Date of airing: December 12, 2011 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 6.88 million viewers, 4.1/6 in Households, 2.1/6 with Adults 18-49
What to think of this episode? It almost felt like a fake-out because of the fact that Lucas went through the portal and apparently forward in time, even though there may not even have been a reason for him to use the portal when all he was doing was waiting for his “employers” to arrive. All this time, a war with people from the future was promised, and while it was obviously a prepared plot for the next and final two episodes of the season (and series), the notion that most of this episode stood in as the “hype man” for that war made this hour a disappointment. Not to mention that TERRA NOVA was never a show written like the characters were supposed to fight for their existence in this new era at the end, because it has always been a show about random science-fiction plots from the 1990s with some elements of dinosaurs (thank you, Steven Spielberg!). And now Commander Taylor is asking his people in the colony to arm themselves and get into a fight with unknown people from 2149? Is this still the TERRA NOVA from the previous nine episodes or is this an entirely new show now?
Lucas was a terrible villain in this episode. His speeches sounded like they were coming from the pages of a comic book in which Lucas is the supervillain with one crazy plan to take over the world and an even crazier mind to actually act on his plans, which is why there is never a chance for this guy to get on the path to redemption. Lucas is ready to destroy the world and all the people who live in it, he is ready to even murder his father in the process, which means there is absolutely no soul in this young man’s mind. And I simply hate that, because it’s just one big cliche, especially when it’s a character flaw that is preparing the father to kill the son during the upcoming climax. I also had to laugh when Lucas was using the portal as a weapon against some of the Terra Nova security people who were waiting at the portal for something to happen – so, suddenly the portal can be used as a weapon like that? How convenient.
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| They found the needle in a haystack. |
When it comes to Lucas, I would like to know why he was written the way he was for this episode. What is his end goal? Does he want to see the world burn? Does he want to be rich in 2149, together with his employers? Does he want revenge on his father for letting his mother die in 2138? Or are his goals based on his emotions, like the inability to see his father as a leading figure of the new world? Maybe Lucas has lost himself in a world where rich people hate progressive people, so he kind of became what we would call today a “MAGA Republican.” There is absolutely no answer to my questions, and you can’t tell me that he just hates his father, just because of one incident that has never been part of any elaborate backstory of Commander Taylor’s. There is no reasoning within Lucas, and that makes me mad because it’s convenient and quick writing, when there could have been loads of opportunities to make Lucas a more complex and meaningful character.
Meanwhile, this episode was mostly about Skye, and at least it was working half of the time. Her scenes with her mother was actually touching, and I almost cried myself when her mom said that Skye doesn’t have to do the spy thing with the Sixers anymore, and that she should go warn Taylor about the impending threat against the colony. What a shame that Taylor still needed a cop-out by the end of the episode and save Skye’s mother, because a tragic and emotional death is not allowed in this series, as it seems. It’s absurd though how Skye managed to not get punished for her actions against the colony. Yeah, the writers helped themselves out by explaining that Skye never gave the actual intelligence to the Sixers, in addition to being blackmailed to be a spy in the first place, but I would have expected at least some form of punishment for Skye, even if it was just sitting around in the brig for a couple of days, eating prison food, interrogated by both Taylor and Jim to find out what the Sixers have been doing these past few weeks. Or let Wash have a conversation with Skye, just so the series can have a woman-on-woman scene for once.
The same goes for Curran, by the way. The dude killed another dude, and Taylor put his “law and order” message out there by banishing Curran, but now the Commander is available to hand out second chances to everyone? Is that his way of pardoning people?
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| Everybody comes together to fight for their home. |
Then there was Maddy’s storyline, which was anything but exciting. In fact, it enraged me, as it was probably the stupidest of all storylines on TERRA NOVA so far. I thought that living in Terra Nova means a new beginning from what has been a mistake in the old life: being ruled by corporations and technology. But apparently, the people couldn’t get away from their tech, and as soon as Maddy’s tablet went down and she needed a new one (so she started bitching and moaning about it), I realized why this planet was going to the crapper in the first place: The characters were relying too much on technology. But I said that before, way back when a meteor strike caused an EMP and fried all the electronics in Terra Nova – the colonists obviously didn’t learn from their previous mistakes, as they were still relying heavily on tech to get them through their days. Maddy couldn’t have taken a book to read and learn?
