Date of airing: October 17, 2011 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 8.31 million viewers, 4.9/7 in Households, 2.8/8 with Adults 18-49
I think this episode was simply just okay – considering how the show was being run by the producers and written by the writers, and how every opportunity to make something great out of TERRA NOVA was missed from the get-go and turned into a schizophrenic TV drama that wants to take a tour in every genre, this episode seemed like it knew what it wanted, even if it decided to take the general tropes of its genre and pay with them like they were new. I’m starting to have fun with all the stolen storylines and ideas from previously released works of science-fiction, with this episode making me constantly think about ALIENS and how the character of Newt, also known as Rebecca (a name she did not wish to be called), was here to wake up some parental instincts of characters who may not have known they had any. The similarities with ALIENS, and Ripley trying to make it easy for Newt, were a little too big during the scene, in which Elisabeth was trying to get and talk to Leah, hiding under the table. It’s probably a good thing that Elisabeth wasn’t shown cleaning up Leah’s face (or Maddie, since it was her who eventually presented a much nicer and less feral-looking Leah), or else, the cries of “hey, you lifted that from my favorite piece of media ever” would have grown louder with each episode.
Plus, Leah had a brother, just like Newt. The similarities may have been coincidental for some, but at some point, you have to ask yourself if the writers’ room was a little too interested in collecting ideas from other people’s artistic works in the fantasy genre. And the thing is, a full-on rip-off would have turned this episode into something better than it eventually was. Because it was quite clear that the writers didn’t know at all what to do with the idea of a “child spy” in the midst of who we think are the “good people.”
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| Don't call her Rebecca. |
The whole twist-a-roo about who Leah was and what she was doing for Mira was boring. It doesn’t bring anything when you make Leah a kid that doesn’t know what’s going on and who ran away from the Sixers for whatever reason she could think of, and five minutes later, she’s a spy for the Sixers and Mira, and she was only here in Terra Nova to execute a mission and to make her look as dangerous as possible for the central characters. And then the story gets turned around once more and all of a sudden she was doing it all to save her brother. This was too much for 43 minutes, especially when the writers were also focusing on including a B plot with Maddie and the start of her apprenticeship with her mother. Cut one story out and focus more on the A plot, and when you’re done doing that, also cut out one of the twists and just have Leah being the child spy that she was supposed to be – that would have probably been more fun for me, in hindsight.
In addition, the episode just didn’t go into the potential of Leah being in-between Terra Nova and the Sixers at all. There was something behind the premise of the Sixers being constantly on the move that made it a lot harder to live and survive in the woods, but that part of the backstory didn’t get attention at all. There was an idea of characters living in the woods and fighting to survive, but Leah’s arrival in Terra Nova did not kickstart that story that could have brought more appropriate attention to the Sixers (maybe they are not that evil after all when their day job demands them to constantly fight to survive). Maybe Leah was even lied to by Mira, proving that the Sixers’ leader is not to be trusted at all, but that part of the story wasn’t given awareness either. Leah just came to Terra Nova, most likely by force, she did her thing, she was seen as the villain for a couple of minutes, and then Jim had to play the hero again and check out her story. Standard broadcast network television storytelling that you would find in any 1990s syndicated drama, possibly. In addition, I really wanted Elisabeth to be front and center of Leah’s story, instead of Jim. Elisabeth already started building trust with Leah in the beginning, and the episode should have continued with that. Why does Jim always have to be the hero at the end of the day?
At least I got to see some Washington in action. Turns out I like her a lot more when she is kicking some butt, even if it’s helped by rapid-fire editing that hides the stunt performers doing safe stunt work. The fact that she’s billed as a “special guest star” makes it a bit obvious she will die in a future episode though, especially since she hasn’t gotten any character depth at all in the four episodes of the show, all while being made important for the security of Terra Nova, as well as being Shannon’s other right-hand man. And even though her character is nothing special, and basically solid eye candy in-between all the forest and CGI dinosaur shots, I wouldn’t want to miss her, and I would have loved to see her among the main characters, with depth and more scenes than just being the female action hero of the time.
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| Meet-up at the gates of the future. |
Meanwhile, Terra Nova is not what it seems to be (well, duh!) and Taylor is most likely lying (what I think Mira was doing to her clan, but maybe the tables are turned?). Again, the equations on the rocks don’t get a mention, and the episode clearly made no effort in explaining what was inside the container, meaning that both elements will make a return in the narrative sooner or later, and Taylor will get another chance to possibly lie to his administrative detail. Not to mention that both the equations and the mysterious container are now part of a conspiracy storyline, and I really hate that kind of storytelling. The over-serialization of TV dramas coming out of the success of LOST really has ruined it for me, and TERRA NOVA is yet another show trying its hand at that kind of storytelling, only to most likely be disappointing me with the cheapness of twists and the absurdity of story choices. Jim knows something about Taylor, and it’s defining their distrust for each other now, although I did have to laugh about Mira’s “You’ll see” when Jim asked her a proper question about Terra Nova. You ask a question, and you get a non-answer answer. I hate this mystery TV crap when the characters can’t divulge any answers because it would reveal too much of the story. If a character can’t give an answer, just don’t ask the question.
