Let me be clear. I don't watch alien movies. I don't watch alien TV shows, I don't read alien comic books or graphic novels or news stories. I don't care if Sigourney Weaver had all the girl power in the world or that David Duchovny was a fox back in the day. Aliens just don't interest me.

So, until last night, I hadn't watched Falling Skies. I think I have a good handle on the show, since I edit these recaps every week, but bear with me; this is a weird show.

Maggie and Hal haul back some prescription drugs and a brick of heroin from the local dealer's stash. Maggie makes fun of Hal because he preferred lacrosse to getting high. I hate Margaret already. Anyway, as we discovered last week, the drugs are needed to ween captured kids off those creepy harnesses the aliens implant on their backs.

Hal and Tom present their plan to break into the hospital to save the kids (including Ben) to Weaver the next day; Weaver points out that they need a better plan, since the one they have involves way too many people that would attract the aliens' attention. Hal proposes posing as one of the captured children and strapping a harness onto his own back. Tom hates the idea, but Weaver says making yourself invisible to the enemy is a great battle tactic. Thanks, grandpa.

Hal, Tom and Maggie go for target practice with a crossbow, and Maggie openly flirts with Hal in front of his dad. And his overprotective dad does nothing to embarrass him? Give me a break.

Scott satrts playing a Jimmy Cliff record, but for some reason, Weaver walks in and takes it off the turntable, telling Scott he can play anything he wants except that song. Hmmmmm.

Meanwhile, Anne continues to keep the captured skitter hydrated, and Dr. Harris continues to chide her for it. When the creature kills Harris, Weaver gives Anne an ultimatum to learn something from the alien before he kills it himself. So Anne momentarily stuns the skitter and then plunges a scalpel into its mouth, since the soft palette is connected to the brain stem, killing the alien and showing Hal how to kill skitters once he gets into the hospital. Then she wigs out, goes to the bulletin board where people have posted photos of their missing loved ones, and smears her bloody hand on the board because she has no one to look for. Too bad she spent all that time building up her career and becoming a successful doctor.

Maggie's invited to a baby shower the women are throwing for Sarah, a girl she met hangin' in a chow line (yes! I finally get to use that line!), but she's too busy with this "whole war thing" going on, so she rejects the invite.

Tom, Hal and the rest of the gang finally head to the hospital. Tom says something about Hal playing football when he was two years old. Then Hal heads into the hospital and joins a line of kids following a skitter. That kind of freaked me out. The alien puts them to bed, making them all lie down in a group then climbing on top of them, even brushing their hair in a parental way with one of his claws. That also freaked me out.

Anyway, Hal plays asleep until the creature falls asleep, then pulls out his knife and says "Ben." Of course, this wakes the creature up, but Hal plunges the knife into the its mouth, and Maggie and Tom, who followed him in after Tom got antsy, shoot the thing so it's really dead. The rest of the gang catch up with them and take the kids back to the school.

There's a lot of gross harness-pulling at this point, and one of the children dies, which haunts Anne. Tom reassures her by pointing out she saved five kids, but in the end, it's the one that gets her.

Hal gets a special moment with Maggie, and we learn she had cancer (that's how she knows where to get drugs and her way around the hospital). Hal also gets a nod approval from his dad, who calls him "brave" and "a man" and all that good stuff adolescent boys who strive for their dad's good opinion crave.

Sarah gets her baby shower, Tom takes Anne's hands in his and tells her she saved Ben, Ben wakes up and recognizes Tom and Weaver puts on the Jimmy Cliff record.

Next week: Probably won't find out what the Jimmy Cliff record means yet, but I guess Maggie will find a way to be even more annoying.