La Brea
“Maya”
January 23, 2024
~glares at the TV~
~takes a long sip of Pinot Grigio~
Dr. Sam is STILL on this whole, “Wander Aimlessly Around the Prehistoric Jungle Looking for My Daughter Who is in Some Other Time and Space” plan, but Gavin is trying to bring a little order and logic to this, arguing that they should head to where Ladera Air Force Base will be … or is … who knows, and find this Maya Schmidt person who supposedly knows where Eve is. Listen, it’s as much of a plan as anyone has, I guess.
So they go wander off into the woods using a mountain as a landmark to ensure they are headed in the right direction, Gavin lamenting the entire time that there are holes in his memory that he just can’t access. As they get closer to where the base should be, Dr. Sam and Gavin’s Spidey start sensing they are in danger, and guess what — they are. A poorly-rendered CGI fuzzy rhino emerges from the bushes and menaces the men.
And it’s a bad news/good news situation: As they RUN AWAY!, the poorly-rendered CGI fuzzy rhino explodes! Yay! (?)
Except, it doesn’t take Dr. Sam long to realize that’s because they are on a literal minefield. Boo. But they don’t have time to tiptoe around, because soon a military helicopter is flying towards them, and they have to run towards the woods. And just when they think they are safe, a soldier rocking a tattoo with that one symbol from Maya Schmidt’s business card appears and pulls a gun on them. EXCEPT! As he leads Dr. Sam and Gavin into the woods, the soldier is bonked on the head by said Maya Schmidt, and they are saved. What an unlikely and yet fortuitous series of events!
As Dr. Sam, Gavin, and this Maya woman make their way down the beach trying to avoid the military patrols, they offer each other some exposition: Maya’s looking for her daughter; they saw her daughter get taken by these people; Gavin was told she knew where his missing wife is; but Maya didn’t even know Eve is missing, so, no, actually.
We then are offered a whole NEW explanation for what is going on here: The government was conducting a series of tests on time travel and Gavin and some other pilots were part of that testing.
WHICH, JUST HOLD ON UP. What about the whole, “Gavin’s parents are from the future and they invented time travel to save the planet” thing? Have we changed the entire mythology of this series now that we have killed Gavin’s parents off or are these two completely divergent explanations going to converge?
ANYWAY. Gavin is like, “If I was a part of this supposed testing, why don’t I remember any of it?” And Maya is all, “Yeah, my bad. My job was to create a drug that would wipe y’all’s memories. SRY.”
HOLD UP. Again: we were told that Gavin’s memory issues were because of him being brought from 10,000 B.C. to the present as a child … or something … and now we’re being told that WELL AKSHULLY, it’s because drugs? Which is it? Is it both? Also, how likely is it that Gavin was taken from the future to 10,000 B.C. as a child only to be returned to the present to grow up and be intimately involved with the same time travel project that transported him as a child? BUT I AM SURE THIS WILL ALL BE EXPLAINED IN THE CAPABLE AND TALENTED HANDS OF THIS WRITING STAFF.
Maya explains that she was planning on being a whistleblower to the whole plan, but before she could, she and her daughter were captured and brought to 10,000 B.C. where they became separated.
Gavin’s like, “Yeah, that’s a shame, but why would someone tell me that you knew where to find Eve?” Maya’s not sure, but she has an idea: SHROOMS.
Maya gathers some prehistoric mushrooms and makes a tea for Gavin which will either allow him to access his memories or induce a heart attack, WHO KNOWS? Oh, and there’s the whole other “he’s an addict” thing, too. But Gavin’s desperate and drinks the tea and allows Maya to guide him through his memories. She asks him about the message about Eve, and he claims it came through a “double aurora.” He also sees flashes of a name tag with “Harris” on it, a tattoo, a keypad and a code, and a safe opening before he starts seizing.
And then, SOMEHOW, Maya and Dr. Sam manage to get a completely unconscious Gavin back to the fort by themselves because when he comes to, it’s in a hut. There he explains that he had a vision of breaking into a safe and stealing a microchip. Maybe, Gavin postulates, the people who told him Maya could help him find Eve were really just after this microchip all along! HE IS BEING USED!
Over in plots B & C: Lucas wants a spot on the leadership council with the locals, but instead of asking the leader for that spot, he has his girlfriend do it instead. And when Veronica pitches Lucas to Ruth, Ruth is like, “Nah, but how about you be on it instead?”
When Veronica breaks the news to Lucas, he pouts.
HEY BIG GUY, if you’re such a great leader, why didn’t you go and ask that spot yourself instead of having your girlfriend do it for you?
And then there’s Izzy and Ruth’s daughter Leyla. They go on a boar hunt; Leyla falls into a tar pit. And frankly, having been to La Brea, I’m disappointed tar pits haven’t been a bigger threat in this series all along.
Anyway, there’s a lot of heart-to-heart talking about how Leyla had a twin brother but now he’s dead and she hasn’t killed a boar yet but wants to prove that she can, blah blah blah. Izzy fashions a rope out of vines or some such, and ties it to a tree before passing it off to Leyla just as a boar emerges from the woods. Izzy shoots at it a couple of times but misses, but NO WORRIES, because completely off-screen, Leyla manages to get herself out of the tar pit, grab her bow and arrow, and shoot and kill the boar before it can attack Izzy. How unlikely and yet fortuitous!
And that’s when it’s revealed that these two have the hots for one another.
Finally, the 2021 plot. Ty and Dr. Sam have brought Gavin to a diner and explained the whole, “Yeah, we’re all trapped in 10,000 B.C. maybe because of your dead dad, maybe because the government, who knows, and we need you to get us onto Ladera Air Force Base because reasons.” Gavin is like, “Let me think about it in the bathroom,” and runs away.
Ty and Dr. Sam decide to split up and check out all the nearby bars in an effort to find Gavin, which is a good plan! EXCEPT.
Instead of checking out the bars on his list, Ty decides to stalk his ex-wife, who is busy minding her own business at a park somewhere. As he approaches, she’s like, “Oh hey, not interested in talking to you, thanks.” And when she gets up to leave, the contents of her purse spill out, including a flask. She starts screaming about being a failure before running off, leaving Ty to have a sad.
Ty then returns to his original mission and finds Dr. Sam and Gavin at some dive bar and orders a drink. He goes on to explain to Gavin that he’s done trying to convince him to help, before explaining that he has it pretty bad too: tonight his ex-wife will try to deal with her own demons at an AA meeting and instead somehow cause a car accident that will put a young father in a coma, and there’s nothing he can do to stop it from happening.
Gavin urges Ty to tell her what will happen, but he’s like, “WELL, I’M CLEARLY NOT AN EFFECTIVE MESSENGER BECAUSE THE TWO OF US ARE SITTING HERE DRINKING SCOTCH.”
And so we find ourselves at said AA meeting, and Gavin strides in to make a big speech about how when you push someone away who tries to help, but they come back you have to trust that they really are sincere about helping or something. I don’t know. The point is, through Gavin, Ty helps prevent his ex-wife from killing an entire family. Or that’s what we are expected to infer, but there’s no actual evidence that she doesn’t still go get wasted and kill someone.
WHATEVER, the point is, Gavin now gets it and agrees to help Ty and Dr. Sam get on the base. BUT WHAT’S THIS? THEY ARE BEING FOLLOWED! BY A MYSTERIOUS BLOND LADY WITH A GUN! WHO MIGHT BE KIERA IN A LONG WIG BUT I JUST CHECKED IMDB AND IT’S NOT!
Alright, I’m going to make this brief, because I JUST WANT TO BE DONE ALREADY. The series continues to steal the whole “gather everyone on this one timeline to save the rest in the other” story from Lost. Additionally, they are doing the whole overused trope of the broken protagonist who has a substance abuse problem finally facing his demons so that he can save the day thing that Lost did with Jack. But honestly, that’s about all I’ve got because I can’t be bothered to think about it more because mygodjustmakeitstopalready.
La Brea streams on Peacock.