Seeing TERRA NOVA So You Don’t Have To…
TERRA NOVA
Season 1, episode 9: “Now You See Me”
Watch out for those SPOILERS!
[All photos: FOX]
Commander Taylor and Skye visit right before he is due to go OTG for some reconnaissance. They discuss the fact that her parents died from Sincyllic Fever, as so many of the Terra Nova residents had a few years ago, and they agree to pay a visit to Memorial Field (cemetery) together soon after he gets back.
New lockdown protocols are now in place at TN to try to keep the mole from getting out of the compound and contacting the Sixers. Taylor tells Jim that he is the only one he trusts 100% now, puts him in charge of the compound, and heads OTG on his motorcycle. Seeing Stephen Lang riding a bike just looks really weird to me for some reason.
Taylor rappels down by the falls and discovers the remains of a campfire and more new calculations made by his son Lucas on some nearby rocks, and then immediately gets captured by the Sixer leader Mira.
Zoe thinks up several cute names for her pet dino. Jim and Malcolm argue about the new lockdown protocol. Well, they argue about everything, so that’s nothing new.
Reynolds reports for duty to Jim, and they note some lights flashing from the jungle and a response from the new construction area within the compound, and so roar off to investigate. They do not discover that Skye is the person signaling from the site nor do they see that she has cut herself on the bit of mirror she used for signaling, but they do find a drop of her blood in some liquid after she sneaks away.
Mira starts marching Taylor to the Sixer camp. During the hike there he attempts an escape as a ruse to collect something sharp from the ground to use on his bonds.
Malcolm wants Liz to release Zoe’s no-longer-so-little Ankylosaur hatchling to the wild. Skye pops into the infirmary to treat her open wound with some fancy immediate-fix spray, and Jim brings Liz the diluted blood sample for DNA testing. She replies, “Jim, I’m a doctor, not a chemist.” (Shades of Bones McCoy!) And sends him to scientist Malcolm.
Mira slugs Taylor when he makes some sarcastic statements about her 2149 situation with her sick daughter, and a timely dino intervention gives him the diversion he needs to finish slicing through his bonds and turn the tables in her. Thus they change captor/captive places and he starts escorting her back toward Terra Nova instead.
The Sixers rebels are waiting OTG for Skye to slip out of TN lockdown and meet up with them. Taylor questions Mira for details about his son Lucas until they both realize they are being stalked by something large and hungry. Oops.
Jim encourages Malcolm to test the adulterated blood sample for DNA by smashing up his lab until he agrees to help. That’s Jim, why try friendly persuasion when brute force will do? Zoe tries to smuggle the Ankylosaur hatchling out of the lab but gets caught by her mom and dad. (The cutesiness will choke you if you don’t watch out.)
Skye manages to slip out of the compound by posing as a volunteer with Josh’s (very convenient) work detail and so makes it to the Sixer’s camp. (Wait a minute, Taylor and Mira are marching all day long through the jungle to get to the Sixer camp and yet Skye makes it all the way there in under an hour? Wha??) She hands over some TN compound intel to a rebel in exchange for a visit with her supposedly dead but actually just really, really sick mom who is being treated for Sincyllic Fever in the Sixer infirmary. Skye’s tardy arrival caused those nasty rebels to withhold her mom’s meds for a bit, and mom looks pretty darned unwell. Hope the unsympathetic Sixers give her the drugs soon, as they are the only ones with meds for her disease (now that Josh has STOLEN all of it from the infirmary).
Skye returns to TN and checks in for her actual assigned work detail under Liz in the infirmary, and notices the blood sample being tested, so she comes back later that night to screw up the results and keep from being discovered as a mole.
Taylor and Mira get chased by some pretty nice-looking CGI Slasher dinos who are looking to establish a new breeding territory, and lose most of their weapons when they are forced to jump off of a waterfall cliff to escape death a la Butch and Sundance. Taylor hands Mira one of the only two knives he has left and they prepare to camp out for the night and fight the Slashers should they need to. Taylor creates a bow and some more flaming arrows for defense (yes, really). He boasts about spending 118 days OTG all on his own, but Mira counters with her over 1,000 days of survival in the jungle. The flaming arrow trick works again on the attacking dinos and the two scorched and very grumpy Slashers depart. Taylor and Mira decide not to kill each other and to just go their separate ways the next morning.
Reynolds chooses his late-night spy-hunting duty with Jim to “declare his intentions” of someday marrying his daughter Maddy. (She’s only freakin’ 16, guys!) Liz tells Jim that the blood sample was destroyed and they determine to check the patient and visitor roster names for a possible culprit.
Zoe says an emotional goodbye to her dino pal and frees him, and he immediately gets adopted by a roving Ankylosaur female (what are the chances?!), while Skye gets back to the compound in time to greet Taylor upon his return from the jungle as if nothing unusual had happened overnight. They make plans to visit Memorial Field to supposedly pay their respects to her parents as before.
My take? Sigh. Well, nobody got eaten. 🙁 I liked the CGI Slashers, though. Jim is SUCH a boring dolt most of the time. Taylor looks like a Jungle GI Joe doll. And Mira really needs a better stylist.
