Terra Nova: The Runaway

"They mostly come at night. Mostly."

Did they cast that little girl based on her resemblance to Carrie Henn? Why didn't they just give her a plastic doll head to carry around, too?

The whole thing with little Leah just screamed set-up. Why would the Sixers ignore a little girl with no family, feed her scraps and deny her hair-care products, and then mount a full-level assault on Terra Nova to get her back? That said, using a kid to infiltrate Terra Nova and retrieve the weird and mysterious box was smart. And it just goes to show you that when you set up a colony in 85 million B.C., you need to take along child protective services.

What is Terra Nova really about? (The settlement, not the show. Or maybe the settlement and the show.) We got more strong hints that the pilgrimages are about a lot more than manifest destiny. Auntie Entity/Mira has a daughter named Sienna, and the Powers That Be in 2149 are holding her in order to make Mira do what they want. I found it interesting that Jim didn't tell Taylor what he just learned about Mira. Jim probably likes Taylor as much as I do, but that does not preclude the possibility that there might be a huge, secret Taylor agenda. Smart of Jim to keep his mouth shut. Even though he did some serious dumb stuff first.

Jim took off into the jungle to find the Sixers, all by himself, and rescue Leah's brother, all by himself, and I started thinking it was time for a dino cameo since we hadn't seen one yet. My cat's favorite toy is what I call his "dangly toy." It looks like a fishing pole with a bunch of leather strips attached to the end, and when I bring it out, he jumps up and bats at it. (And after a few minutes he gets tired and lies there watching it intently while I exercise my arm, but I digress.) When Jim stepped in the trap and wound up dangling upside down from the end of a bungee cord, all I could think of was "dinosaur dangly toy" and I could not stop laughing, which is bad when your hero is in mortal danger. In fact, at this point, Dan and I started actively MSTying the rest of the episode, which later included our impression of Dean Winchester doing Brad Pitt in Seven, "What's in the box?"

It's not that this was a bad episode. It was fun and I enjoyed watching it. I even liked little Leah slash Newt, who convincingly went from prehistoric hair mats to sedate braids and lived happily ever after. But we're several episodes in and I'm getting the impression that there isn't going to be a lot of depth to this series. It's about 180 degrees away from my previous favorite series set in a jungle.

Anyway, to wrap up this travesty of a review with the remaining plot point, I don't think Maddy is cut out for medicine. Does that mean that being the wooden Mark Reynolds' wife is her only career choice? Isn't there something else in Terra Nova that Maddy can do that doesn't involve cooking or child care? I did like the reveal that the courtship rules were handed down by Taylor, though it seems old fashioned for a man who has a woman as his second in command.

Bits and pieces:

— The fight scene in the opener just made me more certain of how much I like Lt. Washington.

— I know I've mentioned it – then again, maybe I haven't – but the look of this show is impressive. The confrontation at the gate was something to see.

— The Sixers move around a lot, and live in treehouses. I like treehouses.

— Malcolm sounded just a bit like a Sixer spy, didn't he?

— I really liked the scene where Taylor charmed Leah into liking him by promising her a future gig as one of his soldiers. He's good with kids. Very cute.

— We got maybe one minute of Josh, as he was complaining about being forced to babysit while the rest of the family worked. Poor, poor Josh. Take some lessons from Taylor on how to be cool with kids, Josh. Get written out of the series, Josh.

— There was mention of New Texas.

— This week's Most Obvious Symbolism was when Leah touched the lamp in Josh's bedroom, and it lit up.

— Mira's yellow face paint and hair decorations are awesome.

— No new episode next week.

A couple of quotes:

Reynolds: "As you know, I've begun the initial stages of courting Maddy, and I was wondering if I could..."
Jim: "Excuse me, Reynolds. You are aware that I carry a gun, have a quick temper, and tend to hold grudges, right?"

Jim: "I married a doctor for a reason." I thought that was funny.

Two out of four dinosaur dangly toys,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

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