“What Remains” opens with a large carnivorous dinosaur getting a rare taste of mammal, as one of the colony’s scientists wanders into the woods. But the real villain of this episode is much, much smaller—the virus that caused the scientist to lose his senses in the first place.
When Terra Nova loses contact with a science outpost, Elizabeth Shannon accompanies Commander Nathaniel Taylor to investigate. What they find are survivors with no memory. Of course, they’re quickly infected and Elizabeth’s husband Jim follows her, along with chief science officer Malcolm Wallace.
Amnesia is a plot device as old as dinosaurs, and here it allows for some romantic tension in a love triangle that otherwise has none, with a happily married couple. But Elizabeth doesn’t recognize her husband, instead latching onto Malcolm, whom she dated before meeting Jim.
The problem with self-contained plots like this is that it’s hard to feel any suspense when you know it’s headed nowhere—the virus will be cured, Malcolm will be spurned, the Commander will come back to his senses after showing off some bad-ass commando skills and the Shannons will be home to tuck in the kids.
It’s as if the creators thought, what television needs is an epic sci-fi series set among dinosaurs, and…wait, I know—we’ll turn it into a police and medical procedural! CSI meets House meets Land of the Lost! Ratings gold!
The almost-afterthought subplot of Josh Shannon inquiring to the local smuggler about getting his girlfriend in the next wave of settlers ends with the Sixers leader declaring ominously that she sees this as an opportunity. We’ve had enough hints at this point that the Shannons are about to be pawns in a conspiracy, and that there’s no telling if there’s a good side to the war that’s coming.
The potential for the show’s story to match its visuals remains, but not if it takes eons to get back to the larger arc of the premiere. We don’t even know yet how compelling that will be.