All right, La Brea viewers…we have now arrived at season three episode five – otherwise known as the series’ penultimate episode. The two-part season/series finale begins with Gavin (Eoin Macken) pondering what to do with the microchip while visiting what will be, in 10,000 years, Eve’s favorite spot. Ty (Chiké Okonkwo) reminds him they need to trade it for Eve, but they admit to being worried about whoever is sending them the messages on the laptop.
Ty’s also worried that something happened to Paara since she’s overdue on returning from her trip. Both men pledge not to stop trying until they get their families back.
Izzy (Zyra Gorecki) confesses to Veronica (Lily Santiago) that she’s worried about her relationship with Leyla after turning down an offer to go stargazing. Fortunately, that conversation is cut short when her dad has her join him and Ty to look at a new message that just popped up. (Love the Izzy/Leyla thing, but there’s no time for that storyline right now.) Gavin’s instructed to bring the chip to Cahuenga Peak in exchange for Eve. The connection ends before he can get assurance Eve’s alive.
Maya (Claudia Ware) pops in and thinks it’s good news. Gavin calls a time-out and wants a very specific 10-minute window to think about it.
Sam (Jon Seda) finds Lucas (Josh McKenzie) out in the woods and warns him not to storm the base alone to retrieve Scott. It turns out Lucas was actually just visiting his mom’s grave. Way to jump to conclusions, Sam! Before Sam leaves him to commune with his mom, Lucas wonders if he thinks it’s all a little too coincidental that Scott, Petra, and Levi just happened to have been found by these people and taken. Come on, it was the middle of a fire and they found Scott?! (Lucas, dude, we are right there with you on this one!)
Lucas suggests there’s a mole feeding the soldiers information. Sam doesn’t think that’s a crazy theory and says he’ll help him figure things out when he gets back to the fort.
Gavin’s 10-minute break is interrupted by the unexpected appearance of Maya. She wants to help him make the trade, but Gavin announces he’s going to destroy the microchip. It’s too powerful and too dangerous.
Maya pulls a gun on him as he walks off. She reveals the chip is hers and she’s taking it back. Sam and Ty walk up at just that moment – Sam with his gun out and Ty surprising Maya from the opposite side and disarming her. They demand she hand over her backpack and Gavin confirms he knew it was her when she showed up seconds after the chat ended. He orders her to say where Eve’s being held.
Maya refuses and reveals she has the upper hand. Her watch is a tracking device…and just as they realize what that means, a voice screams, “Nobody move!” Sam, Ty, and Gavin are surrounded by soldiers and Maya simply takes the microchip from Gavin’s pocket.
Oh, but hold on! Shots ring out and the soldiers begin falling. However, Maya and two soldiers get away and drive off in a Jeep. Gavin’s savior? His sister Helena. Wait, how does he recognize her? He didn’t know her in 2016 before he fell through the sinkhole. Ty’s met her but 10,000 BC Gavin wouldn’t recognize her face and it’s unlikely he gave Gavin a full description of her.
Helena followed Ty through the aurora, and she’s super pissed they let Maya have the chip. It turns out Maya leads a private security company and was contracted by the military to build time-traveling fighter planes. No one knows her real plan – except, apparently, Helena – is to sell the planes to the highest bidder. They need to stop her now!
Also, Helena is really angry with Gavin because he always disappoints her.
Back at the fort, a rock falls off a tray Veronica’s carrying in the council hut, and the sound it makes when it hits the floor draws her attention. She discovers a trap door and pulls out the case it’s covering. Inside is a radio for contacting the Ladera Air Base. She immediately tells Lucas what she found, and they both realize Maya isn’t their only problem. Only members of the council use the hut.
Veronica will try and figure out the spy during the council meeting, which is just getting underway.
The council takes a vote on whether to let the refugees continue to stay at the fort. Veronica understands their concern and shows them the case containing the Ladera Air Base radio. Ruth suggests they take a break and return to the table with clear heads. (If that’s not suspicious, I don’t know what is.)
Veronica goes looking for Ruth and Lucas reveals she left the fort for an “emergency diplomatic meeting” with another tribe. Veronica and Lucas decide to track her down since if it walks like a duck, it is a duck.
Leyla and Izzy go on a walk and wind up finding the dead soldiers. Leyla says she’s an excellent tracker and assures Izzy she’ll help her find her dad who she just assumes was walking this direction.
Meanwhile, Scott (Rohan Mirchandaney) and Levi (Nicholas Gonzalez) are locked up in cells at the Ladera Air Base. Levi reveals they keep asking him about Gavin and a microchip. And Scott fills Levi in on Maya being a dirty, rotten traitor. Levi suggests that Scott give them what they want – more details on a plant he wrote about in a research paper – but Scott has nothing left to say about it. (He was high when he wrote the paper.)
Maya and the soldiers arrive at the base and she hands off the microchip to have it taken to the lab. She then meets with Scott’s interrogator – Levi. Yes, you read that correctly. Levi is working with Maya and the soldiers.
When Levi enters Scott’s cell, Scott immediately assumes he’s a spy since he’s in their uniform and has one of their tattoos on his arm. But Levi insists that he found out about Maya and the bases all throughout time, and that he joined up so he could get back to 10,000 BC and find James. Maya still believes he’s on their side, but Levi tries to convince Scott he’s pulling the whole secret double agent switcheroo thing and is still the old Levi and not a bad guy.
Levi reveals the fossilized plants Scott studied are the key to making Maya’s time travel work. Scott insists he didn’t show the paper to anyone else. Levi slips into bad guy mode when Maya joins them and says he’s certain Scott told someone about the paper, even if he keeps claiming he didn’t.
Maya wants to be queen of all time travel, so she needs to be the only person with the knowledge Scott possesses. Rather than get punched in the face by Levi (who sort of winks at him), he now claims he told some people. Scott won’t say the names and Maya orders Levi to punch him in the stomach.
Since Scott won’t talk, Levi suggests they move him to a long-term detention facility. Maya says she’ll arrange it. When she walks away, Levi tells Scott that he acted perfectly.
Elsewhere, Gavin, Helena, Ty, and Sam float down a river on a raft since it’s quicker than walking to the base. (The scene shows them floating at a slug’s pace, which doesn’t make any sense.) Helena uses the time to fill Gavin in on their shared history, explaining they made a pact to leave the country and head to Mexico. However, he backed out of their plans and let her take the heat for stealing the microchip.
Gavin had his family; Helena had no one.
And now the Scooby Squad has a new problem – a prehistoric alligator twice the size of their raft. It knocks Helena into the water and then pulls her under, so Gavin puts a knife between his teeth and jumps in to save her. They both swim back to the boat with the alligator on their tails. Sam lets loose with a hail of bullets from one of the dead soldier’s rifles and the alligator screams in pain. It finally stops its charge and sinks.
They make it back to safe ground and keep walking to the base. Gavin promises when it’s over, he’ll finally introduce Helena to his family. They spot tire marks but don’t spot a surveillance camera in a nearby tree.
Back near the fort, Lucas and Veronica catch up with Ruth, and she insists she has her reasons for working with the base. Veronica realizes she’s covering for someone.
Leyla stops following footsteps and heads to her initial destination. Once she gets there, she’s upset the aurora to Izzy’s time isn’t there like she was promised. Izzy’s totally confused and insists running away isn’t the answer.
Ruth, Veronica, and Lucas show up just as Izzy asks Leyla who told her about the aurora’s location. Ruth says Maya did and that she’s lied about everything. Oh, so it’s Leyla who’s been using the radio and spilling the beans to Maya – not her mom, Ruth.
Lucas wants to use the radio to spy on the base, and Leyla confirms she knows the code to turn it on. Once it’s on, they learn a team has been sent to take out Ty, Sam, Helena, and Gavin.
Levi and two other soldiers escort Scott to the other detention center. Levi’s seen Eve there and wants to make everything right. Izzy runs into a clearing nearby, sees Levi, and one of the soldiers reacts by pulling his gun and getting ready to shoot her. Levi jumps him while Scott fights the other soldier. Scott’s about to get stabbed in the face when Lucas clobbers the soldier with a branch to the head.
Izzy asks about her dad, but Levi was unaware that Gavin is nearby. He makes Izzy stay behind and heads off to save Gavin. Levi spots the soldiers ready to ambush Gavin’s foursome and manages to shoot a few. Sam and Helena join the firefight and all but one soldier is killed.
Unfortunately, the one still alive shoots Levi in the chest just as Izzy shoots the soldier with her bow and arrow. Sam and the group rush to help Levi, and Sam announces it’s a gut shot. The wound won’t stop bleeding, and Levi’s on the verge of death when Gavin asks for a minute alone with him. Levi and Izzy exchange goodbyes as Levi says Eve’s in the long-term detention center. Levi knows he’s dying and says he made peace with everything but Gavin. Gavin calls him his brother and Levi says, “Brothers till the end,” and then passes away.
They all take a minute to acknowledge Levi’s death, and then Sam suggests they need to get to Eve quickly before reinforcements arrive.
As they get closer to the detention facility, a double aurora appears in front of them. They realize the directions on the map says “red” where the detention center should be. They figure out the detention center is in 1965 and so are Josh and Riley. Helena says it makes sense since Maya has an operation in 1965 with a detention area.
Helena tells her brother to destroy Maya’s infrastructure in ’65 and then volunteers to come with him.
Season three episode five ends with Izzy, Sam, Helena, and Gavin stepping through the aurora. Only Scott remains behind.
- La Brea Season 3 Episode 1 “Sierra” 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 6 “The Road Home, Part 2” Series Finale
