La Brea
“The Road Home, Part 1”
February 6, 2024
I CAN DO THIS. WE CAN DO THIS.
As a means of brief exposition, we begin with Gavin contemplating the microchip Ty has brought him from 2021: does he hand it over to Potato Computer to save Eve or should maybe possibly he be a little more credulous about … well … everything? HMM. WHO CAN SAY?
Elsewhere, Izzy is asking Veronica for romantic advice: Leyla has invited her to go stargazing, but Izzy turned her down what with the whole microchip/possible return of her missing mom/brother in 1965 thing going on. Veronica is like, “It’ll work out if it works out,” which cool advice, V. Very profound.
Gavin calls Izzy into the hut: he’s about to get on the potato computer, and it’s important that she be there for that for some reason. Potato Computer asks Gavin if he has the microchip, and when he replies that he does, Potato Computer instructs him to bring it to Cahuenga Peak before sunset in exchange for Eve. And with that, the connection dies.
Moments later, Maya pops into the hut and is like, “So, you gonna make that trade today?”
But Gavin is unsure, this sure feels like a trap and he needs more time to think about this whole situation.
Meanwhile, out in the woods, Dr. Sam is stalking Lucas, concerned that he’s on his way to try to save Scott single-handedly. In reality, Lucas is just out visiting his mother’s grave — REMEMBER MOM? — to tell her about Lucas Jr.’s imminent arrival.
That said, Lucas IS pissed about these people taking Scott: isn’t it weird that they were able to find him in the middle of a wildfire? And Levi and Petra, too? It’s almost as if someone is feeding them information.
Back in the village, Veronica finds a hidden compartment under the floor of the council building in which is hidden a radio helpfully stamped “LADERA AIR FORCE.”
And fortunately for the movement of our plot, a council meeting is on the schedule that afternoon. At the meeting, one of the villagers bitches about the soldiers abducting people, and blames it on the newcomers. But Veronica is all, “WELL, WHAT ABOUT THIS?” and makes the big reveal of the radio. Ruth, the leader of the villagers, is all, “Whoa whoa whoa, let’s all calm down and maybe take a walk and stuff,” before running out of the hut.
Long and short of it is, Veronica and Lucas follow Ruth out into the woods, and she’s like, “FINE, YOU ARE RIGHT — sorta. I’m covering for someone else.” HMM WHO COULD IT POSSIBLY BE?
But back to Gavin: he goes out into the woods, and Maya follows being all, “What’cha doin’?” When Gavin reveals he’s going to destroy the microchip rather than hand it over to Potato Computer, Maya is all, “THE HELL YOU WILL!” and pulls a gun on him, finally revealing herself to be the Big Bad. But, as always, Ty and Sam arrive at the exact moment to save the day and rescue Gavin.
They tie Maya up and demand that she tell them where Eve is, but she just smirks and rhetorically asks isn’t it weird that she wears a wristwatch down here in 10,000 B.C. where time doesn’t matter? (I mean, but doesn’t it?) SURPRISE SURPRISE! it’s a tracking device. And that’s when the soldiers arrive, disarming our heroes and yoinking the microchip.
BUT! Double double twist! Most of the soldiers are shot dead by an unseen gunman — but Maya manages to escape with a couple of other soldiers because we still have like an hour and a half left of story to get through.
And who was our mystery sniper who arrived just at the exact right moment and who happened to be well-armed and a skilled shot? Obviously, Gavin’s newly discovered half-sister Helena, who followed Ty into the aurora.
1. HOW DID HELENA, WHO HAS NOT BEEN IN 10,000 B.C., KNOW WHERE GAVIN WOULD BE? IT’S NOT LIKE HE WAS HANGING OUT RIGHT BESIDE THE AURORA.
2. Last we saw Helena, she was with Gavin, Dr. Sam, and Ty in 2021 as Ty went into the aurora with the microchip, and these auroras don’t stay open for long. So, did 2021 Gavin and Dr. Sam just be like, “Sure, cool, go ahead and follow our friend with the microchip that we stole from you into 10,000 B.C., we’ll stay here.” They just let her go and were like “Good luck stopping our original plan to help Gavin(me) save my family!”?
3. Neither 2021 Dr. Sam nor Gavin — but especially Gavin who had nothing else to lose at this point — also went through the aurora to help their families? Why not? Because it might create a time travel paradox that the writers are incapable of writing their way out of? (As if that’s ever stopped them.)
Ugggggggggh
Anyway, Helena explains that she went through the aurora because it is imperative Maya not get that microchip because she’s not working with the U.S. military: she’s working for a black-ops group who plans to sell this time travel technology to the highest bidder, no questions asked.
They have to stop Maya! And fortunately for them, Ty knows where the villagers keep an absurdly large raft that they can take down the river to get to the Air Force base.
YOU KNOW WHAT? SURE. OBVIOUSLY. WHY NOT. WE ONLY HAVE LIKE AN HOUR LEFT, WE GOTTA MOVE THIS ALONG.
The four of them get on this giant-ass raft, and there Gavin and his newly-discovered half-sister go over what happened between them, as he only remembers bits and pieces thanks to his conveniently spotty memory. Helena explains that after they stole the microchip, they knew they’d be in danger and they made a plan to escape to Mexico with Eve and the kids (who, apparently, Helena has never met). But then Gavin changed his mind, backed out of the plan, and left her to take the heat for stealing the chip.
And I have so many questions about why they didn’t destroy this all-important microchip the moment they got their hands on it, but I am going to assume it’s because they have to do something with it in 1965, because why else would they introduce that whole element? I also am going to assume that this being La Brea, there will not be any real explanation for why they had to take it to 1965 to destroy it and I will be screaming at all of you in all caps in short time.
Anyway, Helena has a sad about not having a family, but then a poorly-rendered CGI giant prehistoric crocodile swims up behind them and knocks Helena off the raft.
Gavin jumps in to save his newly-discovered half-sister and … you’re never going to believe this, but they both swim back to the raft in the nick of time (it helps that the raft improbably stayed motionless and didn’t continue on down the river away from them) and Dr. Sam shoots the poorly-rendered CGI giant prehistoric crocodile. Prehistoric creature crisis averted again.
Once ashore, Helena begins marching them through the woods in the direction of the air force base and EXCUSE ME, MA’AM, BUT HOW DO YOU KNOW WHERE IT IS?
As for that base, Scott is being held prisoner there, and guess what? Levi is in the cell right across from him! Scott asks where they are and what the soldiers want from them, and Levi’s like “BEATS ME.” Scott goes on to tell Levi that their friends are in danger, Maya is a liar, something about a paper he wrote about prehistoric plants. Levi asks him to elaborate on this paper about prehistoric plants because an academic paper on prehistoric plants definitely seems like the thing to focus on right now.
But before Scott can say anything, the soldiers come and drag Levi away.
Outside, Maya has arrived and she gives the microchip to a soldier to take to “the lab.” She then asks another soldier where they are at with “the prisoner” and is told that the officer has been interrogating him, and is here now to debrief her and Y’ALL! THE OFFICER: IT’S LEVI!
But wait because it’s yet another DOUBLE DOUBLE TWIST because those NEVER GET OLD! Levi returns to Scott’s cell, this time as Soldier Levi. Scott is all “BUH-BUH-BUH-WHAAAAAA?” But Levi turns off the security camera in Scott’s cell (which definitely won’t set any alarm bells off) and tells Scott to trust him, he infiltrated Maya’s organization to get to James, and his allegiance is really with Scott and his friends.
Levi goes on to tell Scott that his research paper on prehistoric plants is SUPER IMPORTANT to making time travel work and he needs to remember RIGHT NOW if he showed that paper to anyone else. At this point, Maya shows up so Levi has to make a big show of beating the snot out of Scott. Levi suggests to Maya that they move Scott to the long-term detention center for further interrogation so that his friends can’t rescue him, and Maya agrees.
MEANWHILE, out in the woods, Izzy’s changed her mind about hanging out with Leyla apparently? Leyla is leading Izzy towards something that she explains will make their lives a lot easier and they won’t be having to escape quicksand and fight off poorly-rendered giant prehistoric CGI boars or poorly-rendered anachronistic CGI dinosaurs anymore: i.e., an aurora.
But before they get there, they come across all the dead soldiers Helena left in her path of destruction and Izzy is all, “O NO MY DAD!” So Leyla agrees to help her track them.
Except she doesn’t, because she leads Izzy to where the aurora is — or where it was, it’s not there anymore. Leyla explains her whole, “Let’s Jump Into a Time Portal and See Where It Takes Us Because it Has To Be Better Than Here” plan, and Izzy’s like, “Um … who told you where the aurora would be?” (As if their group didn’t constantly just happen to stumble upon them.) Leyla admits she was working with Maya, which is when her mother, Lucas, and Veronica all pop out of the woods and are like, “A-HA!”
Ruth tells her daughter that she needs to “fix this” … somehow … and Lucas has an idea: he pulls out the radio, and asks Leyla to use the code to unlock it, since she clearly knows what it is. The group listens in as the soldiers on the other end note that they have targets — three men and a woman — south by the river. (I should note here that the bad guys spotted Gavin, et al, via security cameras mounted on trees in the woods … cameras that are powered by potatoes, I assume. Maybe they are potato trees?)
RIGHT. SO. Levi and Scott and some other soldiers are headed to this different detention center, which is where, Levi helpfully explains to Scott, Eve is being held. Before they can get there, though, they run into Izzy and everyone is all “WHOZA WHAT NOW?” Fight fight struggle fight, the other soldiers get their asses killed, Scott manages to get stabbed, but it’s OK because Lucas saves him as was foreshadowed in his conversation with Dr. Sam which feels like it was 17 days ago already.
Izzy asks Levi where her father is, explaining that they heard the soldiers discussing his location over the radio. Levi insists that she stay put; he’ll go save the day. And once again, Izzy is pissed.
Levi sneaks up on the soldiers who are sneaking up on Gavin, Dr. Sam, Ty, and Helena and begins firing. There’s a shootout, and just as a soldier is sneaking up behind Levi, he’s shot through the chest with an arrow courtesy of Izzy who did not stay put. But! Too late, the soldier managed to shoot Levi before being dispatched.
Dr. Sam examines Levi and delivers his professional opinion: “It’s a gunshot.”
Fortunately, it’s a TV death which means that instead of just gurgling and choking on his own blood, Levi has enough time and breath to tell Izzy that he loves her, and to tell Gavin that Eve is in a long-term detention center, and to tell Gavin that he’s his brother until the end. Which happens to be right at that moment.
BUT NO TIME TO MOURN OR EVEN DO ANYTHING WITH LEVI’S BODY, GOTTA GO.
Using an iPad off of one of the dead soldiers, they find the coordinates of the long-term detention center, but TWIST! to get to it requires going through the red side of a double aurora which will take them to 1965. With that, Dr. Sam, Gavin, Izzy, and Helena head into the red aurora, leaving Scott behind … which … why can’t Scott come? Why does Scott have to stay in 10,000 B.C, being threatened by tricerotops and dire wolves? I bet he’d appreciate being able to take a shower, maybe eat a hamburger, use a toilet …
Levi. We’d kinda forgotten about Levi, right? After returning to 10,000 B.C., causing a shitton of chaos by trying to kill Gavin’s dad, destroying the tower and therefore both their way home and Ty’s cancer medicine, and then getting his dumbass abducted, he suddenly shows back up in the final moments of this nonsense — because we have to tie up that particular loose end before we can fade to black — and he appears to be a traitor to our protagonists, only to be like, “LOL, actually I’m here to save the day and make amends!” and getting himself killed in the process.
Right, so, I’ve discussed Michael on Lost before. He’s the one who shot and killed two of his fellow survivors and released the bad guy in exchange for being reunited with his kid. That all went down in the second season of the show, and we did not see Michael again … until the end of the fourth season. Michael returns to the island on a ship being run by the bad guys, disguised as a deckhand. He is able to delay the detonation of a bomb long enough for six of the heroes to leave the Island, only to die a hero in the ultimate explosion of the ship. So, you know, it’s kinda been done before. But then again, on this show what hasn’t, right?
ALRIGHT. ONE MORE GARBAGE EPISODE TO GO.
La Brea streams on Peacock.