La Brea Review – The Fort (1×05)

We don’t know much more about the people living in the little manmade village, but what we do know is that they are armed and dangerous. 

On La Brea Season 1 Episode 5, Eve and Levi’s team explored the manmade fort in hopes of finding answers or literally any insight into how they might possibly get out of 10,000 B.C.

Spoiler alert – there doesn’t seem to be a way out. The “signal” they were picking up on was a to be a dead-end as it belonged to a now-dead man (one of the men that Levi was looking for as part of his mission). His death seemed to be in the same manner as Eddies, and he looks to have been used as some kind of sacrifice, which raises a lot more questions about the Vikings (I’m calling them that) in the village. 

Aside from that, they also learned the hard way that the Vikings are very territorial upon seeing people pretty much break into their homes. Go figure, 

One of the strangest parts about all of it was that these people spoke English, which doesn’t actually jive with history, as Scott pointed out. 

These people, much like our survivors that fell through the La Brea sinkhole, shouldn’t be here. 

So, why are they? And what do they know?

And why is the grandfather killing people when his little adorable nephew went out of his way to help Eve and Levi escape?

What a little boss! 

I wish they all just talked it out instead of resorting to bows and spears, but hopefully, that’ll come soon enough. 

It’s only a matter of time before we find out more about these early settlers, including the woman who gave them the A-ok to escape.

If I had to guess, they all fell through a similar sinkhole and simply assimilated.

But what does that mean for the rescue crew that Dr. Sophia wants to find? If one of those team members was found dead in the village, the outlook for the rest seems pretty grim.

There are plenty of questions being raised, but the fact that we’re not getting all the answers outright isn’t entirely a bad thing since the plot continues to move at a comfortable pace. We’re learning more, we’re seeing progress in both timelines, and we’re getting some solid character development to make up for it.

The whole show may be hinged on the mystery of the sinkhole, but the mystery isn’t carrying the show; we’re invested in multiple parts. 

The most infuriating part was how everyone decided that the best time to have deep and meaningful conversations was while they were infiltrating the fort. 

Like, really, you guys can’t talk anywhere else?

Those chit-chats got the best of Lucas and Scott, who were ambushed by two of the Viking men while coming to blows over the missing heroine.

At this point, can Lucas just let it go? Where is he planning to sell these drugs in 10K B.C? It’s one of the more absurd plots, which is a bummer because Scott and Lucas’s characters have a great vibe. They know who to play off of one another in such a way that makes them scene-stealers.

Thankfully, after the riveting adventure, everyone made it out alive and back to base camp. 

Eve and Levi got in their feelings after she said she wished she was the one to tell Gavin about their relationship. 

The guilt was consuming her, especially as she knew Gavin was doing everything in his power to bring them home. 

But while she seems to feel terrible for not believing Gavin about his visions all these years, I don’t think that they will reconcile. She’s clearly emotionally involved with Levi, and he obviously loves her back. Those feelings don’t just wither away. Am I a bad person for rooting for Levi?

Riley and Josh also bonded and a romance is on the horizon. 

I guess surviving Vikings, saber-tooth tigers, and more has a way of bonding people. 

Back at base camp, Sam and Ty tried their best to get information out of Lily about the man who murdered Eddie. 

It was very obvious that Lily knew more than she was letting on, and she wanted to tell him despite the orders Veronica was barking at her. 

The whole dynamic between Veronica and Lily was suss the whole time, so I’m really happy Ty picked up on that and pressed further. 

Eventually, Lily realized that Ty was someone she could trust, so she came clean about the fact that Veronica kidnapped her a few years ago.

Veronica needs to go. Let her be the sacrificial lamb when the time comes. 

I know we’ll probably get some backstory about how she probably couldn’t have kids and wanted a family, so she decided to kidnap Lily,  but honestly, there’s nothing that could redeem her in my eyes. 

Kidnapping is kidnapping no matter how you splice it. 

Back at home, things were just as chaotic.

Gavin was trying to see if Izzy would be cool with him flying into the sinkhole.

The answer was obviously “no” because she’s already lost her whole family, but it was also a difficult decision to make considering that if he didn’t, she would lose any chance of possibly getting her whole family back.

It didn’t help that Dr. Rebecca Aldridge lied to them about the mission and what was at stake. 

At this point, since everything is time-sensitive, everyone needs to be upfront about the dangers. How can you expect anyone to make a life-altering decision without knowing all the facts?

Dangerous situation #1: there’s a huge probability that the government will shoot down their aircraft while they are descending into the sinkhole. 

Dangerous situation #2: there’s a threat of the sinkhole closing once they successfully make it down there. 

Again, Gavin should’ve been told that there was a small window of opportunity for this rescue mission. 

He was hesitant, understandably, considering the odds of success are slim to none, but at least he could make the choice knowing all the outcomes. 

Rebecca didn’t want to scare Gavin away but he doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to sit around and wait while his wife and son are in danger.

And after she showed him Eve’s letter that the crew dug up, there was no way he wouldn’t sacrifice everything when she instilled so much confidence in him. 

I love that Rebecca has a whole crew working to unearth items belonging to the survivors and that they’ve at least discovered a way to communicate, even if it is one-sided.  It’s a long shot for Eve since she doesn’t know if anyone is even looking for any “artifacts,” but it’s definitely clever on her part considering Gavin found her ring. 

It’s unclear how Rebecca is able to do all of this without triggering any government involvement. How does she have the funds? Or better yet, who is funding all of this?

Dr. Nathan explained that she had a personal stake in the mission, which explains why she decided to go rogue, but now that Markman figured out that she’s up to something, it’s not clear if she’ll be able to hold things down long enough for Gavin and Rebecca to successfully fly into the sinkhole. 

It makes sense as to why the government pulled out of the mission. The threat of another major earthquake could cause Los Angeles to fall off the map, and in the grand scheme of things, they have to protect the majority over the minority that fell through. 

But since this isn’t the first sinkhole to have opened up either, you would think the government would be more ardent about getting to the bottom of the mystery… quite literally. If there’s a way to do it safely, why not run all the possibilities and give it a try?

Will Gavin and Rebecca successfully travel in time? Will they provide a way out of there for all the trapped souls?

And will they locate the other rescue team? I’m sure Dr. Sophia’s fiancee is still out there somewhere!

What did you think of the episode?

And don’t forget to check out our review of The CW’s latest time-traveling sci-fi series 4400 right here!