Hal Mason: Poster Child for Bad Siblings?

Contributing Author, and my faithful travel companion, Lauren returns from a long hiatus with a scathing, and in my opinion, accurate view on Hal Mason. Without further ado, let’s read!

Shallow Hal

I am not letting myself be excited for Season 3 just yet. I worry the more hopeful I am that they will bring Dai back; the more likely he is good and dead. I worry they will forget the Skitter rebellion in favor of the new alien race when I am still irritated that we lost Red Eye and the Overlord, our central hero and villain, in the same fight. But, though my greatest worry is the possibility of the spotlight being shifted from Ben to Hal (spikes are so last season, eye bugs are the new “it” affliction), I do believe the new alien parasite is the single greatest thing to ever happen to the character of Hal, and that it is desperately needed.

We have had articles decrying Hal and defending him. I have not been entirely unfond of him because without Hal, Ben really wouldn’t have much of anyone to talk to. A comment by our Bloggy Leader during an airing of “Molon Labe,” though, once changed my perspective on his character, and I am no longer as forgiving of him.

The conflict between Hal and Ben had been building all season and the confrontation when Ben would face Hal after their rooftop altercation in “Homecoming” would surely be worth watching. Hal was spitting feathers after Ben forced him to his knees in the Season 2 premiere, and this time he’d been left in an unconscious heap. The fight was on. But then…nothing. Ben came back and all was forgiven. It was all Karen’s fault so everybody forget it. Struggling to explain the inconsistency, I posed that it was perhaps a classic bro’s before ho’s moment. Respected Falling Skies scholar Greg poignantly illustrated the absurdity of this attitude in the Mason brothers with a short narrative:

Ben: What’s a ho? I’m in the middle of fighting aliens.

Hal: There are ho’s!? Where!? I have to have them before Ben…

While the inconsistency is still only adequately explained by the writers having no screen time in the action-packed “Molon Labe” to devote to a confrontation (must save time for kissing scenes after all), this astute statement in fact sums up the fundamental problem with the character of Hal: His only motivations are to score chicks and to be a douche to Ben, and I am bored with watching both.

In Season 1, Hal is a fine character. He cares passionately and recklessly about rescuing Ben, has a realistic father-son dynamic with Tom, interacts with many other characters, and is simply not uninteresting. He has motivations and accomplishes things, and while he flirts with more girls than are present in all of Season 2, they are not the majority of what his character does. Season 2 Hal is not the same character. Hal steps into Tom’s role as head Mason with the insufferableness of someone who considers himself perfect from hair to toe, and though I appreciate the effort the writers put forth to help a dry, mid-twenties actor realistically portray a teenager, he loses any semblance of believability as teen, no matter how many times he says “aiight.” While we can entertain the idea that he is the battle-hardened victim of a childhood lost, he is pretty simply a douche, and mainly to Ben.

Hal’s initial conflict with Ben is understandable. He is struggling to be effective in his new leadership role in the 2nd Mass, and Ben is dangerously stepping out of line, not only out of a disinterest in taking orders, but specifically a disinterest in taking orders from his brother. Of course, Season 2 Ben never catches a break, and Hal never misses an opportunity to rub it in his face.

The physical altercation in “Shall We Gather at the River” is often viewed as either a defining moment for a newly transformed Ben or as an unforgivably mean moment for poor Hal. It really is a perfect summary of who their characters are all season. Hal’s determination to effect Tom’s legacy means Ben is wrong to teach Matt to shoot a gun, but he is sure to assert that Ben is particularly an unfit instructor because he is a father-shooter, a low blow when Ben is visibly wracked with guilt knowing he is the reason Tom is still comatose in the med bus. Hal turns his back to any reasoning that Matt is a sitting duck in a warzone in which kids his age are the exact target of the enemy, so Ben reminds him of Karen. This is a low blow in itself, but only because Hal looks like a bad boyfriend in front of Maggie, which he is, having replaced and forgotten about Karen at the first possible moment. Not to have his name besmirched by the truth in front of his lady, Hal throws the first punch. Ben grabs Hal’s wrists and steadily forces him to the ground. Not a reckless act of violence, but a controlled shutting down of meathead behavior that Ben has tolerated for years and that he now has the power to stop. Hal can’t let it go, however, and at every difficult moment for Ben, Hal is there to be a jerk about it.

“Compass” contains my top sweetly sad moment of Season 2, in which Ben taps Jimmy’s compass against his head as he sits alone in the mess hall, staring at nothing and worrying over whether his friend will live. Of course Hal punctuates it with his peevish remarks about how reckless Ben is, as if he isn’t shouldering more blame than he should already. Hal also informs Tom that now is not the time to coddle Ben–he needs to live with what he did–but the very next episode, Hal gives Ben grief about acting withdrawn.

A helpful moment with Hal Mason: You need to get over this “looking sad” thing, Ben. It’s a real drag. Jimmy’s death was so two weeks ago. I know he was your only friend and that I made sure to let you know your screw ups were the direct cause of his death, but that was constructive criticism that you should have channeled into being a better soldier. Everyone else has gotten over it, so you should too.

Later at the harnessing facility, Ben suddenly loses control, uncharacteristically and inexplicably unloading his firearm into the harness tank. Hal, after just having seen Ben’s spikes glow for the first time and therefore realizing there are bigger things going on than he can know, nonetheless breaks the stunned silence with mockery to which Ben does not react as he is still currently checked out in a state of panic. Ben is clearly not okay, so Hal does the brotherly thing and privately confronts him about his glowing spikes. When Ben is not forthcoming, Hal sarcastically asks if his plan is to lie about it and hope it goes away on its own of getting worse. Why yes, that is exactly his only hope and his deepest, darkest fear all summed up into one easy-for-you-to-say bit of snark. Of course Ben is terrified that his condition is getting worse and that he doesn’t even know what is happening, and there is obviously no one that can fix it or even begin to understand his problem, if someone in the 2nd Mass doesn’t freak out and kill him first.

But all Hal’s “tryna do is help,” so surely if he taunts and nags Ben enough, Ben will quit it with all the Skitter stuff and become a proper human again.

The rest of what Hal accomplishes as a character is limited to drawn out, uneventful segments of flirting with Maggie, with whom he has zero chemistry and could not even legally hook up. One could perhaps at least paint Hal as the Mason family voice of reason (like a highly unentertaining Pope) since Ben does cause many problems and keeps many secrets, but Hal pretends to be so perfect while doing nothing as a soldier but messing around with Maggie. Perhaps this is a highly realistic portrayal of a brotherly relationship. His confrontations with Ben added interest in the beginning, and it was a refreshingly realistic idea that Hal perhaps somewhat idolized the idea of poor, lost Ben when he was with the Skitters, then easily fell back into old squabbles when he realized the kid he heroically rescued is still just Ben. But I am tired of the fighting and nagging, and it is always Hal heaping it onto Ben who either stays silent or at most asks him to back off. Ben, after all, has much bigger problems to deal with that Hal would ever understand…until now.

Whatever Hal’s eye parasite is up to, it is exactly what his character needs. It will give him something new to do, alter his personality, cast doubt upon his motivations, everything. If he becomes a double agent (as I predict, evil smiles do not occur without reason) there will finally be depth to his horribly shallow character. Maggie will probably be the first to realize something is wrong, and their relationship will transform from an unworkable will they/won’t they to a much more interesting should I kill him/can I save him. Maybe evil Hal will join evil Karen and we will have another awkward love triangle. There might be another great opportunity for Ben to use his Skitter strength against Hal. Weaver and Pope will join Greg in calling for Hal’s death. Even if Hal is not evil, perhaps just the unwitting Mars Rover of Charleston transmitting information to the enemy, Hal will no longer be a perfect human, inviolate amidst the alien invasion. If he is ever freed from its presence, he will have newfound empathy for Ben and Tom and others like them. Or it will somehow kill him. Any which way, it is nigh inconceivable that Hal will ever be the same mean, vain, boring character again. The Hal we know and loathe is deader than Dai (though I hold out hope that he is still quite alive).

Lauren is a Contributing Author here at THE Falling Skies Blog, she (legally) dispenses drugs by day, heaps praise on Ben with me by night, and I forgive her for mentioning Justin Bieber in her Twitter handle.

She can and should be followed on Twitter, @Biebfan87

Keep the Resistance Strong!

~ by The Falling Skies Blog on October 25, 2012.