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La Brea Ending Explained: The Road Home, Part 2 Review and Recap
The La Brea ending comes in "The Road Home, Part 2," the sixth and last episode of season 3, which NBC aired on February 13, 2024. Almost every character gets a happy ending, and the review found that warm, well meant and a little too safe.
01:06:00:00 La Brea ending explained: what happens in The Road Home, Part 2
La Brea is an NBC science fiction drama created by David Appelbaum, who also wrote this final episode. It premiered on September 28, 2021, with a sinkhole swallowing part of Los Angeles near the La Brea Tar Pits and dropping survivors into a primeval land. The episode guide later reveals that the sinkholes are a portal to the same spot in 10,000 B.C. The La Brea ending has to settle two timelines at once: a 1965 storyline built around the shadowy time travel project, and the survivors and the people of the fort in the distant past.
Season 3 ran for six episodes between January 9 and February 13, 2024, and "The Road Home, Part 2" was directed by David M. Barrett. It follows "The Road Home, Part 1," which aired a week earlier. Readers who skipped straight here should know that the review treats the episode as a race to the finish, one that clears most of the board and drops a lot of loose threads along the way.
Reading about the La Brea ending after the fact also means knowing what the production was up against. The cast had been released from ten-episode minimums to make a six-episode season possible, and that compression shows in how many story lines are resolved by a line of dialogue. The short version of the La Brea ending: the villains lose, the time travel chip is recovered, the aurora is not a trap after all, and every family on screen is reunited. The details below follow the order of the episode.
The 1965 plan: an EMP bomb and a near miss
The episode opens with a flashback to Gavin and Eve at the Wisdom Tree, then returns to Los Angeles in 1965, where Helena casually steals a car. The plan is simple. An EMP bomb will wipe out the servers at Maya's main facility and destroy the time travel research. The review questions how a group of people who just watched this technology reshape their lives can be so sure there is only one set of servers, and notes that James and Caroline are never accounted for.
Most of the 1965 story belongs to Sam, who finds Riley and performs emergency surgery on her. It gives father and daughter a long overdue moment, with Sam finally opening up the way Riley has wanted him to. Gavin and his group reach the facility and miss Eve by a hair, though they do get Josh back. Helena then shows up to describe the firefight that could have been and to explain that Eve is staying in 1965 to set off the bomb.
10,000 B.C.: the double aurora, Paara and the military base
Back in the past, Scott explains how the double aurora works, and Ruth and Leyla promise Veronica and Lucas that they will lead their people to it so anyone who wants to can go home. The review points out that fans do not get a farewell to favorite background characters, Judah included. Paara is still missing, until Ty, Lucas and Scott find her ring in the bad guys' jeep and learn that a group from the fort was attacked by dinosaurs nearby.
Ty and Paara reunite after a death scare, and Ty tells her he does not want to live in a time without her, so 10,000 B.C. becomes his home. Lucas and Veronica sort out their own future, and Lucas turns out to be open to returning to 2021. A scare about Veronica's pregnancy is played as nerves and nothing more.
The finale then storms the military base to get the chip, with a T. rex helping Gavin's side. Scott and Lucas rescue Petra in a side quest that the episode only describes. Maya arrives with a boatload of soldiers, and Ty, Paara and the fort folk show up as reinforcements. Leyla redeems herself by saving Izzy with an arrow. The aurora closes, but the fighter jets that explain the whole secret project turn out to have room for everyone. In a last ploy Maya takes Josh hostage and demands the chip. She gets it, and a shot to the chest from Helena. The episode guide lists Maya as killed.
The epilogue: everyone gets a happy ending
The final stretch hands out a litany of happily ever afters. Lucas and Veronica's baby is on track for a healthy birth, and Scott has permanent brunch plans with the couple. He also makes up with Emily, and they kiss. Ty is content in 10,000 B.C. with his wife. Josh and Riley reunite, Sam is back with his family including his ex-wife, and even Helena gets an invitation to family dinner. Eve is the missing chair, and after a traffic joke the Harrisons are whole again.
La Brea ending: episode facts and what followed
| Detail | Fact |
|---|---|
| Episode | "The Road Home, Part 2", season 3, episode 6 (the 30th and last episode) |
| Network and air date | NBC, February 13, 2024 |
| Director and writer | David M. Barrett (director); David Appelbaum (writer) |
| Season 3 | Six episodes, January 9 to February 13, 2024 |
| Series run | Three seasons and 30 episodes (10, 14 and 6) |
| Cast named in the review | Eoin Macken (Gavin), Natalie Zea (Eve, special guest in season 3), Chiké Okonkwo (Ty), Tonantzin Carmelo (Paara), Jack Martin (Josh), Veronica St. Clair (Riley), Jon Seda (Sam) |
La Brea ending review: warm, packed and too safe
The verdict of the review is that La Brea plays it safe on every front. Finales are hard, and a high concept show has the extra burden of settling its premise as well as its characters. This one settles the premise quickly and the characters generously. The weak spots are the threads dropped to get there. Scott's paper, the document important enough to get him kidnapped earlier in the series, is never explained. James and Caroline are left behind, the pirate treasure is forgotten, and Eve and Levi are handled poorly. The review also wanted Izzy and Leyla to get their kiss before Leyla's betrayal, and says the series had time for it.
The review ties much of the thinness to the 2023 writers' strike, which it blames for a lot of what is missing from the final season. NBC renewed La Brea for a short third season of six episodes on January 31, 2023, with the cast released from contracts that required at least ten episodes a season, and it was reported on November 20, 2023, that season 3 would be the last. For the Lazarus side of the story, the earlier episode "The Wedding" is where the show was at its most plot-dense.
The harder criticism is that the strike cannot explain the happy endings. In the review's view, the survival odds make little sense. Riley was torn apart by a raptor and stranded in 1965 with inadequate care, Paara was buried under debris and missing for days, and Eve walked into a firefight with trained soldiers. A bigger ensemble with every character saved feels disingenuous, and the review would have killed off at least one of them, with Helena as the fallback. It is not the worst series finale the reviewer has seen, because Lost still holds that spot, but it is too saccharine.
Rough Cut Review lands in the same place. As a goodbye to the Harrises, the fort and the Veronica and Lucas pairing it works, and the show never forgot that it was about its characters. As an ending to a time travel mystery it is thin. If you came for the people, the La Brea ending is a pleasant send-off. If you came for answers about the project, expect to fill in the blanks yourself.
The audience shrank steadily across the run. La Brea drew 6.37 million viewers for its season 1 premiere and 2.03 million for the season 3 finale, according to the series' Wikipedia entry, and the season 2 finale on February 28, 2023, drew 1.77 million. A show that opened above six million viewers closed at about two million. On streaming, What's on Netflix reported that all three seasons would reach Netflix US on May 1, 2026, after years as a Peacock exclusive. Rights change, so check a current listing before you plan a rewatch.
La Brea ending questions, answered
What happens at the end of La Brea?
The group recovers the time travel chip from Maya's military base, Helena shoots Maya after she takes Josh hostage, and nearly everyone gets home to 2021. Ty stays in 10,000 B.C. with Paara, and the Harris family is reunited in the epilogue.
Does everyone survive the La Brea finale?
All the main characters the review follows survive, including Riley and Paara, who both looked doomed earlier in the episode. Maya is the notable death, listed in the episode guide as killed by Helena.
When did the La Brea series finale air?
"The Road Home, Part 2" aired on NBC on February 13, 2024. It was the 30th episode of the series and the sixth of season 3.
Who wrote and directed the La Brea finale?
David Appelbaum, the creator of La Brea, wrote the finale, and David M. Barrett directed it.
Does Ty stay in 10,000 B.C. at the end of La Brea?
Yes. After reuniting with Paara, Ty tells her he does not want to live in a time without her, and he chooses to stay in the past with his wife.
What happens to Eve in the La Brea finale?
Eve stays behind in 1965 to detonate the EMP bomb that destroys Maya's servers, and Gavin's group just misses her at the facility. After a traffic joke she is back with the family, which the review counts among the ending's happy outcomes.
What did the La Brea ending leave unanswered?
The review lists Scott's important paper, what became of James and Caroline, the pirate treasure, and the handling of Eve and Levi as threads that were dropped or rushed.
Was La Brea canceled?
NBC renewed the series on January 31, 2023, for a six-episode third season, and it was reported on November 20, 2023, that this would be the final season. The show ran 30 episodes over three seasons.
Why was La Brea season 3 only six episodes?
NBC ordered a short season, and the cast was released from contracts that guaranteed at least ten episodes a season so the order could shrink. The review also blames the writers' strike for the missing story lines.
Where can I watch La Brea?
What's on Netflix reported that all three seasons would reach Netflix US on May 1, 2026, and that the show had been exclusive to Peacock for the past few years. Streaming rights change, so check a current listing.
Sources
- La Brea (TV series), Wikipedia — Network, run, renewal dates and viewership
- List of La Brea episodes, Wikipedia — Air dates, directors and writers
- La Brea releasing on Netflix US, What's on Netflix — Netflix US release date and Peacock history