La Brea Season 2 Episode 8 Review: Stampede Recap and Analysis

La Brea season 2 episode 8, explained: Stampede recap

La Brea season 2 episode 8 is titled "Stampede," the eighteenth episode of the series overall. According to the Wikipedia episode list, Christine Moore directed it from a script by Russel Friend, and it first aired on January 31, 2023, to 2.20 million U.S. viewers. NBC ran it back to back with episode 9, "Murder in the Clearing," the same night. It was the midseason return after the "1988" episode, which had aired on November 15, 2022.

The reviewer opened by noting that the show had gone from 1988 to 2023 and that it had been a lean month for returning series. "Stampede" does not waste the time. It picks up where the previous episode left the time-tossed travelers: Gavin, Eve, Josh, Riley and Sam have jumped through the portal to stop the source of an impending disaster in 1988. Doing so means shutting down the Lazarus system for good, and while Gavin's family is finally on board, Sam is not.

The episode runs two stories at once. In 10,000 B.C., the community in the Clearing faces a literal stampede. In 1988, Gavin and Dr. Caroline Clark try to get to the controls before James can stop them. The title refers to the first, and the tension of the second keeps the episode moving.

Gavin's vision and the family split

Gavin wakes up alone, and Eve soon finds him. The rest of the group has landed in different places. Riley and Sam reunite with the larger group in the Clearing quickly, but Josh is mysteriously absent. Gavin wishes he could focus on one disaster at a time, but he is haunted by a vision of Eve dying near a tree with red, star-shaped flowers, and keeping it to himself puts him at odds with Eve and with their daughter, Izzy.

Izzy insists on bringing the family together, which finally leads Gavin to tell her about the vision. It is the emotional hinge of the episode, since everything he decides later is shaped by what he has seen and what he fears.

Splitting up in 1988

With Josh still missing, Gavin decides that time is of the essence. He and Izzy head to the tower to break past security, banking on his father James's ego to get them inside. Eve, Sam and Riley go to a research station a few miles away, because no one knows how James would react to them and Dr. Clark is not trusted by him.

The upload comes with rules, which the review is careful to explain. A partial upload will shut down the 1988 sinkhole and stop the tidal wave. A full upload will turn off Lazarus permanently. That distinction drives the final scenes, because switching Lazarus off for good would leave everyone in the Clearing with no way home, and that cost is what drives Sam.

The Clearing and the buffalo run

In the Clearing, things start calm. Lucas has been saved from near-certain death, but the infection left him with a numb, useless hand, and the man once defined by rage and violence has to accept that he is less capable than he was. He and others are building permanent structures. Then a buffalo comes through the camp. Nobody is hurt, but where there is one buffalo there are many, and the migration path runs straight through the Clearing.

Lucas, who is trying to become the person Veronica believes he can be, proposes diverting the herd instead of surrendering the camp. He suggests using abundant tar to build a wall of flame. Josh wanders in during the preparations and hugs Scott, but he is cagey, because telling the group about the plan to shut down Lazarus would reveal that they are about to be stranded in the past.

Ty, Ella, Veronica and the red tree

A quieter subplot has Ty ask Ella to make a wedding ring for Paara. While Ella and Veronica talk about it, they mention a man named Aaron, who drew them both into crime and still has influence over them. The review is increasingly convinced that Aaron will turn up in 10,000 B.C. The two women go to an amethyst cave to find a stone and discover the same red tree from Gavin's vision. Aaron knew the tree well, and the same tree is also being studied in a laboratory by James.

Sam, the upload and the aurora

Sam is determined to stop Dr. Clark. He tries to steal her virus and fails, because she anticipated it. Though he worked through his addiction earlier in the season, he is now entirely focused on reuniting himself and Riley with the rest of the family, which means stopping the upload by any means. He gets to the research station first and smashes its power source with a wooden club while Dr. Clark is uploading. Eve and his own daughter buy time for the upload by arguing that he would sacrifice thousands of lives to save two, and the review notes that, despite his anger, he is still a good person torn between impossible choices.

Meanwhile, Izzy bonds with her grandfather James and discovers the same red tree her father saw. She becomes convinced her mother will die in 10,000 B.C. Gavin gets past a guard with a taser and opens the facility to Dr. Clark, though he misses that a silent alarm has been triggered.

At the Clearing, the wall of flames starts rerouting the stampede. Then the aurora flashes, and rain, fish and ocean debris fall from the sky, a sign that the portal is opening in 1988. The rain puts out the fire just as the rest of the herd approaches. Scott, the ex-stoner of the group, comes up with the fix: car horns, which scare the bulk of the herd away.

Stampede ending explained: Gavin's choice

The ending turns on what James tells Gavin. He arrives to talk his son out of the upload, claiming that Dr. Clark has lied to Gavin and that he has almost stabilized the portals, so there will be no future negative consequences from using them. Gavin is torn, then Izzy tells him about the red trees and says she is convinced Eve will die if they stay. With seconds to go, Gavin stops the full upload.

The consequence is that Lazarus is not permanently switched off in this episode, and that Gavin has chosen his wife's safety over the group's mission. It is a compact, tense scene, and it works because two earlier threads, the vision and Sam's desperation, meet in the same room.

Stampede review: the verdict

The verdict from Rough Cut Review is that "Stampede" is a great return for the season. It moves quickly, it advances the central mystery with the red tree, and it uses the buffalo run to put the Clearing community through a practical, physical problem instead of another round of dialogue.

The strongest material belongs to Sam, who is played by Jon Seda. His desperation to reach his family makes him sympathetic and dangerous at once, and the scene where Eve and Riley confront him is the episode's most human moment. Lucas, played by Josh McKenzie, also gets a good turn as a man learning to be useful with a hand that no longer works.

The aurora flash and the sudden rain of ocean debris are the episode's most delightful touch, a reminder that the show is willing to be strange. The less convincing material is Aaron, who is still more name than character at this point, and the red tree, which risks becoming a convenient symbol for whatever the plot needs. Neither spoils the hour.

Viewers who want to continue can move straight to "Murder in the Clearing," which aired the same night.

What happened to La Brea after season 2

La Brea was created by David Appelbaum and premiered on NBC on September 28, 2021. Season 2 premiered on September 27, 2022 and ran 14 episodes through February 28, 2023. Season 3 followed, with six episodes premiering on January 9, 2024, and the series finale aired on February 13, 2024. Wikipedia reports that it was announced on November 20, 2023 that season 3 would be the last, and lists three seasons and 30 episodes in total.

The show's premise remained consistent throughout: a sinkhole opens at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, separating the Harris family, and investigators later learn the sinkholes are a portal to 10,000 B.C. Natalie Zea, who plays Eve, is a main cast member in seasons 1 and 2 and appears as a special guest in season 3.

Sources

• List of La Brea episodes, Wikipedia — episode number, credits, air date and viewership
• La Brea (TV series), Wikipedia — premiere, season dates, final season and cast