Terra Nova, 11/28/11

Taylor leaves Jim in charge and heads off into the forest on a secret mission which he’ll tell no one about, despite having issued an order that everyone must have a valid reason for leaving TN now that Mole Hunt is in full swing. Taylor heads for the waterfalls where his son Lucas has scrawled equations all over the rocks, bumps into a gun-wielding Mira, who takes him prisoner.

Ok, that was waaaaaaaay too easy. Taylor knows good and well how to avoid capture. He must’ve wanted to be caught.


Jim and Reynolds, whom I prefer to call Hot Mark, see someone sending signals to the Sixers and head off to catch the person. They get there too late; all they find at the scene is a drop of blood in a jar of paint thinner … because Skye cut herself with the piece of glass she was using to send the signals. I KNEW IT! I said episode one she was the mole! Skye volunteers to go help dig a ditch, then sneaks away to take some TN intel to the Sixers. In exchange, they give some desperately needed medicine to a sick woman. Who is Skye’s mom. Wait— WTF?? Skye’s parents are supposed to be dead! Malcolm isolates the blood from the paint thinner; Jim takes it to Elizabeth to identify the culprit; Skye sneaks in later and ruins the sample. I guess the reason Skye doesn’t just explain to Taylor that she’s mole-ing in order to keep her mother alive, which he would totally understand, will eventually be explained to us.


As Mira and Taylor walk through the forest, squabbling like a couple in the midst of a contentious divorce, Taylor suddenly makes a run for it. He doesn’t get far thanks to Mira’s stun gun, but he manages to snap a sharp spine off a plant, which he uses to start cutting his ropes. A few minutes later, he gets free, overpowers her, and starts marching her back to TN. I knew it! That was his plan all along. Although … I’m sure the two toothy, hungry dinosaurs following them weren’t part of it. Just as Mira and Taylor find some common ground talking about their kids, the dinos attaaaaaack! Mira and Taylor jump off a (very pretty waterfall) cliff to get away. Now they’re gun-less, night is falling, and the dinos are coming back. But fret not, folks. We all know who comes out on top in every round of Taylor-vs-wildlife.

Hot Mark declares to Jim his intention to marry Maddy one day. HOW ADORABLE. “She’s sixteen,” Jim grumps. Hot Mark, who’s all of what, barely eighteen?, says he will wait, then says “I’m going away now.” Tee hee! Oh, those crazy kids. And given all the dancing and feasting at last episode’s Harvest Festival, I bet a Terra Nova wedding is hella major fun.

Taylor and Mira make a bow and some flammable arrows, scare off the dinos, share a dinner of grubs (Yuck.), and admit that if they didn’t have to kill each other, they totally could have been BFFs. Mutual respect: they have it. In the morning, they part ways, but not before Mira warns him that it’s almost over, because Lucas has almost figured out a way to reverse the portal. Say it with me: uh oh.


The Shannons share a cutesy family scene releasing a baby anklosaurus back into the wild. Later Elizabeth tells Jim the blood sample has been destroyed; he asks her to put together a list of everyone who came into the medical center yesterday. 84 people. Elizabeth examines the incomplete results the sample produced before it was destroyed. The mole is female. 47 people. Won’t be long now, Skye.

Terra Nova, 11/7/11

Instead of people being eaten, this episode opens with a calming scene of domesticity for a change. Josh and Maddy are getting on each other’s nerves, Elizabeth is leaving for work, Rick is about to take Zoe to a secret location he hasn’t divulged “because no one in this family can keep a secret.” Huh? Hold your horses there, buddy. You and Elizabeth hid Zoe for three years, you’re not telling Taylor what Mira told you, Maddy’s sneaking out to see Hot Mark (Approve.), and Josh is in cahoots with the Sixers. Except for Zoe, I’d say you’re all pretty damn secretive.


Chief Science Officer Malcolm and Taylor are examining that shiny box Mira sent Newt-oops-I-mean-Lea to Terra Nova to get. They still can’t figure out how to open it.

FINALLY, this show tries to discourage and not encourage underage drinking. Instead of showing the happy teenagers indulging, we see Hunter doubled up on an examination table, sick after drinking the juice of an unfermented taroca root. Elizabeth lectures for a bit, then examines him and sees A THIRTY-FOOT TAROCA WORM GROWING INSIDE HIM. See kids? There are repercussions for drinking, whether it’s a DUI, unadulterated parental fury, or a ginormous prehistoric intestinal parasite.


Rick takes Zoe to The Eye, which is a supercool digital history library that shows you whatever you want. She wants to see where she was born; he shows her the house way out in the middle of nowhere where he and Elizabeth sneaked off to have her. Then she wants to go on a virtual roller coaster ride. I’m jealous; it looks fun. Hot Mark takes Maddy to a field where pretty flowers are growing — how very Twilight of him — so they can picnic. She calls him beautiful; he calls her perfect. They start to kiss, but are interrupted (Dammit!) by a rumbling in the distance.

It’s a meteor hurtling through the sky! (Side note: it’s kind of pretty.) It emits an electromagnetic pulse that causes a Terra Nova-wide power outage, interrupting Rick and Zoe’s roller coaster ride and stopping Hunter’s worm removal surgery before it evens starts. Then it slams into the ground, sending a destructive sonic wave through the camp. The hospital is overrun with injured people, Hunter’s going to have to have that worm taken out the old fashioned way, Rick and Zoe are trapped in the basement, and their rover is dead so Hot Mark and Maddy have to hike the six kliks back to camp.

CSO Malcolm can make replacement chips to fix all the broken electronic stuff … after his chip-making machine is itself fixed. Which only Tom the Mole can do. Taylor, no fan of Tom’s (Oh, just wait til you find out he’s the mole, Taylor!), actually growls. HA! He hasn’t done that since the premiere. Out in the forest, Mira gets word that TN has “gone dark.” She orders everyone to prepare for a raid. Ooooooooh, but the last time the Sixers stormed the castle, Taylor said if they did it again, the isht would hit the fan!


As Elizabeth cuts Hunter open and starts extracting the parasite, Skye watches. She's a much cooler cucumber than Maddy was that day she observed her mom working. (Hunter asks why he can't be put to sleep; Elizabeth sayz cuz with the power out, she wouldn't be able to monitor his vitals. YEAH RIGHT. She just wants him wide awake to have to endure the consequences of drinking. High five, Elizabeth!) When she has to go help some severely wounded soldier, Skye takes over. As she’s working, Hunter tells her he likes her and wishes she weren’t in love with Josh. The worm, having had quite enough of this incredibly awkward conversation, re-enters Hunter and starts wreaking havoc. Elizabeth sends Skye running to Tom for the first available chip to work some suddenly desperately needed surgical equipment. Night falls out in the forest, where the Sixers are driving a huge dino toward TN. Elsewhere, Hot Mark and Maddy have covered themselves in smelly mud and climbed a tree to stay safe til morning. They kiss! They kiss! Yay! Awwwwwwww!


After Zoe crawls through a shaft and unlocks the door from the outside, she and Rick are finally free; he sends her to school and joins Taylor and the soldiers at the gate … just in time to see the raging dino approach. Unperturbed as always, Taylor hands Rick a crossbow, and they shoot some flammable arrows that erupt into a dino-deterring wall of flame. But Taylor realizes this was a diversion. He and Rick head off to the research lab, where Mira’s impenetrable box is.


Josh rushes the chip to Elizabeth; Hunter is saved. Maddy sneaks back home before anybody misses her. Rick and Taylor enter the lab, Taylor gets shot with an arrow, Rick goes running after Carter, who has the box, Tom enters and shoots the guy fighting Taylor (Good call, cuz that'll totally convince Taylor that Tom's not the mole.), Rick chases Carter all over camp, but he gets away and gives the box to Mira.

They take it to … Taylor’s son! The box is a computer of sorts containing information he needs to do his research. Mira warns him that Taylor probably knows he’s getting close to an answer; he responds Taylor will have to kill him to stop him.