Episode Report Card Daniel: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT You Can't Handle the Proof
By Daniel | Season 1 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.14.2011
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Maddy geeks out over a famous scientist returning to Terra Nova after having been out in the field for several months, and manages to finagle an internship with the guy who turns out to be not what he seems. And not in the usual "idol turns out to be some douchebag" but he's literally not who he claims to be, and Maddy figures it out, almost getting herself and Maddy killed in the process. Fortunately, the guy impersonating the scientist is really stupid and is foiled easily (although he's stupid to the point that I find it ridiculous he was able to impersonate a great scientist in the first place).
Meanwhile, Taylor and Jim are buddies who go on fishing trips now (just wait until Elisabeth opens Jim's tackle box and finds the note she left for him undisturbed) and out in the wild they run into Curran, the soldier-killing soldier who has been banished. Jim heads back to Terra Nova while Taylor stays around to help save the guy from a vicious dinosaur, and then orders Curran to infiltrate the Sixers' camp, with a promise to let him return to Terra Nova later.
And then there's Josh. Poor, stupid Josh. When he made the deal with Mira, he never thought he'd have to do something disagreeable for the return favor. But here he is, being asked to steal some medicine from the infirmary to help the Sixers battle a disease. He tries to get out of it -- and Skye urges him not to do it -- but in the end he breaks in and delivers the medicine. A lament from his mother about how the stolen medicine is needed to help people not die gets to him -- did it only just occur to him that that's what medicine does? -- and he returns a vial of the stuff to help tide the infirmary over until more can come through in the next pilgrimage. His parents are upset, and Boylan's in trouble too. I'm starting to get the sense that the Shannons risked having Zoe because Josh is such a waste of space that they figured no one would begrudge them having another child.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. If he had one bullet in a gun while watching Terra Nova, he knows exactly what he would do. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Jim and Taylor are spending a very manly day together fishing along a coastline that is absolutely teeming with dinosaurs and pterosaurs and, um, fishosaurs? They use bows to shoot fishing line out into the water and then just sit back and wait for the fish to bite. Taylor reminisces about bringing his son out here, and Jim says this is the first time he's heard him talk about Lucas and asks how long he's been missing. Taylor says it's not his favorite topic. Good job bringing him up, then, Taylor.
Then Jim gets a bite from a horribly animated fishosaur that pops out like I was supposed to be wearing 3D glasses to see it. It's too bad, because most of the other dinosaur work has been passable to pretty great, so this really sticks out. Promisingly, Jim gets dragged in his chair to the edge of the cliff, only to be held back by Taylor. And can I just ask at what point was Jim prepared to let go of the line? Is it strapped to him? And if it is, isn't that a ridiculous idea?
Over in the Shannon household, Josh and Maddy are playing some sort of game with pebbles and studiously ignoring their mother, who winds up having exciting news for Maddy: some geologist she idolizes is back to the colony after having been in the field for six months. Ken Horton, author of Atlas of the Known World, which Zoe just happens to have a copy of in some sort of chunky electronic-book format that takes up way more space than any e-reader available today, let alone 140 years in the future. Anyway, they're off to meet him and present Maddy as a child bride or something -- I wasn't really paying attention.
So this Horton guy rolls into the camp to a hero's welcome, and he waves to his adoring masses and climbs down and greets Malcolm as "Marcus" and then wants him to help unpacking. Malcolm introduces Elisabeth as the doctor who'll be doing all his physicals, because there's no telling what he was exposed to out there.
Over at Boylan's place, Josh is hard at work not doing anything illegal at the moment, but Boylan strolls in, so you know that's going to change. He tells Josh that Mira's calling in her favor: she wants him to steal some kind of medicine that's tightly controlled and only available in the infirmary, so he's going to have to break in to do it. Josh balks, but Boylan asks him if he wants to bring his girlfriend back or not. Josh should consider just how cute Skye is. But hey, a promise is a promise.
In the infirmary, Elisabeth's preliminary examination of Horton turns up nothing of concern, but because he had a stroke a few years ago, she wants to do a cerebro-scan. He begs off for now, claiming to be tired, but clearly it's something shady. No matter to Elisabeth; she lets him off the hook for saying hello to Maddy, who comes over and says she's a big fan. He asks if she'd like to accompany him to the lab.