"Falling Skies" is now on its fifth and final season and the 2nd Mass survivors are preparing to leave Chinatown and take the battle to the alien Espheni. However, episode 5, titled "Non-Essential Personnel," sees them encountering several major obstacles along the way. 

According to the official synopsis posted by SpoilerGuide, the group comes across a deranged gunman set to cause them trouble. It doesn't take long before his insanity goes rampant and he takes Weaver (Will Patton) hostage. Before they can fight the Espheni, they need to rescue the Colonel first. 

The promotional trailer doesn't clearly show who the deranged gunman is, but the clip does feature a deep growling sound which is speculated to come from the mysterious hostage taker. 

Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) has his own plans to take out the Espheni but he, too, encounters several hurdles to jump over, the first being Pope (Colin Cunningham) going rogue and following his own selfish agenda. Pope is now a threat to Tom's son Hal (Drew Roy) and Tom needs to rescue his son before marching on to the final battle with the Espheni. 

In the previous episode, Hal ended up in Pope's camp, home to many unstable and dangerous survivors. Any one of these could suddenly kill Hal for no reason at all. The question now is whether or not Tom will get there in time to rescue his son. 

The promotional trailer for the episode indicates that Pope himself kills Hal before Tom ever makes it there. This could make Tom's plans crumble before he even has a chance to take action. 

According to a report from Ecumenical News, Tom's plan requires him to unite the human race in order to defeat the Espheni once and for all, but that currently looks like an impossibility, with different factions currently at war with each other as aliens are taking over the planet. 

"Falling Skies" season 5 episode 5 is set to air on July 26.