Terra Nova Episode 1.06 Bylaw

A soldier, Foster, opens the door of a communications relay station to begin repairs and gets attacked by a nicoraptor.

The next morning, Malcolm tells Jim and Taylor that Foster must've left the door open and was taken by surprise. But Jim notices deep scratches on the inside of the door. Back at Terra Nova, Elisabeth performs an autopsy on Foster's body, which Malcolm interrupts: He found an ankylosaurus egg. Meanwhile, Jim arrives with Zoe, who claims to have an earache but actually just misses her mother.

Elisabeth tells Jim she found blood from a galesaur - the nicoraptors' favorite meal, explains Malcolm - on Foster's body. Jim tells Taylor that someone knew Foster would be the repairman, used the galesaur as bait to trap the nicoraptor inside the station - which explains those scratches - and let the raptor do the dirty work. Taylor is incredulous, but he orders Jim to discover who committed this murder-by-dinosaur.

Several soldiers tell Jim that Foster was always looking at pictures of a woman on his locator tag. Jim asks Elisabeth for Foster's personal effects.

Meanwhile, Zoe touches the ankylosaurus egg, and it wiggles: There's a live dinosaur inside! Zoe asks Elisabeth to free it.

Jim checks Foster's effects, but his tag's missing. Using the locator function, they discover that the tag's inside the nicoraptor. Jim, Taylor, and Lt. Washington chase, corner, and shoot the nicoraptor, allowing Elisabeth to extract the tag from its stomach. Washington recognizes the woman in the photo as Rebecca Milner.

Rebecca admits knowing Foster, but she claims he mistook her kindness for affection, adding that she's married. But her husband, Howard, says he knew Rebecca was involved with Foster, so he murdered him.

Meanwhile, Skye introduces Josh to Tom Boylan, who claims he can get Josh's old girlfriend, Kara, sent to Terra Nova. He offers Josh a job in his bar so he can pay for this favor - if he keeps it secret.

Taylor watches a tape of Howard Milner's confession. He's angry that Foster was having an affair, but even angrier that Terra Nova had its first murder. Unless Taylor commutes the sentence, colony bylaws require Milner to be banished from Terra Nova.

Elisabeth and Malcolm discover the ankylosaur's front right leg is fused to its neck, interfering with air and blood flow and preventing it from hatching. If it hatches, it'll die, but Elisabeth doesn't want to disappoint Zoe.

As the colony watches Taylor lead a procession of soldiers to bury Foster, Elisabeth tells Jim that banishing Milner shouldn't be one man's decision. When Jim protests that Milner confessed, Elisabeth counters that perhaps Milner's confession is false.

Taylor tells the colonists Milner confessed to murder and a crime against one is a crime against all, therefore Milner will be banished. Not everyone agrees with this decision; Jim notices that Rebecca is especially upset.

Jim tails Milner into the jungle and asks if he confessed to keep Rebecca from being banished for killing Foster. Milner follows Jim back to Terra Nova and tells Rebecca he knows she broke up with Foster a while back, so he tried to take the fall for her, but couldn't go through with it.

But Rebecca denies killing Foster, adding that she was glad Foster broke it off because he spent all his time illegally gambling at Boylan's bar. When Jim tells Taylor about Milner's false confession, Taylor agrees to let Jim reopen the investigation.

As Malcolm watches Elisabeth perform a successful surgery on the ankylosaurus while it's still inside the egg, Jim and Washington examine Foster's financial records and learn that someone owed Foster a lot of money.

When Jim and Taylor confront Boylan, Jim is surprised to find Josh working at the bar. He's angry that Josh took the job without telling him and orders him home. Josh accuses Jim of never letting him act like an adult. Taylor arrests Boylan and closes the bar, so they can search for Boylan's offline financial records, which they can't find.

When a soldier reports that Boylan has escaped, Taylor, Jim, and another soldier pursue him. Washington says she can't locate Boylan on the security cameras - but he's sitting beside her, smiling!

In the jungle, Taylor confronts the soldier, Curran, about the money he owed Foster. Curran denies this as well as killing Foster. Then he realizes Boylan's escape was staged, and he tries to shoot Taylor, but his weapon's empty. Taylor decks Curran, pulls Boylan's ledger from Curran's jacket - he stole it while searching the bar - and orders Curran into the jungle at gunpoint.

Back inside Terra Nova, Jim and Taylor marvel at Milner's willingness to take the fall - and take Rebecca back. When Taylor thanks Boylan for his help, he replies that it'll be the first and last time that he'll be doing a Taylor a favor for free.

Jim tells Josh to go back to work, saying he's old enough to make his own decisions, but don't keep secrets from his family. Jim then finds Zoe and Elisabeth sleeping at the lab, waiting for the egg to hatch. When it does, Zoe wants it for a pet.

Meanwhile, Boylan meets Mira and the Sixers outside the compound, trades medicine for sorghum to make bootleg liquor, and asks Mira to contact 2149 Earth, noting that the sheriff's son wants to buy his girlfriend's way through the portal. Mira sees this as an opportunity and intends to take advantage of it.