Welcome Back La Brea Science Fiction Time Travel Drama Lovers!
La Brea has proven to be an exciting new science fiction time travel wormhole based drama series. Ratings for the first two weeks have been strong with 6.2 million viewers for the Pilot episode with a .59 share and 4.9 million viewers with a .60 share for the second episode “Day Two”.
What we have learned so far is that it all began when a wormhole tore open a hole in time near the famous La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. The actors are believable with Natalie Zea as Eve Harris, Eoin Macken as Gavin Harris, Jon Seda as Doctor Sam Velez, Chiké Okonkwo as Ty Coleman, Karina Logue as Marybeth Hays, Zyra Gorecki as Izzy Harris, Jack Martin as Josh Harris, Veronica St. Clair as Riley Velez, and Rohan Mirchandaney as Scott Israni, with supporting actors that include Stephen Lopez as Billy Fisher, Pacharo Mzembe as Tony Greene, Chloe De Los Santos as Lilly Castillo, Josh McKenzie as Lucas Hayes, Nicholas Gonzalez as Levi Delgado, Virginie Laverdure as Dr. Sophia Nathan, and Ione Skye as Jessica Harris.
All are struggling to survive in their new reality, both those trapped in prehistoric time in the Los Angeles basin and those trying to rescue them in contemporary times.
The wormhole, which has remained open throughout the first three episode’s, has found our survivors, heroes and villains alike, dealing with huge snarling Smilodon or Saber-Toothed Tiger’s and vicious wolves that have claimed the lives of one person and severely injured two others.
In each case, the wild beasts have simply been looking for lunch or dinner per their natural instincts. Can anyone honestly blame the critters for doing what comes to them naturally?
Of interest is the discovery of wild animal traps and ancient stone ritual monuments obviously built by prehistoric human beings in the Los Angeles area near Beverly Hill many millennia 0,000 ago.
The reason that the wormhole reality bridges that have materialized has not been made clear. However, one of the persons in contemporary times, a former air force pilot has been seeing hallucinations of his family in the past has become of great interest to the United States military while he deals with an unsettling discovery about his family.
At the end of the “Day Two” episode, the government decides to send a military expedition through the wormhole to investigate the phenomena from the other side. Unfortunately, unintended consequences will become manifest!
For your enjoyment, before beginning our review and analysis of “The Hunt”, we include some fun La Brea cast moments while they are off set courtesy of the great team at NBC.
POV: You met some cool new friends in the #LaBrea sinkhole. 📹: @joshwamckenzie pic.twitter.com/VvXAXdqNYu
— NBC Entertainment (@nbc) October 12, 2021
The Hunt:
“The Hunt” episode was written by Jose Molina and directed by Adam Davidson. It opens with Eve, Josh, Riley and Dr. Velez together in one of the larger vehicles setup as a medical triage area to care for the injured time travelers Josh and Dr. Sam Velez.
Back at the El Segundo Air Force Base Gavin is being told some news he does not want to hear. More on that later.
It is apparent that Riley is not happy with Eve for leaving her father injured in the wild because Eve chose to bring much needed medical supplies to treat her son Josh.
We observe that Josh, thanks to the medical advice from Sam, is doing much better. Josh’s fever from the infection caused by being bitten by wild wolves has broken and is now strong enough to walk on his own again.
Although Sam was ultimately saved, young Riley is holding a grudge, but admits she would have probably done the same thing if the situation had been reversed. Eve offers to bring Riley some found in an attempt to break the tension. Riley says “I will not stop you”, making an empty belly a good attitude adjuster for young Riley!
Hopefully, since Sam regains consciousness later in “The Hunt”, Riley will set aside her grudge after she learns that it was Sam who actually told Eve to head back to the survivor’s camp with the medical supplies for Josh?
It could also be as many viewers suspect that Josh and Riley will grow closer, ending up in a romantic relationship that will help ease the conflict that exists between Eve and Riley.
We shall see.
Only time (pun intended) will tell.
More on the romance factor later in our review of “The Hunt”.
Eve and Josh head outside to the food line setup by the traffic cop who was the first person to fall into the wormhole sinkhole witnessed in the Pilot episode.
We are happy that the traffic cop survived, answering a question posed in the second episode as to exactly what had happened to her. Click here to read our analysis review of the Day Two episode.
Mary Beth, the crooked cop and known protein bar thief, is bitching as usual because that the traffic cop has demonstrated leadership by rationing the food. Leadership is something Mary Beth obviously lacks. All the food and water that is available has been placed on a blue tarp after being collected from local stores, warehouses, and vehicles in the vicinity of the survivor’s camp. After three weeks, it is obvious that there really is not very much food left.
Josh taunts Mary Beth face to face with “What’s the matter, don’t you have some protein bars hidden somewhere?”. Go Josh!
Eve tells Mary Beth to go enjoy her food elsewhere, to which Mary Beth sarcastically retorts “In a couple of days, I’m sure we are going to become good friends”.
Let’s be honest; Mary Beth, whether in prehistoric times, or in the present day, is without a doubt, one utterly detestable human being!
Perhaps Mary Beth will become the next Red Shirt? We can only hope so!
Back in the food line, a scraggly looking man who says he has been on a “juice cleansing” for a month and attempts to steal a Baby Ruth candy bar. Scraggly is stopped in the act by Josh and Lucas. Scraggly gives back the Baby Ruth contemptuously just as a new threat appears out of the brush, a giant ground sloth!
The giant ground sloth lumbers into camp and scarf’s down all the remaining food as the survivor’s scramble for their lives. Scott Israni ends the prologue with the quip to Scraggly “I guess no one is getting a Baby Ruth now”!
We segue to the El Segundo Air Force Base where Gavin is watching preparations for an experimental aircraft after an earlier attempt to send a drone to enter the wormhole sinkhole fails The drone lost contact at the event horizon when trying to reach prehistoric times on the other side of the wormhole sinkhole.
Gavin is observed leaving the hanger after chatting with Dr. Sophia Nathan about his desire to volunteer as the pilot for the rescue mission has been rejected. We have learned that Gavin is one of the best experimental Air Force aircraft pilots in his past life.
Sophia reminds Gavin that he is no longer in the Air Force, and therefore he cannot fly the mission. Sophia comforts Gavin with the fact that he will play a critical role in the mission by delineating the maps the Air Force has prepared regarding Los Angeles in the prehistoric past.
Sophia informs Gavin that an extensive series of planned missions to rescue the survivor’s will be executed until all those trapped in the prehistoric past have been saved.
Not be deterred, Gavin suggests that his former colleague, Levi Delgado, would be the next best choice.
Sophia agrees with Gavin’s assessment stating “He’s on the list”.
Back to the survivor’s subsequent to the giant ground sloth snacking on the their food, everyone wonders how it got there? Scott, our resident anthropologist from the La Brea Tar Pits Museum informs them the creature is extinct, and further narrows the timeline to 12,000 years ago or 10,000 B.C which is when the ground sloth became extinct. Everyone is dumbfounded.
Eve shares that she saw a Saber-Toothed Tiger in the forest and points to the mountains which are identical to the Hollywood Hills, informing everyone that they are in Los Angeles, but in the distant past. Eve confirms these facts, and that like it or not, “We all fell through that light” (wormhole) and have become time travelers!
With their food eaten by the giant ground sloth, Eve makes another declaration “We need to hunt”. Lucas Hayes says he is leaving to find someone who knows where they really are. Eve and Ty head out to hunt. Lucas with his bad attitude could become the next Red Shirt? Not just yet!
Next we are with Levi Delgado who is coming in for a landing at the El Segundo Air Force Base. A flashback occurs with Levi visiting the Harris family shortly after Izzy’s leg injury.
We learn that Gavin and Levi are best pals and that Izzy refers to him as “Uncle Levi” in addition to Levi warning Gavin to seek help about his hallucinations or he stands to lose his family.
Gavin admits that the hallucination visions in his head “have taken everything me”, nevertheless wishing Levi good luck on his next assignment in Germany. The flashback fades as Gavin and Levi meet in the present in the hanger where Levi says that he is “trying to wrap his around it” now that Gavin’s hallucinations have proven to be true and correct.
Sophia meets them and says “Let’s get to it”.
Later aboard the aircraft, Levi admits to Gavin that he had an affair with Eve, which is why he went to Germany. Gavin says that is in the past, and the only thing that is important is the mission and to save his family. Levi swears an oath to Gavin.
Back in the prehistoric past, Eve is making animal traps when Ty joins her. We learn that Eve grew up on a farm and she learned trapping because her Dad, who wanted her to be a boy, taught her about hunting for wild game.
When trying to find out about Ty, he deflects, telling Eve if they are going to catch any rabbits, they had “better be quiet”.
Later Ty and Eve are successful in trapping rabbits for food but a giant bear shows up before they can get back to camp. Using the rabbit to distract the bear, Eve and Ty run away ultimately becoming trapped in a cave.
The next scene finds us with Mary Beth walking in the woods. She has followed her son Lucas into the woods asking what he is doing there? Lucas answers by throwing a log on the ground that trips a snare revealing a Saber-Toothed Tiger trap with sharp pointed wooden spears. Lucas let’s his Mom know that he found it yesterday with a tiger in it, but today, the dead tiger was gone and the trap had been reset by someone. Both set out to find whoever built the tiger trap, instead going another way, find Eve and Ty in the cave.
Back at the triage bus, Sam has regained consciousness but his legs are paralyzed by fluid swelling that is pinching his nerves in his back.
Sam tells Riley she must perform a procedure or he may never be able to use his legs again.
Riley, a medical school dropout is terrified but has no choice if her Dad is ever going to walk again.
Scott and Josh know where a car is located whose trunk is loaded with heroin that will be used to relieve Sam’s pain during the operation.
Riley is panicked when Sam passes out from the heroin, but Josh encourages her to complete the procedure. Riley looks lovingly towards Josh for his help during this difficult time.
Ultimately Riley saves Sam from being paralyzed for life. Great job Riley!
The episode winds down with a startling discovery by Eve, Ty, Lucas and Mary Beth. A dried out corpse is found wearing a sweatshirt from contemporary times!
The corpse has been there for many years, meaning that the corpse never found a way back home.
On the way back to the camp, our four cave dwellers find a stash of wild edible mushrooms that will feed all of them for the foreseeable future. Prompted by Lucas, they all agree not to tell anybody about finding the corpse in the cave.
Meanwhile Lucas confronts his Mom about “pulling the trigger” on the corpse. This means that Mary Beth knew about the wormhole and had somehow pushed the victim into it to hide her crime some time before the current cataclysm had ever occurred. More on this enigma will hopefully be revealed in future episodes.
Next Ty confesses that he has a brain tumor and will not survive over the long term in the prehistoric past. Ty plans to use his gun to end it all when the time comes. However, he asks Eve to take the gun and put Ty out of his misery. Eve confesses her own guilt that she was having an affair and is ashamed about it.
The final sequences in “The Hunt” depicts Levi taking off from the El Segundo Air Force Base in the experimental aircraft. While Levi is descending into the wormhole sinkhole in modern times, everyone is hoping the mission is a success.
Gavin is in the control room.
Izzy is in the waiting room.
The tension is so thick you could not even cut it with a knife!
Suddenly, as the aircraft approaches the wormhole event horizon, the aircraft computer controls are lost. Levi tries in vain to fly it manually as contact with the control room is severed. An unmitigated disaster for all involved.
The scene fades to Eve where we witness her looking skyward hopefully.
Gavin leaves the control room and finds Izzy to give her a much needed hug.
The last shot before we fade to black is of Levi who, thank goodness, was able to bail out of the experimental aircraft.
We then see Levi in his parachute. He is alright, hanging from a tree. Be certain to tune in next week as the final scene sets up the fourth exciting episode called “The New Arrival”.
After our review and analysis of “The Hunt”, we include a sneak peek of what is coming up next in season one of La Brea.
We will be back in the near future with more of your favorite television series and movie analysis. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or family and leave your comments! We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future! Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit WHR on Twitter, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!“
Thank you. 
Best Regards,
Kenn of #TeamWHR
