Tremors: The Series - Graboid Rights

Save the worm!

Christopher Silber and P.J. Pesce, the writer and the director, respectively, of the Tremors TV series episode entitled Hit and Run, were teamed up again for what is the tenth episode in the show's thirteen episode run.

Although there is a monster at the center of this episode's story, the protected Graboid called El Blanco, which the residents of the desert town of Perfection, Nevada share the valley with, the monster is not really a threat to the characters. Rather, the threat that the residents of Perfection have to deal with this time around is that they might have to move out of town for the sake of El Blanco's health.

Independent research conducted by a scientist named Ellie Bergen has shown that sharing his habitat with the people of Perfection is having a severely negative impact on El Blanco... It is having such an adverse effect on him that he may not even live through the month.

The few who do reside in Perfection are shocked by this news and doubtful of it, but El Blanco does soon start exhibiting some very unusual behavior that seems to back up Bergen's claims.

Graboid Rights features the return of a character from the first and third Tremors movies; Mindy Sterngood, the daughter of resident hippie Nancy. Actress Ariana Richards, who played the character in the films, did not return, being recast with Tinsley Grimes.

Mindy has missed out on the events of the previous nine episodes by being away at college, but returns to town with her poli-sci teacher/boyfriend Chad, who is the head of the Nevada Environment and Wildlife Defense Organization. With the legion of protestors that have come to Perfection with them backing them up, Chad and Mindy are spearheading a movement to get the Department of the Interior to demand that people get off El Blanco's land. Even if that means forcing Mindy's own mother out of her home.

Nancy is resistant to Mindy's cause at first and questions Chad's motives, but after seeing Bergen's research she joins the fight.

Nancy's fellow residents are not so quick to give up on their town, and continue investigating the situation in an attempt to prove that they are not what is making El Blanco sick.

It may be disappointing for some viewers that this episode is not a monster hunting adventure. Although El Blanco is featured in a handful of scenes, it's really all about the character interactions and the mysteries of what's wrong with our favorite Graboid and whether or not Bergen and Chad can be trusted. The questionability of the protest is enhanced by the fact that someone amongst the ranks of the people chanting "Save the worm!" starts destroying property in town, making a mess of survivalist Burt Gummer's place and even blowing up the equipment of researcher Casey Matthews, who just introduced in the preceding episode.

Graboid Rights isn't the most exciting entry in the series, but not every episode has to be about monster killing and action. It's an interesting story, and it makes sense that, if this franchise were occurring in the real world, there would be people protesting for the well-being of the only protected member of the endangered Graboid species.