Date of airing: December 19, 2011 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 7.24 million viewers, 4.1/6 in Households, 2.2/6 with Adults 18-49
As I have come to expect from the show, its season (series) finale was underwhelming and disappointing, in addition to being hastily cut together, as one event after another was happening, and none of them got the focus it deserved. Not to mention that the storyline progressed as it was foretold for a couple of episodes now, with the writers not adding a single element of surprise. The colonists got their colony back, the evil and dangerously armed Phoenix Group was defeated and they retreated into the North of the Badlands, a supporting character was killed off to make sure that the audience knows this place is still deadly, and a new mystery was established, something that was supposed to entertain the viewers if a second season had happened. No, there weren't a lot of surprises here, but that didn't mean this episode was a total bust. It worked every once in a while, while it didn't work at all during all of the other times. Including all the ways characters could have been killed off, but weren't, because maybe the writers thought that tragically murdering Washington execution-style was brutal enough for this supposed-to-be-family-friendly TV show. So brutal in fact that they couldn't even kill off the villain of the season in a satisfying manner.
Considering that Lucas and the other guy were talking about how they were able to get the best army money could buy in the previous episode, the Phoenix Group was kind of lazy and dumb during this hour. They were easily taken apart by Commander Taylor and his men, and they were easily fooled to retreat away from the colony and into the dangerous Badlands zone. The resistance smuggled a dinosaur into 2149, and the Phoenix Group can only blame themselves for losing the connection to Hope Plaza and the future. All this could have been prevented if the soldiers of the Phoenix Group would have just opened up the container to check its contents before sending it through the rift. The entire plan of plundering the past to enrich yourself in the present was foiled by one lazy dude not thinking about visually checking the cargo. Looks like the money that bought this army was not that much money after all.
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| Oh my god! They killed Washington! You bastards! |
While the duel between the colonists and the Phoenix Group was happening, I was wondering what the heck happened with Mira. The last time she showed her face to the camera and the audience, she just learned that she will never see her daughter again, and that was kind of her only scene in this episode. But it is unclear whether she went with the Phoenix Group to the Badlands or if she was about to give it all up and join the colonists. Maybe she was about to turn into a full-time villain with a revenge plot and a lust to kill Taylor for cutting her off from her daughter in 2149 – which would have made for a good plot, since it was based on personal conflict. The fact that the writers didn't even attempt to answer that question meant that they were working with a second season in mind and let the audience think about where Mira would stand in the second season premiere.
The same goes for Lucas. The dude should have been dead
after getting the beatdown of his life by his father, as well as two
bullets into his body by Skye, but apparently, bullet wounds (as well
as stab wounds) are nothing in this world, because you will survive
them during the commercial break. Plus, I was rolling some serious
eye when Lucas and his two bullet wounds were able to slip away right
in front of Taylor and Skye. The writers were also planning with him
in the second season which never happened, making me wonder if the
entire episode was defined by every single plan the writers' room had
for another season, instead of the story at hand. How much better
could this finale have been if it had not prepared half of the stuff
for a season that never happened?
Next point in the agenda is
making history of Hope Plaza. I'm wondering if the rift in time also
disappeared with the explosion, or if it might still exist in 2149,
but not the technology to use it. People were able to travel into the
past without a gate set upon the other side, so what would happen if
you throw someone into the rift without a gate anywhere on both
sides? Who knows, maybe 2149 could have been able to rebuild Hope
Plaza, because I can't imagine how a time-space continuum disappears
after a human-made occurrence (an explosion at that, which I cannot
believe would kill an entire spacetime rift). Then again, I'm
thinking logically right now (and TERRA NOVA never made friends with
logic), although I have no clue about whether the rift would dissolve
itself, because either the machines were unable to hold it any
longer, thanks to the explosion, or the boom-booms actually
manipulated time and space here and would send anyone into a
different time (that would help to explain what an eighteenth-century ship
was doing in the Badlands). Anyway, I didn't buy that Terra Nova and
Hope Plaza are permanently disconnected now. If the show had
continued on, the writers would have quickly found a way to
re-establish that link, simply just to keep Mira alive as a character
and give her something to fight for (her daughter).
Washington's
death was tragic though. If the show had gotten to see a second
season, I would have been sad about her death, since she was a
likable character from the get-go, but it was obvious that the show
needed a death sooner or later, and she was apparently the biggest
target for the writers. She was part of the show from the beginning,
always one of the good guys, always someone who never got any
character depth or a backstory. Also, she was a silent resistance
fighter during the invasion of the Phoenix Group, so in a way, her
death was greatly deserved. But yeah, I would have hoped for a few
more deaths. Malcolm could have been executed for playing with the
portal and helping the resistance, but everyone from the Phoenix
Group was dumb and lazy, as we have already established. Reynolds
could have been eaten by a slasher while making out with Maddy, just
to break her heart and free me from this teenage romance.
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| Cool guys who are being chased by dinosaurs don't look at explosions. |
And finally, some words about the ending. How did the Phoenix Group in the past even know that Hope Plaza went boom-boom? The only thing they could have realized is that the connection to 2149 was dropped, but that could have happened for any type of reason. Also, putting a big mystery into the Badlands was just weak and lazy, but I guess writers really needed to prepare for that second season they were never told by FOX was a sure guarantee. And the image of a ship's plow didn't give me any chills. First of all, what happened with the rest of the ship? Secondly, the twist about the colonists not being the only ones in this time who have traveled through space and time to be here is part of the genre – it would have been included in the narrative at some point in the show's run. Granted, the chances that the colonists would have to deal with the descendants of eighteenth-century people is a little intriguing, but it's one of those science-fiction time travel tropes that don't tickle me any longer. And the way TERRA NOVA was written from the beginning, I'm sure the story would not have excited me at all.
