On Thursday, Oct. 17, Season two of the animated series “Jurassic World: Chaos Theory” premiered on Netflix. It returns us to “the Nublar Six” friend group as they navigate a world filled with even more dinosaurs, danger and some serious conspiracy theories. For those unfamiliar with the show, here’s a quick summary so that you’re ready for Season two.
In “Jurassic World: Chaos Theory” Season two, six years have passed since the group — Darius Bowman, Kenji Kon, Brooklynn, Ben Pincus, Yasmina Fadoula and Sammy Gutierrez — escaped Isla Nublar, a fictional island that serves as the primary setting of the Jurassic World movies and the prequel series, “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.” In “Chaos Theory,” the group has split up and lost touch since an allosaurus seemingly killed Brooklynn. They slowly reunite after unraveling a conspiracy that suggests Brooklynn was purposefully targeted and that the dinosaur attacks may not be as random as they initially thought.
Brooklynn (who — spoiler alert — was revealed to be alive at the end of Season two) was looking into a dinosaur smuggling ring, which got her in some serious trouble. After the allosaurus attack, she went into hiding. We don’t know why she hasn’t contacted her friends, but in Season 2 we are about to (hopefully) find out.
With an impromptu midnight watch party, I was ready to roar into Season two. I must admit that I could only watch the first two episodes; but the way each episode ended on a cliffhanger made me wish I could binge watch the entire thing.
Episode one, “Batten Down the Hatches” was a wild ride from the very beginning. It opens with our team hiding out on a boat, which was carrying some smuggled dinosaurs to an unknown location. This means there was no time skip from the last episode of Season one. Kon is having a tough time dealing with losing his father, and the rest of his friends are (reasonably) worried about him as he takes some risks heading in and out of the container. They end up being discovered after Kon raids the bridge for some snacks, which kicks everything into gear as both a storm and a fire start. Also, some dinosaurs escaped their containers and things get violent quickly.
Kon keeps taking risks, running straight into the fire to protect the dino eggs and jumping out of the boat to rescue them from the storm. I had a bad feeling about how things will turn out if he keeps disregarding his health, and Fadoula wastes no time telling him exactly what I had been thinking. It seems likely that these daredevil stunts will only hurt him in the long run. The episode ends with the team spotting some land and Pincus seeing a blurry figure in the background— one that looks suspiciously like Brooklynn. Pincus does say her name but seems to be unsure if it is her or not, and decides to not tell the rest of his friends about what he saw.
This miscommunication made me want to yell at the screen and is one of my least favorite tropes on TV. But I digress! I’m sure Pincus has a reason and there’s no time to waste as they next come across a farm, find out they’re in Senegal and try to move some dinos away before they destroy said farm. But here’s the issue: he stegosauruses they moved actually helped protect the farm and its people from a massive suchomimus that is not happy to see them. I will say, this show is teaching me more about identifying dinosaurs than I ever expected to know.
The two people living on the farm, a mom and her daughter, run to get the stegosauruses while Kon and Bowman try to distract the suchomimus. Kon, who seems insistent on risking his life every five seconds, tries to stand up to the dino and luckily gets rescued before he becomes an afternoon snack. Bowman apologizes to the woman and her daughter for assuming he knew the whole situation, and it’s nice to see him own up to his mistakes.
What I also noticed is that we had some names for these characters! They’ve been there for the entire episode, and I have no way of referring to them, which kind of sucks. While they’re figuring that out, Pincus is still locked in figuring out if it was Brooklynn he saw in that video. He still doesn’t tell his friends, and instead, makes something up about satellite footage. He does look guilty, but I think it is that he is just having a hard time grappling with the fact that one of his best friends, who he thought was dead, is still alive. Maybe he just doesn’t want to give his friends false hope because he himself doesn’t fully believe it.
(Note: At the very end I found out via closed captions that the mom is named Aminata, and the daughter is Zay. But they were not officially introduced to us with those names)
One thing I find that this show does well is portray realistic relationships between friends. Throughout the season, we see just how much they care for each other; often being honest with each other and challenging their friends in order to work through some incredibly difficult situations together. This season is just as good, if not better, than Season one. You can really see how the team grows closer together, and the animation is wonderful. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and I think anyone who enjoys a fast-paced and adventurous show should tune in.
The tone gets darker and darker, I can only hope that they’re ready for the challenges ahead. Here’s to more chaos and theories? (I’m sorry! I had to.)
Rating 4/5 Dino Roars