Well, I can admit when I’m wrong, and I was apparently way off on the mole’s identity on Terra Nova as revealed in episode 9, ‘Now You See Me.’
At the same time, I really should have seen it coming. From the first episode that we saw Skye, she came off as a bad girl and immediately became the catalyst behind Josh breaking away from his family. She was also the one that led Josh to Boylan and doing a dirty deed for the Sixers. Hindsight is 20/20 though, and it was a nice touch having her betray the colony.
The issue I have, and it’s really an issue with any storyline like this and not pointing fingers exclusively at Terra Nova, is that it turns out her betrayal is fueled by the necessity to save a loved one. It would not only have been refreshing, but more fitting of where the show could go if she were just a traitor. In fact, didn’t they already do this plotline a couple of episodes with that girl who liked a feral member of Hanson?
We also got a nice bit of business and some insight into the leaders of Terra Nova/the Sixers as Taylor and Mia are forced to work together in order to survive being stalked by a couple of adolescent dinosaurs marking their turf. This subplot had everything that makes Terra Nova tick; Taylor being bad-ass machismo oozing testosterone and Mia furrowing her brow, making comments that are meant to be cryptic, but are really jut blatant and kind of annoying.
The action was nice, but the interplay between Mia and Taylor was surprisingly well done. There was this mutual respect they worked together to survive, but at the same time they made it clear to each other that this didn’t change anything. This further cemented the Warrior stance of the two and did well to set up the oncoming battle we all know is coming. Their conversation also helped build further on the rift between Taylor and Lucas’ advancement in reversing the portal, also setting up conflicts to come.
Terra Nova has been hard to review and even harder to like over the last couple of weeks. It isn’t that the episodes have been horrible per se. After the severe drop off in potential from the pilot, I’ve been almost emotionally sunburned and expecting to get hurt yet again. This expectation has made it hard to just sit back and enjoy the fun that has been delivered the last couple of episodes.
I’m hoping the momentum stays and Terra Nova gets picked up for a second season because the good is there and with time, the bad will get weeded out. It will be interesting to see what happens when the next pilgrimage comes and whether or not Lucas can get the portal going both ways.
– James Zappie
