First off I feel like I should apologize for this write up being posted on here so late in the week.  I had an eventful week to say the least, I just started a new job and this was the week of thanksgiving after all.  Thankfully my new job did not require me to be at work today, black Friday, so here I am finally doing my write up on the Terra Nova episode from Monday.  Speaking of thanksgiving, Terra Nova had their own celebration this week called the harvest festival.  I assume this was their attempt to have something similar to thanksgiving but not quite.  There was no big feast but there was a play, where they reenact the first pilgrimage into Terra Nova that was lead by none other than Commander Nathaniel Taylor.  Zoe Shannon has been selected to play the lead role of Commander Taylor, and in the play Jim finds the answer he has been trying to find from the moment Boylan tells him about the body.  

This week’s episode was entitled “Vs” and it left me waiting for some big throw down fight to happen.  I mean, I guess we kinda saw that fight?  It was more Commander Taylor telling Jim what happened between himself and General Richard Filbrick.  General Filbrick is the one armed man who Taylor shot and then with the help of Boylan, buried by the pilgrimage tree.  I kept waiting for Jim to discover some deep dark secret about Taylor, but it never really happened.  I just kept thinking that this was it, Jim was going to discover that Taylor really is the bad guy in all of this, and the Sixers are doing what is right, but no, I was way off.  It turns out Taylor really is the good guy.  Yes he disobeyed orders from his commander and mentor which eventually led to him killing the general, but Taylor did it to protect Terra Nova.  Taylor will do anything to protect the safety of Terra Nova even banishing his only son.

I think we the audience had a lot of questions answered in this episode.  I know I personally could not understand why Taylor allowed Boylan to run his bar/casino right in the middle of Terra Nova.  Taylor had an obvious problem with this but still continued to allow it.  Now we know why.  Boylan helped Taylor bury General Filbrick and agreed to keep it a secret in exchange for him running the bar.  Boylan had no idea who the body was, or who killed him but he agreed to help.  We also now know why the Sixers were sent to Terra Nova and what their main objective is.  Lucas Taylor and General Filbrick were all working for the same group of people who want to create a way to open a portal that takes them back 2140.  They then want to use that portal to bring resources back to 2140 and in turn make themselves even more wealthy.  Taylor is in Terra Nova to create a new humanity, and he is willing to do anything to protect that.  He even went so far as to essentially black mail Jim into keeping everything he had discovered a secret.  Taylor also asks Jim to fight beside him in giving humanity a second chance, and to do so they must stop the Sixers.

This whole episode seemed to me like it was the first time we would see the dark side of Commander Taylor, and in turn a much lighter side of the Sixers.  While it kind of started out that way it ended up being the exact opposite.  Taylor is nothing but good.  He is so good in fact that he will use dirty tactics to protect what is right, and that in turn makes him an even better good guy.  Even though we have learned so much more about what is going on behind the scenes at Terra Nova, there were so many more questions presented to us.  Who are these people from 2140 who want these precious resources and Nathaniel Taylor dead?  Also why are the Sixers willing to work for these people?  What kind of deal has been made in 2140 that would make them want to destroy Terra Nova?  It seems like everyone in 2140 wants to be in Terra Nova so why would the Sixers want to go there only to mess it all up?  Just doesn’t make any sense to me, at least not yet.