The Nublar Six continue to struggle to get Ben out alive and find a surprise ally as the power fails…

This episode has a very strange problem, one that the show has avoided deftly for its entire run. The light touch interaction with the core movies has always been successful but here, for the first time, it damages Chaos Theory and badly. For so long the focus has been on getting out of the valley and keeping Ben alive, that we’re entirely locked in with the Nublar Six. So, when the movie characters get the last chopper out of the valley seconds before the Nublar Six get it we feel angry on their behalf.  They don’t know the kids are there, of course, but it still plays as cruel. It also gets dangerously close to extending the ‘Ben has minutes to live’ plot beyond breaking point.

Elsewhere there’s a lot to enjoy here, as the show gives Yaz and Sammy the spotlight they’ve often lacked this year. There is a sweetness and honesty to them that’s very sincere and coupled with a maturity that the rest of the cast have often lacked. Their divide has had the ring of truth from the jump and the way they’re brought back together is doubly so. Inspired by both the evacuation of the dinosaurs, and Bumpy and Smoothie being reunited with their family it’s a lovely, kind moment that gives two of the show’s best characters the happy ending they deserve.

They’re not alone either, as Skyler GIsondo’s Earnest returns in a real hero moment. It’s a great beat, not just because Earnest is a genuinely good guy but because it gives Darius and Brooklynn the perspective they need on him and each other. The valley is falling, they all have bigger problems and they’re all dealing with it.

Verdict: Inspiring, sweet stuff and all coupled with some nicely handled Dilophosaurus action and a fitting end for a series villain. Nicely handled. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart