It seems that after a few frustrating weeks, we’re finally starting to gain some traction with Terra Nova. “Nightfall” is the best entry the young series has offered us thus far mainly because it sets in motion some interesting storylines and gives us a high-stakes hour of television. As a Smallville fan, I’m well aware of the devastation a meteor shower can cause and it was nice to see that this force of nature had a serious impact on the colony. With its weapons offline, Terra Nova was a sitting duck inside a fence that we’ve seen breached on multiple occasions. When you throw in Maddy and Mark being stuck in the jungle, Jim and Zoe isolated in the Eye and pissed-off Sixers on the march, you begin to see “Nightfall” as the jammed-pack hour of television that it was. Thankfully, it delivered.
If you could divert your attention away from the dinosaur, please.
When you get past the meteors and the dinosaurs, “Nightfall” was at its heart an episode about relationships. Seriously, they were everywhere: Jim-Zoe, Maddy-Mark, Nathaniel-Lucas, Skye-Hunter, etc. Terra Nova still doesn’t have the best-written or most likable characters but you have to credit the writers for trying to make them more engaging and fleshing out their relationships. I thought the scenes with Jim and Zoe were adorable and showed a family dynamic that we haven’t seen enough of yet. Zoe’s wide-eyed wonderment inside the Eye was adorable and very honest – that place was amazing! The Eye is one of the cooler pieces of future tech we’ve seen but I have a hard time understanding why it’s in the basement of some random building and why more people aren’t using it. I guess Jim had a reservation?
Mark and Maddy had the least engaging relationship. Their plight in the jungle outside Terra Nova was based on a contrived plot detail – Mark, a soldier, didn’t tell anyone where he was going? – and suffered from horrid dialogue. Maddy’s “Do you think we’ll die out here?” is the worst line I’ve heard uttered this season on television. Mark’s response was equally cheesy and the clichés just continued from there. Mark’s character is so bad (I’ve never seen “Twilight” but I’d imagine he’d fit right in) I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he didn’t survive this season. Not only does he seem the most likely candidate to get the axe should it fall but that would give Maddy some emotion to work through next season. I’m getting ahead of myself though, so let’s continue talking about this episode.
The Sixers want blood…and the box.
With two boring storylines (Maddy-Mark and Skye’s friend in the hospital, which you knew would turn out OK) and two that got resolved (Jim-Zoe and rebuilding the chip), the strongest element of “Nightfall” was the Sixers storyline by default. All season we’ve been left to ponder their agenda and this episode made things a bit clearer. First and foremost, the Sixers wanted the box that Taylor was hiding, so when Terra Nova’s security went out, they saddled up their dinosaur and headed out. (Side note: the dinosaur CG looks bad, plain and simple. We’re six episodes in and it hasn’t gotten any better. That’s not a good sign since dinosaurs are a major marketing point for this show.) But as Taylor and Jim found out, the dinosaur was just there to distract them from Mira’s henchmen stealing the box. They arrived at its hiding place just in time to throw down with three Sixers in what amounted to a fantastically brutal fight. What Terra Nova lacks in characterization it makes up for with fight choreography. Give those guys a well-deserved raise because that was one of the better fights I’ve seen in a TV show.
The scuffle ends with Mira recovering the box and Taylor yelling melodramatically after her. No, he really does yell. It’s kind of weird. Turns out the mysterious box houses research notes belonging to none other than Lucas, Taylor’s long lost son who gets an ambiguous introduction here. He appears to be working with the Sixers and might even be in a position of authority over them, as evidenced by his condescending attitude toward Mira. Judging from the fact that he says the Sixers are finally doing what they were sent to Terra Nova to do, I feel pretty confident that Lucas and the Sixers share the same agenda. Whatever it is, my gut says we’re headed for an inevitable father-son showdown between Taylor and Lucas, which begs the question: would Taylor kill his own son? From what we’ve seen of Terra Nova’s leader thus far, my vote is “yes.” I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts below.
Random thought from this episode…
We have another contender for best line of the season. Taylor’s “let’s dance” was fantastic.
Big question we’re left to ponder…
Who’s controlling the Sixers?
