This week on NBC’s La Brea, the survivors’ newly discovered neighbors did not roll out a welcome car, while Gavin learned (from a surprising source!) that time is running out to save Eva & Co.
IN THE COUNTRY BELOW BELOW….
Upon arriving at the episode’s titular fortress, the search group split into pairs (Scott/Lucas, Eve/Levi, and Riley/Josh) to look around, finding no people… at first. In one structure, Levi and Eve found the (mummified?) body of someone from the Mojave mission – who revealed to Levi he was tasked with looking up – ritually placed in a “handprint” of stones (a la how Scott and Veronica found her found wolf-torn father a few weeks ago).
While Riley and Josh discovered a door that accidentally deposited/locked them outside the fort wall, Scott and Lucas stumbled upon an “arsenal” of spiked weapons – but just as they did, aggressive, English-speaking residents of the fort ( “Forties”?) stormed in and tied up the boys. Outside, many in their forties descended on their village, forcing Eva and Levi to hide in a tent, where some English-speaking rugrats kept their presence a secret.
Riley and Josh, meanwhile, retreated in crevices between the rocks outside, and ended up using a phone to play music / pulling Forties away from the entrance Back at the fort, Riley and Josh snuck reunited with Eve and Levi, then Lucas and Scott (who are a lighter to burn through their bindings), and they all sprinted to a hidden exit in a distant wall, which had been revealed by Cyrus’ grandson, the grey-bearded elder, with a mop.
After everyone else slipped to safety, Eve and Levi found themselves in sight of Cyrus’ bow, but a female leader stepped forward to order the grizzled elder to get up and let the strangers leave. WHO used to be this woman? More about that in a moment. But here and now I have to ask: Why did Eve, Levi et al calmly explain that, as the 1940s probably once did, they fell through a sinkhole – “so, hey, can we all stop and compare notes?”)
Meanwhile, back at camp, Ty used a game of softball (someone found enough material for two whole teams!) to get Lily to start saying openly that Veronica wasn’t really her sister. (For those with the La Brea/Lost BINGO card, you can now distract yourself with a sport.)
Meanwhile, TOP….
Asked to fly the backup plane into La Brea’s sinkhole, Gavin learned that Dr. Nathan was part of the team that was lost to the Mojave sinkhole years ago (and is now the aforementioned ‘leader’ of the 1940s). dr. Nathan returns to her office to try and circumvent any security measures that could prevent Gavin (and copilot Dr. Aldridge) from flying into the hole, only to hear from Agent Markman that security has been tightened – since each subsequent breach, a cause a catastrophic earthquake.
Aldridge urges Gavin to yes or no to piloting the mission, as they are running out of time. To prove her point, she helicopters him and Izzy to an excavation site on the same site as the La Brea survivor camp 12,000 years earlier. Aldridge hands Gavin an old, preserved note that Eve wrote and left in a glass bottle, in which she sees the “light” crack in the air closing – meaning if Gavin not into the sinkhole now, he may never be able to. And even if he is doing, no one could ever return!
