“Jurassic World: Chaos Theory” Season One Gives a Darker Tale to the Nublar Six!

Jurassic World: Chaos Theory season one gave the Nublar Six a darker tale surrounded by conspiracy theories and higher stakes. With how things progressed, I can’t wait for season two!

Warning: This review of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory season one contains major spoilers. Consider yourself warned!

Set six years after Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous, our leads are all grown up and have been dealing with living in a world where dinosaurs roam freely. While things were better between the friends after they were rescued, a recent tragedy involving Brooklynn caused an understandable rift between them.

The promotional material for the new season has been playing up Brooklynn’s death and how the Nublar Six were being targeted by the same entity that supposedly killed Brooklynn. The main narrative in the debut season (consisting of 10 episodes, each being about 24 minutes long) kept true to the promos.

As far as the leads knew, Brooklynn was killed by an Allosaurus. Darius secluded himself after the incident and has been pursuing the Allosaurus in question. Kenji’s broken away from the group as well (he blamed Darius for Brooklynn’s death). Ben’s been spending time reading conspiracy theories on Dark Jurassic. Sammy’s been trying to keep herself busy on her farm (where she’s been taking care of Bumpy) while trying to maintain a long-distance relationship with Yaz. And Yaz’s has been busy addressing her PTSD while working on an island that is dinosaur-free.

The group is brought together when Ben reaches out to Darius to warn him about how the Nublar Six are being hunted by the same entity that went after Brooklynn. This leads Darius and Ben to go on a road trip to warn the rest of their friends and work as one to find who is responsible for attacking them as well as uncover the people behind the large black market involving dinosaurs and how it’s linked to the Department of Prehistoric Wildlife (DPW). 

There’s a lot of emotional content for the writers to play with and they ensured no moment went to waste. Darius has been dealing with a lot of guilt because he didn’t go to help Brooklynn the night she got attacked. Kenji’s feelings are connected to his anger at his father (due to the events of Camp Cretaceous), Darius, and the guilt over breaking up with Brooklynn because she’s too busy with her investigations.

Ben shared a nice moment with Sammy over his suspicions due to Sammy’s previous work with Mantah Corp. Sammy and Yaz’s relationship drama was about Sammy treating Yaz as a fragile person not capable of addressing her PTSD on her own.

Kudos to the writers for effectively utilizing the 10-episode runtime. Not only did the plot move forward in each episode, but we also got some quieter moments that allowed the characters to air out their feelings and begin mending their relationships.

I really appreciated the creative team deciding not to break up Yaz and Sammy. I’m here for queer relationship drama that arises from the characters wanting to remain together and understanding what each other needs to continue in a healthy manner. In my opinion, such storylines showcase more creativity instead of creating forced drama by having characters break up over the slightest inconvenience. 

Darius’ feelings toward Brooklynn were also handled in a mature manner with Darius understanding and respecting Brooklynn not feeling the same way toward him.

Talking about the conspiracy theories that Ben brought up, it quickly becomes apparent that the Nublar Six were indeed being hunted. The series linked to Jurassic World: Dominion by having The Handler (a mysterious woman) go after the teens with her three Atrociraptors. The leads also found themselves dealing with a global black market involving illegal dinosaur trades. And questions arose about Brooklynn’s intentions and why she decided to work with Kenji’s father.

The action sequences with the Atrociraptors were fun. I knew none of the leads were going to get killed, but the writers still found ways to amp up the tension as they tried to survive such stubborn dinos. The Handler made for an eerie villain. I want to know more about her. I wouldn’t be surprised if human cloning or genetic modifications were somehow involved.

And yeah, some people were killed by dinosaurs. But the deaths were offscreen.

Talking about the big reveal during the finale, we got to learn that Brooklynn was… drumroll… still alive. 

I mean, I knew she was alive the moment I saw the trailer for the current season. I get that Jenna Ortega was busy and couldn’t return to voice the character. But it didn’t make sense for her absence to equate to Brooklynn being killed off. She could still exist while being voiced by someone else. So, yay to the creative team allowing Brooklynn to live.

It’s revealed that she did get attacked that night and said dino attack led to her losing her left arm. Ever since that night, Brooklynn’s been spending her time underground, distanced from her friends, and keeping an eye on what the DPW has been doing. I’m looking forward to learning more about her current investigation. Due to her working with Kenji’s father, I think she had to make some tough decisions to infiltrate the operation. 

The finale had the Nublar Six sneak onto a cargo ship containing dinos for the black market trade. From what I can tell, they will be going on a global adventure similar to what transpired during Jurassic World: Dominion. Let’s see which live-action character pops up with an animated cameo.

JW: Dominion had Soyona Santo controlling the Atrociraptors. So, it will be interesting to see how she took over from The Handler down the line.

Also, with how Ben mentioned that he had a girlfriend living somewhere in Europe, I guess she will appear to lend the teens a hand. 

And yes, the teens realizing that Brooklynn’s been alive all this time is going to cause some interesting drama. I wonder if they will learn about her fate before she decides to make contact herself.

All in all, the first season of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory was highly enjoyable as it brought back the Nublar Six to face another major threat while keeping true to their OG personalities. 

What did you think of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory? Do you want a second season?

Let us know.

–

All 10 episodes of JW: Chaos Theory season one debuted on Netflix on May 24, 2024.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary