Terra Nova Episode Review: The Runaway

Terra Nova’s fifth episode, The Runaway, saw a much-needed return to the show’s overall story arc. So far, with the exception of the pilot episode Genesis, Terra Nova has only been an average series. There’s definitely a lot of potential, but so far, it remained untapped.

When an orphaned Sixer girl shows up on Terra Nova’s doorstep, however, we finally get to see more of this mysterious group of renegades and their even more mysterious objectives. When the girl, however, turns out to be somewhat of a Trojan horse, a renewed showdown between Taylor and the Sixers—mainly their leader, Mira—is imminent.

Showdown! Or not?
The execution of this showdown, though, leaves much to be desired. More than anything, this is evident when Taylor, who is supposed to be our fierce and remorseless leader, tells Mira, “This is the second time you’ve come to my gates and threatened the colony. There won’t be a third—next time I’m going to war.” Five episodes in, it’s already time for war to start, or at least something more than old friends chatting outside the gates.

In fact, while this was definitely some forward progression for the Sixer arc, raising a lot of questions and delving a bit deeper into that part of the show that may well lead it to great heights, I had hoped for a better story to bring us there. The story of the Sixer girl was weak at best, and in many ways, this felt like the ultimate filler episode, raising questions and bringing movement to the overall arc without giving viewers an entertaining story in doing so.

Family drama
Other than some much-needed mystery and overall arc development, more things were great, though. In my last couple of reviews, I complained about the extreme use of clichés and familiar TV tropes in Terra Nova. Thankfully, this episode had practically none of those. It was quite refreshing, actually! The dramatic backstories—stories of a family thrust into strange territory, dealing with regular family drama—become more and more interesting as well. Terra Nova is definitely developing into a good drama show, focusing on the human side instead of the sensational dinosaurs.

Balance, please
What Terra Nova needs is a good balance between a great story and an intriguing overall arc. And perhaps some more sensational dinosaurs, because really, that is why most of us tune in—and they don’t put all those dinosaurs in the episode promos if they don’t know this already, right?

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