Terra Nova: Nightfall

Man, that was a big dinosaur! That was one of my first thoughts after finishing Nightfall, which resolved the mystery of what's inside the box (sort of.), introduced some new elements, had some solid stories about the family, and most importantly gave us the "Go Away Spider" song, which was adorable.

Basically, a falling meteor served as an EMP and wiped out all the technology in Terra Nova and the surrounding area. This comes at a bad time for our characters, because Jim and Zoe are in "The Eye" (a virtual encylopedia/roller coaster simulator.), which locks electronically, Elizabeth is about to perform surgery on Hunter (appearing for the first time since a dinosaur almost killed him in the Pilot), while a nervous Skye watches on, Maddy and Reynolds are out on an unauthorized date somewhere, and Taylor has nothing but the fence to protect the colony from threats. Also Mira finds out that the colony is unprotected and marches a massive dinosaur to the gates. Seriously, that thing was enormous.

The Jim and Zoe plot was a nice bonding moment for the pair, who haven't really had a story together so far. I bought Zoe as a scared 5-year-old, so I wasn't annoyed by her constant wondering about what an EMP would do or her fear of spiders. And as I mentioned above, the song Jim invented in order to get her to go through the small access hatch and let them out, so he could be there for the climax was adorable. Since this is a show about a family and Zoe was a big part of the set-up for this show, it was good to see the father/daughter dynamic between the pair develop.

Maddy and Reynold's date wasn't that exciting, but it had some nice moments in it. It also introduced the idea of camoflauging "stink mud" and furthered along the Maddy/Reynolds relationship (obviously), which I'm assuming is going to pay off in some way by the seasons end. Skye's story was also significant, if only because it's the first time since the pilot that she's interacted with anyone besides Josh for a significant amount of time. Watching her help Elizabeth and form a bond of sorts with her was interesting and it'll be nice to see if this affects the season in any way. It also has her confronted with the fact that she loves Josh, as Hunter points out at the most inopportune time (though it was necessary to raise the stakes.). Also, the parasite inside Hunter was disgusting... in a good way.

As far as the Taylor story goes, I'm fine with the bartender getting some extra depth, as he may have worked for Taylor at some point. I'm a bit more iffy with the idea of a chip generator machine, which seemed a little too convenient as a solution to the problem, but I can accept it for story purposes. And they had to fix the chip machine first, so at least it wasn't super easy. I also liked the climax with Taylor coming up with a fire shield of sorts to fend off the titanic Dinosaur, only to realize that it was all a Sixer diversion to get the box. The bartender saving Taylor was a nice touch, which shows that the bartender isn't completely on the Sixers side. I'm even beginning to suspect that he isn't the mole! And the sixers do wind up with the box, and they give it to the one man who can open it... Taylor's son, whose name I've forgotten at the moment, but I want to say Lucas! So he opens up and we see... mysterious technology which is left mostly unexplained! I'm fine with this, because I'm sure we'll get an explanation soon. The interesting thing is that the box wasn't affected by the EMP, despite containing all Technology. Hmmm...

All in all, this was another good week for Terra Nova, that once again left me wanting more. As we head into the back half of the season, my hopes are high and I am confident that they will deliver.

Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)

Memorable Moments

Dinosaur Scene Count: I wanna say 4. I forget how many times we saw the massive dinosaur.

Best Dinosaur Scene: Anything with the aforementioned Ginormous dinosaur.

That Was A Stupid Idea: Really, Hunter? You're going to tell a girl you want to be more than friends as she tries a tricky parasite extraction? Really?

-"Go away spiders, go-go-go. "We don't like you, no-no-no."

-Taylor's son is resentful of his father. Figures.