Thanks to Caroline Evans for overcoming her anti-alien bias to cover last week's episode.

Jimmy Cliff? I'd have figured Weaver for a Parrothead, what with that unfortunate old man ponytail, but whatever.

Reggae or inoffensive beach-themed pop music aside, he still starts of this week's episode as kind of a jackass, blaming Tom for the near robbery of Anne's makeshift pharmacy, an attempt foiled by Lt. Clayton (Henry Czerny) of the 7th Mass., who helpfully shows up to tell them the aliens are coming to wipe out the 2nd.

Porter has ordered the 2nd to sit tight and wait for the 3rd Mass to link up with them. Clayton offers to take the children away first - you know, out of harm's way - before the attack comes. Tom has a few understandable reservations.

Frankly, so do I: did you see Clear and Present Danger?

Maggie and a not-so-traumatized Anne share a moment over the former's gift of a sidearm, for future robbery attempts. It's followed by a trip to an impromptu shooting range and Maggie's oh-so-clever "Terminator" comment (because you see Moon Bloodgood was in Terminator: Salvation, which was seen by about as many people as are left on Earth in Falling Skies).

Tom's middle son Ben is having some separation anxiety following his de-harnessing, though his push-up count is up by a factor of 10, so kind of a good news/bad news situation. Hal is troubled nonetheless, and goes to Anne with concerns that his brother is no longer the same person. Since they didn't teach a lot of alien-human parasite biology in med school, Anne is of limited assistance. Besides, there are barricades against impending alien assault to construct.

[Sorry, there have to be better ways of product placement than the prominent display of the "626" emblem on an overturned Mazda.]

Let's have a moment for poor, uh, "Parker," whose death warrant was sealed the minute we realized he was a soldier we'd never seen before playing chess with young Jimmy (this must be some new military protocol that allows sentries to play chess instead of, I don't know, "sentrying"). The scout team of mech and skitter that show up are eventually driven off, but Clayton assures them the aliens will be back in force.

Jimmy does an admirable job holding off the skitter, who makes things a little easier by pausing to melodramatically crush the school's globe. Weaver shows a softer side when he comforts the kid, which might be intriguing if anyone believed he was going to survive the season.

Seriously, how else is Tom supposed to move the plot along unless he assumes command of the regiment?

In the end, it's decided the children should head out ahead of the main force with Clayton, Mike, and Hal, whose unease with Ben convinces him to tag along. Apparently, he's uneasy enough not to smell a trap when Clayton takes them off course (to someplace called the Hidden Frontier Ranch), where a number of other adult soldiers and civilians are waiting.

Hey, somebody has to be Baltar. It turns out Clayton's offering up the kids to the aliens for some as-yet undisclosed reward, hopefully it's something better than "Terran Governor: New England Sector." And who told Clayton the school had an ample supply of children? Why, none other than our old friend Pope.

Next week: Pope is irate that Clayton pulled one over on him.