What happened?
A team at a research outpost have gone offline, so Liz is sent along with Nathaniel Taylor to check the place out. There they discover the people were infected with a virus that caused them to lose their memories and briefly shift mentally to some time in their past before catatonia set in. It’s not long before Liz and Nathaniel are affected.
Worried for his wife, Jim goes there with Malcolm, and whilst Malcolm suffers from the same malady it transpires that Jim is immune due to his cold. Whilst a cure his hastily put together Nathaniel, believing he is a soldier in Somalia, returns to Terra Nova and attacks some of his people but is knocked unconscious and cured when Liz and Jim return.
Thoughts
Another episode and one that very much played it safe with a plot that anyone dropping in new to the show could pick up and watch. Aside from the ending scene, which offered prospects of ongoing dramatic development with Josh being used by the Sixers, there wasn’t anything here that would particularly alienate a brand new viewer, and nor was there anything here which made you feel like you needed to have seen this episode in order to keep up with the show.
I suspect it’s intentional, in order to try and attract new viewers to the show that might not have got there right at the start. Fair enough, I can get that. But what’s not clear now is whether or not Terra Nova is going to stick to this formula of having episodes that function mostly on their own terms or whether it will eventually become a more serialised affair.
If I was forced to choose, I’d plump for it sticking to the more standalone format. It’s expensive and it wants to try and keep viewers and attract new ones. As I said, it’s understandable, but of course the problem is that for people like me that are prepared to stick around we are poorly rewarded for our loyalty. What we get are what feel like a lot of filler episodes with the odd bit of plot progression and peeled away layers of mythology tacked on at the end or paid brief lip service during proceedings.
This episode was OK if taken on its own merits. The structure was similar to last week in that the build-up and execution of the main threat was nicely handled and then the too-easy resolution felt unearned. I mean, really, Jim just happening to catch a cold turned out to be the only cure to this deadly, genetically-produced virus? That’s rather fortuitous to say the least!
Keeping Malcolm in the mix was good, although I thought that they could have played more on the idea that he was faking the symptoms of memory loss when he was making his moves on Liz. It seemed to transpire that he really wasn’t faking after all when I’d have hoped for a tad more ambiguity, or even genuine duplicity, to have injected a little bit more edge.
I also didn’t really buy the chemistry between Jim and Liz, here. When she had forgotten who he was, the news that she was married to him, with kids, was delivered and accepted with little fuss. Then, before long, she was passionately kissing him – even though to her this was a man she had never met before in her life and had not so long since held at gunpoint. Again, it just felt a little rushed, a little lacking in the willingness to not take the ‘nice’ route.
Taylor’s mental breakdown offered the darkness Liz, Jim and Malcolm’s plot lacked. Going all Colonel Kurtz with warpaint, holding Josh at knifepoint, when he was informed his wife was actually dead and this was news he was yet to be reacquainted with the speed at which he was set to slit his throat was startling. Sure it was probably a slight contrivance just so Washington got to save the day and, at last, make her mark on the show, but it’s nice to hope that there may be turmoil beneath the austere surface of leader Nathaniel Taylor that suggest he's not the ideal leader for this brave new world.
The plot with the Shannon kids was largely negligible, particularly the romance part. Josh and the smuggler just set things in motion for the last scene – though the conversation with the Sixers did reveal that they can communicate with the ‘future world’ when the portal opens, too. I have to trust that this issue of what can be communicated, and how, gets explored much more in future instalments because it’s a big piece of the show that’s been glossed over so far.
I don’t know how long the show will be able to sustain itself with these types of episode. Not quite standalone enough to be able to go into syndication and shown out of order (and thus generate lots of revenue) and not quite driven with continuing plot threads to support an ongoing dramatic arc, Terra Nova can perhaps survive a few more episodes like this before it’s in danger of becoming extinct.
What was the best part?
I liked the part where Jim and Malcolm were dragging the unconscious soldier and the raptor appeared at the open entrance port. It was just a cool little sequence, injecting a dinosaur into the thick of things at close quarters, to create an instant and deadly problem that required some quick thinking to resolve. If Terra Nova has a big ace up its sleeve, its that it has dinosaurs. Kudos, too, to the bit where Taylor drove through the legs of the Brachiosaur. Badass or idiotic: you decide!
What do I think will happen next?
The plot by the Sixers to use Josh via the smuggler will perhaps take further shape so we can gain a better indication about what it is they intend to use him for. Right now I can only imagine that they intend to somehow get Josh to make Jim get them guns and ammo, the commodity they seem to value. Or, possibly, they may even try to get Josh to join with them. . .
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