Unfortunately, Gavin, Izzy, and Josh’s encounter with the T-Rex teased at the end of NBC’s La Brea season two isn’t the opening shot of season three episode one. Instead, the final season of the time-traveling sci-fi drama begins with Gavin (Eoin Macken) experiencing a pleasant memory before being snapped back into the reality of life in 10,0000 BC.
Gavin’s determined to get James’ laptop to work but isn’t having any luck. Izzy (Zyra Gorecki) is full of doom and gloom and won’t offer any help. The auroras are all closed, and there’s no way to get to Eve – even if they knew where/when she is right now, which they don’t.
Lucas (Josh McKenzie), who somehow got voted in as leader by the group, declares that security is their top priority. They have no idea what other creatures fell through the auroras (besides the aforementioned T-Rex), so they need to get busy building a spiked wall and a line of fire.
Judah (Damien Fotiou) still resents Lucas’ popularity and doesn’t want to waste time with a wall. (He has a point. A 3’ spiked wall means nothing to a T-Rex.) Lucas decides this impromptu security meeting is the perfect place to reveal that he and Veronica (Lily Santiago) are having a baby. Hugs and handshakes all around.
Gavin turns to Scott (Rohan Mirchandaney) for help on the laptop, and wouldn’t you know it…Scott’s got the perfect solution for charging the battery: a potato. That, plus some wiring and good luck, should do the trick.
Scott fills Gavin (and the audience) in on what else he’s working on. He was supposed to have a job interview with Petra’s mom, Maya Schmidt, before tumbling into 10,000 BC. So, how did Maya, Petra, and the rest of that group end up on a military base in 10,000 BC? To make things even more confusing, Petra doesn’t know where the base is, where her mom is, or why her mom reached out to Scott in the first place.
Their chat’s disrupted by a roar and all the clearing people running toward them and away from the roar. Veronica pauses long enough to say the dinosaurs are in the clearing, which, of course, leads to Gavin heading toward the clearing. (The man is a master at bad decisions.)
Gavin runs up as two massive dinos are fighting and hides beside Izzy and Ty (Chike Okonkwo). The clearing is being destroyed as the creatures fight, and the trio makes a break for it while the beasties are distracted by trying to kill each other.
The bad news: A few of the clearing people were wounded escaping from the dinosaur invasion, but no one died. The even worse news: the clearing has been taken over by dinosaurs and is unusable. Their only supplies and food are what people grabbed before fleeing.
Gavin claims he needs to go back to the clearing to get the laptop, which is weird since he had the laptop with him – away from the clearing – while speaking with Scott just minutes ago. In fact, the scene showed him running to the clearing to check on Izzy without his laptop.
Anyway, Sam (Jon Seda) says whatever they need can wait at least a few days. It’s not safe to return to the clearing now. Levi (Nicholas Gonzalez) joins them with news that Ty says everyone’s welcome to regroup at the fort. When Levi offers to find Josh and Riley, who are off on their own gathering berries, Gavin gets all jealous and claims he can find his own son, thank you very much.
Sam, who should have been the group’s leader, puts Levi in charge of marching everyone to the fort while he and Gavin look for their kids. They also recruit Izzy, Lucas, and Veronica for the mission. Sam notices Lucas has blood on his face, and Lucas remembers he fell during the dinosaur attack.
Riley and Josh are declaring their love for each other and making out when a Velociraptor suddenly appears behind Josh.
Josh screams for help and comes running up with Riley in his arms. She’s been attacked and is unconscious and covered with blood.
They make it to the fort, and after Sam sews up his daughter, all that’s left to do is hope and pray that she survives. Sam remains by her side as Gavin assures Izzy and Josh that she’s stable – for now.
Levi hands Gavin the laptop and says he went back for it just so that Gavin has one less thing to worry about.
Meanwhile, Scott and Petra string together potatoes to power the laptop. Petra confesses that she’s worried the computer will signal the base and reveals that she and her mom escaped from there – they didn’t just leave. Her mom told Petra they were bad people but wouldn’t explain why.
Scott makes a promise he can’t keep and says nothing bad will happen. They hook up the potatoes to the laptop, and it springs to life. The key players arrive before it powers up, and when it does, the screen reads, “Quantum Pairing Initiated.” The connection works and some unknown person from who knows where types, “Hello?”
Gavin responds with, “Hello.” When it asks who he is, Gavin types his name. The unknown person says they can help Gavin find his wife. The person claims they can see her now and provides an accurate description.
“How do I get my wife back?” types Gavin, frantic.
“Find Sierra,” reads the reply. The connection terminates, and even Scott pounding on the keys can’t get it to reconnect.
Riley wakes up and wants to say a few things in case she dies. She knows she’s in horrible shape and has an infection. She believes she won’t last long but falls back unconscious before she tells her dad what she wants to say.
Gavin’s wandered off on his own, and Ty joins him, wondering if he recognizes the name Sierra. Gavin has a weird feeling the name is connected to a memory of a breakfast he had with his family. Ty gently suggests Gavin should talk to Levi about that memory since he was in it too and might remember something.
Scott rushes up with the news that he traced the signal, and its origin is within a few miles of the fort! Wow, talk about your good luck! Way to go, Scott.
So, Scott, Levi, Gavin, Petra, and Ty head off to track the signal, with Scott leading the way. They don’t spot a radio tower or anything metal, and Ty suggests they split up. (Note: any horror movie fan will tell you to NEVER split up under any circumstances.)
At the same time all this is going down, Lucas passes out while trying to reassure Veronica everything will be just fine.
Gavin takes Ty’s advice and asks Levi about the breakfast they had with smiley face pancakes. Levi remembers it was Izzy’s birthday. He also recalls it was the year that Gavin started having visions and that Gavin went outside and then came back in all upset.
That prompts Gavin to remember a woman named Sierra was outside and tried to talk him into returning to the program. Gavin was furious that she came to his house after he claimed he was done with the program. Sierra revealed that her real name was Maya Schmidt – Petra’s mom.
Sierra was a military call sign for Maya, the woman he worked for, and now she’s also down here in 10,000 BC. Gavin and Levi react to this discovery by searching for Petra. Levi finds her first, but before they can talk, both are shot with tranquilizer darts and pass out.
Gavin, Scott, and Ty discover Petra’s locket, but Petra and Levi are missing. A helicopter flies overhead, and Scott assumes it’s from the base. Before Gavin rushes off all willy-nilly, Ty has something he needs to show him. He discovered an aurora that’s two different colors which means it goes to two different places. One might lead to Eve – but which one?
Sam, Josh, and Izzy walk up just seconds later with Riley on a stretcher. Sam claims Scott radioed them with the discovery, but Scott literally found out about it milliseconds ago and wouldn’t have had the time to make the call. Enough time also hasn’t passed for the trio to bring Riley from the fort. (Chalk this up to one of those convenient “laptop retrieval” moments that doesn’t make a lick of sense.)
Gavin informs the group that he remembered he used to work with Petra’s mother and that she’s the key to everything. Sam wants to take Riley through the aurora to save her, and Josh volunteers to go too. Gavin orders him to stay, so, of course, Josh goes through the aurora with Riley – and without Sam.
They’re debating what to do when Ty stands too close to the aurora and is sucked through. Josh and Riley go through the red side, and Ty is pulled through the blue. When Ty vanishes, so does the aurora.
Episode one of the final season ends with Ty almost being run over by a truck. It’s the middle of the night and the lights of LA shine in the distance. The man who almost hit him confirms it is September 12, 2021 – just a few weeks before the sinkhole opened up.
- La Brea Season 2 Episode 13 “The Journey Part 1” Recap
- La Brea Season 2 Episode 14 “The Journey Part 2” Finale Recap
- La Brea Season 3 Episode 2 “Don’t Look Up” Recap
- La Brea Season 3 Episode 3 “Maya” Recap
- La Brea Season 3 Episode 4 “Fire Storm” Recap
- La Brea Season 3 Episode 5 “The Road Home, Part 1” Recap
- La Brea Season 3 Episode 6 “The Road Home, Part 2” Series Finale Recap
