Jurassic World Chaos Theory has now released on Netflix – meaning that fans around the world are getting to experience this dinosaur road trip adventure for themselves. We’ve already published a non-spoiler review for the show, but in this article, we want to dive a little deeper into some of the specific details we enjoyed, and also the things which leave us with more questions than answers.
Fair warning – this article is a deep spoiler discussion, so if you haven’t watched Season 1 of Chaos Theory and don’t want it to be spoiled, click off now! Still here? Let’s dive in and take a deeper look at the brand-new series!
In our non-spoiler review, we alluded to the fact that the Nublar Six are really the heart of this show – and that couldn’t be truer. The tension of Brooklynn’s death is a central theme throughout the show, and leads to some interesting moments for our campers – particularly when it comes to the relationship between Darius, Brooklynn and Kenji. We learn over the course of the series that Brooklynn and Kenji had ended their relationship, and that Darius found he had feelings for Brooklynn which were not reciprocated. This adds an interesting and very human dynamic to these characters. Relationships and feelings are often complicated – and this encapsulates that perfectly.
There are other moments here which really build the emotional weight – with Sammy and Yaz dealing with the distance in their relationship and how they can adapt to it, alongside a poignant theme on how trauma can affect how we interact with people. The mental health angle to this story is handled incredibly sensitively and is some of the most meaningful commentary ever done in this franchise when it comes to the challenges which we all can experience in everyday life.
It's impossible to talk about characters without reflecting on the return of a character from the first season, in the form of Daniel Kon. In the series we see that Kenji’s father is living out his days in a half way house after his arrest by the authorities in Camp Cretaceous. When we first meet Daniel in the show, we see that he is still a calculating and somewhat manipulative character who is exploring how he can profit from the unfolding dinosaur chaos in mainland USA.
Layer in the fact that Brooklynn had visited Daniel (and, as is later revealed, received a significant sum of money from him) and we have a character who is presented to us as someone as sinister as his appearance in the former show. This veil is quickly lifted, however, when we find that Daniel is – above all else – someone who wants to spend more time with his son. The arc for Mr Kon ends in a rather dramatic way, however, as he sacrifices himself to the Atrociraptors hunting our campers in order to save Darius and Kenji – something which shows how through this all Daniel has sought the approval of his son above all else. This was an emotional end for the character, and a clear statement that Chaos Theory is more brutal than what has come before.
I touched on it a moment ago – but a key plot thread in this series is that the Nublar Six are being hunted by somebody using the Atrociraptors we last saw in Jurassic World Dominion. It is never overtly stated why these animals are being used to hunt the campers – with characters who appear later in the season seemingly unaware that they were ever being used in this capacity to begin with. This brings us to one of our biggest mysteries of the show – ‘Micro Bangs’, a villainous character who appears at different intervals throughout the season. Her un-blinking stare is un-nerving in its own right, but what is most interesting about this character is the fact that she is not Soyona Santos like many of us had speculated beforehand.
This means there is still more to the story of the Atrociraptors, and whether Soyona is the person overseeing this entire operation or not is still something which needs to be determined. When we last see Micro Bangs in Season 1 she is injured, but far from out of the fight – so her return in subsequent seasons of the show feels inevitable, and I personally am very excited to learn more about where her character fits into this story.
The hunt is arguably the biggest plot thread present throughout Chaos Theory – but there are lots of other moments present in this show which gives us a real flavour for the world after the events of the Lockwood Manor Incident. Episode 2’s Gas Station encounter with a Nasutoceratops give us a good flavour of how a mundane and uninteresting every day activity can become much more dangerous with a dinosaur involved, whilst Episode 3’s conflict with Sammy’s neighbour gives a fascinating insight into the damage dinosaurs could do to farms – and the tension they would bring to neighbourly conflict.
The climax of the world building here really feels like Episode 5’s ‘Bobby Nublar’ however – the Jurassic universe’s answer to Tiger King. The character is an interesting case study on how people in a world filled with Dinosaurs are likely to abuse them for profit – never stopping to care for their welfare. Bobby’s phone call at the end also gives us a sense of wider interconnectivity here – reminding us that the shadier people in society rarely operate in isolation. This, again, is something which has real potential for a second season, and I also hope we continue to see more of the ‘dinosaurs in everyday life’ scenarios which made this season so fantastic.
It would be remiss to touch on dinosaurs without discussing them in more detail – although it’s fair to say they feel more like background noise in the show. We get a few cool moments with dinosaurs throughout – such as the dual Becklespinax hunting Kenji, Sammy and Yaz in the middle of the season, and the sequences with the Allosaurus throughout the show, but these really feel like background elements to a more character driven story. With that said, the inclusion of animals like Suchomimus and Pachyrhinosaurus is very cool, and I love the sheer variety of dinosaurs we see in this show. A core theme of this show is the fact that dinosaurs are being illegally trafficked all across the world, so seeing so many dinosaurs present throughout the show really helps to sell the scale of how much things have ramped-up now that dinosaurs are out in the while.
One thing I particularly loved was the return of the Parasaurolophus lux in Episode 4 – a nice callback to one of the most beautiful animals present in Camp Cretaceous. In Episode 9 of the show, there is also an InGen Velociraptor present in one the shipping containers – which has me curious as to whether this could be another Velociraptor we are yet to meet. The biggest dinosaur story comes in the form of a pregnant Bumpy, however – who lays an egg close to the finale of the season. With the egg as unique as it’s mother, I’m excited to see what a juvenile Bumpy might look like in subsequent seasons of the show. There is also an interesting note here about no other animals being seen in the area Bumpy occupies in the show – perhaps subtly reminding us that parthenogenesis is an ability of these animals.
I touched on the fact that dinosaur trafficking is a major part of Chaos Theory, and I think it’s handled incredibly well. The Department of Prehistoric Wildlife are a mainstay in the show, and as we learn more about them, we discover that Dudley Cabrera – their regional director in this part of America – is involved in a smuggling regime which sees assets logged as ‘deceased’ then sold on the black market. I love how we learn more about this through Mateo – a DPW worker who was initially offered overtime for off-the-books transfers of assets before one night saw him unknowingly unleash the Allosaurus which went on to kill Brooklynn.
This is such an interesting reflection of corruption and morality as in Mateo’s case, he was accepting the extra work to support his daughter and acknowledges that he knew the work was likely to be wrong but needed it anyway. I love how this gives us a real flavour for how the institutions which are trusted to deal with instances like this can often be corrupted – something which reflects some real and challenging issues in our real world. This trafficking business also gives us insight into how widely spread the dinosaurs are – with shipments going to Malaysia, The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Malta. I find the reference to Malaysia particularly interesting given we know that Jurassic Park 7 is about to commence filming in neighbouring Thailand. Perhaps a coincidence? Or perhaps not…
Chaos Theory ends on a cliffhanger – with our crew boarding a vessel filled with trafficked dinosaurs heading for an unknown location. However, what is even bigger of a reveal is the fact that Brooklynn is…well…alive. Yes, the shocking reveal at the end of the season is that Brooklynn survived her encounter with the Allosaurus – but lost her arm in the process. Brooklynn receives updates from a contact in the DPW and is continuing to unravel this mystery by herself, setting us up for an eventual crossover with the rest of the crew.
However, there are still lots of questions which remain – such as where the boat is going, and who is behind what Micro Bangs is doing. Whilst it would make sense for this to be connected to Soyona Santos and the Malta Black Market (especially with the country name-dropped in the show), we also know from Dominion that Lewis Dodgson had a prior encounter with the dinosaur smuggler which he wasn’t impressed by – suggesting that Chaos Theory could be that encounter. Is this show setting us up for the rise of BioSyn in subsequent seasons? For now, only time will tell!
As I hope this in-depth spoiler review shows, I really loved this show. There are so many layers to the story telling here and the maturity of the story which is being told here is a huge merit for the show given it still has a younger target audience. This show taps into the murky and shady world of dinosaur trafficking which rose after the events of JWFK in the best possible ways, and gets me genuinely very excited to see how this unfolds, and where our connections to Jurassic World Dominion may ultimately lie. For now, I’m excited to rewatch this show – and will be eagerly sat on the edge of my seat awaiting the release of its second season.
Huge thanks to Dreamworks Animation for giving us early access to screeners of the show. The additional content creation time granted to us by the studio has massively helped with enabling our coverage of it.
Written by:
Tom Jurassic