TV Review: Terra Nova Episode 1.07

Tyrants!

Welcome back to another Terra Nova review, this one of the episode ‘Nightfall.’ What’s the word? Lets take a look, shall we?

The Quick ‘n’ Dirty:
We start the episode with the Shannons going about their day; Jim taking Zoe to see an underground device called the Eye which basically stores everything about Earth’s history and projects images/video like some 3D amusement park ride. Maddie is ‘doing homework’, which is code for going on a secret date with Reynolds, who’s had a thing for her sing the Pilot. Commander Taylor and Lt. Washington are talking about...uh...military stuff.
Elisabeth is performing surgery in the lab on a friend of Josh and Skye’s who has some sort of 30-foot parasite in his belly. Um, Ick and Ouch.

But, a meteor rudely interrupts everyone’s day by crashing nearby with an EMP that basically fries everything in the vicinity—including Terra Nova. So basically, every electronic device in the compound, including weapons, are dead. Shouldn’t the future have safeguards against EMPs? Anyway. So where does that leave our heroes?

Maddie and Reynolds, who are having a lovey-dovey moment straight out of some scene from a Twilight movie, are stranded in the wilderness because their rover and long range radio are both dead. Elisabeth’s holographic medical equipment goes dead in the middle of surgery, so she’s going to have to actually gut Skye’s friend open. How…archaic? Washington and Taylor are assessing the damage done to Terra Nova.  Jim and Zoe are trapped underground with the Eye, which for some reason is the only damn thing in Terra Nova that has an EMP shield. All the guns and rifles are dead as well, meaning that the soldiers have kinda defenseless.

But the worst thing is that now Terra Nova itself is unprotected. It seems that every machine in the Terra Nova facility uses a similar type of power chip, all of which are fried by the EMP. But Boylan, the shady bar owner, seems to have the only machine that can replicate these chips needed to restore all the machinery in Terra Nova. When he starts giving Taylor lip about helping, Taylor persuades him to the old fashion way.

However, Mira finds out about Terra Nova’s vulnerability through her spies and immediately makes moves to attack. D'Oh!

Maddie and Reynolds, still miles away from Terra Nova with no working radio, have to spend the night in a tree to avoid getting eaten by all times of nocturnal dinosaurs. They fall asleep in each other's arms. Can't you feel the weight of their romance??

Jim escapes his underground prison with Zoe, just in time to help Taylor fend off an attack from a massive spinosaurus at Terra Nova's main gates. But that was just a diversion for Mira’s men to break in and reclaim the box that seems to have no visible opening. Taylor and Jim kick ass and take names, but one of Mira’s lackeys escapes with her box.

Power is restored the next day thanks to Boylan’s chip machine. Skye’s friend survived the surgery and Maddie is returned home safe, and as far as her family knows she never left the house during the EMP outtage. Slick! And much to Josh's dismay, his mom took a liking to Skye during the outtage and invites her over for dinner.

But Taylor is not happy. And why would he be? Mira’s men knew exactly where to find her special box. Which means there is a mole still inside Terra Nova. He tasks Jim with finding this hole and plugging it.

Outside of Terra Nova, we see Mira handing off her box to a new and rather rude stranger who seems to be senior to her. Of course, he is able to open the box by means of his thumbprint, which brings up a lot of floating holographic symbols and such. Not only that, he also seems to be Taylor’s long lost son! Twist!

My thoughts:
didn’t really care that much for the crisis of the week, as it seems rather stupid that the technology of 2149 was not equipped with some type of anti-EMP protection.

And isn’t Maddie 15 years old? If so, why is a grown man (Reynolds) allowed to date her? Guess there’s no ‘To Catch a Predator’ 85 Million years ago.

But the reveal of Taylor’s son, while predictable, was cool. Should be cool to see where that goes.

Til next time, folks!

- CCE