NBC’s La Brea season two episode 12 opens with Gavin, Eve, and James placing flowers on Caroline’s grave. James has made contact with an ally who may help them take back the building now that Kira’s taken over.

Back in camp, Sam’s treating Silas who looks like he’s going to eventually recover. Gavin (Eoin Macken) and Izzy (Zyra Gorecki) argue over Levi, with Gavin convinced Levi’s made his choice and now they have to do what’s best for their family without him. Izzy doesn’t think they should turn their back on Levi that quickly.

Josh (Jack Martin) promises to look after Izzy while they’re off trying to get into the Tower.

A water tower’s being built in the middle of the clearing when a deep rumbling draws everyone’s attention. It’s coming from underneath them and as the earth vibrates under their feet, they hear loud buzzing.

Riley (Veronica St. Clair) and Veronica (Lily Santiago) are off in the woods looking for a sexton so Veronica can figure out where the journal’s coordinates lead. The two aren’t really close and Riley admits she misses having a friend her age to talk to. She and Josh are fighting and she doesn’t know how to fix it, so she’s happy to tag along with Veronica right now.

They make it back to the camp and it looks deserted. There’s a dead man on the ground and Scott (Rohan Mirchandaney) grabs them and forces them into a truck while warning if “they” hear them, they’re dead. Who are “they?” Huge, immensely toxic wasps. They have a nest right under the clearing and noise activates them.

They were in a dormant stage but now they’re awake.

Veronica asks about Ella and Scott explains people were screaming and fleeing. He jumped in a truck to keep from being stung. Scott says water and soap can kill them, so they could pour the water tower’s contents on them. (So the nest is exactly under the clearing and the water tower is just coincidently right above the nest. Got it.)

Riley thinks they should just leave like everyone else already did, but just then Veronica spots Ella. She’s on the ground and is barely moving.

Veronica wants to rush out and help Ella but Scott points out the wasps have “built an empire” under the dirt. (Sorry, that description was too good not to quote.) All sound vibrations disturb the wasps, including footsteps. Plus, they don’t have an anti-venom for prehistoric wasps.

Riley suggests an EpiPen and notes that there just happens to be one in her dad’s med kit on the bus. Getting to the bus won’t be a problem so they decide to take a chance and head there.

Meanwhile right outside the Tower, Kira tells Ty (Chiké Okonkwo) she’s returning the business to its primary focus of helping the world. She cuts him loose and he begs her to send his friends home once she fixes Lazarus. She refuses, unwilling to invite them into the building. It would jeopardize the project. Ty reminds her they’re only there because of the project’s mistakes. She doesn’t care and warns him to keep his people away.

Sam’s out in the woods gathering herbs to help Silas when he finds Levi (Nicholas Gonzalez) digging up explosives. Levi warns Sam to just leave him alone but Sam refuses to go.

Eve (Natalie Zea), Gavin, and James make it to a secret door and are met by James’s ally, Elliott, a guard who’s been with him for 20 years. An alarm’s going off and Elliott explains no one should go inside right now. The security network was corrupted and all the research animals escaped and are roaming the building.

Ty runs up to the group and reveals his head’s killing him. James says he needs to keep up the cancer treatment or he’ll relapse. James promises once he takes the building back, he’ll help TY.

Ty refuses to go back to the village and instead wants to stay with them and fight. Elliott warns them they need to go in now while the security cameras he disabled are still down. They’ll be back online in minutes.

Elliott remains outside and closes the door behind the group. Levi jumps Elliott and knocks him out, then uses his key card to follow the group in.

James makes it to a computer that will allow him to gain back control, but he needs Gavin’s handprint to activate it. James tells some of them to manually seal off the western corridors. He needs them to buy him some time to gain back control.

Elsewhere, Izzy’s tromping around the woods searching for Levi while Josh follows her, arguing that he’s dangerous. Izzy recalls how important Levi’s support was after her accident and she thinks she needs to be there for him now.

Their argument ends when Sam starts groaning in pain. He explains Levi beat him up and is heading to the building with explosives. Izzy races off and leaves Sam with Josh.

Ty’s in horrible shape as he and Gavin make their way to seal off the doors. Gavin tells him to go to the medical bay and get his pills, assuring him he can handle shutting the doors. Ty reluctantly agrees.

Gavin spots Levi planting the explosives and tries to get him to reconsider. Levi explains that the day his wife died, his daughter also died in that sinkhole. James has taken everything from him, and now he has to stop Lazarus.

Levi is going to destroy the entire building and warns Gavin to leave.

Kira and her team are 90% done with the machine using Dr. Moore’s work. (Did everyone ignore the evacuation order?) A guard delivers the news Gavin’s inside the building and has accessed the security network. Kira knows it’s James’s work and sends the guard off to the executive lounge to take care of him.

Levi attacks the guard before he even leaves the room and warns all the scientists to leave the building immediately. Kira grabs the journal but Levi orders her to put it down and stay put. He needs her help.

Back in camp, Scott locates the EpiPen and Riley comes up with a plan to add soap to the water tower and kill the wasps. They’ll have to do that in order to get to Ella.

They quietly pour liquid soap – which they just happen to have – into the water tower and turn on a hose leading into the wasps’ nests. Scott’s certain they’re dying excruciating deaths and Veronica decides she’s the one who will go save Ella.

Veronica walks softly toward Ella in case there are any lingering wasps. She takes a step on something that makes a noise and the wasps, which are definitely not dead and are now incredibly angry, swarm up out of the cracks.

She stumbles and then makes a run for it, grabbing Ella (Michelle Vergara Moore) and pulling her inside before they can sting again. Ella’s in bad shape and it turns out Veronica dropped the EpiPen when she fell.

Ella is about to give up and is just happy Veronica’s with her. Veronica begs her not to give up but Ella assures Veronica she’ll be fine without her.

Scott and Riley spot the EpiPen and try and come up with a plan. Scott finds a large squirt gun and needs a roll of duct tape, coolant from the engine, and a helmet. Why is there a large squirt gun, a roll of duct tape, and a helmet accessible? Don’t ask, just go with it.

Scott steps outside and lights the stream of coolant on fire, spraying the wasps. Riley runs for the EpiPen with Scott providing cover.

They make it to Ella but discover Veronica’s also been stung. They only have one EpiPen! Ella tells them to give Veronica the shot. As Ella struggles to breathe, Veronica asks for a minute alone with her.

Ella and Veronica argue over who is going to take the shot, with both insisting the other deserves to live. Ella begs Veronica to save herself but Veronica can’t do it. Ella uses the last of her strength to inject Veronica. Ella says she loves Veronica and then dies on her shoulder.

Back inside the Tower, Gavin comes face to face with a saber-tooth tiger.

Ty makes it to the infirmary but before he can get his pills he hears Gavin cry for help. He grabs an ax and takes down the tiger before it can reach Gavin. Gavin quickly tells Ty that Levi’s about to make a big mistake.

Eve joins James who insists he’s about to retake the system. But Eve’s concerned that James isn’t worried that Gavin hasn’t returned from shutting the doors. He’s strangely calm and casual about the whole thing, and Eve demands to know what he’s not telling her.

James refuses to show her what he’s working on, but she gets a look at the screen and sees he’s working on Project Blue Moon. It’s already at 95% complete!

She grabs something heavy to stop him but James pulls a gun and forces her to stand down. Eve tries to remind him he’s throwing away his family, but James insists his fix will make it so he won’t ever lose his son or his wife. Of course, that means Eve’s family won’t exist but that’s just too bad.

Eve insists this won’t make him as happy as he thinks.

She strikes out and knocks the gun from his hand and they fight, but she’s able to hold him still with a knife to his throat. Unfortunately, she doesn’t act fast enough and he picks up something from behind him and briefly knocks her out.

Levi places explosives all around the portal and demands Kira shift all auxiliary power to the portal. Kira knows that will destroy the entire building and Levi’s okay with that. Kira refuses but Levi holds her at gunpoint and forces her to do it.

Gavin and Ty show up just as Levi’s about to set off the bombs. Kira sneaks off while Levi’s distracted. Levi threatens to shoot Gavin if he gets in his way.

Izzy arrives at just that second and tells Levi he needs help. She’s going to the cafeteria and will be there when he’s ready to talk. Levi warns her the building’s about to explode but she doesn’t care. She won’t leave and that’s enough to make Levi stop the countdown.

But…and this is huge…there’s a built-in failsafe Levi didn’t know about and the countdown continues. They all run out of the room as the countdown ticks down.

The building goes up in a massive fireball as episode 12 ends.

• Season 2 Episode 1 “The Next Day” Recap
• Season 2 Episode 2 “The Cave” Recap
• Season 2 Episode 3 “The Great Escape” Recap
• Season 2 Episode 4 “The Fog” Recap
• Season 2 Episode 5 “The Heist” Recap
• Season 2 Episode 6 “Lazarus” Recap
• Season 2 Episode 8 “Stampede” Recap
• Season 2 Episode 9 “Murder in the Clearing” Recap
• Season 2 Episode 10 “The Return” Recap
• Season 2 Episode 11 “The Wedding” Recap
• Season 2 Episode 13 “The Journey Part 1” Recap
• Season 2 Episode 14 “The Journey Part 2” Recap