Terra Nova continues toward the end of its first season order with tonight’s eighth episode ‘Vs.,’and with it mysteries are revealed as Jim uncovers a literal skeleton in Commander Taylor’s figurative closet, and Terra Nova prepares for a harvest festival that a Sixer spy may have infiltrated.
Didn’t get a chance to watch? Well, read on for everything you need to know about Terra Nova‘s ‘Vs.’!
A prehistoric dragonfly hovers over Terra Nova, making its way across the landscape, passing by soldiers heading out on patrol, and eventually landing in a Sixers’camp, perching on Mira’s arm, who welcomes it with ‘what have you got for me today?
After his arrest last week, Boylan sits in a Terra Nova brig while Commander Taylor demands to know what information he’s given up, or the location of his son Lucas. Boylan insists he knows nothing , and Taylor leaves the bartender to get some rest to the sweet sounds of screaming alarms. Meanwhile, the Shannons prepare for the upcoming ‘Harvest Festival,’when Josh pulls his father aside to question Boylan’s whereabouts, and the justification of his being detained.
Jim himself then takes the question to Taylor, and the Commander shows Jim that even spiking Boylan’s food hasn’t elicited the answers he’d hoped for, the camp remaining unaware of how the Sixers trade messages with Terra Nova. When Wash calls Taylor away for a moment, Boylan deliriously starts threatening Taylor, actually Jim, that he’ll expose what Taylor buried over by Pilgrim’s Tree. Jim goes to investigate the cryptic secret, learning from Malcolm of the location of Pilgrim’s Tree, where Taylor was said to have stayed in the first days of Terra Nova. He digs around the location, and finds a skeleton!
Jim and Elisabeth Shannon examine the skeletal remains , noting that its’missing its right arm and a rib fracture may suggest the victim was shot, while Jim refuses to tell Taylor of his findings just yet. Out in the Junge, Marks supply convoy finds itself ambushed by Mira and the other Sixers, who ransack it for supplies.
Maddie continues staging Zoe and the other children in their play telling the history of Terra Nova, when the earlier-glimpsed dragonfly swoops down and spooks them, until a soldier bats it to the ground. Upon further investigation, the dragonfly has a microchip tethered to it, making it a carrier pigeon of sorts that the Sixers have been using to trade messages. Unfortunately it’s wings are damaged, and they can’t use it to find the Terra Nova mole. However, Mark reports that Mira attacked his convoy, which means Boylan couldn’t have been the one supplying information.
Elisabeth discovers that the body didn’t come through on any known pilgrimage, and Jim leaves to question the newly released Boylan. Boylan reveals that while he doesn’t know who killed the body or why, he helped Taylor bury it, the Commander muttering about how this was his son Lucas’fault, and that night was the last anyone saw of Lucas. The private investigation goes public however as Malcolm finds Elisabeth’s work on the body, and brings Taylor himself into the loop, while Jim brushes it off as having been found by an anonymous tip.
Later, Malcolm figures out the frequency being used to send the dragonfly to and fro, and surgically manages to repair the creature’s wings, Taylor planning to use it during the Harvest Festival. At the festival, Taylor, Wash and Malcolm follow the creature, as Jim and Elisabeth realize by watching Zoe’s play that Commander Taylor’s commanding officer General Fillbrook only had one arm. Before they can do anything about it, Taylor shows up to arrest Jim, the Dragonfly having gone right to the Shannons!
Now in the brig himself, Jim refuses to drop his investigation of the body, even if it means Taylor dropping the charges of being the spy. Then, the silver-haired commander opens up and reveals that the body in question indeed belongs to Fillbrook, and would have killed him had he not taken action. Apparently those employing Fillbrook and the Sixers planned to use Terra Nova for its resources rather than a second chance for humanity, and Taylor’s own son Lucas was close to making the time-fracture a two way portal.
Taylor destroyed his son’s work, and eventually tracked the boy into the jungle, where Lucas revealed he’d been working with Fillbrook, bringing him from the future directly with his own personal portal. Fillbrook claims bigger players are manipulating Terra Nova, and Taylor shoots the General in self-defense. Of course, he can’t bring himself to kill Lucas, and allows the boy to flee into the jungle vowing to return.
In the present , Taylor and Jim agree that the people of Terra Nova shouldn’t know their community was built on a lie, and Taylor releases Jim from captivity knowing he’s not the spy. Everyone returns to the Harvest festival, as Taylor takes the stage and delivers a rousing speech to the crowd, igniting nearby fireworks that Lucas observes from out in the jungle.
Did you get your fill of dino-action? What did you think about the episode? Join us next week for an all-new episode recap of Terra Nova on FOX!