PD Played Correctly

I have often complained about Hollywood getting Prisoner's Dilemma wrong and do note when they get it right. My big regret about the third Matrix movie tanking so badly that referring to its awful PD resolution does not work very well--folks have just not seen the movie.

So, it is silly of me to discuss Falling Skies since it has not been that widely viewed.  However, since I am catching up on season 2 (way behind, since TNT is one of the few US channels that I don't get one way or another on my Canadian sat dish, along with FX), I thought I would mention it. 

Spoilers below



Noah Wyles plays Mason, a history professor (nope, not a political scientist but he does pontificate a heap) who is the second in command of one of the last surviving militias as the world has faced a particularly brutal alien invasion.  In the end of season one, Mason is faced with a choice by the aliens--board their ship or risk his son who still has implants from his time with the aliens.  Season two shows flashbacks of his time on the alien mothership.  He had a conversation with an/the alien leader who offers a deal--the remaining resistance folks and perhaps other humans can live in a neutral zone--unarmed but alive.  This leads to a conversation about world history's usage of concentration camps and other brutalities. 

Mason, offered this deal, understands that there is nothing compelling the aliens to respect the deal. It could just be a way to round up the humans before completing the extermination.  And, of course, living in a concentration camp or its equivalent is not a wonderful outcome either.  So, Mason rejects the deal and tries to kill the alien.

The mystery we face now (as I am three eps into s2) is why the aliens released Mason, although they did plant at least one bug (ick) on him.  Plus Mason's release to be back among the human resistance has created heaps of intra-human distrust.

The resistance folks we have been following have met a messenger from the "Continental Congress" and are now headed that way. This leap of faith is interesting, but they are wary... unlike the usual folks in much of these kinds of things.  Mason distrusted the aliens and rightly so.  So, we have history professors being far smarter thus far than whatever Neo was in his day job... (which was being a sack of tissue in a bag for robotic nutrition?).