Terra Nova, 12/12/11

Taylor and Jim inspect the portal that brings people to Terra Nova. Like, specifically to Terra Nova, as opposed to several kilometers away or in the middle of a lake, as happened before it was built. The 11th Pilgrimage peeps are to arrive in a few days; Taylor tells Jim he wants that pesky mole found before that happens. (How perfect that it was folks from the 6th Pilgrimage who went rogue. “Sixers” sounds way cooler than “Three-ers” or “Eleveners.”) Jim’s interviewing all females who were in the medical complex the day that evidence was destroyed; when he gets to Skye, she says she was hanging with Josh teaching him to play chess during the time in question, then hurries to find Josh and ask him to back up her lie. Too complicated. She should’ve just told Jim she was alone in her room reading or something.

Let me quickly sum up the subplot, in case we should need to know any of this later: Maddy’s core on her plex, which is Terra Nova-speak for the battery thingy on her laptop thingy, dies; Josh tells her she can trade for a new one with Casey, that wheelchair dude in the market; Maddy offers up a green scarf, a teddy bear, and an abacus, FAIL; Casey tells her to get something somebody actually wants; she notices he needs a new wheel for his chair; she gets one but Casey’s already made the wheel-core trade with Tom the bartender; Maddy goes to Tom to trade; upon finding out she’s the sheriff’s daughter, he just gives her the core and tells her to shoo. The End.

Skye sneaks out, gives the Sixers some fresh Terra Nova intel, and sits with her ailing mother for a visit which is interrupted by Taylor’s son Lucas. “I want us to be friends,” he says, so you know he’s up to absolutely no good. He wants Skye to retrieve some data from The Eye for him so he can figure out how to make the portal go both ways and destroy dear old dad. Skye asks why he hates Taylor so much; Lucas says ask Taylor about August 2138. Then he calmly threatens if she doesn’t do what he’s asking, he’ll kill her mother. What a jerk. And I say again, I don’t understand why Skye doesn’t just tell Taylor the Sixers have her mom and are forcing her to mole-ify. Skye gets him the data, but she’s caught on camera sneaking under the fence. Jim goes to Josh, who admits he lied about the chess; Jim grounds him. (Josh actually gripes that he’s been grounded since he walked through the portal. Well maybe you should stop sneaking outside the gate, working with the Sixers, and lying for their spies. Just a thought.)

Jim reports to Taylor, who’s saddened to know that the girl he helped raise after her parents died (or so he thinks) is the mole, but quickly gets over it and decides to set a trap for the Sixers. As he and Skye later play a game of chess, Taylor tells Hot Mark which route a supply convoy will be taking … but the Sixers don’t attack the convoy. Jim deduces that 1. Skye never gives them any info that they could use to really hurt Terra Nova and 2. she’s probably working for them because they’re forcing her to. Pretty quick on the draw, that Jim. At the Sixers’ camp, Mira’s pissed cuz Skye didn’t tell them about the convoy, which Skye pretends not to have known about. Lucas, meanwhile, is elated cuz he’s figured out how to make the portal go both ways. OH NO. He tells Skye not to go back to Terra Nova cuz his employers are coming to wrest power from his dad and things could get ugly. He forehead-smooches her warmly as if they’re old pals, then heads out to go get started causing carnage. Upset about what she hath wrought, Skye goes crying to Mom, who tells her to run back to Terra Nova and tell Taylor, and not to come back. Ever. :( Skye kisses her goodbye and leaves … and runs into Jim and Taylor, who’re out searching for her, and tries to warn Taylor, but he doesn’t believe she’s even met Lucas. Until she says that Lucas mentioned August 2138, that is. Taylor and Jim hop in their rover and speed toward to portal, get there just in time to hear Lucas promise he’s coming back with reinforcements, then step through the portal and disappear.

God I hope he calculated wrong and ended up, like, stuck in ancient Egypt.

Taylor explains to Jim that August ’38 was when Lucas’s mom died cuz Taylor couldn’t protect her. Currin (Was he always that tall and handsome?) sneaks Skye’s mother out of the Sixers’ camp and safely to Terra Nova; Elizabeth says the medicine she was being given can be replicated, so she should be ok. Yay! (WHY THE HELL DIDN’T SKYE TELL TAYLOR ABOUT HER MOTHER AGES AGO???) The Sixers, realizing they themselves had a mole, desert their treehouses and relocate to parts unknown to wait for The Return of Lucas and Friends. Taylor pep talks everyone in Terra Nova, tells them a battle is coming, but if they stand together, they’ll prevail.

Let’s hope so.