What happened?
The plans to stop the attack from the future on Terra Nova go awry when they send through a suicide bomber and destroy the portal. Jim is knocked unconscious for days and when he wakes he finds that Lucas and the people he is working for have taken over Terra Nova and are already making plans to mine the place of resources once they have wiped out plants and animals.
Whilst the people of Terra Nova that survived are kept as prisoners there under military rule, Taylor and a few soldiers are in the jungle staging a fightback. Jim groups with them and they manage to thwart the first assault to decimate the jungle. However, when Lucas begins beating Josh (working in the bar to try and eavesdrop for intel) Jim storms in and, though he makes a good fight, is overhwhelmed – and Lucas demands he tell him where he can find Taylor.
Thoughts
Things didn’t turn out how I, nor the people of Terra Nova, expected. And it made for the best episode yet. Cheese got to take a backseat when the show decided it was time to get serious (well, about as serious as it can be allowed to). It actually had a bit of a Battlestar Galactica season 3 feel to it, with our heroes and their homes under occupation from the enemy. And in the short space this episode allowed enough was done to make you hate the villains and want our good guys to come good.
Interesting start to the episode, beginning back with a stunning view of future Earth (apparently mostly a desert wasteland with giant pods erected in which humanity lives) it served to remind that the old world is a dying place – though it isn’t one that’s not without its own interesting angle and, if the show could find the scope for it, if Terra Nova chose to spend more time outside of Terra Nova to uncover plot machinations in the future, then that might prove fertile ground.
Another stylish choice was to have Jim taken out by the suicide bomber blast (I liked that he wasn’t a willing suicide bomber) and then awake disoriented, finding that the worst had happened and the enemy had, for the meantime, won. Of course it also meant the show didn’t have to go to the effort of showing the big battle and could cut quicker to the insurrection – but it worked well, perhaps more so here with this show than in others, because here we’re used to seeing our heroes plan's work out and them overcome the odds. To see them taken down, to see the enemy erecting flags and holding our main characters prisoner in their homes, that somehow felt more brutal because of the wholesome pedigree of the show’s previous episodes.
It’s not like Terra Nova suddenly found a mean, gritty streak, mind. The nastiest part of the episode showed the big bad corporate military guy shooting a brachiosaur in the head. Apart from giving him a cape and moustache to twirl it couldn’t really be less subtle in giving us someone to boo and hiss at. Even Lucas winced at it. As for Lucas himself, well, I did previously assert that I expected a father-son reunion to occur. Now I’m not so sure – Lucas did try hard enough to kill Taylor and he’s been something of a bastard about the place. I’m not calling off a total redemption arc here, because there is the other big bad man that could assume the role of chief villain, but it seems less likely.
Also, I did previously reckon that the Sixers would eventually come good and join in the fight with the good guys. Well, so far at least, that hasn’t panned out either. Mira I just can’t pin anything on at the moment because she wasn’t really allowed any moment to voice her own perspective. She did seem suspicious of Jim when he was pretending to be injured and delirious, but that didn’t go anywhere. I am sure that she expects her end of the deal to be fulfilled (if I remember rightly she wanted her daughter?) and if that doesn’t happen she’ll swiftly change allegiances. I don’t know if she or the Sixers actually will – but I find it hard to believe that both Lucas and Mira will remain bad to the finish. If they don’t get killed off (Mira, possibly, but Lucas surely not – but honestly I don’t expect either of them to) then I’d be very surprised if one of them didn’t stand up against the oppressors and help Taylor.
Indeed, if Lucas does manage to get the information he wants from Jim then Taylor’s going to be compromised and his people, already in a bad way, are definitely going to need a break from somewhere. Jim, meanwhile, will surely have a big part to play. Can’t exactly say the rest of the Shannon family have been showing much in the way of revolutionary spirit, and whilst Josh is well-meaning he’s also genuinely an idiot (let’s antagonise the chief bad man holding you and your people captive when he’s a had a drink!), so at least Jim has been showing some can-do attitude and is ready to bring the fight.
I liked the detail of Washington kicking her conscience around for surrendering. Not quite sure what the thinking was in having her sit in a bar all day to make a public example of her, though (particularly when she was left free to cavort with the drunken soldiers!). Still, I hope she gets her kick ass moment. And if it falls down to a girl-on-girl slug out between her and Mira then that can’t fail to be a great moment.
Terra Nova needed an episode like this; it needed to raise the stakes and give us some characters to really root for and the circumstances be dire enough to warrant proper drama. Whilst it still wasn’t what you would consider great television, it was the best episode so far and in an odd way I found it more enjoyable perhaps because of the low standards previously set through the season (particularly the first half) and because it undercut that nice, decent, cheesy vibe the show otherwise had. It wasn't great, but it was very good.
I genuinely can’t call it at the moment. Will the season end with things getting even worse and a cliffhanger at the most awful moment? Or will the current crisis get resolved, and the insurgent efforts come to fruition and take down the oppressors, Terra Nova getting reclaimed by Taylor and the slate wiped relatively clear? I lean towards the latter, but that’s because I’ve got low expectations that Terra Nova has the guts to be brutal. This episode went some way to undercutting my expectations with edgier surprises, so maybe the next and final one will really go for it. . .
What was the best part?
The boo-hiss villainy of the bad man killing the harmless brachiosaur was then followed up by the suspense driven cliché of the ‘bomb’ being diffused by cutting wires and the clock ticked down. It’s been done a stack of times before but it’s one of those staples that can’t help but generate some excitement – and this was a good example of it. I liked that it was Lucas urging the car to get out of the blast zone because he so wanted to detonate and kill his father. And when the detonation failed I especially liked how he got that cool multi-rocket launcher (not a bad shot) and tried to nail his old man that way.
What do I think will happen next?
Lucas won’t die but he will get thwarted (and perhaps either slope off into the jungle again, or return to the future to hatch another scheme). Mira will either die, or become a part of the Terra Nova camp along with the rest of her Sixers. Taylor will return to camp and reclaim Terra Nova and all of the Shannons will survive. Oh, and maybe Skye will make some kind of move on Josh or something. Because what would Terra Nova be without some pointless and saccharine scene of gooey love? (As you can see, my expectations don’t spell out terrific last episode finale – but I’m setting my hopes low so that they can be blown out of the water.) Out of the box prediction: just when all seems lost, a T-Rex will come charging into the fray. We’ve not had one of those show up yet. The season finale seems like a perfect place to make a debut appearance.
The plans to stop the attack from the future on Terra Nova go awry when they send through a suicide bomber and destroy the portal. Jim is knocked unconscious for days and when he wakes he finds that Lucas and the people he is working for have taken over Terra Nova and are already making plans to mine the place of resources once they have wiped out plants and animals.
Whilst the people of Terra Nova that survived are kept as prisoners there under military rule, Taylor and a few soldiers are in the jungle staging a fightback. Jim groups with them and they manage to thwart the first assault to decimate the jungle. However, when Lucas begins beating Josh (working in the bar to try and eavesdrop for intel) Jim storms in and, though he makes a good fight, is overhwhelmed – and Lucas demands he tell him where he can find Taylor.
Thoughts
Things didn’t turn out how I, nor the people of Terra Nova, expected. And it made for the best episode yet. Cheese got to take a backseat when the show decided it was time to get serious (well, about as serious as it can be allowed to). It actually had a bit of a Battlestar Galactica season 3 feel to it, with our heroes and their homes under occupation from the enemy. And in the short space this episode allowed enough was done to make you hate the villains and want our good guys to come good.
Interesting start to the episode, beginning back with a stunning view of future Earth (apparently mostly a desert wasteland with giant pods erected in which humanity lives) it served to remind that the old world is a dying place – though it isn’t one that’s not without its own interesting angle and, if the show could find the scope for it, if Terra Nova chose to spend more time outside of Terra Nova to uncover plot machinations in the future, then that might prove fertile ground.
Another stylish choice was to have Jim taken out by the suicide bomber blast (I liked that he wasn’t a willing suicide bomber) and then awake disoriented, finding that the worst had happened and the enemy had, for the meantime, won. Of course it also meant the show didn’t have to go to the effort of showing the big battle and could cut quicker to the insurrection – but it worked well, perhaps more so here with this show than in others, because here we’re used to seeing our heroes plan's work out and them overcome the odds. To see them taken down, to see the enemy erecting flags and holding our main characters prisoner in their homes, that somehow felt more brutal because of the wholesome pedigree of the show’s previous episodes.
It’s not like Terra Nova suddenly found a mean, gritty streak, mind. The nastiest part of the episode showed the big bad corporate military guy shooting a brachiosaur in the head. Apart from giving him a cape and moustache to twirl it couldn’t really be less subtle in giving us someone to boo and hiss at. Even Lucas winced at it. As for Lucas himself, well, I did previously assert that I expected a father-son reunion to occur. Now I’m not so sure – Lucas did try hard enough to kill Taylor and he’s been something of a bastard about the place. I’m not calling off a total redemption arc here, because there is the other big bad man that could assume the role of chief villain, but it seems less likely.
Also, I did previously reckon that the Sixers would eventually come good and join in the fight with the good guys. Well, so far at least, that hasn’t panned out either. Mira I just can’t pin anything on at the moment because she wasn’t really allowed any moment to voice her own perspective. She did seem suspicious of Jim when he was pretending to be injured and delirious, but that didn’t go anywhere. I am sure that she expects her end of the deal to be fulfilled (if I remember rightly she wanted her daughter?) and if that doesn’t happen she’ll swiftly change allegiances. I don’t know if she or the Sixers actually will – but I find it hard to believe that both Lucas and Mira will remain bad to the finish. If they don’t get killed off (Mira, possibly, but Lucas surely not – but honestly I don’t expect either of them to) then I’d be very surprised if one of them didn’t stand up against the oppressors and help Taylor.
Indeed, if Lucas does manage to get the information he wants from Jim then Taylor’s going to be compromised and his people, already in a bad way, are definitely going to need a break from somewhere. Jim, meanwhile, will surely have a big part to play. Can’t exactly say the rest of the Shannon family have been showing much in the way of revolutionary spirit, and whilst Josh is well-meaning he’s also genuinely an idiot (let’s antagonise the chief bad man holding you and your people captive when he’s a had a drink!), so at least Jim has been showing some can-do attitude and is ready to bring the fight.
I liked the detail of Washington kicking her conscience around for surrendering. Not quite sure what the thinking was in having her sit in a bar all day to make a public example of her, though (particularly when she was left free to cavort with the drunken soldiers!). Still, I hope she gets her kick ass moment. And if it falls down to a girl-on-girl slug out between her and Mira then that can’t fail to be a great moment.
Terra Nova needed an episode like this; it needed to raise the stakes and give us some characters to really root for and the circumstances be dire enough to warrant proper drama. Whilst it still wasn’t what you would consider great television, it was the best episode so far and in an odd way I found it more enjoyable perhaps because of the low standards previously set through the season (particularly the first half) and because it undercut that nice, decent, cheesy vibe the show otherwise had. It wasn't great, but it was very good.
I genuinely can’t call it at the moment. Will the season end with things getting even worse and a cliffhanger at the most awful moment? Or will the current crisis get resolved, and the insurgent efforts come to fruition and take down the oppressors, Terra Nova getting reclaimed by Taylor and the slate wiped relatively clear? I lean towards the latter, but that’s because I’ve got low expectations that Terra Nova has the guts to be brutal. This episode went some way to undercutting my expectations with edgier surprises, so maybe the next and final one will really go for it. . .
What was the best part?
The boo-hiss villainy of the bad man killing the harmless brachiosaur was then followed up by the suspense driven cliché of the ‘bomb’ being diffused by cutting wires and the clock ticked down. It’s been done a stack of times before but it’s one of those staples that can’t help but generate some excitement – and this was a good example of it. I liked that it was Lucas urging the car to get out of the blast zone because he so wanted to detonate and kill his father. And when the detonation failed I especially liked how he got that cool multi-rocket launcher (not a bad shot) and tried to nail his old man that way.
What do I think will happen next?
Lucas won’t die but he will get thwarted (and perhaps either slope off into the jungle again, or return to the future to hatch another scheme). Mira will either die, or become a part of the Terra Nova camp along with the rest of her Sixers. Taylor will return to camp and reclaim Terra Nova and all of the Shannons will survive. Oh, and maybe Skye will make some kind of move on Josh or something. Because what would Terra Nova be without some pointless and saccharine scene of gooey love? (As you can see, my expectations don’t spell out terrific last episode finale – but I’m setting my hopes low so that they can be blown out of the water.) Out of the box prediction: just when all seems lost, a T-Rex will come charging into the fray. We’ve not had one of those show up yet. The season finale seems like a perfect place to make a debut appearance.
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