It’s hard to ascertain too much from a title. Sometimes they’re pretty clear cut, other times they hide devious secrets. Take the latest episode of La Brea, “The Wedding.” It sounded simple enough, focusing mostly on Ty and Paara’s long awaited union. But as a fan of entertainment, I should have known better. This episode starts as a White Wedding, and doesn’t quite get so far as a Red Wedding. So it’s safe to say this is a Pink Wedding, with moments of joy and a shocking ending.
The episode begins with Caroline and Silas. They’ve apparently been working on puzzling through Moore’s notes that she found hidden in his cave. We haven’t seen much of Silas lately, so much so that I forgot he’s actually Caroline’s father. Though he was a dangerous threat in season 1, he’s driven to make good on his promises and protect his family now. When Caroline leaves to return to the larger group, something surprising happens. An unseen assailant armed with a silenced pistol shoots Silas twice, stealing the notes from him as the man lies bleeding out.
Back with the group, the wedding planning is proceeding in full force. There’s lots of merriment and happy vibes. Scott tries to weasel wine bottles away from Judah, Eve and Izzy try on wedding dresses (a LOT of stuff fell through that first sinkhole), and Ty asks Eve to be his best woman in a heartwarming exchange. Feeling the need to be honest, Ty also tells Eve and Gavin about what he’s pieced together about Project Blue Moon. In an effort to get answers out of James, he’s also been invited the wedding ceremony.
It’s safe to say there’s very mixed feelings about James attending. Take Levi, for example. He wants to jump the gun and kill James before he can be interrogated. He even wants Eve’s help, and plans on poisoning the man with crushed seeds from a white flower. Eve doesn’t want to play ball, but she’s also very concerned about the premise of James traveling back in time and effectively erasing her children in a bid to reclaim the years he lost with Gavin.
One of my favorite parts about “The Wedding” is it finally makes sense of the whole Aaron confusion. It begins with Veronica trying to figure out why Aaron had Moore’s journal on him. Apparently he even added something to it, some obscure bible verses arranged both vertically and horizontally. Lucas is being a good boyfriend and supporting her. When she can’t let the journal mystery go, he takes her on a fun excursion to a hot spring armed with wine and a pop tart, just to help unwind and hopefully help loosen up her mental muscles. As an added bonus, they share a nice romantic moment and their bond deepens.
At first, the wedding ceremony is very uplifting. Josh and Riley goof around and share a kiss, Scott freaks out when the warriors start rewarding him for killing Taamet (another favorite moment of mine) and Gavin’s family at large seems happy. Even James is in a good place once he arrives, and tells Ty their brief psychiatry session finally helped him get some much needed rest. The only person having a bit of rough time is Sam, who is finding it difficult watching everybody else move on while he’s stuck in the past. Josh also starts to have a bad day once he overhears Riley and discovers she’s been keeping secrets from him. Luckily there’s plenty of alcohol, including fermented corn.
The tone of the episode starts to change when Kira appears unexpectedly. She says James sent the Exiles last time, and that the moment he gets the journal, he’ll reveal his true nature. Most worrying, she leaves saying it won’t end well. As for Eve, she tries to talk Levi out of his plans, and he tells her that James is responsible for the death of his wife. Apparently they were tracking sinkholes and she got caught by one, falling to her death. Eve counters that Levi’s not a murderer, and tries to convince him to be the man she remembers.
Caroline returns, and quietly freaks out to Gavin when she sees James at the party. Meanwhile he introduces himself to his grandson, Josh, and they actually have a nice moment together drinking booze and discussing how women will always be a mystery to them. Later Josh and Scott play my new favorite game, called No Filter. They point people out and say the first thing that comes to mind. It’s a fun game, but then Sam interrupts it, shooing Scott away to ask Josh about his feelings for his daughter. He notes that for two people that love each other, they sure seem miserable lately. Ultimately he reasons that what matters most is being together, not being right.
James runs into Caroline skulking about, and when she confronts him about the men he sent after her, he swears he didn’t send them. Then Levi makes a solid effort to poison the man, offering they share drinks together, but Eve jumps in just in time to stop it. And then Silas shambles over to the hot springs, bleeding but alive, saying how they’re all in terrible danger.
From that point on, “The Wedding” starts to get real dark really quickly. Gavin is furious when he discovers his wife and Levi have been keeping secrets again. Then he runs into his father, who claims he found Caroline dead in a building. Understandably, Gavin doesn’t believe him, and confronts his father asking why he killed his mother. He demands answers about Project Blue Moon, and James says that it’s a real project, but that he put it aside after spending time with his family. And then the truth of the situation at Lazarus reveals itself.
As it turns out, the person that shot Silas was actually Kira. Worse, she’s been lying about James being a threat, and she’s actively been trying to get the journal and control access to the tower. She’s about to escape when Ty tries to stop her, but she uses her pistol to take him hostage instead. Paara is overwhelmed, but determined to get her husband back.
In the final moments, Veronica has a revelation. All the bible verses are just numbers, and they form latitude and longitude that may lead them to a way out of this prehistoric hell. Best of all, with Silas’ help she discovers Aaron used to work at Lazarus, and how he stole the journal from Doctor Moore. Now the woman is free from the shadow he cast over her life.
It ends with James saying how Lazarus is effectively under Kira’s control, and how she operated right under his nose. Even though she’s not likely to allow them to return to use the time machine, he stresses he kept some things from her as well. All they need to do is trust him. A really exceptional episode of La Brea. Though I’m sad Dr. Clark is dead, I’m glad Silas is back, and look forward to seeing where the rest of this season takes us. Stay tuned for our review of the next episode, “The Swarm.”
