This week’s episode of Terra Nova marked a major milestone in human history and yet another dumb decision by Josh that’ll have enormous repercussions later this season. “Bylaw” dealt heavily with just that – Terra Nova’s bylaws, especially the ones that relate to murder most foul. The episode begins with a soldier (Foster) being killed by a dinosaur inside a maintenance shed, and after another dinosaur’s blood is discovered on the body, Jim begins to suspect foul play might be involved. Since Terra Nova takes place in a different timeline than the one that led to 2149, Jim is literally investigating Earth’s first murder and must track down the Terra Nova equivalent of Cain. That’s quite a weighty task for the colony’s one and only police officer.
Falling on your sword for someone you love…or not.
With the help of Maddy’s boyfriend, Jim finds out that Foster had a girlfriend and kept pictures of her on the ID tag around his neck. That leads us to a philandering housewife (murder, adultery and gambling – sure glad they made the journey back in time!) whose husband promptly confesses to the murder and even provides explicit details to specific to fake. It seems like Taylor’s got his man and I must say, he takes the news of Terra Nova’s first murder pretty rough. This is one element I hope Terra Nova never forgets if it’s lucky enough to last several seasons: although the colonists experienced murder in 2149, they’ve been given a fresh start and tasked with charting mankind’s new history. Every atrocity and loss the colony experiences will be written into the history books and the impact of those events should always be felt by those in charge.
With Milner’s confession, Taylor makes the tough decision to banish him from the colony. This decision doesn’t sit well with Jim after an argument with Elisabeth that revolves around the application of justice (see below) so he makes one of his usual treks into the jungle to retrieve Milner and find out more information. Turns out the poor sap only confessed to the murder because he didn’t want his cheating wife banished from the colony! Because as it just so happens, Foster broke things off with Rebecca (the wife), so when Jim came sniffing around about Foster’s murder, Milner wrongly assumed his wife was behind it and confessed in order to spare her life. Geez, these two have some serious trust issues to work out. Are there therapists in Terra Nova?
It was you?! (Cue random guy the audience doesn’t recognize.)
With Milner off the chopping block, Jim and Taylor resume their efforts to find Foster’s killer. This is where “Bylaw” went off the rails a little for me. I liked the ever-shady Boylan getting called in for questioning, liked the wild goose chase into the jungle once he “escaped” and I loved the reveal of Boylan sitting with Lt. Washington back in Terra Nova. Then it turns out Jim and Taylor arranged the whole thing to set up Curran, the real killer and one of Foster’s fellow soldiers. This reveal totally came out of left field. First, we have idea who Curran is (I had to pull his name of IMDB) or why we should care about him. Second, the proof that he’s Foster’s killer – something about him owing Foster a gambling debt – was never shown to us or even hinted at prior to the reveal. The whole thing felt sloppy, but hey, the bad guy was caught, exiled and a baby dinosaur was born, so who cares?
Switching gears: the dynamic between Taylor and Jim continues to fascinate me. Taylor’s a military man to the core and proved in this episode that he believes in following the letter of the law. (Interesting side note: listen to Taylor’s speech again. The use of the word “worthy” really struck me as a loaded term. Sounds like Terra Nova’s fearless leader might be developing a God complex.) Then we have Jim, a man who was unfairly imprisoned – but imprisoned nonetheless – and came to Terra Nova by illegal means. And yet Taylor trusts him to a fault, going so far as to put his reputation on the line when Jim gets a gut feeling that they made a mistake banishing Milner. At best, Taylor rushed into trusting Jim and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw their partnership strained later in the season.
Note to self: never ask Josh for advice.
Josh spent the majority of this episode compounding his earlier mistake of making a deal with Boylan to bring Kara to Terra Nova. Considering Boylan’s connection to Mira, it was only a matter of time before Josh met the leader of the Sixers and a deal was struck. As for Mira’s “favor to be named later?” My guess is still that she wants the box from last week’s episode but I also wouldn’t be surprised if she wanted something that would undermine Taylor within Terra Nova. Like maybe Josh letting the Sixers into the colony the same way Draco smuggled Death Eaters into Hogwarts in Half Blood Prince? I’d love to hear your guesses.
Random thought from this episode...
A dinosaur and a plant that eats things… the Taylor household is turning into a regular house of horrors.
Big question we’re left to ponder...
Is frontier justice really the right approach for Terra Nova? (Sound off below!)
