Tom & Co. make it back to JFK High School, the HQ for the 2nd Mass. Dr. Anne Glass is there to greet them, but Tom is not particularly in the mood for flirting. He tells her that they spotted Ben and about a dozen other kids, and when she asks if he's okay Tom just says, "He's alive." Dr. Anne has some good news to tell him, but before she can get to it Tom is surrounded by people who want to know if he saw their missing kids. Everyone has pictures that they're sticking in his face, even as Tom tries to explain that they really didn't get close enough to recognize anyone. Mike tries to exert some crowd control, and when one lady gets all peeved, he points out that everyone is missing kids including himself (his son's name is Rick) and Tom. Tom, who seems to be starting to crack a little, promises that they'll do everything possible to get the kids back. Dr. Anne has the bright idea for people to post the pictures on the school bulletin board like it's a big milk carton, and Dai and Anthony suggest that they include any sort of identifying information that might be helpful. Tom promises that the squads will check the boards before each and every mission. This is what life was like before Facebook and iPhones! You just had to remember stuff in your head and shit. How horrible.

Tom learns that Commander Porter is back earlier than expected, and Dr. Anne explains that he's the one who brought the good news that she was referring to. Tom heads in to Porter's briefing, in which he says that the picture of this war is changing. A runner who was sent west ran into a contingent of resistance fighters just outside of Chicago. OMG, WHAT HAPPENED TO OPRAH? And why did nobody send her to talk to the alien invaders directly? This whole thing could have gone down so much differently! The Skitters would have been like, "I guess turning innocent children into zombie slaves collecting scrap metal does not, in fact, mean that I'm living my best life." But then Dr. Phil would have gotten involved in the OWN docu-series about Skitters learning how to reinvent themselves and they would have blown us up even worse. Anyway, the Chicago contingent has made contact with groups from Texas, Oklahoma, and even California. This means that the 2nd Mass is not in this alone, which is good news. The bad news is that alien high-rises, like the one hovering over Boston, have popped up in every city that they know about. Nobody knows what they're for. I suspect they're part of the Skitter gentrification plan.