TV Review: TERRA NOVA 1.9, “Now You See Me”

rating: 3.5

Welcome to Enemy Mine: 65,000,000 BC! So this week we learn who the Sixers spy in Terra Nova is. Spoilers ahoy, so be careful if you don€™t wanna know. We begin today€™s rather ho-hum, but at least not horrible, episode with Commander Taylor (Stephen Lang), and Skye (Allison Miller), chatting about the third anniversary of her parents€™ deaths. While they talk, Taylor is getting ready to leave on a mission, only to be challenged by a guard, asking him why he plans to leave. Turns out Jim (Jason O€™Mara), has instituted some new security policies. Taylor eventually gets out of the camp and goes to Lucas€™ drawings on the rocks near the river. I must divert for a moment and say that now that we know what these are and how important that they are, why exactly did he draw them in what appears to be chalk next to a river with a good-sized waterfall? You know what happens to chalk when it meets water, right? Even if they weren€™t near a river, having them out in the open seems pointlessly weird. Why not have them in a cave? Better still, since we know he€™s working at least somewhat with the Sixers, why not use actual paper and have it stored in their Ewok-style base? Anyhow, with Terra Nova on lockdown the Sixers, proving they are just about as competent as, oh, let€™s say€Imperial Stormtroopers, signal the camp using a mirror. Sorry, it€™s just me, I guess, but if I was the temporary commander (as Jim is while the boss is away), I€™d have had my people snipe at whomever is doing the signaling. Things get even stupider when the spy uses a bit of broken glass to signal back, and does so basically out in the open for everyone to see. Jim and Mark Reynolds, the creepy young soldier who€™s been dating Maddy (and who comes off creepy again in this episode), race off to where the flashes inside Terra Nova are coming from. They get there just after the spy escapes and the spy turns out to be€ Skye. Yeah, ok. Not a horrible choice. It€™ll be interesting to see what happens with Taylor when he eventually finds out. Anyhow, it turns out that since she was so stupid as to be using a piece of broken glass to signal back (because if there€™s one thing we know about the world, it€™s that glass the only reflective thing most people have in their homes, and it only works when it€™s broken), she managed to cut herself and a single drop of blood fell into a jar of paint thinner. Jim obsesses over this like it€™s the Holy Grail, and proves once again that he€™s a mediocre cop by not scanning the entire area for more blood, which given the cut Skye had, there would certainly be. It€™s moot anyhow, or at least somewhat, since she manages to destroy the blood sample (Terra Nova still having not installed security cameras after Josh€™s little adventure in the infirmary), but before she does, they at least learn that the blood belonged to a female. Anyhow, back with Taylor. He€™s off adventuring in the woods and gets captured by Mira (Christine Adams), who apparently has nothing better to do with her time than traipse about alone. One would think the Sixers would at least travel in pairs, but no. She gets the drop on Taylor and captures him. He escapes and captures her. They engage in some banter, and we learn that Mira is doing this because of her daughter uptime who is sick. Coincidentally, we also learn that Sky is spying for the Sixers because they have her mother who isn€™t dead but is, you guessed it, sick. How quaint. And how puzzling that the Sixers not only can talk with the future when the colonists can€™t, but they also have medical treatments they don€™t. As Taylor and Mira make their way through the jungle, they€™re set upon by some badly done CGI dinosaurs. I€™m really surprised the show didn€™t spend more money making them look good, since they€™re one of the only things this show has that others don€™t. But anyhow, this ends with the two of them having to work together to survive. So, yeah. Never seen that before. I didn€™t dislike this episode. It was pretty paint-by-numbers, but it was reasonably solid. Stephen Lang continues to be the real star of the show, and his interactions with Mira worked far better than I expected them to, even if they were more than a little cliché. The character that really did not at all work is Reynolds. He really is a creepy little twerp in all his interactions with Jim when it comes to Maddy. He€™s using bizarre courting methods that are outdated by today€™s standards, much less by 2149. Imagine someone trying to court someone else using the foppish dandy style that was popular in France circa 1770, and you€™ll have about the right level of weird. He€™s not threatening, per se, but I wouldn€™t be surprised if we later find out that he has a collection of ears in his home. Still, there was some solid material here. Hopefully they€™ll continue to build on what€™s good about the show and make it great. They€™re at least on a better track than they were a few episodes back.