Welcome back La Brea Science Fiction Wormhole Time Travel LoversI
As we have mentioned previously, this series appears to be a hit, demonstrating strong ratings for the Pilot episode at 6.2 million viewers in the United States with a .59 rating share and 4.9 million viewers with a .60 ratings share in the United States for the second episode, slightly higher for the third episode at 4.98 million viewers, and up to 5.0 million viewers dropping one tenth to a .50 share for “The New Arrival” episode.
La Brea is broadcast on CTV in Canada and has now been reported to have done well. Canada ratings are currently only available between September 27, 2021 up to October 10, 2021. The La Brea series is demonstrating strong numbers in Canada at 1.232 million viewers for the Pilot episode as the 16th most popular program, and 1.0 million viewers as the 28th most popular program for the second episode.
However, La Brea was number one in it’s time slot in Canada for both weeks reported so far. This is quite good for a country with a population of thirty-eight million compare with 332 million potential viewers in the United States! Ratings share, unlike the United States, is not reported in Canada so far as we can ascertain.
Notes: The Canadian television rating system appears to only track the top thirty programs each week. If a series drops below 30th in the rankings, Canadian ratings may not be available for that particular series.
While watching this episode and noting that there was another guy who kicked the bucket, bit the dust, and became another red shirt, it occurred to me that, at this rate, there will need to be more arrivals or they will quickly run out of survivors.
Well, what do you know? Another guy drops in, literally!
We welcome Levi Delgado (Nicholas Gonzalez) an old buddy of Gavin Harris (Eoin Macken). Nicolas also just happens to be Eve Harris’ (Natalie Zea) lover and the third part of a love triangle that is sure to create more drama in this already very dramatic show.
Even more fun, or not so much fun, depending on your point of view, all three know about the love triangle.
The only ones who don’t, it seems, are Josh (Jack Martin) and Izzy (Zyra Gorecki).
Or do they?
Sometimes children know more about what is going on than the parents. We will see.
The La Brea science fiction drama series is produced by NBC Television and Keshet Studios (click to learn about Keshet). Created by David Appelbaum who is the executive producer of the series along with talented industry veterans that we admire for their past accomplishments. This includes Steven Lilien, Avi Nir, Ken Woodruff and Bryan Wynbrandt.
For your enjoyment, we include a link our last La Brea review analysis, and a fun video courtesy of NBC about prehistoric life that we tweeted last night!
Thanks to great team at @NBC , YOU and #TeamWHR knows exactly what we will all need to survive in 10,000 BC!
pic.twitter.com/ECWIUCjzYA— WormholeRiders (@WormholeRiders) October 20, 2021
The New Arrival:
The episode, directed by Thor Freudenthal, opens with Josh and Scott (Rohan Mirchandaney) looking up at the stars. Scott tells Josh that since planet Mars won’t be named for another 10,000 years, they could call it Planet Josh.
Josh seems to think that is a pretty lame idea from the expression on his face.
The chat then turns to the fact that Scott has hidden the leftover heroin found in the trunk of a car from an earlier episode, out in the woods somewhere.
He reasons that the owner of the drugs is either dead or didn’t make it through the portal.
Except, Scott, he did.
Speaking of which, Lucas (Josh McKenzie) is annoyed at his mom, bad cop Marybeth Hayes (Karina Logue) whom, he is sure, has taken his stash of heroin when he looks in the trunk of the car only to find it gone!
I wonder, since he can’t really sell the drugs to anyone in their camp, why is Lucas so concerned about getting them back?
Eve and Doctor Sam (Jon Seda) are having a friendly chat about family when something weird happens to the wormhole portal. Since nothing has come through the wormhole since their arrival in the past, the phenomenon is completely new to them. Everyone looks up and watches as an unknown burning object comes through the portal and crashes nearby.
Obviously, whoever it is may have survived the crash, so a group of people is quickly assembled to check it out.
Eve and Josh quickly volunteer. Sam’s daughter (Veronica St. Clair), who has medical knowledge, is volunteered to go with her father.
Lucas and Scott round out the search party.
Before they leave, Lucas goes to his car to get a gun.
Scott sees him and now realizes that the bad guy who owns the drugs did make it through the portal. Poor Scott. His day just took a turn for the worse.
It doesn’t take long for the search group to reach the general area of the downed aircraft where Levi has parachuted into the trees as seen in the previous episode.
They hear a growling sounds nearby and shots soon seeing Levi stumble out of the trees.
Levi explains that he was shooting at a Saber-Toothed Tiger in self defense and that he has been sent to rescue everybody and bring them all home.
Eve’s first question to Levi is; “Is Izzy okay?”
Of course, she is, mom.
So is your hubby Eve.
That doesn’t seem to be a priority for Eve, giving us an idea of Eve’s feelings for Gavin.
Riley wants to know if everyone’s families know that they are still alive.
Since Levi has pointed out that the portal is a big secret, their families don’t know the truth. This disappoints everyone.
Levi needs to find his plane as soon as possible. He tells them that if it’s still in one piece, they may yet be able to go home, providing the survivors with a glimmer of hope.
My next thought was, what about the parachute? It could be useful. Is someone going to get it?
Since this isn’t explained, next up, they head for the plane.
Gavin and Izzy experience an earthquake. This leads them to Dr. Sophia Nathan’s office (Virginie Laverdure). Gavin notices his own personnel file on her desk so has a look through it.
Gavin discovers that there have been four wormhole portal like events before the La Brea event.
Senior Agent Adam Markman (Toby Truslove) enters and informs him that Sophia has taken a personal day. Markman also explains that Levi’s entry into the portal is what caused the earthquake, so there will not be any more attempts to go through at the present time.
Gavin, not liking this news, tells Markman that he knows Levi is alive. His visions told him so.
Still not getting a reversal of the decision, Gavin, Jessica (Ione Skye) and Izzy are off to find Sophia to find out what else is going on.
The two peculiar sisters, Veronica Castillo (Lily Santiago) and Lilly Castillo (Chloe De Los Santos) are once again keeping to themselves.
Are these young women victims or future baddies?
Veronica wants to maintain their father’s system while Lilly likes spending time with the other survivors.
Veronica’s religious ideals do not win out as she slaps Lilly, who runs off and falls over the body of the latest person to die in this series, another Red Shirt who looks hideous!
Lilly’s scream alerts the others and everyone rushes to see what is going on.
Sam takes charge and states that he will try to find out what the man died of.
Marybeth states that this area is now a crime scene and will be investigated. Ty (Chiké Okonkwo) and Marybeth look around the area for evidence. It turns out that Ty is a psychiatrist.
Marybeth asks him to see if he can get any information out of Lilly as to what may have happened. No problem.
Will Veronica let him? This may be a problem.
Our intrepid heroes find the plane.
Levi heads inside and starts pressing buttons.
No luck. The plane is not going to fly again.
He does have a nice surprise for them, however – several cases of MREs – Ready To Eat meals. Yum.
As they prepare to leave for the camp, Levi remembers something. He climbs back into the plane to get – Eve’s 10,000-year-old ring.
As he slides it into a pocket, he notices that the plane’s radar is picking up a signal about 5 miles away. That’s about 8 kilometers to Canadians and every other country.
It is decided that they will stay where they are and head out to the position of the signal in the morning. As they all sit around a campfire enjoying the MREs, they talk about Riley’s great medical abilities, she explains how she used the heroin to drain her father’s spine and how Scott had hidden the heroin in the woods.
This piques Lucas’ interest. Scott now has a really big problem.
Veronica and Lilly continue to keep to themselves despite Sam’s request that everyone stay close for safety. Ty attempts to get Lilly to share what she saw when she fell over the body of the man. Veronica is grudgingly allowing Ty to ask her sister questions but has made it clear that if Lilly seems the least bit uncomfortable, the questioning will end.
This is rich since Veronica didn’t seem to care about Lilly’s discomfort when she slapped her sister. Naturally. Veronica finds the excuse she is looking for when Lilly’s expression seems to imply her discomfort.
As she is dragged away, Lilly blurts out that it was an old man with the image of a hand on his back. What is with that hand, anyway?
Eve and Levi have a chance to chat. Eve explains that she missed Levi and is glad to see him. However, Levi tells her that Gavin’s visions are real and that he has been doing his best to prove himself to her. He also tells her that, “Gavin knows about us.” He gives her the ring back.
Eve is confused because she lost it, “down here”. Levi tells her that Gavin, “dug it up”. This love triangle is getting a bit twisted. I’m not sure who to feel sorry for.
Maybe Gavin will fly down to Eve like a white knight, accompanied by his own sidekick daughter to save the day. I wondered how she would end up in the wilds of 10,000 years ago. That may be the way.
Gavin and Izzy have arrived at their next destination, a nice looking farm with a quaint farm house located in the city of San Luis Obispo, California.
As they approach the house a woman neither of them has met steps outside and says, “Gavin”.
Gavin, of course, is startled and wants to know how she knows his name.
Sophia steps outside and tells him that she told the other lady, a Dr. Rebecca Aldridge (Ming-Zhu Hii), all about him and his abilities to see into the prehistoric past.
Gavin tells her about finding his personnel file and about the other sinkholes.
“The other sinkholes are closed,” Sophia responds, “but I have another way”.
She takes them to a hangar with a duplicate plane to the plane that Levi flew through the portal.
This one has modifications, we are told, to avoid causing earthquakes and be able to to get to prehistoric La Brea safely. That’s a bunch of cool features.
Bonus points? Gavin gets to be the new pilot!
As Lucas and Scott and the rest of the group walk toward the radar signal that Levi spotted, Lucas tells Scott that Scott is his new best friend. “You know where my drugs are, but if you don’t give them back to me, when we get back, I will kill you.”
Poor Scott. Now, he’s the one I feel sorry for. Since he is also timid, he may just be the last one standing. He has very strong survival instincts.
The group eventually comes across a walled village with several single-family huts scattered about. Above the gate in the wall is that same image of the hand.
And the mysterious old man (Mark Lee) is watching them!
There are a few questions that need to be answered and likely will be in upcoming episodes, such as;
Who is the old man in the animal skins?
Are the people in the village going to be friendly or aggressive?
Are the people in the village also survivors who fell through a different wormhole portal?
Who among the survivors will be the next to die? I don’t like Lucas or Veronica, so either of them can be the next red shirt. What do you think?
Included below is a sneak peek of episode five “The Fort”. See you next week for La Brea when more answers will be revealed!
Thanks to Kenn for staging images, the featured video, and, many thanks to you for stopping by WormholeRiders News Agency!
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Regards,
