There has been no radio contact with one of the Outposts in Terra Nova. Elisabeth, Taylor, and Brock travel to investigate. They become infected by what amounts to an Alzheimer’s-like virus, but to the Nth degree.
Brock gets knocked out by Taylor who has gone full Martin Sheen/Marlon Brando from Apocalypse Now crazy and thinks he’s still running a psy-ops in Somalia, and Elisabeth has reverted back to her days dating Malcolm while she was a student.
Jim and Malcolm run to everyone’s rescue which is fortunate because, as it turns out, the cold that Jim got which is referenced early in the episode is what is needed to create an anti-virus.
The sub-plot has Josh and Skye trying to work through their issues and Skye introducing Josh to a man who can “get things over here.” The guy offers Josh a job at his bar on the road towards paying for Kara to come over, but this really turns out to be a ploy that the Sixers will use to their advantage at some point in the future.
There is a lot of character development and plot advancement in ‘What Remains’ and, at the same time, it maintains a self-contained storyline. We knew Taylor had a son, one of the grand mysteries of the show. We end up learning that he lost his wife at some point.
Maddy and Reynolds are generating some awkwardness which is actually really sweet, even though I kind of find Naomi Scott’s overall acting and line delivery to be stunted. She’s going to have to find her groove at some point because it looks like this relationship is going to continue to creep more and more into the forefront of the drama.
As for Josh and Skye, all I can really say to Josh is RUN! I don’t trust Skye and I don’t like Skye. She seems to absolutely scream “danger” and knows way too much of the underground of Terra Nova to be some innocent girl next door. Things are going to come to a head at some point between the compound and the Sixers, and I get the feeling Skye is going to serve Josh up on a silver platter.
‘What Remains’ has a really good balance of advancing the overall mysteries alongside the family drama at the heart of Terra Nova. The dinosaurs are probably the best represented and CGI work that we’ve seen so far. I like the pairing of Jim and Malcolm as they both work to save Elisabeth from catatonia, and the writing this week maintains a steady pace.
– James Zappie
