Terra Nova, 10/10/11

Stupid baseball delay. I hate you.

At an outpost research facility, a strangely acting dude chases a bright green beetle the size of a catcher’s mitt (*shudder*), passing a room from which we hear a scream and “HELP ME!” Whoa. Are people being tortured/ experimented on? Beetle Dude wanders outside in search of his little friend — then reminds us all why I’m still (Yes! Still!) mad at the kids for sneaking out of the compound in episode one: he is promptly eaten by a carnosaur.

Later, back at TN, Jim’s helping Elizabeth prep for a trip to go look for the facility staff, who haven’t been heard from now in 72 hours. Jim tells her to hurry back cuz that “Reynolds kid” is coming over — finally, we learn Hot Soldier’s name. Malcolm wants to go with them; Taylor tells him no.
She kisses Jim goodbye, twice (“Doc?” Taylor says impatiently, echoing how I’m feeling), and hops into the rover with Taylor … and a black guy. THEY BETTER NOT KILL THE BLACK GUY. As they drive off, Jim is jealous that Malcolm, who's just the Chief Science Officer (CSO), has a rover for personal use when he, who's the only cop, does not. Oh hush, Jim. You’re the only cop — among scores of armed soldiers.

At the facility, Taylor, Elizabeth and the black guy, Brady, find two scientists strapped to a table and one wandering around with amnesia, but no sign of Beetle Dude. Brady is sent to look for him while Taylor and Elizabeth watch a tape of Beetle Dude and learn that the culprit of the memory loss is a pathogen. Which they might have been exposed to, so Taylor says they can’t return to TN til they’re sure they’re not a danger. So much for being there when Hot Reynolds comes over. Brady finds Beetle Dude's boots ... with his feet still in them.


Back at TN, Zoe and Maddy pop by the infirmary cuz Zoe has a cold, which Maddy warns Jim not to get. “I never catch colds!” he exclaims. (Prediction: he’s going to catch a cold.) At the house inhabited by 16-yr-olds, Josh is playing guitar and hanging with Skye. (Max, whom I have a crush on, is all healed up from episode 1’s dino wounds, I’m glad to see.) The kids’re playing a drinking game in which they take a shot every time they see a falling star. *sigh* Where the hell are their parents? (Well, except Skye’s. Hers are dead.) Skye compliments Josh’s guitar playing and puts a hand on his leg. *re-sigh*

Elizabeth chats via videophone with Jim. He sneezes, then explains that he caught Zoe’s cold. (I'm psychic.) After they hang up, Elizabeth wonders, “Who’s Zoe?” UH OH. At the Shannon home, Hot Reynolds and Maddy eat key lime pie under Jim’s watchful eye as she rambles nervously about limes in the future. Call me old-fashioned, but I totally approve of Hot Reynolds/Maddy over Josh/Skye. One’s going to result in a wedding; the other, a teen pregnancy. Oh, and look. Josh and Skye’re making out — but then Josh breaks it off (whew!) cuz he’s still pining over the girlfriend he had to leave behind. Skye takes the rejection well, even offers to introduce Josh to a guy who might be able to help bring the girlfriend to TN. Which is how any teen girl would react. NOT.

When Jim hasn’t heard from Elizabeth the next morning, he wants to go check on her, but Lt. Washington, whom Taylor left in charge, says no. Jim makes a beeline for Malcolm, who has his own rover, you'll recall. They head out, Malcolm motivated by feeling that as CSO he should have been made aware of the reason for the quarantine. I forgive his hubris when he thinks to grab face masks for him and Jim. Good call. At the facility, Brady and Taylor are nowhere to be found. Elizabeth whips out a rifle the size of her forgotten child and shoots a stun blast at Jim and Malcolm. THEY TAKE OFF THEIR MASKS. :( Idiots. I expect more from the CSO. To Jim’s chagrin, Elizabeth recognizes Malcolm but not him, which Malcolm doesn’t even TRY to pretend that he’s unhappy about. They convince her she’s sick and they have to cure what’s ailing her, and fast, because the stages of the disease are memory loss, massive memory loss, then catatonia. Jim finds Brady, dead. NOOOOOOOO — oh, wait. Just unconscious. Yay black guy! Then Jim finds Taylor, fully stage two crazy in the head. Taylor splits, headed for TN. Malcolm starts to get sick; Jim is inexplicably immune.


Skye takes Josh to see Tom, a suspicious-looking bartender who “can get things here.” Hot Reynolds visits Maddy, who’s mid-freak out, wondering if Sixers have kidnapped her parents. “It’s not the Sixers,” Hot Reynolds says. Huh? How does he know that? I knew it! He’s the mole!!!



Elizabeth and Malcolm discover the source of the illness: not a pathogen, but a virus, formed as one of the scientists was doing some gene therapy. Which pisses Malcolm off because he hadn’t authorized it. Oh, get off your CSO high horse! Then Malcolm, getting sicker, becomes hysterical, and Jim knocks him unconscious. (Yes, because I’m sure that was the only way to handle that, lol.) Elizabeth realizes Jim is immune because his cold is counteracting the effects of the virus. He promptly kisses her to give it to her. (Yes, because I’m sure that was the only way to handle that, lol.)


Back at TN, Hot Reynolds is trying to stop Maddy, who’s headed to see Lt Washington and demand answers. Oh ok, that’s what he meant by “It’s not the Sixers”: not that he’s privy to Sixer secrets, but that he’s heard through the soldier grapevine that the facility where her parents are has been quarantined. Well, he’s still on my Possible Mole list. Along with Skye. And Tom. (Omg, Hot Reynolds' first name is Mark. Mark and Maddy. IT WAS MEANT TO BE.) Hot Mark and Maddy knock on Wash’s door; she doesn’t answer; they barge in … and crazy-in-the-head Taylor jumps out and puts a knife to Hot Mark’s throat. Wash talks him down, but when she informs him his wife is dead, he tries to slit his own throat. She stun blasts his ass.

When Taylor wakes, everything is back to normal. Which makes two episodes in a row that Elizabeth has saved/helped save the day. Soon she’ll be Chief Medical Officer and have her own rover.


Out in the forest, under cover of night, Mira and the Sixers meet with Tom. HE’S THE MOLE! (My apologies to the falsely accused.) He gives them medicine and rover power cells in exchange for sorghum (it makes the best hooch, you see), then informs them that Josh, “the sherriff’s kid,” now works for him in the bar … information which Mira et al. are veeeeeeeeeeery interested in. Oh lawd, Josh boy, you is in danger!

Terra Nova, 10/3/11

It’s raining; it’s pouring; the dinosaurs are snoring. Kidding. They’re hiding out in treetops waiting for a rover-load of juicy, delicious Terra Nova (TN) soldiers to get a flat tire. Dinner is served.

Tough-chick Lt. Washington teaches a group of youngsters a Survival Training class — which after last episode probably became mandatory. As the kids learn how to start a fire, tell which direction is north, and find food, Maddy and Hot Soldier keep making googly eyes at each other. After class, Josh gets sent to go de-muck latrines, part of his punishment. Good. That night, Elizabeth and Jim try to have a little husband-wifey time, if you catch my drift, but plans are thwarted first by a screeching dinobird, which Jim shoos away, then by Zoe, who wanted to cuddle. Jim handles it well for a dude who’s been in prison the last two years.


Next morning, Taylor and some soldiers are prepping to head out after the missing supply crew. He sends Jim to the hospital to get a medic to accompany them. Jim interrupts a happy reunion of Elizabeth and Malcolm Wallace, an old school friend. Well — it’s happy until Elizabeth introduces Jim as her husband; Malcolm does a pretty piss-poor job of hiding the fact that he’s not happy to see Jim.


As the soldiers search in the sunny forest, Jim asks Taylor why the Sixers want him dead. Taylor says he doesn’t know (Yeah right. Secret-keeper!); then asks Jim to try to find out just who it is in TN who’s feeding intel to Mira and the Sixers. Which makes sense, cuz the only people Taylor can be sure aren’t dirty moles are the ones who arrived on the very last pilgrimage. Everyone else is suspect. (I'm watching you, Skye.) The soldiers stumble upon the supply crew. They're dead. Like, weirdly dead, with their faces all … chewed.


Back at TN, Josh wanders around the market with Skye, who’s also decked out in latrine-mucking gear. Good. A legless man tries to sell Josh a guitar for “sixty terras” — and I am supremely glad he didn’t say “sixty taylors.” A lesser man might have milked that whole I-was-the-first-settler thing and named the money after himself.


In the hospital, Malcolm (You don’t need to stand that close to Elizabeth, Malcolm.) theorizes that mayhap the dead soldiers were attacked by tree darter snakes? But Jim finds a claw/talon/tooth thingy in a soldier’s clothes; tree darters don’t have claw/talon/tooth thingies. Elizabeth has to stay and autopsy, so Jim has to play Mr. Mom for the night, cooking dinner and stressing over Maddy’s crush. It was cute. That night, he and Elizabeth try once more for some husband-wifey time but are again interrupted (DAMMIT!) by a screeching dinobird. Josh (who, I’m happy to see, is way less angsty and much more agreeable. Thank you, near-death experience.) heads outside with Jim to shoo it away. But it’s not an it; it’s a whole flock, and they attaaaaaaaaaaaack! Jim and Josh make it inside, but not before one chews on Jim’s hand — leaving a claw/talon/tooth thingy.

Malcolm wants a science team to observe the creatures, which aren’t birds but reptiles, some new breed of terrasaur. Taylor says since they’ve killed three people and attacked two more, he’s declaring a moratorium on anybody leaving TN til the reasons behind the attacks are understood. Malcolm, who really wants to get his science geek on, walks off in a huff. Yeah, nothing’s more annoying than somebody telling you you can’t put yourself in harm’s way. Oh — then we learn why Malcolm was so shocked to see Jim. Jim asks Taylor how Elizabeth got selected to come to TN. Taylor tells him Malcolm submitted her name. HA! So when Malcolm heard that the husband of that hot chick he used to date in college, his one that got away, was in prison, he was all, “This is my chance!” and pulled some strings to get her sent to TN, hoping they could rekindle the flame. Yeah, not so much.


Out in the busy marketplace, without warning, hundreds of the birdasaurs suddenly attaaaaaaaaaaaack! Eventually, Lt. Washington, Malcolm, and Taylor figure out that TN was built on their breeding ground — OOPS — and that millions more are headed there to spawn. Malcolm and Elizabeth request a pair be captured alive. As Jim and some soldiers head out to catch them, Jim tells Malcolm he knows the real reason Malcolm wanted Elizabeth on TN. Malcolm goes all stuttering sputtering super geek — which means Jim’s right.


Skye waits out the invasion at the Shannon household, which Hot Soldier has switched with some other soldier to guard. Jim, utilizing his well-developed powers of observation, notices this. At the lab, Malcolm and Elizabeth race to isolate and duplicate dinobird pheromones to be used to lure the critters away from TN. Once the ‘mones are ready, Taylor and Jim load them into a big vat, load the vat into a rover, and drive away, millions of screeching dinobirds hot on their tail.


As the sun comes up, they return, tired and bloody but ok. Lt. Washington seems *very* happy to see Taylor; he affectionately calls her “Wash.” Are they a thing? (Am I jealous?) Everyone heads off to get some shut-eye after the long, harrowing night (Jim and Elizabeth get some husband-wifey time. YAY!) … but not before Malcolm says that “Malcolmus Terrasauria” has been successfully relocated. *sigh* If he had been the first settler, that guitar would cost “sixty malcolms.” :(

I don’t like him, but I don’t think he’s the mole. He’s too busy taking plant samples. And Skye's too busy buying guitars for Josh. You know who I think it is? Hot Soldier. BE CAREFUL, MADDY.