Jurassic World, the media, the Nublar Six, and telling Palatable stories ā a deep dive analysis
Part 5
Trigger warnings ā mentions of canon typical injury; discussions of media harassment; discussions of politics; mentions of trauma; discussions of media censorship, propaganda, abuse, and exploitation; sanism and ableism
To read this essay on AO3, click here
If it is not explicitly canon, itās speculation. This is NOT hate on anyone IRL involved in the show. I love this show with all my heart.
<- Part 4
Word count: 2700+
To begin with, Brooklynnās death was obviously painted to be a tragic āaccidentā rather than the intentional murder it was. The Handlerās atrociraptors almost killed her, but the DPW set the allosaurus on her, and the allosaurus was the dinosaur found at the crime scene. (My poor girl was targeted twice in one night, oh my.) Implicating the DPW ā a trusted public body ā in her murder, wouldnāt have gone down well. Not only is it not palatable to the public (imagine the panic it would cause to know the people supposed to protect everyone from dinosaurs almost got someone intentionally killed by a dinosaur) but whichever journalist wouldāve even dared to suggest the DPW got, not only an innocent girl, but one of the Nublar Six killed wouldāve been sued to bankruptcy. Or straight up targeted. Look at what almost happened to Davi in season 3, because he was a journalist threatening to expose the rich dinosaur traffickers. Look at the Palestinian journalists who have been killed for broadcasting the truth.
Iām critical of the media as a whole, but thereās a variety of reasons individual journalists arenāt always at fault (including but not limited to: risk to their job, reputation or safety if they speak out; being unable to (financially or otherwise) risk their job security as a journalist by going against their companyās narrative; or because theyāve been seriously influenced by propaganda and havenāt had the influence or tools to unlearn it yet).
I also think the others of the camp fam were hounded to death for interviews about Brooklynnās death, but they wouldāve refused. They were too shocked and heartbroken to say anything coherent for the first few weeks, and after that, they were extremely firm on keeping their privacy. Darius even stops his motivational speaking because heās so heavily shellshocked.
But I still think Brooklynn was discussed to death (pun not intended) on talk shows, reality TV, and social media, by people who donāt even know her like the camp fam did. It makes them so angry to see people sensationalising her, when she died so horrifically and none of these people truly loved and cared about her in real life.
Amazing addition by alice1328 on AO3 [read the fic here]: āThere are thousands of videos under #SoLongBrooklyn; my fans are crying, apologizing for their hate comments, making sad edits of me, and dyeing their hair pink to show their respect.ā
Back to the main point, the DPW are a corporation doing shady stuff behind the scenes and are clearly the villains. Chaos Theory is a remarkably anti capitalist show if you think about it. You have all these corporations who have been snuggling dinosaurs, selling them illegally, and abusing them for profit and entertainment (the black market in season 3 for example). Thereās a remarkably successful market for people dehumanising and abusing other living beings for their own greed and profit. Wow, I canāt believe Chaos Theory invented anti capitalism! (Okay, Iām done now I promise.) But the magnitude of his dinosaur snuggling thing is huge. Itās global.
And it all comes crashing down with the Nublar Six.
Hereās what I think happened afterwards.
Ben receives emergency treatment for his wound in a hospital in Italy, with Kenji and Gia both staying with him. Darius, Brooklynn, Yaz and Sammy offer to help out with Biosyn. Theyāve all had the Trauma of their lives, and though theyāre on good terms with each other, theyāre angry at the world, newly traumatized, all pretty injured, and utterly drained; the complete opposite of their joyful return from Nublar.
Somehow the media got wind that the Nublar Six are alive ā possibly a leaked Biosyn security photo, or a nosey fan who recognises them and sees them in Malta. Maybe people find out Brooklynn is alive (people including her dads, who now know sheās alive, missing an arm, in serious danger, and have no way of contacting her or the people sheās with).
The media is LOSING THEIR MINDS. Every journalist is heading to Biosyn to try to catch the exclusive on the Nublar Six. Theory and speculation videos are doing numbers. #nublar six is trending everywhere. Thereās so much online debate over how Brooklynn survived the allosaurus attack, what she was doing with Soyona Santos, and other stuff. Dedicated content creators are doing hours-long breakdowns of everything to catch people up. At this point, Darius has not had his mandatory Crashout yet, and heās just been concerned with, for goodnessā sake, getting out of this and home safe, please.
Then, a few hours after Sammy, Brooklynn, Darius, and Yaz start helping out in Biosyn, the police shop up and formally arrest them.
Not just that, but the media shows up too. One moment, Darius was treating an injured dinosaur, and the next, the next, thereās five cameras at once flashing in their faces.
I made a post about this with another person where we bounced around ideas for how this scene could go; here is the thread! But if you donāt want to read it all, Iāll summarise.
Reporters are hounding the four as theyāre being arrested, trying to get anything out of them. But theyāre so stunned and still reeling from the Biosyn incident, all they can do is walk dazedly forward, blink, and mumble, āCan you please get out of our way?ā
One reporter asks Darius something like, āHow does it feel to have brought down two corporations in your lifetime?ā
Darius says, looking the reporter dead in the eye, āIt feels like hell.ā (not EXACTLY what he said but this essay is PG for language)
And he goes on the longest, most cathartic rant, where all of his repressed anger, pain, and trauma explode out of him, about how heās still nineteen ā a literal teenager ā and heās been through more horrific traumas than most people do in a lifetime. How the weight of saving the world twice is breaking the camp famās shoulders and hearts. How he and the others are painted as heroes, but theyāre only survivors. How the media broke them down and made them into something they werenāt. How Biosyn is evil and the DPW is evil and the camp fam are sick to death of not having anyone they can trust. He finally tells the long awaited truth heās been waiting to tell for years.
And someone in the reporter group (Davi. itās Davi) is there, livestreaming this to social media. Where millions of people are watching.
Eventually, the Nublar Six (presume the Nublar Six in this section refers to Darius, Brooklynn, Yaz and Sammy) are dragged away from the reporter crowd by the police, and are taken to separate holding cells in a police station. Theyāre terrified. Reporters try to do solo interviews and the Nublar Six refuse to say a word. All they do say is something along the lines of: āLet me know the others are safe. Then weāll talk.ā (At some point, Kenji is also taken from the hospital and put under arrest.)
The authorities isolate the Nublar Six for two whole days. They try to get them to break and confess something (isolation is a torture method fyi), but the camp fam only care about making sure the others are safe. Eventually, the Nublar Six start swapping information on the othersā whereabouts/wellbeing in exchange for evidence, and a day later, the camp fam are allowed to reunite. This is kept private, because thereās no way to broadcast a heartwarming reunion of the Nublar Six without revealing the authorities forcibly kept them apart.
Medical personnel make sure the Nublar Six are physically okay, and the police interview them for the case against Biosyn. No one is actually sure what on Earth happened, so the authorities are having a field day trying to deal with this and keep the media away so rumours donāt start spreading. The authorities have to give the media something, or theyāll never leave them alone. Several police officers drop hints about this to the Nublar Six.
Meanwhile, social media and regular people are exploding. Everyone is talking about the Nublar Six, campaigning to get them home to their families before Christmas. People all across the globe are hounding their government representatives to advocate for their release and humane treatment, but they are technically criminals, so thereās not much a lot of governments can do.
And In comes our brave girl Gia, who gives intel by sneaking into the jail the camp fam are being held in, interviews Brooklynn, and makes an awareness post on social media about how the camp fam are kept in isolation under poor conditions. Thereās even a hashtag for all of it: #FreeTheNublar6.
All throughout this, the camp fam have not slept, have barely eaten or drank anything, and havenāt seen their parents/relatives ONCE. Theyāre exhausted, scared, and just want to go home.
After a couple more days in a cell together, the camp fam are allowed to see their parents (who were flown in to Italy for this), and the police escort them into an open space. Something immediately feels wrong. Theyāre anxiously looking around, but canāt see the others long enough to communicate anything.
Then, they walk into the airport lobby to another crowd of reporters, and they realise their precious, intimate reunion is going to be broadcast worldwide by the media. Including Brooklynnās dads seeing their daughter who they thought was dead for the first time in almost a year.
This is what the authorities promised the media. A good, wholesome moment people can take at face value, that lets the world forget about the horrifying things said by Darius only days before. Broadcasting a vulnerable, intimate moment for the world to see.
The camp fam are horrified once they work out whatās going on. Some of them refuse to give the media a reaction, and tell the reporters to get the hell away from them. Brooklynn is desperate to see her dads, but she holds herself back, to her and their agony.
Eventually, the parentsā resolves caves and they rush forward and embrace their children. Brooklynnās dads get to see their baby girl for the first time since presuming her dead. Sammyās parents arenāt there (which breaks her heart). Yazās mother hugs both Yaz and Sammy. Darius and Kenjiās mother of course hugs Darius, as well as Brooklynn, and Darius fills in Benās mother (who was there) about Benās injury, since that wasnāt really public knowledge. (She knew her son was badly injured but nothing else.)
Once the media is satisfied, and all start to leave, the Nublar Six (minus Ben) are allowed to go back to Giaās for the night. The next day, they and Biosyn officials make a deal that they will help with restoration of the valley in exchange for Biosyn dropping all charges against them. So the Nublar Six (minus Ben) agree, and stay to help with the valley until late February, where they (minus Darius, whoās put in charge of a team) finally go home to Dariusās cabin. @darilynnzs suggested Henry Wu arranges to pay for their flights and a lot of Benās medical coverage out of guilt.
(Itās arranged that the camp fam will be allowed out of prison under police supervision to see Ben and Gia over Christmas. Cue joyful, untelevised reunion. The One Good Thing in all of this mess.)
Meanwhile, Biosyn and the mainstream media are trying desperately to get the livestream covered up, but millions saw it, and thousands recorded it. Itās circulating all over social media. Taking it back now would do more harm than good. Theyāve lost complete control of the narrative. Remember what I said about needing a simple narrative? The Nublar Sixās simple narrative is gone now. This time, they canāt censor the truth because itās been laid bare for the world to see. Their story is no longer palatable, so they have to find a desperate, last-ditch attempt to stop the public from seeing and acknowledging the truth.
So what can Biosyn and the mainstream media do now?
Paint the Nublar Six as crazy, traumatised, broken, unhinged and unreliable. That way, who would believe and trust their story?
You know Greta Thunberg? She was heralded as a hero for protesting climate change when she was a teenager. Everyone adored the fiery teen with a passion for fighting climate change, and she shocked the world with her speech at the UN climate summit in 2019. But now, the media slanders her, calling her āantisemite of the year,ā and labeling her as ānaiveā and even violent. People send her hate comments and death threats on her social media. [An article by leftvoice] describes her as going from a ādarling of liberal media to public enemy number 1.ā
Why is that? She started uncovering the links between climate change and Western imperialism, and became vocal about her support for Palestine. As soon as her activism started to implicate the super rich and powerful, all her support went up in smoke.
The same leftvoice article said: she displayed an unusual unwillingness to pander to an audience eager to applaud empty phrases by a little girl. Unlike well-paid NGO pseudo-activists, Thunberg was naming names. Greta said: some people say that the climate crisis is something that we will have created, but that is not true, because if everyone is guilty then no one is to blame. And someone is to blame. Some people, some companies, some decision-makers in particular, have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money.
In short, the moment she equated climate change to capitalism, people stopped liking her.
Now, letās look at the Nublar Six. They were once ādarlingsā of the media, who shocked the world with their unusual and dramatic story of surviving on Nublar.
But now, theyāre older, and more controversial. Theyāre not pandering anymore. They grew too big for the media to hold. Theyāre blaming Jurassic World and Biosyn ā two trusted companies the world is supposed to feel protected by ā for the damage wrought onto them, and the media completely screws them over.
The Nublar Six get details of their mental health struggles and diagnoses leaked, and theyāre always mentioned in the mediaās coverage. This happens a lot when the media wants to push a certain bias against people. Have you ever noticed how, when there is a criminal of colour, the media always mentions theyāre a person of colour (Black, Latino, Arab, Muslim (Iām aware this isnāt a race but itās treated in the same way as always being spotlighted by racist medias), etcetera), but when thereās a white criminal, theyāre just... a criminal? Yeah. The Nublar Six would get the same treatment, possibly with their ethnicities, sexualities and genders too, but mostly with mental illnesses.
āYaz Fadoula, who has been diagnosed with PTSD...ā āDarius Bowman reportedly considered suicide when his friend Brooklynn was believed to be dead, and now claims her accident was intentional harmā āBrooklynn, who has been reported to suffer from clinical depression/PTSD after losing her armā (thatās massively ableist phrasing, but Iāll elaborate later on). Benās injury is also mentioned as probably distorting his memory of the events. Those kinds of taglines are plastered all over the media.
Even more messed up, some people in the Nublar Six fandom āheadcanonā them as having mental illnesses, or try to diagnose them with mental illnesses they think they have based on the limited footage they have of them (again, different from the actual Camp Cretaceous/Chaos Theory fandom because these characters are not real and we arenāt watching them through a news camera). Massive amounts of theories spread to the extent they occasionally have to explain to people in job interviews and in the general public that no, that is misinformation, I have not been diagnosed with [mental illness]. Thereās a whole fight on social media about whether or not itās ableist to mistrust the Nublar Sixās point of view, because everyone thinks theyāre mentally unstable (which they ARE but not in the way the media and general public thinks they are).
And two different versions of the story arise: the camp famās truth, and a heavily censored half-truth that sensationalises the Nublar Sixās suffering. It would all but say directly: look at these poor, tragic heroes! The trauma of Nublar drove them over the brink, and now theyāre lying about a trusted company!
OKAY GUYS NOT SURE IF YOU REMEMBER MY THEORY ABOUT HOW BIOSYN MIGHT BE USING THEIR OWN VERSION OF CONTROL CHIPS THAT LEWIS ORIGINALLY WANTED FROM DANIEL BUT COULDN'T IM REWATCHING DOMINION AND LEWIS ASSISTANT MENTIONED THAT THEY USE BRAIN SIGNALS TO BRING THE DINOS IN THE THE MAIN AREA LIKE HOW THEY DID WHEN THE FIRE HAPPENED AND MOST OF THE DINOS WEREN'T MADE THERE SO BASICALLY THEY MADE THEIR OWN VERSION THEY ACTUALLY DID IT SO IN S4 THEY DEFINITELY WILL BE DISCUSSING HOW THEY GAINED BRAIN CONTROL
YALL THEY SET IT UP FOR A SEASON 4!!!!!!!!!! RAHHHHHHHH YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!
Brooklynn:
B turned it all around!! AND recognized that she was in the wrong too!!!!! AND she's bringing the Nublar 3 with her, yall this is such amazing progress!!!!
Biosyn/Movie Stuff:
Kenji and Sammy found Biosyn!! They're gunna go get Bumpy! This is ALSO the same Biosyn location from World Dominion, meaning that despite our lack of Owen, Maisie, Claire, etc. content this season, THERE'S STILL A CHANCE FOR NEXT SEASON!!!
Yaz and Sammy:
Hopefully Yaz and Sammy can take this much needed break, evaluate everything on their own, and then they'll like find each other in the Biosyn facility or something and are able to apologize and make up, maybe get back together?
I think honestly life just got so overwhelming with so much going on (brooklynn being alive, sammy's family, brooklynn looking as though she's working with santos) that the two of them just needed to step back to evaluate their own emotions, the situation, the other person's emotions, everything. Just to take a second to breathe and then they can come back stronger!
This could be a really cool example to kids too! It really shows that love is messy and hard, but in the end the people you love are the ones you want close. What matters is that as long as you can come back and recognize and apologize for your half, that's what matters.
After looking at Jurassic World: Dominion and Jurassic World Chaos Theory(S4), it now got me brainstorming for a newer fanfic story. that I will call-
"BIOSYN ADVENTURE"
Which focuses on Shawn Coover and Serena exploring Biosyn Valley/Sanctuary, full of Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. I will even feature dinos and other prehistoric animals that never got to appear in any of the Jurassic Park/World films and even include crossover variants of dinosaurs from other dinosaur films and documentries. my story even takes place during the events of Jurassic World: Dominion and Jurassic World Chaos Theory's fourth and final season.
I have an extremely farfetched theory abt The Handler that I shall share anyway. What if the reason sheās so like linked with the Biosyn Atrociraptors and shows some characteristics of being raised along SIDE them is cuz sheās ACTUALLY the daughter of LEWIS DODGESON
Like hear me out hear me outā¦Dodgeson had a daughter, and since bro is a bit cray cray and the head of Biosyn, he creates these raptors, takes one good look at his daughter and thinks āOmg brainblast.ā and makes her work alongside the raptors since the raptors WERE bred as āattack dogsā or sum shit. OR as a child in a random ass lab that her father owned, would like sneak off to go hang with the raptors when they were babies, all of a sudden OOPS they imprinted on her, now they think sheās their long lost siblingā¼ļø Lewis is like āfuck it imma put this to good useā and just makes her the Atrociraptor Handler because she knows the raptors well.
Iām probably wording this VERY horribly, so lemme try to explain again š The Handler seems to have some personal connections with Biosyn, given that she is APART of a raptor pack Biosyn created. Not like she just pops in and pops out Owen Grady style, nah, it was like she was raised WITH them. Grew up in the SAME SPACE as them. The lab that Lewis is head of. This āBrokerā she works for (who I am convinced is Dodgeson) Is actually her cray cray father who recognized the fact that his daughter formed some kind of bond with the raptors his company made, and put it to good use. Yeah this probably doesnt make sense, but thats what theories areā¼ļø Pls share any thoughts you have on this