Diksha Sundriyal
NBC’s ‘La Brea’ is a time travel drama that begins with a sinkhole opening up in LA. With all the twists and turns in the story, things only get weird with each episode. By now, it’s clear that the past and the future are connected to each other more strongly than previously imagined. In the second season, especially, we discover that people from further into the future have made a home in 10,000 BC and their actions have an impact on the lives of other people living in different timelines. In the second half of its second season, the show reveals a mystery related to a seemingly unimportant character who died at the beginning of the series. Who is he and how does his past play into the story of ‘La Brea’? Let’s find out. SPOILERS AHEAD
Who was Aaron?
Aaron Castillo fell through the LA sinkhole with two girls, Veronica and Lilly. He appeared to be a religious and conservation person who didn’t want to associate with other people. He kept his daughters from talking to others. Before anything else could be known about him, he was killed in a bear attack. Later, it turned out that the girls weren’t his daughters. He had kidnapped both of them, conditioning them to follow his every command.
Eventually, Veronica and Lilly break out of the shell he had put them in and they start to mingle with the group, recovering from the trauma of being separated from their families at a young age and never getting to see them again. Thus, the only thing that everyone in 10,000 BC knew about Aaron is that he was a criminal who destroyed the lives of two little girls.
Aaron’s Time Travel: Evidence from 10,000 BC
In the first season, Aaron is usually mentioned in the context of the trauma that Veronica and Lilly (now Ella) suffered at his hands. In the second season, however, the revelation of new things about the world leads to the emergence of a picture that seems to tell a different story, and it begins with the red, star-shaped flowers.
The flowers first appeared in Gavin’s vision in which he saw Eve die. Later, Izzy finds the tree inside Lazarus, where James tells her that this kind of tree only grows in 10,000 BC. They still don’t know much about it, but their research is ongoing. The same tree is later discovered by Ella and Veronica in a cave, which is where the trees generally grow, where they’d ventured to find something that would help them make a ring that Ty wants to propose to Paara with.
Veronica and Ella immediately recognize the tree. It was something that Aaron had been obsessed with. He made Ella draw the tree and its flowers again and again. This triggers Veronica’s trauma and she runs away. Later, however, she and Ella wonder how Aaron knew about these trees that only grow in 10,000 BC. The mystery surrounding Aaron further deepens when they discover that the Exiles are looking for the notebook that Aaron had. Veronica recognizes it because she buried the notebook with Aaron. When they dig it up, Gavin realizes that it belongs to Dr. Moore and has his notes on how to better the time machine.
With the new details that have surfaced in the past couple of episodes, it is clear that Aaron was much more involved in the time travel stuff than anyone else. Veronica and Ella notice that Aaron told them the tree with red flowers used to grow in his old home. This could mean that Aaron, much like Isaiah aka Gavin, grew up in 10,000 BC. It is possible that we might see his young version in the coming episode, most probably living inside Lazarus.
How Aaron ended up in the future remains to be seen, but it is possible that he was working with or for people like James or Caroline. He certainly knew about Dr. Moore, which explains why he had the dead man’s notebook. Veronica also notes that the day the sinkhole appeared, Aaron had taken her and Lilly to that exact place, as if he already knew about the sinkhole. All of this proves that Aaron has been to 10,000 BC before, and is somehow connected with the sinkholes and the time travel.
Read More: What Happened to Levi? Did Nicholas Gonzalez Leave La Brea?
