WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the third season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, now streaming on Netflix.
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous has long indulged the surrounding franchise for some clever Easter eggs and exciting new perspectives on the universe. But it just found the best way to bring in an element from the original Jurassic Park film -- and actually use it in a tactical way. The show focuses on a group of teens who barely survived the chaos of Isla Nublar after being more or less left for dead during the events of Jurassic World. In Season 3, Episode 4, "Clever Girl," the group splits up and explores the island while trying to find supplies to repair the boat left by Tiff and Mitch after they were killed by dinosaurs in Season 2.
While waiting for sealant to set on a fixture to the hull of the boat, Brooklyn and Sammy go in search of a lab to find intel Sammy can use to help her family after the adventure. Meanwhile, the group's one compass is stolen by a pack of small Compies. Darius, Yaz and Kenji chase after the creatures, eventually following them to the site of the original Jurassic Park. In the original Jurassic Park film, the welcome center was the hub for the park, and the center of much of the action. However, it was abandoned following the disastrous events of the film. The ruins, now overgrown, were rediscovered in Jurassic World by Gray and Zach Mitchell, who barely escaped the Indominus Rex while it was loose and exploring the jungles.
In the six months since the events of Jurassic World, the site has fallen into even further disrepair and is now home to various dinosaurs -- including Blue, the distinct raptor trained by Owen Grady in Jurassic World. The raptor ends up sparing the three after they help her escape confinement near a group of Compies that could have otherwise killed her. Humorously, all three teens have different ideas about the abandoned location. Darius regards it with some reverence and tries to explain how the founder of the park, John Hammond, died of natural causes. But Kenji is convinced the location is haunted while Yaz believes the Park is cursed. She explains that she read about how the original founder of the park had broken his ankle in the panic of the events of first film, leaving him to be killed by Compies.
This is actually a deep-cut reference to the original Jurassic Park novel by Michael Crayton, which deviated from the film adaptation in some key ways -- including the death of Hammond in the exact way Yaz describes. The Park becomes more important later in Season 3, Episode 8, "Escape From Isla Nublar." After finally repairing the boat, the group finds themselves faced with a fresh challenge from the Scorpius-Rex, an earlier attempt by Doctor Wu to bioengineer a hybrid dinosaur. Capable of reproducing asexually, the creature is able to roam the island and target the young humans, with one of them almost killing Sammy with the use of her poisonous quills.
Reasoning that they need to stop the creatures, Darius leads the group back to the original site of Jurassic Park and finds a tranquilizer gun. But his lack of experience with the weapon means Darius isn't able to bring the dinosaurs down with it. The group is forced on the move through the building, even briefly hiding in the kitchen in a reference to the famous kitchen sequence from Jurassic Park. Later, the creatures are killed when the group realizes how structurally weak the building has become, and causes it to collapse onto the creatures while Blue keeps them busy. Subsequently, they barely escape the falling building.
In the end, the site of the original film -- and a major location in the history of the franchise -- becomes a tomb to the ultimate invention of the park. This is a testament to the uncontrolled elements that the park owners and scientists shouldn't have been messing with. It's also a surprisingly fitting fate for the structure, and at least allows it to be used for some good and to actually save some lives.
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous stars Paul-Mike’l Williams as Darius, Jenna Ortega as Brooklynn, Ryan Potter as Kenji, Raini Rodriguez as Sammy, Sean Giambrone as Ben and Kausar Mohammed as Yaz. Season 3 is available to stream on Netflix.
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