Review: Terra Nova "Now You See Me"

Non Spoiler Review:

Now You See Me was a meandering mess, coming off the reveals of last week. Taylor and Jim continue to search for the Sixers' contact on the inside with Terra Nova on lock down. Meanwhile, the commander embarks on his own mission to see what he can find of Lucas, only to encounter Mira. And he leaves Jim in charge (shivers).

So boring. I've decided any episode with a dinosaur attack mean there's really nothing much going on in the story. And we get those. Plus Zoe's little pet dinosaur that serves no purpose whatsoever except to eat up ten minutes of story time, because the writers obviously can't use that on character development.

In fact Now You See Me exhibited all the mistakes of bad science fiction writing—the team up between enemies, the techno fix to a problem that takes precisely the length of the episode, and throwaway CGI action. Given how little I care about any of these characters, I'm pretty much certain the show has slipped off the rails completely for me at this point.

Spoilers Now!

Taylor heads outside the gate and consoles Skye as it's the anniversary of her parents' deaths from fever several years before. The colony is on lock down given the ongoing search for the spy, and Taylor puts Jim (nooooo!!!) in charge until he gets back.

Taylor goes to see the rock carvings and starts recording them until Mira finds him. She's looking for Lucas, too. She ties him up and heads back to the Sixer camp with him, though he tries to escape on the way and she blows him off his feet with sonics (all a clever ruse to grab something sharp to cut his bonds, though).

Had things gone as planned, she explains, she would be back in 2149 with her daughter. She had an opportunity for a better life for them and took it, so Taylor should just stop judging her. Taylor abruptly gets free and turns the tables on her. 

Now tied up, Mira taunts him by saying Lucas told her to ask him about Somalia, which gives him pause (ooh, another big secret that won't amount to much). She does believe Lucas is crazy now, though, and it's him that controls Mira, not the other way around. They're interrupted by a dinosaur attack. 

The lookout towers detect signals being flashed to the colony. Eagle-eyed Reynolds spots similar response flashes from a construction site inside the walls. Jim and Reynolds head off in that direction, while it's Skye who's the spy, and manages to cut herself with a shard of the broken mirror (because she can't find an actual non-dangerous unbroken mirror to signal the Sixers). She runs off (except she dropped some blood in some paint solvent).

The dynamic duo arrive, and Jim finds the incriminating blood, but messes up as he attempts to extract it intact, so has to take it to Malcolm to analyze which is going to be difficult (and take the entire episode). Malcolm refuses, given the chemical neutralizes red blood cells. Jim behaves as his usual ass self and threatens to break everything in the lab, so Malcolm agrees to help. 

Remember the dinosaur baby we haven't seen in weeks? Well, Zoe is just getting around to naming it. Malcolm tells Liz he thinks the dinosaur should be released soon in order to interact with its own kind. Liz admits Zoe will be heartbroken but oh, well. So that leads to Zoe making an attempt to sneak out with the dinosaur. She's caught and shot Liz and Jim have a heart-to-heart talk with her and Zoe is her usual pouty self about it all.

The Sixers are waiting for Skye after her communication was cut off, so she decides to use Josh to get outside the gate given he's digging a water main on a work team. She gets put on the detail and easily slips away to rendezvous with her contact. She delivers her intel and is taken to see her mother, who remains alive with a steady supply of meds courtesy of the Sixers. They're the only ones with a cure. 

Malcolm extracts the blood sample and passes it to Liz who says it will take a day to run through the computer. Skye shows up that night to help at the hospital and sees her sample. She later destroys it, so Jim assumes someone must have access to the building (wow!). Liz prepares a list of everyone who could have come to the hospital. Computer does say that the spy is a female, which narrows down the search to about 40.

Taylor and Mira are attacked again and have to jump over a waterfall, losing their weapons. He offers her a knife to help fight the creatures tracking them, meaning they will have to (gasps!) work together. By nightfall they're attacked again and manage to defend themselves with arrows and spears, leading Taylor to comment they make a helluva team.

As they walk the next day Mira tells him Lucas is close to making the portal work so it's almost over. They'll find out how it all ends soon enough. That seems to be good enough for Taylor and he lets her go back to the Sixers.

Despite his search for the spy Jim finds time to be with Zoe when she releases the dinosaur. Luckily, one of its kind is right there behind a tree, and comes out of the jungle and eats it adopts it.

Taylor returns to Terra Nova and is debriefed by Jim, who says they still have a list of 40 people to check through to find the spy. Taylor offers up his usual "Get on it, Jim!" He neglects to mention he just freed the Sixer leader. Skye shows up to say hi and she and Taylor go for a walk through memorial field, but she seems to have something on her mind.

The Verdict:
This week reached new levels of tedium. I would like to know what the point of the baby dinosaur was to Zoe's *cough cough* character arc, given it appeared twice. It served absolutely no purpose to anything on the show.

Jim remains an unlikable bastard and putting him in charge of the colony didn't help his ego at all. If anyone is set up to become a ruthless dictator, it's him. In fact, that would actually be an interesting storyline for him.

And *gasp* Skye is the spy! She has gifts of super-speed, as well, considering she virtually teleported to the Sixer camp and back without being missed on the work crew, then got inside the hospital (which, with 2149 technology, can't manage any security cameras). And for all his police work, Jim doesn't even post a guard to protect his precious evidence.

Taylor's dalliance with Mira made no sense, either. They seem resolved to just let Lucas get to the end of his mission and deal with the fallout from there. And yet he lets her go? At least there's no shortage of humour in this series with Jim and Taylor in charge. No doubt the populace will be welcoming their future overlords on the Eleventh Pilgrimage.

Review: The Walking Dead "Secrets"

Non Spoiler Review:

Secrets is definitely the most chatty and character driven episode his season. While a lot was said and everyone seemed to have a talk with everyone else, not a lot happened otherwise, and it felt considerably slower than what we've been used to. 

Sophia is still missing. That allows Andrea and Shane some bonding time, and Lori and Glen and Maggie and Dale to trade secrets about pregnancy and walkers in the barn and suspicions about Otis' death. Rick continues to urge Hershel to allow them to stay on the farm to little success, but by the end of the episode quite a few of the secrets catch up to everyone.

I realize the writer is establishing such a sense of peace and tranquility that when they pull the rug out from under everything (next week) it will be that much more shocking. A lot of important comic book stuff did happen as far as advancing the characters in their respective roles—including Andrea's savvy with a gun—but next week had better end the mid-season on a bang or I'll really feel the show has slipped this year.

Spoilers Now!

Carl is up and about helping his mother feed the chickens. But Patricia has taken off with some of the hens (whose legs she breaks) and heads to the barn where she feeds them to the walkers. 

Meanwhile, Maggie has asked Glen to keep quiet about the barn's contents. He's also keeping Lori's secret, too, and considering he's so terrible at lying, he urges her to let Rick know given all the help she'll need.

Andrea apologizes to Daryl for the whole shooting in the head thing, and he's pretty laid back about it and just suggests she not try it again.

Prior to going out on the search, Shane takes their crew out on the range to practice shooting skills, including Patricia and Hershel's other family members. Carl wants to, as well and approaches Shane with a gun he's carrying. Dale had let him into the RV and Carl had stolen it. Lori is so not impressed with that, and that leads to a serious discussion where Rick agrees to let Carl learn to shoot, despite their parental concerns.

Once everyone's gone, Glen confesses to Dale about the walkers and Lori's pregnancy so Dale decides to confront him. Hershel tells him he doesn't shoot sick people, and that's what the walkers are. His wife and stepson are in the barn, and he suggests the best thing Dale could do is keep it to himself given some of the trigger-happy people in his group.

On the firing range, Andrea is proving to be an expert marksman, so gets bumped up a level for some more difficult sharpshooting training with Shane. She takes the opportunity to ask him what changed about his decision to leave, but he doesn't answer. 

Lori finds out from Hershel that he expects them to be leaving soon, which comes as a big surprise to her. She confronts Rick about keeping that fact from everyone and tells him he has to change his mind. As if Lori didn't have enough on her mind to be bitchy about, Dale tells her he knows she's pregnant. While Dale is aware she and Shane were together on the road, Lori protests that she can't tell Rick that.  She believes there's no hope for joy for their baby, much less Carl, and challenges Dale to convince her that any child will live to his ripe old age anymore.

Andrea and Shane team up to investigate a housing development, but what they find is a house full of dead people while outside walkers begin to surround them. They shoot their way out, and in that intense environment Andrea seems to find her mojo and her reason for living, and calmly begins to pick them off. Following that escape, Andrea's pretty aroused and she and Shane do it in the car on the way home.

Lori asks Glen to make another run into town for her, so he and Maggie go off together. She's annoyed with Glen for telling Dale about the barn, but when she gets attacked by a walker at the pharmacy and Glen kills it, her attitude about the zombies seems to abruptly change. When they get back Maggie pitches a fit on Lori for sending them on their mission and throws down her abortion pills at her feet. She tells Glen he needs to smarten up because all his so-called friends just use him for walker-bait.

Lori apologizes to Glen. They're actually Morning After pills and she's not even sure they'll work, but given it's the apocalypse, she has to improvise. Forward thinking Glen also brought her prenatal vitamins too, with the suggestion that she not make her choice alone. Lori does, in fact, take the pills but throws them up.

Dale notices Andrea and Shane acting odd upon their return, so when he's alone he suggests Shane should just take the car and leave given he seems to know what kind of a man Shane is. He suspects there's more to Otis' death than he's telling, given he saw him raise his gun on Rick in the past. Shane counters that if that were all true and he's a raging lunatic, it's probably not a good idea to piss him off. 

Back at the tent, Rick finds all the pregnancy supplies. This comes as a surprise to him, so he confronts Lori. After a bit of a fight where he digests the baby reveal, he asks if there's anything else he should know about. She confesses she and Shane were together. Of course he's known, he says.

The Verdict:
While it made for a bit of a quiet episode, there were copious amounts of revelations being passed back and forth, all to set up the finale next week. I do applaud the show for not stretching out Lori's secret for too long and letting Rick reveal he knew about her and Shane.

So my suspicion that Jenner told him she was pregnant is not true. He told him something else equally disturbing. Does it involve the virus itself, which would tie back into the books? That would mean that for all of Rick's optimism, he's been carting around an even bigger secret that would affect everyone.

Hershel appears to be the lone voice in trying to get the group off his farm. Maggie seems to have come around a bit in her feelings about the walkers after nearly being killed by one. Her siblings haven't received near enough attention to get a sense of where their loyalties lie, either, but they do seem excited at the prospect of having other people on the farm. What's Hershel to do if everyone sides against him?

Andrea's resurrection is a welcome one. Her suicidal tendency was a good (and thankfully brief) stage in her growth, but I'm happy to see her character take her place as a major player now. I figured an Andrea/Shane pairing was probably inevitable the longer he stuck around, but I don't think it can last if the truth starts coming out about Lori's baby and Shane starts feeling like a daddy.

Some subtle, but important, developments for Carl continued this week—his matter-of-fact attitude about their situation, as well as learning to shoot are all crucial elements for his evolution. I hope this continues and he will be as important a factor in the series as he is in the books.

Future developments will reflect on how important Secrets was to this season. There's a lot of set up here, and everything will depend on how big a conclusion we get next week, and if we begin to get a sense of direction of where this group is going.

Review: American Horror Story "Open House"

Non Spoiler Review:

The murder house gets a potential wealthy Persian Armenian buyer, which has Vivien, Marcie, Ben, Larry, Connie and Moira all in a tizzy for a bunch of different reasons. Remember Connie's other children? Where, oh where are they? Vivien continues to tax the health care system by asking for more pregnancy tests to alleviate her concerns she's carrying the Antichrist. Surviving among the crazy is Violet, who manages to pull herself together with Tate's help.

The humour was coming in spades this week, mainly from realtor Marcie who just wants to be done with the murder house and get her commission. I'm wondering if she has some deeper connection to it that we haven't discovered yet. But everyone is in a mad frenzy to seal the deal and pass the house off to its new buyer.

When faced with the potential sale, Connie, Moira and Larry really shone as they struggled to ensure they don't lose contact with their loved ones. The final moment proves that change is the only constant for the Harmons these days.

Spoilers Now!

1994. Larry consoles Connie in her house, who finds out she's being charged with criminal child neglect (imagine!) and her boy, Beauregard, is being placed in an institution. She and Larry are having an affair, and he'll do anything for her. So she tells him he knows what to do. He goes into the attic to find Beau chained to the floor (he kind of looks like the guy from Mask). Larry puts him to bed and smothers him (!).

Back in the present, Vivien and Ben await their amnio results. But nothing is out of the ordinary says the exuberant doctor, except that she's having perfectly healthy demonic twins. Gasps.

Marcie is promoting the house to a developer, Mr. Escandarian (sp) whom everyone thinks is Persian but is really Armenian. Vivien is happy to see someone expressing serious interest in the place. He sees Moira as her voluptuous self, who suggests he build a swimming pool, which would require him digging up the entire yard. He wants to know what's wrong with the place, so Vivien is candid about the violent deaths of the previous owners. But he remains interested, and wants to know if anyone else tries to put in an offer before he gets back to them. Marcie isn't pleased with Vivien's truthfulness.

They hear a noise and find Larry, who's there for the open house, too. Macie informs him it's over for the day, but the two of them seem to know one another. He accuses her of discrimination against his burny affliction. Macie abruptly pulls out a gun and orders him to get out. Vivien is shocked. Larry says he'll sue. She puts down the gun and they show him the house. He's particularly enamoured by the fireplace.

That night Vivien tries to relax in bed, and has an erotic dream about a certain security man who morphs into both Ben and the rubber man.

Tate asks Violet to stop cutting herself, so she promises him. She heads down to a family dinner with her mom and dad, and it's probably the first time we've seen all three eating together. They're worried that she's depressed given she never leaves her room. She admits to being depressed but she's not suicidal, so they should go back to their habitual neglect. She leaves, and Vivien and Ben discuss the buyers, and Vivien comments that one of them is severely burned. Ben agrees with Marcie about not revealing too much of the history of the house. That prompts another argument and Ben warns her not to screw up selling the place.

Mr. Escandarian shows up again and is greeted by Moira, who is happy to show him around. She proceeds to seduce him in Violet's room. They come out to find Ben in the hallway, and Moira introduces the potential buyer to him. Escandarian informs him he's going to bulldoze the house and build apartments.

Larry returns to his apartment to find Ben waiting to confront him about his so-called plans to buy his house, given he has no money. Ben's done some fact checking and learns Larry never went to prison for burning his family, but was institutionalized instead. He believes it's all lies. Larry tells him the house has power and admits he was trying to scare them out of the house. He needs the house to be happy again...with her.

There's a flashback to Larry and his wife Loraine. He confesses he's fallen in love with someone else, Constance from next door. Larry suggests she and the girls move in with her mother and he'll provide for them. Later on he goes upstairs to find the girls' bedroom on fire. That's apparently what really happened.

Larry still wants Constance back. Ben says they have a real buyer with money who will raze the house, and that makes Larry furious that he'd let him do it. Ben departs to file a restraining order against him.

On the murder tour, Marcie and Vivien check out all the backstory on the house. We get more on the Montgomery family saga—that little baby Thaddeus was sewn back together by Charles and apparently brought back to life by one their patient's hearts. Charles informs his wife that they won't have to have a funeral. The baby is upstairs and waiting in the nursery. Nora goes up to have a look and sees something, then comes down looking a little worse for wear. She calmly tells Charles he's a genius. That's all he wanted to hear. Nora tried to nurse the baby but it wasn't milk it was craving. She was unable to kill it. She says Charles is a man after all, and as he hugs her she shoots him in the head. She declares they're damned for what they did to all the girls, then she blows out her own brains.

Connie is in the basement of the house searching for Larry. She got his flowers and the card to meet him at their house. Larry comes out. She taunts him and asks if he's seen her new beau (Travis). He loves her, but Connie calls him disgusting and weak, letting the house get the better of him. If she catches him peeping in her windows again, she'll ruin the other half of his face. He tells her they're going to tear down the house. 

Violet hears movement in the attic so goes upstairs. A ball rolls out to her and she sees Beau. Tate appears and tells him to go away, then comforts her. Violet feels she's going insane. Tate explains they're the ghosts of people who died in the house, and they're appearing to her now because she's evolved. She just has to tell them to go away. Tate's found a bunch of stuff hidden in the attic—jars and photos of babies, including some of Charles and Nora. Violet then sees Maria's ghost and tells her to go away. And it works!

Connie meets with Mr. Escandarian at his home, but her usual manner of dealing with men doesn't work on him. He asks her what she wants for her house and is willing to pick up her property too. He's a developer and has no patience for her long-winded tales. She advises him to stop unearthing things while he's ahead and to show some respect to the old lands. He pretty much tells her off. She warns him his time is going to end and someday they'll be building on top of him too.

Ben sees Tate again, who puts on a great act assuring him the therapy has helped him a lot. His visions are gone. Ben is happy to hear that, and then privately asks him if Violet is in trouble and to come to him right away if she is.

Connie shows up and runs into Moira. She wants to speak to Tate, given she knows he has an appointment with Ben. But Moira notices she was crying. Connie wanders the house searching for Tate. He appears and is not that happy to see her. Tate sarcastically adds it turns out he hates his mother. She then goes up in the attic to see Beau and tells him she has to say goodbye. They're going to take everything away from her.

Connie returns to the kitchen and Moira, chiding her for throwing herself at the Armenian. If she gets her swimming pool, they'll find her bones and send Connie to prison, Moira explains. Connie reveals he's actually tearing the whole thing down, which will seal her tomb for good. But when the walls come down she'll lose her family forever and she won't have that. Moira realizes he lied to her too. She wonders why they (men) always lie. Connie assures her they can help each other and Moira asks what she wants her to do.

Moira gets Mr. Escandarian to come over for a second round. This time she takes him down to the basement where she proceeds to service him with too much teeth. Larry puts a plastic bag over his head and smothers him. Connie watches from the shadows. She's finally come to appreciate Moira's talent, and tells Larry to make sure he's off the property before he dies because she doesn't want to encounter him again.

Vivien talks to Violet about the offer on the house, explaining they'll go stay with her aunt until they find a place. She apologizes for how it's all gone since they moved to LA. Violet asks how she knew she loved Ben, and her mother explains love makes you do crazy things. Then Violet shows her the old photo of the house and the other photos from the attic, including the Montgomery family. Vivien recognizes Nora.

The Verdict:

I'm throwing down right now that Vivien's doctor is in on the demon baby. She seems to be too much of everything's fine, and the ultrasound malfunction smacks of a cover up from someone higher up.

With the introduction of another of Connie's progeny, Beauregard (and not Thaddeus) appears to be the one rolling the red ball in the basement whom Adelaide was playing with some episodes back. What's the fate of the remaining members of Connie's brood, and are they in the house too? It actually kind of makes some bizarre sense from her perspective to have all her kids dead and preserved in the house, and the thought of losing them all really made for some more great Connie scenes.

I don't entirely buy Larry's new story about how his family died, but it does explain why the missus and the two girls haven't popped up in the house as ghosts. Does Connie now live in Larry's old place?

The Charles and Nora drama gets filled in some more, which just leaves the fate of Thaddeus himself, given we haven't seen the little tyke for quite some time now. That's assuming that the creature in the basement actually is Thaddeus.

Just as Violet has come to terms with the spiritual nature of the house, now it seems Vivien will have to take a similar journey given she's found the incriminating photographs of Nora. There's little logic left to explain away all the insane happenings. But how will Ben take it all in? He's yet to receive his epiphany, despite having Hadyen thrown in his face and his usual sense of denial when it comes to his own affairs means he'll likely fight the truth right to the end. With only ten episodes this season, I'm curious to see where this will all end up by the finale, given the Harmon family is virtually torn apart. Could they all end up as ghosts in the house for a new family to arrive next year?

Review: Terra Nova "Vs"

 

Non Spoiler Review:

Well, a rather interesting episode this week, which is certainly a change of pace for the usually tedious Terra Nova. Vs presents an infodump of secrets after a human skeleton is discovered that raises a bunch of questions about Taylor and the truth behind the early days of the colony. I'd like to say this was a riveting hour and that the characters actually rose to the occasion, but that's not the case. 

Plot, not character, continues to drive the show, and nothing spectacular happened with the good residents of Terra Nova themselves, aside from new light being shone on Taylor. In other news, Zoe gets the lead in the harvest play (yawns). But the play is a plot device itself. At least we got some answers, so I won't be outrageously critical. If this is a sign of things to come, there might still be hope for the series.

Spoilers Now!

Mira's secret spy is a dragonfly! Well, maybe not. That would just be C.R.A.Z.Y.! Boylen is being interrogated by Taylor but he's not giving up much information, so he's left to stew in prison. Meanwhile the Shannons are preparing for the harvest festival, which is kind of like Halloween, but also somehow celebrates Taylor's arrival in Terra Nova. Josh tries to convince his father that Boylen isn't all bad and now the bar is closed and no one's heard from him and no one has anywhere to drink. But Jim only cares about grounding him for nearly destroying all their hopes and dreams in the past.

Taylor brings Jim in to see Boylen, but when the commander is called away on an emergency at the power grid, a delirious Boylen tells Jim to look for the pilgrim tree where it's buried. Later, Malcolm does what he does best by revealing background information and tells him it's the tree Taylor lived in when he arrived. Jim pays the tree a visit and finds a one-armed skeleton buried there.

He brings it back to Elizabeth to analyze, who suggests it's been there 4-6 years, and may have been shot. He plans on keeping it from Taylor until she can learn more about who he was. He goes back to chat with Boylen, but they're interrupted by Taylor's return.

The other plot involves Zoe being cast as Taylor in the harvest play. While practicing, the kids are grossed out by the appearance of the dragonfly, but luckily it suffers a pride-obliterating swat out of the air by a soldier. That's when they find a microchip on it, and Malcolm determines that's how Mira is spying on Terra Nova. The chip is damaged, so there's no way of knowing what was on it. And the bug's wings are damaged so they can't send it back to follow it to it's source. Taylor rails against science yet again.

Reynolds is leading a convoy that's attacked by the Sixers (I somehow missed what this was for). He's allowed to return to tell Taylor in the next scene because the Sixers are very poor at taking hostages. The convoy was assembled after Boylen was arrested, so he couldn't have told Mira. Maddie's glad to have Reynolds back and safe, and plants a big kiss on him.

Liz has determined that the dead man came through the portal somehow between the second and third pilgrimages given his temporal signature can be used to date his time in the past. Boylen is released so he tells Jim all he did was help bury the body, but has no idea who it was—a few years back he was on patrol duty and saw a light in the jungle. When he checked it out he saw Taylor with the body. Back then he and Taylor were friends. Taylor needed his help to get rid of the body and talked about how it was Lucas' fault. It was Lucas who had brought the man from the future, and that was the last night Lucas was seen. Boylen strong-armed Taylor to give him his bar in return for keeping the secret.

Malcolm discovers Liz's work on the corpse and gets all pissy given he's the head of sciences, so Jim lies and says he got an anonymous note to check out the pilgrim's tree and he found the body. Taylor thinks it's a Sixer who had falsified their DNA records to come through time. Taylor subtly warns Liz that she should have advised him of this.

Malcolm figures out the dragonfly homes in on sonics so identifies the frequency the Sixers are using. They should still be broadcasting and he surgically repaired its wings, too. They release it at the festival and it flies straight to the Shannons.

Meanwhile, the boring play introduces the character of General Philbrook who sent Taylor on the mission to the past. He had one arm, like the skeleton. Considering this is the first time Jim (and us) have ever heard of him, Jim concludes that Philbrook came back in time to relieve Taylor of his command. That's when Taylor arrives to arrest him and declares he's the Sixer spy.

Taylor suggests he'll let Jim go if he drops his investigation, but Jim is too much of a knucklehead to do that. Taylor then admits if he hadn't killed Philbrook, he would have killed Taylor. The people who sent Philbrook were the same ones who sent the Sixers, because he was on to their plan—to mine Terra Nova for its resources. If Lucas has anything to say about it, the fracture will go both ways.

When Lucas came on the Second Pilgrimage, Taylor didn't know he was secretly on their side, working on calculations to make the portal work from the past to the future. When he found out, Taylor destroyed all his work and Lucas left the colony. Taylor followed him into the jungle where General Philbrook abruptly appeared to relieve him of his command. The general tried to shoot him when he refused to give it up, so Taylor had to kill him. Lucas pulled a gun on his father and Taylor disarmed him but refused to kill him. He left him in exile (his most favorite thing). But Lucas continued working on his calculations and left them on rocks for Taylor to find in order to taunt him. Taylor's kept everything to himself so the population won't know the lie Terra Nova is based on.

Jim vows to fight alongside him.

Later, everyone enjoys the harvest dance. Taylor had planted an emitter in Shannon's house to broadcast at the same frequency in order to draw the dragonfly. He won't tell Malcolm the reason why, though. Taylor then addresses the crowd with a whole bunch of hippie talk about the promise of Terra Nova, while Lucas watches the fireworks from the jungle.

The Verdict:

We learn the truth about Terra Nova—that it's basically a resource to be exploited by the evil-doers from the future. That's probably not the most exciting revelation I was hoping for, and it all felt rather mundane and unspectacular, given Lucas' weird inscriptions on the rocks and such (no lizard aliens, sadly). Oh well. It leaves the colony at the mercy of the next pilgrimage to come through—meaning pretty much anything could be waiting to enter that portal.

But is Taylor telling the truth? Jim's not the brightest bulb and appears to accept what he's saying without question, despite the fact Taylor framed him and threw him in the brig on a whim. He's also been witness to some of Taylor's other egregious behavior with dishing out punishment. So it wouldn't be surprising if Jim has put his faith in the wrong person. My only doubt about that theory is that Terra Nova has shown no indication that it's anywhere near that complex of a series, with no evidence of moral grey areas so far.

General Philbrook's "Oh, hey!" appearance as he casually steps through the time portal was a bit odd and funnier than they likely intended. He seemed to take it all in stride considering he stepped back 85 million years and was relying purely on Lucas' success to ensure he survived coming out the other end. It looked like he just walked in from next door. 

In many ways the show continues to remind me of BBC's Outcasts, which faced a very similar season ender (evil-doers wanting to exploit the colony arriving en masse with the power to take over). I hope Terra Nova isn't copying that show, because it was frankly much better.