La Brea Season 2 Episode 9 Murder In The Clearing Review And Recap- It’s Hard To Trust Anyone When Everyone Has A Secret

The second half of the La Brea return gives us a murder to solve, another dangerous situation, and more questions. La Brea Season 2 Episode 9 wastes no time establishing the tone for the back half of the season. While we will still be getting new dangers to avoid each week, we will also be dealing with Scott’s decision to free Taamet and save Lucas. When Wyatt is found dead in La Brea Season 2 Episode 9, all signs point to Taamet and the Exiles, but is there more to this plot than first seems? As with most things in La Brea, that is absolutely the case.

Eve reunites with Gavin and Izzy at Lazarus. Gavin has to explain what he did and why. She isn’t pleased, but when James lets them know there might be another way home that doesn’t create catastrophes on the planet, the trio heads off to do his bidding. Before they can begin, though, they come across a dead body. Once again, the group has to divide and conquer.

While Eve plows ahead organizing search parties, putting herself in danger per usual, Gavin and his group look for the important Dr. Moore James told them about. Eve lands in trouble again when someone or something knocks her into a cave, and she is temporarily unconscious. We don’t know if it was a random accident or if she was targeted, but Gavin’s vision almost came true. Was it convenient timing that her search partner broke his flip-flops? Just before she fell into the cave, she saw blood on a rock and something rustling in the bushes. We don’t see what was there, so anything is possible.

Eve woke up at the bottom of the hole under a boulder. She can’t move the boulder off her leg, and a large animal is down there with her. Her backpack came open during the fall, and the flare gun got separated from the flares. Just as Scott has an endless supply of useful ancient knowledge, Eve has boundless untapped athletic prowess and is a bottomless pit of problem-solving. She manages to keep herself safe from the bear and uses his force to move the boulder, freeing herself. She limps back to the clearing just as the rest of the group returns from Dr. Moore’s cave.

Every answer leads to more questions. La Brea is like a game of Zelda where every item retrieved leads to another quest. James is stingy with his facts. He could have told Gavin about Dr. Moore at any point. He didn’t have Caroline’s knowledge of Moore’s whereabouts, but it would have been good to know someone was very close to solving the sinkhole problem. The group sets out searching for this scientist who used to work with James and Caroline.

James never gives anyone the whole truth and tells Gavin to ask Caroline for help. Instead of refusing to play his games, Gavin enlists Caroline’s help and begins searching for Dr. Harold Moore, who has been missing for several years. For reasons that escape me, she agrees to help find Dr. Moore. Unfortunately, the group finds the scientist dead. However, continued efforts rewarded them with his cave, where he had been working on his research.

James says Dr. Moore was very close to a breakthrough that would stabilize the portals and stop creating sinkholes. Caroline looks at the notes and seems to concur, but who knows if this is really true. If everyone wanted the portal to be stabilized, why would he need to hide in a cave? I’m still not convinced Caroline can be trusted any more than James. By the end of La Brea Season 2 Episode 9, Caroline has his rudimentary notes but is hiding them with Riley’s help.

She and Riley hide this from Gavin because they can’t risk James getting his hands on it until they know more. Gavin does still have a key found on Dr. Moore’s body. What that unlocks, we don’t know yet. Perhaps the biggest question is, why did Dr. Moore run away from Lazarus? Everyone is playing nice now, but how long will that last now that James has his hooks in Ty?

As the episode closed, Ty agreed to be James’ therapist in exchange for the cure to his cancer. We have already seen one trade go badly for our group. I have no doubt this one will not end as he had hoped, either. Nothing is free at Lazarus. We will have to wait and see how high a price Ty has to pay. James doesn’t seem like the type that needs to unburden his soul to a therapist, so he obviously has another agenda beyond mental health. He will undoubtedly pump Ty for information and use him against Caroline and the clearing group. Ty will learn, like everyone else, that secrets are dangerous and every action has consequences. I wonder if he will be able to live with his?

Regarding secrets, Scott tells Sam about his deal with Taamet when symbols are found near Wyatt’s body and on the knife used to kill him. The fractured clearing group needs a leader to avoid mob mentality, and Scott’s silence worsens this situation. Gavin’s group’s decision to potentially strand everyone in 10,000 BCE is not sitting well, and everyone is dividing into two camps. With a murderer on the loose, this will only get worse. Lucas is ready to aggressively interrogate Virgil because he is convinced the nervy guy did it. He had no alibi, a missing knife, and a wound he didn’t have before Wyatt was found. Although Lucas appeared to be overzealous initially, his instincts seemed spot on.

After Scott’s admission and the discovery of the knife points at Taamet, Sam convinces Lucas to let Virgil go and stop behaving recklessly. Sam’s advice is good, but it appears Lucas wasn’t wrong to distrust Virgil. Nonetheless, Lucas asks Virgil for forgiveness, and he agrees, but when Virgil is alone, he pulls out a leather pouch from his pocket that has the same symbol found on the knife and near Wyatt’s body. Is he an Exile spy? Is he a rogue actor sewing the seeds of chaos? Maybe he is a serial killer. How many more people will die before the group figures out what is going on? Might I suggest Judah is next to go? Scott and Lucas are right. He is annoying.

La Brea Season 2 Episode 9 was a fast-paced episode that gave us many storylines to sink our teeth into for the remainder of the season. This series has found its footing in the mythos of Lazarus and James. Time travel, when done well, allows for many possibilities. Let’s hope La Brea goes down the right forking path. Find all our La Brea coverage here.