What happened?
An apparent dinosaur attack that killed a man turns out to have been a murder. Whilst the initial suspect is the first person to be tried in Terra Nova and sentenced to a very public banishment, eventually the real murderer is revealed to be another soldier who owed the victim money. He is more privately sent out for banishment by Taylor who says he will lose no sleep over his actions.
Liz and her daughter are in the laboratory where a dinosaur egg they retrieved is cared for and eventually hatches. Meanwhile Josh has fulfilled his bargain with the bartender and meets with the Sixers and Amira. She tells him she can get him his girlfriend back, so long as he promises to one day fulfil a request from her no matter what.
Thoughts
How is it that this show can take powerful ingredients of a murder mystery, an issue of dictatorship against social equality, and traitorous behaviour, pack them all into a single episode and still make it all seem a bit blah? For the answer you just needed to watch this episode of Terra Nova which, as ever, continues to make the intriguing and amazing seem tedious and overcooked.
The opening murder was a nice introduction sequence, and was a rather cool idea. That someone would trap a dangerous dino in a confined building they knew someone was going to turn up to was a decent method of murder. The reveal of who eventually perpetrated the crime felt rather fumbled. Initially a red herring regarding a husband and young wife (another interesting question raised, regarding people who had won the lottery then getting married purely to bring people with them – what kind of quality control issues would that create?) it turned out to be a soldier we’d never seen before.
It was all rather convoluted, particularly when the episode had employed the bartender to be part of a pre-arranged ruse to trap the soldier. I didn’t get that. Why did they have to stage such an elaborate scheme? And what about the original innocent guy who was so publicly banished? Aren’t people going to be raising their eyebrows when they see him walking around camp free as a bird? If that matter got addressed I missed it.
The issue of Taylor’s rule over Terra Nova is meaty territory. From the very first episode I pondered what Terra Nova would do about law and order in this new civilisation. Turns out that Taylor’s word is pretty much law and, whilst he claims to have never encountered such a serious crime as yet, it’s still curious that he has maintained such a rule over these people for so long, unchallenged and unquestioned. (There was brief mention of it from Malcolm, I recall, in his first episode.) I definitely feel like this is quite a crucial aspect to the show, and one that the programme could really use to good effect. It would seem from the Sixers that they have a problem with Taylor and the fact that he has absolute rule over the camp if his character has moral grey areas or reason for dispute makes it an especially juicy scenario.
I say all that with reservation, of course. Terra Nova being Terra Nova can have all the terrific ideas in the world and manage to blunt them of any edge and squander pulse-quickening tension for safe and sound tied up plots.
Like, for example, the whole business with Liz and her daughter and the hatching egg. What the hell was that all about? It just felt like something cute and wholesome dropped in and nestling very uneasily against everything else in the episode. If it was there to provide balance then for me all it did was create problems with tone. Is this dinosaur now going to live with the Shannon family? Are they turning into The Flintstones!?
Josh and his deal with the Sixers was presumably meant to feel more dramatic than it played out. I’m not sure where Skye fits into this picture. Was her urge to go along purely because she’s worried about Josh? Or is she potentially the mole in the camp and she accompanied Josh to ensure he got there and would be on hand to be used? I fear that it was the former, because Terra Nova feels like that kind of show, but hopefully it’s springing a shock surprise and it will be the latter.
As could perhaps be deduced, I wasn’t a big fan of this episode. I feel like the honeymoon period is over and Terra Nova needs to start taking itself seriously and start producing some serious goods for me to continue with it. There’s a lot of good television on at the moment and right now Terra Nova isn’t sitting there in the schedules screaming ‘must-see’.
What was the best part?
I’d have to go with the pursuit and capture of the dinosaur. At least this episode did have the saving grace that the dinosaurs which are the show’s big calling card delivered the standout scene. Terra Nova needs to keep remembering that it is set in a world with dinosaurs and dinosaurs are cool and if they want to do an episode where the camp is under siege by T-Rex and raptors then it’ll be a storm and be a total hit. Play to your strengths, and hit the lowest common denominator if you must!
What do I think will happen next?
Josh will invariably have to be made to do something he doesn’t want to do. (Really, though, once he gets his girlfriend back what’s to stop him reneging on the deal and telling his father everything he knows?) And, I guess, the Shannon’s will have a baby dinosaur living with them for a while. Which will be fun!
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