TV Review: TERRA NOVA 1.8, “VS”
We get quite a bit of explaining in this episode. We learn what’s really going on with the Sixers, what the real agenda in 2149 is, what happened with Taylor and his son and what’s going on with the weird rock markings.
rating: 4
We get quite a bit of explaining in this episode. We learn whats really going on with the Sixers, what the real agenda in 2149 is, what happened with Taylor and his son and whats going on with the weird rock markings. Well, thats assuming that the person who shared all this information with us isnt an unreliable narrator, which would be an interesting twist, but not one that I expect a series like this to do. Our episode opens with Boylan (Damien Garvey), being interrogated by Taylor (Stephen Lang), over the events that transpired last week. We see, yet again, that Terra Novas legal process is severely broken, as the man is being held without access to a lawyer, given borderline torture in the form of extremely loud noises that prevent him from sleeping, and being fed food with drugs in it. For those of you who have ever wondered why its a good idea to not let the military run your government, this is a great example. Back at the Shannon home, we find the family preparing for the Harvest Festival. This includes Zoe (Alana Mansour), making a fake beard to wear, since shes going to play the role of Taylor in a Harvest Festival play (all together now aaaaaaw). While shes getting ready, Josh (Landon Liboiron), pulls Jim (Jason OMara), aside and asks whats going on with Boylan. Jim seems to then realize that he doesnt know, and since hes the lead cop on the beat, perhaps he should. He goes to the interrogation room and has it out with Taylor a little bit, making it clear that hes not pleased with this sort of treatment for a man who hasnt been convicted of anything. Taylor wanders off, and Jim gives Boylan (who thinks Jim is Taylor), some water, which results in Boylan muttering about something buried under Pilgrims tree. After some investing into what tree this is, Jim goes digging and finds a corpse, which has apparently been there for five years and seems to have been shot. Jim now starts acting like someone doing a murder investigation, and shows himself to be much more competent than he was doing his first murder investigation in the colony. He finds out that the corpse might belong to a prominent general who went missing and who knew Taylor. To make things even more interesting, time travel leaves traces on bodies, and from the traces on this one, it would belong to someone who came through between the second and third pilgrimage, something that isnt on the record. Jim continues to poke around, and soon Taylor gets wind of whats going on. Soon he starts poking his nose into the case and eventually frames Jim as being the Sixer spy. This is all in aid of him getting Jim into a private room so the two can chat aboutwell, all those things I mentioned at the start. Meantime, in the background to all this we have the Harvest Festival stuff and Maddy (Naomi Scott), planting a big kiss on her would-be boyfriend, Reynolds, after he and his team of soldiers get ambushed while driving in a convoy (a really badly done ambush that should never have worked, making me think that these people really quite incompetent). The two then dance at the festival, and their relationship moves forward a bit. And thats all, surprisingly. Only really one plot and some window dressing. This is much better than what the series has done so far where they felt the need to have four or five plots going on at the same time. It helps that Taylor got a lot of screentime, and he continues to be the shows most interesting character, though Boylan is now running a close second, with pretty much everyone else at a distant third. I could have done without the show explaining so many things all at once, but I guess theyre making up for lost time after all the dilly-dallying in the first seven episodes. However, Ill take too much plot over too little any day of the week. This episode did, overall, give a good view of what the show is capable of doing when it tries. I sincerely hope that its the start of something better for them so that Terra Nova becomes something I look forward to rather than dread.