Welcome Back La Brea and Wormhole Time Travel Science Fiction Lovers!
“The Return” is the tenth excellent episode of La Brea written by David Appelbaum, Rob Wright and Peter Beals, and was directed by Greg McLean. During “The Return” we learned that one of our heroes, Levi (Nicholas Gonzalez) decided to go back to 10,000 BC from the future when he had decided to stay in of 1988 after the events of the episode of the same name when Eve (Natalie Zea) admitted that she was still in love with Gavin (Eoin Macken).
Levi’s return was a pleasant surprise for La Brea fans who thought he was being written out of the series as described by several rumors to that effect that circulated on social media and various web sites. The fans live tweeting this episode were happy to witness Levi return to his friends.
The La Brea survivors, may have become trapped when Gavin decided to stop the upload of a virus developed by Dr. Caroline Clark (Melissa Neal) at 99% before it completely destroyed the software equations running the computers in the Time Travel facility of James Mallet (Jonno Roberts) during a previous episode “The Stampede”. Fortunately, present day Southern California that had been on the verge of destruction in their own time from a tsunami tidal wave, was averted before a wormhole opened that would have also flooded our survivors in 10,000 BC.
The interesting twist to “The Return” story arc is that Levi returned to 10,000 BC from 1998, not 1988. After staying in the future ten years where wormhole sinkholes are continuing to occur, devastating the lives of countless innocent victims, Levi came back from the future showing a bit of gray hair from ten years of natural aging.
As we will learn in “The Return”, Levi’s came back to 10,000 BC in what will prove to be his own attempt to save people who he knows as friends with a secret mission that is not revealed until near the end of the episode.
The Return:
The episode opens in a field at sunrise in 10,000 BC. A giant prehistoric Rhinoceros is witnessed near a wormhole sinkhole that opens startling the beast. Hat tip to the series VFX teams! The scenes of prehistoric creatures including Woolly Mammoths, Sabre-tooth Smilodon Tigers, Giant Vultures and the Rhino seen in this episode have been well done with special effects.
At this juncture we do not know that the time traveler is Levi since the person’s face is obscured by the bright event horizon and the rising sunlight when he comes through the time portal from the future.
We are next at the survivor’s encampment with Josh (Jack Martin), Izzy (Zyra Gorecki) visiting Eve who is recovering from a concussion after she fell into a cave with the poisonous plant she was exposed to during an earlier episode.
Eve tells her children she will is feeling better but will take some more time to regain her strength. Izzy and Josh learn that Gavin has gone to see James at the Time Travel Facility to ensure that Eve has access to any medical treatments she may need as a result of a deal made between them when Gavin agreed to stop the computer virus upload. Josh says that their Dad is doing it to help their Mom. Eve and Izzy do not trust James. James’ behavior does seem untrustworthy and appears to be hiding something related to his refusal to understand the impact on the space time continuum of his sinkhole wormholes that are plaguing the future of our survivor’s.
Next we are outside with Lucas (Josh McKenzie) who is carrying some oranges to share with Veronica (Lily Santiago) when sees Virgil (Greg Hatton).
Lucas does not trust Virgil who he suspects is involved with the “Murder in the Clearing” when we witnessed Virgil burning a knife sheath emblazoned with a design associated with The Exiles. After giving Virgil a nasty look, Veronica arrives. To viewers it is obvious that Lily and Lucas are falling in love as each have shared intimate details of their past lives with each other including their mutual distrust of Virgil. Although the two young people are just dating at this point, they have shared kisses to express their love for each other. Lucas asks Veronica to move in with him, but she is not ready quite yet. Later in the episode, Lily moves in with Lucas to make their relationship official.
Viewers will also recall that Taamet (Martin Sensmeier) is Paara’s (Tonantzin Carmelo) ex husband and that Virgil is a spy for Taamet who Scott (Rohan Mirchandaney) allowed to escape subsequent after being tricked by Taamet after the knife fight with Ty (Chiké Okonkwo).
Taamet swore to Scott subsequent to the fight, when Scott set Taamet free, that he would get revenge on the survivor’s for helping Ty steal his wife. However, viewers wonder if something else be motivating Taamet? We learned more about this when Ty provided therapy to James in exchange for a cure. We will learn more about this factor at the end of the episode.
Virgil then visits Scott who is on his assigned guard duty to protect the encampment. Virgil tricks Scott into believing that he is there to relieve him two hours early. This is Scott’s biggest flaw, his blind trust of people that he does not really know. In fact, as viewers suspected, Virgil is preparing to ensure that Taamet’s arrival at the survivor’s camp is a surprise attack by tying his red scarf on a spear to signal Taamet the lookout is no longer manned!
Next we segue to Gavin who is on the way to meet with James when he bumps into, actually jumps a surprised Levi. Gavin notices the gray hair on Levi and asks what happened since it has only been a week since they saw each other in 1988. Levi shares that it is only a week for Gavin, but that it has been ten years for him since he jumped into a wormhole sinkhole portal in 1998! Gavin tells Levi that he was able to damage the time portal machine, but did not destroy it. Levi also shares that he joined the Department of Defense who is trying to rescue everyone still trapped in the 10,000 BC timeline. Gavin and Levi head off to see James, Gavin suspects Levi returned for Eve, but Gavin is unaware at this point that is where Levi was headed to complete his secret mission.
At the Time Travel Facility Ty is receiving the first medical treatment for his brain tumor from a doctor named Kira (Simone McAullay). Ty, a doctor in his own right, is in good spirits since he made an agreement with to trade medicines for his brain tumor in exchange for emotional counseling to James over the loss of his young son Isaiah (Diesel La Torraca) who went to 1988 to become Gavin.
Kira provides a tablet computer to Ty to record notes from his therapy sessions with James. It becomes obvious that Kira is also distrustful of James after Caroline took Isaiah and stashed him in 1988. Kira writes a handwritten note to Ty “Don’t trust James. Find out about Project Blue Moon”. This is the first Ty has ever heard of such a thing, but agrees since Kira is the person actually providing his medicine. Ty continues his therapy of James and finds an image of a Blue Moon that Isaiah had drawn.
What is James actually up to? Is he telling the truth to Gavin and Ty?
It is worth noting that a large number of people apparently do not trust James’ so called mission to save the future Earth in 2076 including Caroline, Silas (Mark Lee), and the now deceased Rebecca Aldridge (Ming-Zhu Hii), not to mention all the deaths from the future weapons that almost killed Lucas. No doubt that there are more details on the James factor will be revealed in future episodes of season two and three.
Next we are with Sam (Jon Seda) and Riley (Veronica St. Clair) who are on patrol with a group of survivors searching for signs of Taamet who has promised revenge against our time travel heroes. Riley shares with her Dad that Caroline has uncovered research that it is possible to repair the machine that creates the time portals to return back to their original timeline. This conversation is cut short when smoke is observed in the distance. Upon arrival, they confirm that The Exiles had been there recently.
Speaking of the encampment, Josh tells Izzy that something bad is going on since Caroline has vanished! It is at this point that Lucas witnesses Virgil’s red scarf on a spear that signaled Taamet it was clear to attack. Virgil is seen running from the camp lookout station. Meanwhile, Josh and Izzy have gone to the highest point in the area on top of a building that fell into the wormhole sink hole. Izzy, using a mirror and Morse Code she learned in the Girl Scouts, signals Levi and Gavin that the encampment is under attack. Josh, in a lighter moment while under pressure says Girl Scouts are “Bad Ass!”.
Now with the proof that Lucas has been seeking he jumps Virgil demanding answers just as The Exiles launch their attack on the encampment. Virgil admits that Taamet and The Exiles have kidnapped his wife Jane (Louisa Mignone) forcing them to work in the mines and blackmailing Virgil to find a book with mathematical formulas related to Project Blue Moon that James is seeking. We learn that Veronica’s captor, who was killed in season one had the book and was buried with it by Veronica! Taamet orders Veronica to get the book or he will kill Scott!
Eve, inside the bus sees the attack take place. Things go from bad to worse when The Exiles attack capturing everyone except Lucas, Scott, Eve, Izzy Josh, and Ella (Michelle Vergara Moore). Sam and Riley find Jane and realize that Taamet is headed for the survivor’s encampment. Izzy and Josh escape the area to go find Gavin, unaware that he is with Levi. Levi shares that he is there because his wife was killed in the future by James insanity. It appears that we may know what Levi’s mission is, that he plans to kill James. Sam, Riley and their group are also on the way back to the clearing suspecting danger for their family and friends and run into Gavin and Levi who of course is armed.
Levi, Gavin, Sam, Riley and their group surprise The Exiles who have been forcing Ella, Lucas and Veronica to dig up the Blue Moon formula book.
The Exiles are captured, tied up and their weapons are taken. Our heroes head to the encampment where they counterattack. Taamet runs for his life, when Scott, who has enough of Taamet’s bullying when he attacks and stabs Lucas, finds the courage and mortally wounds Taamet!
The episode draws to a conclusion when Kira tells Ty that James is obsessed with the Blue Moon computer drawing. Ty, having provided Psychiatric emotional therapy to James, thinks James plans to reset the timeline by stopping Isaiah from time traveling to 1988 to become Gavin. This would create a time paradox that would cause Josh, Izzy and others to never exist! It will also mean that no one would travel to 10,000 BC, including Ty. The result would be that Ty would end up dying in the future from his cancerous brain tumor since he will never travel to 10,000 BC to be cured.
Last episodic details:
Just before the final scenes of the episode we are with Sam, Levi, Scott and Gavin as Taamet is dying. Taamet warns them it is not James who wants the time equations book. Gavin has the missing page to the book and begins to question if It it Kira who apparently has been hiding something that we are yet to discover.
The real question viewers must consider; is Kira telling Ty the truth? Viewers must now wonder if we should distrust James, Kira, or distrust both of them?
Back at the survivor’s encampment, we see Virgil and Jane head off together, finally free of Taamet’s extortion. Veronica is talking with Lucas sharing why she thinks of herself as “damaged goods”; that the man who kidnapped her knew the La Brea sinkhole wormhole was going to happen and deliberately took her there in order to deliver the time travel equations book to the past. Lucas tells Veronica that she Is “the strongest person he ever met”. Veronica knows she loves Lucas for believing in her, they kiss each other as a mutual reward and Veronica announces that she is moving in with him!
Gavin goes to tell Eve that they found what they were looking for; the time travel equations book that they may be able to use to fix the time portal machine software that he damaged and get everyone back to the future.
However, Gavin is unsure if Kira is actually working for his father James, or if she has her own agenda?
Gavin also shares the surprise that Levi has come back from the future of 1998 not 1988 where he had decided to stay.
The very last scene finds us with Levi is waiting outside at the campfire for Eve. As the screen fades to black, Levi confesses to Eve that he is really back in 10,000 BC to kill James. Is this Levi’s secret mission. to avenge the death of his wife!
Join us on Twitter to live tweet the next four exciting episodes of La Brea in season two named “The Wedding” and “The Swarm” next week that will be aired as a two hour special leading up to the a two part season finale named “The Journey” on February 28, 2023 when we will find out what will lead up to season three in 10,000 BC in order to save everyone from wormhole disasters!
We will be back in the near future with more of La Brea as well as 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 TeamWHR 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!“
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Kenn of #TeamWHR
