‘Terra Nova’ Recap (Season 1, Episode 10): Spy Games

I knew there was a reason why I always liked Skye, and tonight’s Terra Nova, “Now You See Me”, confirmed it: she’s the Sixer spy!

But Jim and the gang don’t know it yet. While Taylor is OTG, Jim is in charge and he’s taking the time to double down on finding the traitor. He and Reynolds (Maddy’s beau) spot mirror flashes coming from the jungle and realize the Sixers must be trying to communicate with the spy. A quick sweep of the camp with their Nerf binoculars and they spot the return flashes coming from the new housing construction complex.

When they reach the houses, Skye has slipped away. Interestingly, her identity as the mole is divulged to the audience even before the first commercial break. You’d think it would be the dramatic reveal of the episode, but rather than build up to it (they’ve been doing that since episode one), they brought the viewers in on the secret before the rest of the characters and used it to build tension, something the show sorely lacks. Smart move on Terra Nova’s part.

Skye accidentally cut herself on her signal mirror and left one tell-tale drop of blood in a bucket of paint thinner. Lucky for her, Jim is the worst lawman this side of the Permian Extinction and he accidentally dissolves the drop of blood into the paint thinner, making it nearly impossible to identify. Undeterred, he brings the jar to Malcolm for identification. Unwilling to help his rival, Malcolm initially refuses, but Jim lurks around long enough – breaking beakers and lighting things on fire in the process – that Malcolm changes his tune and agrees to help.

Skye tags along with Josh and the other ditch diggers as an excuse to get out of the camp. Once outside, she slips away and meets up with her Sixer contact – a dirty chap in a presumably dino-skin vest – who brings her to the main Sixer camp. Once Skye has delivered the Terra Novan intel, she’s allowed to visit with her mom. Supposedly dead from syncillic fever, Mrs. Skye is in fact alive, but barely. Apparently, the Sixers have a “cure” (for syncillic fever? It’s never officially stated what ails her) and in exchange for Skye’s help, they keep her mom alive.

A cure? Doesn’t seem like much of one to me. As Taylor and Skye discuss in the opening of “Now You See Me”, it’s the three-year anniversary of syncillic fever descending on Terra Nova. So Skye’s mom has been sick for three years, despite being treated. Skye might want to do the math again before continuing to risk her life.

After spending a few brief moments with her mom, Skye slinks back into Terra Nova for her evening shift at the hospital. She fiddles with the blood test Malcolm is running and destroys the results, but not before the test discerns that the spy is female.

Taylor returns from his expedition where he was captured by Mira, then chased by territorial Slashers. He and Mira teamed up to fight the dino’s the old school way – with flaming spears and arrows – and in between attacks they deliver lots of back story that I’m fairly convinced will never be brought up again, so I won’t mention it here. The only takeaway from his trip is that Lucas is getting closer to making a two-way portal.

“Now You See Me” is a solid episode by Terra Nova standards. There were a fair amount of dinosaurs in this episode, a total of three, including Zoe’s adorable baby Anklysaurus. But more importantly, tonight worked in a lot of pieces, like Taylor and Skye’s father/daughter relationship and the deadly syncillic fever, which were mentioned in earlier episodes but seemed to have fallen through the cracks. And of course the revelation of the mole is a good catalyst into the final episodes. Skye is a great choice for the Sixer spy – she was a strong character from the beginning and just begging for something interesting to do. The only downside is that this likely signs her death warrant by the end of the season. Here’s hoping Josh sacrifices himself to save her.

The preview for the remaining episodes highlights armies and explosions and Lucas winking a lot, so my expectations have been raised slightly. Perhaps a fool’s hope, but a hope nonetheless.

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