In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Hey, great! A Terra Novagonian gets killed by a raptor in the cold open! That's promising!
Jim, investigating, determines it was a murder -- someone trapping the vicious nicoraptor in the outpost where the soldier victim was found -- and he's thrilled to have an investigation to conduct. With some crucial information determined to be on the victim's ID tag -- in the belly of the nicoraptor that killed him -- Jim, Taylor and Washington go a-hunting. With the ID tag gorily retrieved from the dinosaur's stomach, they find the victim -- Foster -- had a dalliance with a married woman, whose husband confesses unrepentantly to Jim and Washington. Taylor's torn up about Terra Nova's first murder, and needs to think about whether to enforce the colony's bylaw, which calls for banishment.
There's some tedious discussion over the need for a trial vs. frontier justice, and then everyone gathers to hear Taylor's verdict, which he delivers from his balcony, after some speechifying, and the murderer is given a gun and a backpack and sent off to make his own way.
But Jim is intrigued by his wife's crazy notions of "justice" and "due process" and learns that the murderer -- Milner -- actually confessed falsely, to cover up for his wife, because he thinks SHE did it. But she didn't either; and it turns out the victim was involved with illegal gambling run out of Boylan's bar -- and Jim is none too pleased to discover Josh working there. Anyway, Taylor and Jim involve Boylan in a sting to trap another soldier who turns out to have owed a lot of money to the victim. In the end, they banish him to the wilderness without so much as the gun granted Milner, so I guess so much for due process.
So great job by Jim, following his gut, which serves him so well that he decides it's OK for his teenage son to continue working in the bar that hosts illegal gambling so serious that it resulted in murder. And on the very night that he gives Josh his blessing to go back to work, Josh sneaks outside the gate to meet with Mira, who promises to arrange to bring Josh's 2149 girlfriend over only if Josh agrees to do her some unnamed favor in the unspecified future. Josh, being some kind of moron, agrees.
Oh, and Zoe and Elisabeth hatch a baby anklyosaurus or some fucking thing.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He thinks it's a good think that the Shannon family has at least one member -- Shannon -- who's competent at her job. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Want more? The full recap starts right below! A patrol vehicle makes its way through the darkness up to communications station 19A, where a soldier named Foster checks in with HQ before going up to the door. He hears something inside, and asks if it's "Mission" sleeping off another bender or maybe just locked himself in again. Then he opens the door. I presume that "Mission" isn't the name of the raptor that greets him and drags him inside for tasty devouring. Because it would seem unwise to staff your communications stations with people-eating dinosaurs. Speaking of unwise, you'd think solo patrols would also not be the way to go on Terra Nova, but I've never repopulated a planet, so maybe I'm the idiot.With the Terra Nova crew on scene in the aftermath, Malcolm says it's pretty clear what happened: Foster must have left the shed door open and the nicoraptor snuck behind him. There's an ankylosaurus nest nearby which must have attracted it. Jim wonders why it attacked a human with the food nearby, even though the nest looks pretty empty to me.
Malcolm: "You got an endless supply of chicken, it doesn't mean you'll turn your nose up at a bloody rare steak." Sounds like he's hoping to bond with Jim over something manly like meat-eating. Jim's skeptical though, even more so when he finds the inside of the shed door scratched to hell with claw marks.
Over to Boylan's, where the enterprising Josh is putting away glasses. Boylan strolls up and smirkingly says there's a complication with his girl, and Josh is all, "Kara?" like how many damn girls is Josh planning to bring from 2149? "We had a deal!" he whines, without knowing what the complication is. Boylan says if Josh wants him to get her there, he's going to have to do something for him. Josh says, "I'm listening," a little too readily. Josh needs to get in the habit of asking follow-up questions before reacting. Boylan sets up a couple of shot glasses because Josh will need some courage first.
In the infirmary, Elisabeth is autopsying Foster (via hologram, is what it looks like) at Jim's request to see if anything unusual turns up. Malcolm's pleased to see her in his neck of the woods, and he shows off the ankylosaurus egg he brought back from the nest. It's cracked but intact, so it's an "incredible research opportunity." Of course, with him and Elisabeth looking at something together, Jim can come in to look all pissed at his wife interacting with her co-workers. He's got Zoe in tow because he got a call from the school saying she has an earache. A sympathetic but skeptical Elisabeth points out that yesterday it was her tummy. "I just miss you, Mommy," whines Zoe, and everyone acts like this is sweet instead of a problem.
And then everyone ignores Zoe in favor of the murder investigation. Elisabeth found two types of blood on the victim. One was his, the other came from a gallusaur, which Malcolm confirms is a nico's favorite food, kind of a prehistoric turkey. "I think this was a murder," says Jim.
Over to Taylor's office, where he explains to Taylor and Wash that the gallusaur was trapped so it could be used as bait. Taylor's bummed. "Foster was a good soldier. If somebody killed him, I wanna know who. Find out. Do it quick and do it quiet," he says, and assigns Wash to help. Jim says they should talk with his friends because he is some kind of genius investigator and Washington knows where they'll be.
That's right, over at Boylan's place, in the sunniest, most sedate Irish wake I've ever seen. Jim and Wash stroll up to the table of like three soldiers and ask if Foster got along with everyone? Pretty much, they say, and the questions twig the guys (including what's his name, Maddy's arranged husband, to the idea that they're treating this like a murder. They tell him he was seeing a woman, pictures on his ID tag. Everyone in Terra Nova has them, and despite it being against the rules, they hack into them to put on personal pictures, music, downloaded episodes of Archer, etc. Jim and Washington think it's weird that Foster's mystery woman hasn't stepped forward.
So they go to retrieve Foster's personal effects at the infirmary. Zoe's still there? She's not going back to school? She's drawn to the ankylosaurus egg and asks if they're going to fix it. Before they can answer, or say something like, "Sweetie, be quiet while Mommy and Daddy investigate a MURDER," the egg rattles, because the dinobaby is still alive, so Elisabeth is guilted in saying she'll try to help it, like she doesn't have anything better to do.
Anyway, there was no tag among the personal effects, so they have to track it (each tag has a locator in it) and it's moving, hitching a ride in the nico's belly.
So Wash, Taylor and Jim chase down the nico in vehicles (nobody in helmets, because why would you? Why would you?) with a couple of redshirts on motorcycles and they chase the raptor into the woods, which doesn't seem like the smartest tactic. They disembark and pursue on foot, Jim strangely concerned that they're not going to kill the thing. Yeah, why kill the dinosaur with the taste for human flesh? But they're not -- sounds like the plan is to cut the raptor open, get the tag, and have Wash stitch it back up with her export field medical skills. And now the raptor is up a tree and now it is down and Taylor hits it with a dart because he's the only one here who brings anything to the table.
Wash digs out the gallusaur bait and Foster's tag. They're able to project a picture of the woman with Foster, but before they can run facial recognition, the tag sputters and dies. Survived in the dinosaur's stomach only to conk out now! It's OK, because Wash recognizes the woman, who works in the mess hall.
But this is no lunchlady Doris -- Rebecca Milner's dark eye makeup, long hair, cleavage and skirt all scream Central Casting sex bomb, and she's suspiciously cagey about knowing Foster. She's knows a lot of people, what with her working in the mess hall, looking all sexy while ladling out gross prehistoric food. She says it's her JOB to be nice, and she's sorry if Foster took it the wrong way. Wash finds her husband's pilgrimage lottery notice and they insinuate that she married him to get through the portal and then "trade up" to a better man. Rebecca's too sexy for these wild allegations!
And then her husband Harold gets home, and tells his wife to "shut up" when she protests against Jim and Wash's insinuations about her relationship with Foster, because he knew all about it. Then he immediately confesses to killing the son-of-a-bitch and says he'd do it again. But as anyone who watches Law & Order knows, a confession one-third of the way into the episode ain't worth a thing.
Having dropped Zoe back at school, Elisabeth comes back to find out if everything's OK with the stupid ankylosaur egg. Malcolm's X-raying it and says there are birth defects that have prevented it from hatching and he thinks it's no use but since Zoe will be crushed Elisabeth is just going to find a way, dammit. Malcolm does his thing where he continues to gaze with awe upon his ex-girlfriend.
Wash and Jim (mostly Jim) grill Milner, asking for the details on how he murdered Foster. He's got them all: he tailed Foster to learn his schedule, then trapped the gallusaur and waited for the nicoraptor to come. When it did, he closed the door behind it and drove away.
Then we get a whole lot of male moanin' -- Milner talks about how much he loves Rebecca and how stupid he feels that she used him. And then when Jim presents Taylor with the evidence, Taylor does some speechifyin' of his own about Memorial Field which is where everyone is buried -- but never before for a murder. The bylaw says the punishment for that is banishment. "Out there?" says Jim, and can I just ask Jim WHERE THE HELL ELSE WOULD YOU BANISH SOMEONE, and yes, the banishment would be out there. Taylor's got the option to commute it to imprisonment, though. Anyway, he's off to bury a soldier and think on his decision.
And then it's the moping champ, Josh, who whines to Skye that to get Kara back he's got to go outside the gates and meet with Mira. Skye's all, "The leader of the Sixers?" for anyone who doesn't know. She thinks it's too dangerous and he starts monotoning about how three people killed themselves in his junior class because "nothing means anything" back in 2149. Anyway, he's got no choice, he figures, and Skye then invites herself along for the ride.
Taylor and Washington lead the funeral march through the paths of the colony, residents coming out on their porches to watch. Later, after supper, Elisabeth calls it a quite moving, sad procession. Then Jim talks about how great it is that there's going to be no trial, which shocks Elisabeth. But this is one of the shows where cops are all great and the hard work they do is undone by scumbag lawyers, instead of one of the shows where lawyers are all hard-working justice warriors whose jobs are made more difficult by lazy, incompetent cops. Some third-grade level debate happens on frontier justice, because Elizabeth thinks there should be a trial and just maybe the colony should show some mercy. Jim points out that he was in prison for three years and mercy wasn't the first word that came to mind. Let me get this straight: the world you guys fucked up by the year 2149 had a cruel justice system, so that's why Milner shouldn't have a trial? Is that REALLY a persuasive point, Jim? He shouts at her that he'd rather have been given a chance in the wilderness with a gun than a shell, and then she's apologizing FOR WHAT REASON I HAVE NO IDEA and he bitches that she's making it sound like he beat the confession out of Milner, which she didn't at all. How old is Jim? Thirteen? Anyway, she stomps off, pointing out that it's not like people never have reasons to falsely confess.
Then there's a ridiculous scene where the entire colony gathers outside Taylor's office -- Maddy hears her soldier boyfriend angrily wish for banishment like Milner deserves -- so he can come out and make his proclamation: he's decided on banishment. That guy from the market that had his legs bit off is all "Come on, Taylor! Rabble rabble rabble!" amongst all the murmuring, and Taylor goes on to pontificate about how they need to "live lives worthy of this remarkable place" which is hilarious given he's judge, jury and executioner wrapped up in one, and then he sends Milner out into the wild and we watch Josh looking curious and Boylan looking suspicious, and Rebecca being sexy concerned and Maddy crying her damn eyes out.
So Milner's washing his face in a stream when Jim shows up and casually draws out of him that he didn't really kill Foster, but that he confessed to protect Rebecca, who he thinks did kill Foster, and that he assumed Taylor would commute the sentence.
So Jim puts a baseball cap and a hoodie on Milner to march him, implausibly, right back in to Terra Nova back to his house, where he confronts Rebecca. All Rebecca has to do is say she didn't kill Foster, and that's good enough for Milner and Jim. She says she was glad when Foster ended it, because he turned out to be a jerk, preferring his friends and his gambling to her. I'm shocked that someone who would bone another man's wife turned out to be not such a great guy!
So Taylor's pissed that maybe he sent the wrong guy out to be banished, because he put his own reputation on the line to do so, but Jim says they have another lead, and Taylor wants it locked down because Jim's gut is "not good enough this time." Or ever, really, if you want this to be a worthy society.
Meanwhile, this stupid ankylosaur plot is going on, with Elisabeth doing laser surgery through the shell with Malcolm and his perpetual hard-on talking about how great she is and saying dickish sabotage things about how Jim should be there to watch her artistic surgery genius at work, and Elisabeth resignedly says Jim's probably got something better to do, and I actually do think that preventing an innocent man's death by banishment is just a little more important than helping the stupid dinosaur fetus.
Anyway, the gambling business -- going on at Boylan's -- has Jim thinking that maybe he and Washington should be looking at, what's the word, oh yeah! EVIDENCE, so they check out Foster's financials. "Look who owed Foster a lot of money," says Washington, so they take it to Taylor, and then the three of them plus soldiers descend on Boylan's to arrest the guy. Taylor gleefully says he's been waiting a long time to take this guy in, which is kind of confusing given that Taylor seems to have absolute power in this place. This is also when Jim finds out that his own flesh and blood is working at the drinking and gambling den, and threatens to talk to his son later.
So: interrogation of Boylan, with soldiers guarding the door. Taylor threatens to shut down his place unless he comes clean about the gambling at his place, and Boylan laughs it off, saying the colonists wouldn't stand for it. Jim says that when they were going through the financials they discovered (somehow, I guess?) that Boylan keeps old-school paper records, and when they find them, that's all they'll need to draw the connection to Foster. Boylan's a little less cocksure when he learns they think he killed Foster.
Back to the bar, where the soldiers are ordered to tear the place apart to find the ledger, while Jim tells Josh this is his last day working at the bar. Josh starts multiple-punch-deservingly arguing about how his parents are always on him to take more responsibility and now they don't like the job he got. Jim says it's more that he didn't talk to them about it first, and Josh says they would have just shot it down, and if I'd ever talked to my dad like this he'd have just shot ME period, and Josh thankfully stomps off screen.
A soldier, Curran, comes up to Jim to say they didn't find the ledger after searching for thirty seconds, and then Reynolds shows up with a bloodied nose, saying Boylan ran, and he had help. So Curran, Jim and Taylor are back into the military transport to chase Boylan's signal, while checking back in with Wash back at Terra Nova -- where we see her not actually doing the scanning she says she's doing but instead sitting with a smirking Boylan who's stuffing his face with some kind of food.
It's when Taylor, Jim and Curran get out to try to track the now-stationary signal that Taylor confronts Curran that he owed money to Foster. "Now you look me in the eye and tell me you didn't kill Foster," says Taylor. Foster does that, unconvincingly, but Taylor doesn't buy it. Curran finally twigs that the Boylan arrest was staged. So why didn't they just do this inside the gates? Why, so a furious Taylor can kick the living shit of Curran (who tries to shoot Taylor but turns out to have an empty weapon -- what kind of terrible soldier doesn't check his weapon to make sure it's loaded?), find the ledger he stole from the bar, and abandon him in the wilderness. "I get a court martial!" he says. "You just had one," says Taylor, and then he and Jim both point their guns at Curran and send him off to die. Good thing they learned a lesson about the dangers of frontier justice, hey? Also: shouldn't it concern these idiots that banishment is a great recruitment opportunity for the Sixers?
"Think he'll survive out there, on his own?" Jim says, like he's got ANY kind of conscience, and Taylor says "I did. It can be done." Regardless, he's not losing any sleep over it.
Let's wrap this up quick! Jim and Taylor creepily peep at Milner and Rebecca all giggly and in love again, and then thank Boylan for going along with their Rube Goldberg-esque sting, and he says it's the last time he'll do anything for free, and then Jim has a heart-to-heart with his son and winds up saying it's OK for his son to continue working in the bar that has illegal gambling going on that's so serious THAT SOMEONE WAS MURDERED OVER IT.
Anyway, Josh shows up just outside the gates to meet with Boylan, who's not pleased to see Skye accompany him, but she weasels in by pointing out Josh has a better chance of making it back alive with her. Boylan gives them a gun and a map and tells them to meet Mira just outside the perimeter gates.
Fortunately, they've chosen to go through the jungle at a time when all the human-eating dinosaurs are asleep, and then they're jumped by the Sixers, and Mira extorts a promise from Josh to help her at some future time in return for getting Kara over. Skye shakes her head, but Josh agrees to it, without even asking what kind of favor it might be.
And then back at the Shannon house the baby ankylosaur hatches and Zoe wants to keep him and so does Jim and I hope that the season finale features a grown-up dinosaur bludgeoning them to death with its club for a tail.
Daniel is a writer with a wife and daughter in Newfoundland. He's a little tired of shows trying to boost ratings by adding a cute dinosaur pet. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.