TERRA NOVA: “Now You See Me” – RECAP

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At this point, I just can’t wait for Terra Nova to finish up its run so I can never watch it again. After Monday’s episode, I’ve come to the conclusion this show doesn’t want to be anything more than what it has been: a broken mess indecisive over what it wants to be. I remember watching the pilot back in September and feeling so jazzed by what we saw. It was a little hokey, but it was fun. Terra Nova has rarely been fun since then, putting a strange emphasis on the Shannon family and silly problem of the weeks plotlines while steering clear of what many viewers came to see in the first place: dinosaurs. While more recently the focus has at least shifted away from the children of the Shannon clan, it hasn’t been the most thrilling and new-life breathing change.

For weeks now, there’s been talk of a spy in Terra Nova and a search for said spy. In “Now You See Me”, we finally discover the identity of the spy and it was likely the most uninspiring reveal I’ve seen in quite some time. We know the spy had to be one of the main characters, with the Shannons ruled out due to their only recent arrival to Terra Nova. Taylor and Malcolm have been proven innocent, leaving only Wash, Maddie’s boyfriend and Skye. The show decides the spy is Skye, and you can figure it out seconds before they even show you it’s her. It was such an obvious “Oh Em Gee” moment that it could be seen coming a mile away. I was left thinking, “Okay, let’s just see where they’re taking this,” hoping they’d at least go all out and make her a villain. Instead they try to make her betrayal sympathetic, revealing the Sixers, who apparently are the only ones with a cure for whatever disease has been plaguing Terra Nova, are looking after Skye’s sick and dying mother. Hence, if she doesn’t help the Sixers, mommy doesn’t get her medicine. I’ll have more on this in a bit.

Meanwhile, Taylor and Mira are having a little jungle adventure together after Mira captures Taylor. By captured I of course mean “temporarily handcuffed”, as it was only a matter of time before Taylor escaped his bonds and reversed the situation. Bad luck struck both of them when a couple Slashers decided to hunt them, forcing them to work together. First of all, YAY DINOSAURS! Second of all, this was a great idea for a story, though it was handled rather poorly. Most of Mira and Taylor’s conversations were littered with hammy dialogue, particularly when they were preparing to face off with the Slashers. My favorite line was Taylor’s inexplicable “and then, we fight,” after explaining their game plan, as if this was some bad action movie. Oh wait, it kind of is. On the plus side the action bits were pretty cool, one of Terra Nova‘s few strong points.

All the bad dialogue and dinos aside, Taylor and Mira almost bonded during their time together, with Taylor going so far as to suggest the two of them would have made a great team if they were on the same side. I see this as set up for Mira to switch over to Terra Nova in the near future, likely during the finale. What would have made all this more intriguing is if the show had gone a darker route with Skye’s storyline. If they had just made her a straight up bad person just pretending to be good, it would have made for great contrast with what was happening with Mira, who’s just discovering she’s not so different from the good guys. Alas, that’s a scenario that will just have to sit tight in my head, never to see the light of day.