog, in lieu of one-off characters. The writers are using him just to move the scenes along.

I couldn't find a definition of the Sexy Lampshade trope. I searched TVTropes, but they only had "Lampshade Hanging".

Yeah, Tommy's narrative purpose seems to be to provide character moments for other people. At least he's not as bad off as the Christie character. I think the show created more characters than it could handle.

I feel the show is using Tommy as background wallpaper. The show does his character no favors by treating him as disposable. He's currently an irrelevant walk-on bit part (he wanders from scene to scene not accomplishing anything in particular). Alak is more integrated into the story than Tommy seems to be.

This is the second time Tommy's been demoted in favor of Nolan. Isn't that kinda humiliating? Like, it's such a blatant vote of no-confidence in his abilities. The fact that they demoted him in this episode via an informal conversation—while completely ignoring his being in earshot—was pretty cringe-inducing. I kinda…