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Taylor heads outside the gate on a Lucas-update mission. Once again I'd like to point out how ridiculous it is that Terra Nova ever sends anyone -- let alone the leader of the camp -- out into the world of vicious dinosaurs and Sixers by themselves, but here we go again. He's ambushed by Mira, but he manages to turn the tables, only they find themselves being stalked by a pair of adolescent slashers who are marking their territory. So they have to work together to fend them off -- using whittled bows and arrows and a staff with flaming pitch -- and earn a grudging mutual respect for one another. Had they been out one more night, we probably would have had a sex scene. Anyway, we learn that Lucas is close to figuring out how to make the portal work both ways. Not coincidentally, we're close to the end of the season!
Back at the camp, Jim has been left in charge by Taylor, because why wouldn't Taylor trust the recent arrival who broke the rules to get there and recently went behind Taylor's back to investigate him? Jim has some awkward moments with Mark, who wants to discuss Maddy's dowry or something. Jim's also got free rein to be a raging prick with Malcolm, except when he needs Malcolm's help. See, Jim's tasked with finding the spy, sentries spot someone flashing signals from outside the camp to someone inside. Jim and Mark arrive at the site too late to find out who in Terra Nova is communicating with the Sixers, but it turns out to be Skye. She eludes them, but she's cut herself on the shard of mirror she was using and leaves a little blood at the scene, so Jim enlists Malcolm and Elisabeth's help to identify the DNA. Skye -- who's providing the Sixers with intel because they have her mother, who isn't dead, but very ill -- uses her job at the infirmary to secretly destroy the blood sample, but Elisabeth's at least able to narrow it down to a female, and since it's someone who has access to the infirmary, the suspect list has been whittled to forty-seven names.
Oh, and Zoe's having a hard time saying goodbye to the stupid ankylosaurus that they rescued, and I can't help but think that the scene where they set it free in the wild would have been a lot more touching if the ankylosaurus had been seen or even mentioned since that episode where they fixed its egg. They should have just flushed it down the toilet like the urban legend about all the giant former pet alligators living in the New York subway system.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Sure, the ankylosaurus is cute now, but is Zoe really going to walk it every day? Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Taylor's walking with Skye, telling her that he has to go "OTG" because no one on this show is allowed to say "outside the gate" ever. Because she seems concerned, he tells her that he'll be back in 24 hours and that the anniversary is on his mind too. It's been three years since the winter (like this place gets anything resembling winter) killed so many of the pilgrims, including her parents, and he says sincyllic fever has killed more of their people than anything else. Well, thanks for cheering Skye up! He says that when he gets back they'll take a walk out to Memorial Field together, and her parents would have proud to see how she turned out. She embarrassedly says that he says that every year, and he says it's TRUE every year.
Then this fresh-faced (albeit with a slight bald spot) soldier nervously asks Taylor what his reason is for going outside the gate, because all citizens need a valid reason to do so. Taylor's a little incredulous over being asked, but Jim strolls up to remind him that they're part of the new lockdown protocols that Taylor instituted. Taylor praises the soldier on a job well done -- the soldier beams -- but still doesn't give him a reason and the gates get raised anyway. So they're still looking for the spy, and Taylor's leaving Jim in charge while he's gone since he's the only one in the camp he trusts one hundred per cent right now (which says a lot about the sorry state of Terra Nova, I guess). And just as you're thinking "What about Washington?" Taylor says something about her being out at some outpost for the few days. But still. And Jim JUST went behind Taylor's back to investigate him, so you'd think he'd at least have a lingering suspicion about that. But I guess not. Taylor rides out, and Jim squints after him.
Then we watch Taylor scramble over rocks and down waterfalls until he finds his son's formulas scrawled on the rocks. He spies what I guess is a fresh one, and then looks around and finds the remains of a campfire, which he scans with some sort of doohickey.
He's so preoccupied that he doesn't see or hear Mira sneak up and point her rifle at him. When he does, it's too late for him to draw his own pistol. He asks what she's doing out there, and she says the same thing as him: waiting to see if his son's got an answer yet. "Looks like he has," he says, and she says it looks like it's a lousy day to be Taylor, and orders him to put his hands behind his head and to get on the ground.
Hey, we finally get to see the baby ankylosaurus! Zoe and Maddy are in the science lab, with Zoe coming up with her latest in an apparently long line of names for the creature. Maddy rolls her eyes nonstop and tries to set some sort of world record for sarcasm over the whole thing.
Meanwhile, Jim and Malcolm are having a row over Malcolm's apparent refusal to communicate with his team in the field via the security center, to make sure that the Sixer spy isn't "piggybacking" on Malcolm's signal. He says if he can't talk to his team in real time from his lab, he may as well halt his research. "Well, I'm sorry you feel that way," says Jim, who then apparently decides that it's a better idea to be a complete dick, so he adds, "Actually, no I'm not. This is the new protocol. Are we clear?"
Then it's time to grill Reynolds on how the rest of the soldiers are taking it that Taylor left a non-military person in charge. "Like an order, sir," says Mark, and Jim for some reason takes it like that's a good thing. Mark's also a little more nervous than normal, because Jim's not just his potential father-in-law today but also his commanding officer.
Anyway, this annoying interaction is cut short by a sentry spotting light flashes coming from the tree line: a Sixer (note they don't see a person, just the flashes) communicating with someone inside Terra Nova. They then spot flashes from a construction site inside the colony, and Jim and Mark race to the scene, where we see that the person flashing in response is Skye, who cut herself with the mirror shard she was using and dripped a little blood in some paint sealant. Jim and Mark spot the blood, but Skye manages to slip out, so good job by Jim eschewing backup on their mission to catch the spy. Wouldn't have wanted to actually catch her, hey?
Outside the gate, Mira's marching Taylor back to her camp but can't get a signal on her communications device. So she may as well have some background-laden conversation about Lucas with Taylor, who pretends to make a break for it but is really using it as a pretext to hit the dirt -- when Mira fires her sonic rifle at him -- near some prehistoric plant and break off a thorn that's big enough to cut through the rope binding him.
Skye's having a bad enough day without Josh coming up to apologize for all the stupid stuff he's done, like stealing the medication for the Sixers. He says he had no idea it would turn into such a "ginormous mess" and thankfully Skye says she knew. She's in too much pain and so stressed from having to hide her slashed palm from him that she barely accepts his apology.
Over in the infirmary, Malcolm's arrived to ask Elisabeth to set the ankylosaurus free into the wild, before it's too old to adapt to whatever skills it's going to need out there or whatever. He knows why she's stalling, but she agrees to talk to Zoe and arranges for the ankylosaurus to hang out for just one more day.
Meanwhile, Skye is skulking around, and when Elisabeth asks her why she's there when she's not on shift until tonight, she blurts out some "forgot my ID in my locker" excuse, while acting over-the-top shifty and ridiculous, but it never occurs to Elisabeth that something's going on with Skye. Anyway, she's stolen some sort of medical spray with magical healing properties that she sprays on her slashed palm.
Back in the construction site, Abbott and Costello have searched the place and there's no Sixer sympathizer there. Jim's trying to draw the blood sample out of the paint sealant before it dissolves further. But he botches that, and it starts to spread throughout the container.
So Jim arrives at the infirmary, where Elisabeth has just broken the news to a downcast Zoe that her stupid wild dinosaur is going to have to go back into the wild. She suggests Zoe go spend some time with "Hank" and Zoe snarls that "His name is Boxer!" and runs off.
Anyway, Jim's got the sealant and he tells Elisabeth that there may be some DNA in there and he needs her help. She bursts out laughing when he tells her it's just one drop, because isolating that would be really difficult. "I'm a doctor, not a chemist!" she says, and Jim looks SURPRISED by this. Or maybe he doesn't know what a chemist is.
Out in the jungle, Taylor chats up Mira by asking how it was that she got so many of her people over on the Sixth Pilgrimage, and Mira says something about her employers having deep pockets. "They gamed the lottery. I thought so," he says. She says the job was only supposed to take six months, but then Taylor caught on, and she has yet to get back to 2149. Question: is it always still just 2149 back in present day? That... doesn't seem right. Anyway, the rationalization starts, with Mira explaining -- not that she's apologizing, mind you -- that her daughter got patch lung and no one's going to hire an ex-con or send her back on the pilgrimage. Unless you hire an ex-con expressly TO go back on the pilgrimage for your own nefarious purposes.
Taylor's almost worked through the rope around his wrists -- and given that his hands are behind his back, it's really unfortunate that Mira hasn't noticed him SAWING THROUGH THE ROPE -- and he takes advantage of a momentary distraction to hide, only to pop back out and beat Mira up a little bit, taking her gun and knife. Now it's her turn to march, back to her rover, and then he's taking her back to the Terra Nova brig. Because it may be important, Mira's got some sort of scar art on her chest: two sets of three horizontal lines separated by two dots with a vertical line over the whole thing.
Anyway, as we move out, we see that there's a slasher watching them -- a slasher who knows the storytelling value of sticking its head a little more after they've left, and looking evil.
When we get back from commercial break, we see a couple of Sixers by a rover and one of them radios the Sixer base to tell some dude that Skye hasn't shown up yet, and their communication got caught off. Mira's second-in-command tells them to hang tonight, because Skye's smart (her affection for Josh notwithstanding) and will figure it out.
And there's Skye figuring it out! She spots Josh among a group of colonists about to head outside the gate with shovels, so she casually strolls over and asks what's up. He says they're going to "dig a new line for the 11th by the water-supply junction" whatever that's supposed to mean, and she asks if they need any more volunteers. Like, don't people get paid out here? He asks about her medical internship with his mom and she says she's on evening shift, so he tells her to go get her work gear. I imagine that Josh assumes that since his dad is in charge right now, he gets to make decisions like that.
Out in the jungle, Taylor wants to know when the last time was that she saw Josh, and she says it was a couple of weeks ago, but she's not really up for answering any more of his questions on how Josh is doing. She says she doesn't pity him over the whole father-son drama, because whatever happened, he brought it on himself.
See, she asked Lucas why he hates his old man so much, and he told her to ask Taylor about Somalia. This brings Taylor up short and she asks again (and not to nitpick too much, but if she doesn't actually KNOW why Taylor hates his old man, then why does she say he brought it on himself?) but Taylor just grabs her with both hands and slams her up against a tree. "He's my son. I want him back," he says. "You think you can get him back? He's gone, Taylor," she says, adding for good measure that Lucas is crazy -- and she doesn't control him; he controls her. Then all this gritted-teeth arguing is interrupted by the fact that they heard something out there. Yeah, there might be a dinosaur or two out here. Taylor orders Mira to keep walking.
Back at Terra Nova, Jim is trying to enlist Malcolm's help in isolating the DNA sample, and Malcolm is all "absolutely not!" because it's the chemical equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. He points out that the dominant ingredient in paint sealant is toluene, which destroys red blood cells. So no, he's not going to help.
So Jim pretends to go to work himself, but he's a little "rusty" on his high school science, by which he means that he sweeps his arm across the counter and sends all kinds of equipment smashing to the floor. It's great that Taylor hasn't even been gone a day and the guy he put in charge is acting like an enforcer for a loan shark collecting on a bad debt. Rather than let Jim blow up the lab -- and you know he would -- Malcolm agrees (or, rather, is extorted) to help. He sticks some testing thing in the sealant and grunts that there might be a chance.
Meanwhile, Jim, eagle-eyed cop of the year, spots Zoe scurrying through the lab, hiding something under her coat. Whatever could it be? He follows her out into the infirmary, where she studiously tries to avoid eye contact with her mother. When Elisabeth finally calls out to her, Zoe pretends that she was just looking for Maddy to go for a walk, but then is reminded that she's supposed to be in school. She says she'll go back, but it's too late! Elisabeth undoes Zoe's jacket to find Hank or Boxer or Slasher Bait or whatever the baby dino's name is.
Out on the work detail, that soldier from the opening sequence is really racking up the lines as he talks to Josh about how he doesn't understand why someone would betray the colony. And Josh, who stole medicine to give the Sixers to bring his high school girlfriend here, says Terra Nova is growing on him. You're kind of hoping that this work detail was just an excuse to get Josh out into the wilderness so someone can plant a shovel in the back of his head.
Meanwhile, Skye pretends to go "check in with the foreman" -- which henceforth I shall be using as code for "going to the bathroom" -- and she sneaks off to meet up with the Sixers, who are conveniently about a five-minute hike away, I'm guess.
She's taken to the Sixer camp, where she delivers "this week's intel" to the creepily evil Sixer version of Jim (as in the second-in-command). Apparently she's late with it, which proves crucial when she's allowed to see her mother, who isn't dead but quite sick. She looks worse, in fact, since the last time Skye saw her, which is because the Sixers haven't been giving her the medicine she needs. Skye takes exception to this, but Sixer No. 2 is all, "Hey, don't be late time!" So Skye Mama coughs up a lung while Skye strokes her hand and says she has to get back before she's missed.
Over in the infirmary, Jim proudly brings Elisabeth a clean sample of blood that he "persuaded" Malcolm to extract. She sets it in the fancy DNA Identitron 3000, and says with this level of dissolution it won't be ready until tomorrow morning. Jim wants to know if there's anything they can do to speed it up. Like what, slipping it fifty bucks? There's no rushing it, says Elisabeth, but it will give them "the identity of the traitor" and I'd like to point out that what it will give them is the identity of a person whose blood it is, not "the traitor," like you'd think Elisabeth would be as sensitive as anyone about Terra Nova's kangaroo-court justice system rushing to judgment.
Skye comes in, apologizing for being late, and gets the evening's instructions from Elisabeth. Skye sees the DNA Identitron whirring and knows what's going on.
In the forest, Taylor gives Mira a drink from his cup, while they look around and hope that they're not going to be eaten any time soon. So Taylor asks after Mira's daughter, who turned seven in July. "That's a good age," says Taylor, which I think people say about any age before the teenage years, but in any case it's a dumb thing for him to say because Mira's just going to have to take his word for it. Also, someone back in 2149 is looking after her, which was part of the deal and he says it's no small thing, knowing you've done right by your child. She seems to appreciate his sincerity because she reciprocates by telling him that Lucas looks good, which he says is good to hear.
And now it's dinosaur time! A couple of slashers come screeching out of the foliage and Taylor fires a sonic blast or two while Mira hightails it outta there. With the slashers momentarily discombobulated, Mira and Taylor move their asses, only to come to a dead end at the top of a very high waterfall.
The slashers advance, and -- given they don't have much choice -- Taylor tosses his pack over the falls, cuts Mira's hands free and the two of them plunge over the falls and plummet like a thousand goddamn feet and land in about six feet of water. In other words, they should be dead.
Instead, they just lose their guns, so all they have now are one big knife and one HUGE knife. Drying out on the beach, they discuss the slasher problem -- it's a young male and female who are carving out their territory and are probably making their way down the side of the falls. "We can fight each other or we can fight them," Taylor says, and he gives Mira the huge knife, which counts as a major goodwill gesture for him, I imagine. Since they're not going to be able to make Mira's rover by nightfall, they decide to stay and fight where they are, because of the good sight lines and defensibility, and the New York Fries outlet nearby, which will provide much-needed sustenance.
Back in the infirmary, it's dark and Skye creeps into the room with the DNA Identitron 3000 and drops a little liquid into the dish, causing it to hiss and the machine to go haywire. It's totally plausible that she does this. After all, there's no security at the infirmary despite: A) the ongoing theft of medicine and B) the fact that there's a spy on the loose in Terra Nova.
Nightfall in the wilderness. Taylor's carving a bow while Mira's making some pitch -- not that Taylor thinks she's doing a good job. He says it'll never catch fire, that it's too thick. "I know how to fight these bastards. I spent a hundred and eighteen days out here on my own," he says. "Good for you. I'm coming up on a thousand," she says. Point: Mira. She adds that they lost a lot of good people out here, but they learned to survive. Taylor stares at her, wondering to do about the erection he's clearly getting.
Oh god, back at Terra Nova, Mark has an awkward conversation with Jim about what's important in life, which is short, and he eventually says, "I would like to declare my intentions for your daughter." By which he means one day he wants to make her his wife, and Jim's all, "She's sixteen," but Mark gallantly agrees to wait, and Jim would rather not discuss the dowry right now because they have a spy to catch, and he's going to go check on the blood sample.
But he's not going to like what he finds. Elisabeth is there, because one of the night nurses called her. The sample's destroyed. He wants her to put together a list of all employees, patients and the families who came to visit. She says she will, but it won't be a short list. "Maybe not, but it's a list, and the mole's on it. It's a start," he says.
Mira and Taylor are still waiting to be attacked when Taylor sees the tattoo on her arm -- it looks kind of like a stylized four -- which marks her out as a secessionist. She says she provided security for them, so he figures she's at the dome when the army stormed it. All this will be fascinating whenever we get the full story, I'm sure. Mira says she had a hard time finding work after that, which is what happens when you're on the wrong side. "And here you are on the wrong side again," says Taylor, but Mira just gives him a "We'll see."
Anyway, Taylor's done poking fun at her and decides to make another stave, but he doesn't have time because a slasher attacks -- Mira's got the bow and arrow, and she plants one into its hide. Taylor follows up with his stave, which is coated with the flaming pitch, and he hurls it right into the beast's side, flaming up like dropped grease on a barbecue. The other slasher comes racing in, has a look at his flambéing buddy, and decides he'll just scream at Mira and Taylor a little bit before the slashers turn tail and flee.
Aw, and now Mira and Taylor are practically best buds! She brings him some grubs ("Protein!" he says as he chows down on the disgusting bugs), and then he starts talking about how there's a parallel universe out there in which they're allies. She admits to having the same thought herself. "Smart. Good fighter. We could have made a hell of a team," he says, although I'd argue it's not entirely clear he's talking about her or himself.
Back at Terra Nova, Jim's got the list of eighty-four possible suspects. Mark's all, "Better than the whole colony!" Like, shut up, Mark -- damn. Elisabeth comes in to narrow the list down further, saying that the analysis at least got far enough to determine the blood came from a female. So now the list is down to forty-seven. Hilariously, that's deemed an exciting enough note to go to commercial on.
Mira and Taylor arrive back at the waterfall where she ambushed him, which is where they're going to go their separate ways. She tells him that Lucas is close to figuring out the portal. "How does it end?" he asks, and she says they'll know soon enough.
Ugh, I'm not going to recap this manipulative scene in which Zoe sets Boxer the ankylosaurus free, even if they managed to make the ugly thing with a dying man's croak cute somehow. But naturally the family stands around and watches, surprised, as a full-grown ankylosaurus comes out of the bushes to adopt the wee one, or whatever. I just can't help feeling like this would be a little more touching if we'd seen anything about the stupid ankylosaurus between when they saved it until now. But we didn't. So moving on!
Oh lord, not another awkward scene with Reynolds trying to endear himself to Jim. Mark says he "enjoyed riding" with Jim because he thinks that's what cops say to each other. Jim finally takes a little pity on him and says he knows he can be a little tough on him, but he's kind of protective of his oldest girl. But compared to Elisabeth's dad, he's a puppy dog, or something, and all I can say is that Elisabeth's dad's instincts were probably RIGHT ON when it came to Jim. "I think you're a good kid," he says, and pats Mark on the arm. Mark says "Thanks, sir," but Jim reminds him that "sir" doesn't apply now that Taylor's back, and Mark tries for "Thanks, Jim," which doesn't sit well with Jim either.
So Taylor and Jim have a little powwow in Taylor's office and update each other on the results of their respective endeavors, and then Taylor asks how it felt to be in charge, and Jim tries not to get too excited and says it was fine but he wouldn't want to do it every day.
And we close the way we opened, with Skye coming in to talk to Taylor about taking a walk to Memorial Field. "You know, I meant what I said to you. They'd be real proud to see the fine young woman you've become," he says, then asks if she's got something on her mind. Mainly because she looks like she's about to throw up.
Daniel is a writer with a wife and daughter in Newfoundland. If someone declares his intentions for his daughter, he'll disclose his intentions for a shotgun. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
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