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La Brea Season 2 Episode 6 Lazarus Recap And Review- James And The Tower Are Only The Beginning

La Brea Season 2 Episode 6 was the most successful this season because we got real answers to the questions we have had since the beginning. What caused the time dilation? How does our group get back to their time? Why did it happen? After all the prehistoric animals and shady rival tribes, we finally know what is happening, and it was a fun but predictable plot beat. Similar to Prime Video’s The Peripheral, the future is meddling with the past with no regard for the things that call that time home.

La Brea Season 2 Episode 6
LA BREA — “Lazarus” Episode 206 — Pictured: (l-r) Rohan Mirchandaney as Scott, Josh McKenzie as Lucas — (Photo by: Sarah Enticknap/NBC)

What a difference a few episodes make! Silas, who looked like the shadiest cat around, is now shaping up to be one of the few people our group should trust. Sure he’s taciturn and a loner, but he has at least been helpful. On the other hand, Gavin’s father is deceptive and selfish, even when it comes to his son and grandkids. By the end of the episode, we have an extended look inside the Tower, meet Gavin’s parents, and our group was reunited in 1988. For everything thrown at us, though, I am now desperate to see 2076. That isn’t very far from now, and interestingly, it is very near when The Peripheral’s Jackpot completed. So maybe we should all pay attention. We appear to be on the tipping point of world annihilation.

Our group gets discovered when the heavily surveilled Tower sees Silas hiding. Everyone manages to escape, but Gavin is taken into the Tower. Unfortunately, Lucas was also zapped by the same weapon that fried Eddie. Lucas doesn’t have long before he succumbs to the burn if that dead guy is anything to go by.

Scott and Lucas continue to be a bright spot together. These two are a perfect odd couple of mismatched but complementary traits. Scott is cerebral but cautious, almost to a fault, while Lucas is headstrong and reactionary. They have developed a nice chemistry that would be missed if he dies from the attack. On the other hand, Veronica and Lucas aren’t as convincing. I like both characters independently but together; they don’t read naturally. Perhaps Lily Santiago and Josh McKenzie need time to gel? Assuming Josh’s state at the end of La Brea Season 2 Episode 6 is a red herring; I look forward to watching both of these relationships grow.

In 1988 Riley and Josh are having cute dates and working with Caroline. She and Gavin’s Dad opened a portal to 10,000 BC. The portal is unstable, though, and creates sinkholes across the timeline that jeopardize lives. She is working to develop a virus to shut Lazarus down if she doesn’t get caught first, though. She is being actively hunted, presumably by James’ people. While Riley and Josh are preoccupied at the ice rink where Caroline has been siphoning electricity, they find Caroline. She could give them one clue before she was taken, though. Hidden in the Wheaties box was an electronic box. It looks like a transmitter of some sort and could be a delivery system for her virus or a way to open a portal.

Riley, who has shown to be the more clever of the two, found 1988 Sam, who, after some disturbing attempts at flirting with his daughter, committed her message to memory so he would have it in the future. The memory appears in Sam’s mind in 10,000 BC, and that knowledge is enough to force James’ hand after they are captured.

James, who captures the entire group, had been lying to Gavin about what the portal could do. He speaks in half-truths and clearly has a personal agenda that taints everything he does. Silas may have seemed shady before, but he is obviously the more trustworthy. Gavin’s father tells him he is from 2076 and is there to pillage resources. That should be a red flag immediately. However altruistic his work with vaccines and extinct animals might seem, he is a pirate who only cares about his time. The black rock contains uranium that is used to power the portal. What happens when they use up all the rock, though?

For all James talk about caring for Gavin, he isn’t willing, to be honest with him or let him save Josh. Instead, he lies about where the portal goes, Thanks to Sam’s implanted memory, everyone knows he is lying, and he reluctantly lets the group go to 1988 to rescue their kids. James has convenient morality that includes easily lying and turning past mistakes into proof that he has changed. He shouldn’t be trusted, but at least for now, Sam and Riley and Gavin, Eve, Josh, Izzy, and Levi are all together in 1988. Unfortunately, there is a looming sinkhole and tidal wave on the way unless they can find a way to stop it.

Back in 10,000 BC, there are two separate problems. First, Lucas is dying or maybe dead, although he is too integral a character to lose. The second is something that was casually shown two different times. Judah wants to be a leader in the clearing. He has some strong ideas that will be contrary to our core group. In the clearing, treats and food are currency, and he has some in the form of candy bars, which he uses to garner support. Without the coalition for reasonability, he may take over altogether. This could be disastrous, especially when everyone learns they could all go to the future or the past whenever they want.

It’s been frustrating to deal with the stingily doled-out answers week after week. Our patience was finally rewarded with a glut of information that should inform the back half of the season. La Brea Season 2 Episode 7 was everything we could ask for and left us with a great cliffhanger. Find all our La Brea coverage here.