La Brea Boss Spills Series Finale Secrets (Natalie Zea Filmed Her Scenes When?!), Reveals Who Almost Died in Pilot
The following contains spoilers from the Feb. 13 series finale of NBC’s La Brea.
‘Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
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To be clear, La Brea‘s Gavin has no plans of being back in 10,000 B.C. again, after using a microchip-powered jet to time-travel himself, daughter Izzy, son Josh and others back to 2021, near the end of the sci-fi drama’s series finale on Tuesday night.
The sixth and final episode of La Brea‘s third and final season saw Gavin, Izzy, Helena and Sam travel via aurora to 1965, the year in which Eve is being held captive in the baddies’ longterm detention facility. After reuniting with Josh in ’65, Gavin, Izzy and Helena went looking for Eve, while Josh led Sam to visit a hospitalized Riley. Realizing that 1965 didn’t have the medical savvy needed to treat the complications resulting from Riley’s raptor wound, Sam raced her to the location of the aurora, to hopefully get her back to 2021/proper care.
Eve, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found. With Gavin snooping around and what not, soon enough a showdown took place, between Maya Schmidt and her small army of goons and Gavin, the other survivors, and Paara’s village people. (Sorry for the “Macho Man” earworm I just gave you….) The good guys of course emerged triumphant, after which the mostly nameless survivors marched into an aurora back to 2021.
Ty happily stayed in 10,000 B.C. with wife Paara, and Leyla apparently decided to stay put in the past, but her and Izzy’s farewell occurred off-screen…? Gavin then flew him and a few others back to 2021 in the microchip-powered jet, after playing a game of chicken with angry T. Rex charging down the runway.
Arriving back in L.A., Gavin, Izzy and Josh raced to the Wisdom Tree, hoping that Eve would remember it as the family’s favorite spot. (An earlier flashback — the first of returning cast member Natalie Zea’s two scenes — revealed that it was at that tree where Eve first told Gavin they’d be starting a family.) Gavin and the kids waited for hours, and were kinda sorta poised to give up… when Eve in her trademark shearling came ambling up the hill.
“Where were you…?” asked a relieved Gavin.
“I got stuck in traffic on La Brea,” Eve explained.
Ha! That’s funny because the show is called La Brea.
UPDATE: Below, please find our emailed Q&A with La Brea creator/showrunner David Appelbaum:
TVLINE | What hard choices did you have to make, what “darlings killed,” when it became clear you’d have to wrap up the series in just six episodes?
As we were approaching Season 3, we were planning at first to do a full, 14-episode season. In the course of that, we mapped out extensive character and plot arcs that we had to throw out or adjust once we knew for sure that it was going to be six episodes. For instance, we had a much longer story planned in 2021 in which we were going to meet even more of our characters in that time period.
TVLINE | Was there any entire element/character from the show’s original bible that never got to surface?
Probably the biggest change was around the Sam character. In the original pilot that I pitched, he died at the end of the [first] episode — he was killed by that saber-toothed cat that they run from. But NBC really liked the character and asked me to keep him alive and see where I could bring his story. That really changed the direction of the show. Ultimately I’m glad I did that because it gave me the chance to work with the great Jon Seda.
TVLINE | On the flip side, what happy opportunities did the short farewell run present?
Having the chance to know that you’re writing towards a finale is really a blessing. It allowed us to craft the stories so we could wrap things up in an emotionally satisfying way. I’ve seen several shows recently that just end without warning and it’s always a bummer. I didn’t want to do that to our audience who has invested so much time into this show over these years.
TVLINE | In your original bible, did a microchip-powered jet figure into the grand finale?
No, it didn’t. That was an idea we came to at the beginning of Season 3.
TVLINE | How did you decide on Levi as the final season’s big death?
It felt like a natural extension of the redemption arc that he’s been on. He’s done a number of things to wrong Gavin — first by his affair with Eve, and then by destroying the building in Season 2 and ruining their chance of getting home. Since then, Levi’s been trying to find a way to make it up to Gavin, and I think what he does is the ultimate sacrifice. He dies by trying to help Gavin reunite with Eve, which cements their bond and helps him finally make amends.
TVLINE | What can you share about the logistics of having Natalie Zea back for the finale, shooting her scenes in L.A.?
We shot with Natalie for one day in Los Angeles, which was before we filmed anything else in the season. To accomplish that we had to write the final scene of the series before the rest of the season had even been written. That definitely presented a number of challenges, but ultimately it was worth it because we were able to finally get to see the Harris family reunited back in the home.
TVLINE | What did the off-screen goodbye between Izzy and Leyla look like? What was said?
I don’t know, I wasn’t there for that!
TVLINE | Lastly, I’ll assume Gavin & Co. managed to traveled by jet to the “present day.” But did the other survivors walking into the aurora just create a few dozen doppelgangers in September 2021?!?
Ha-ha. That’s funny. I think I smell a spin-off.
What did you think of La Brea‘s series finale, and the final season as a whole?
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