Warning: SPOILERS for Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Season 5 Finale - "The Nublar Six"
After five seasons of being trapped on two different dinosaur-filled islands, the brave teenage heroes of Netflix's Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous finally make it home, but their final adventure also directly affects the events of Jurassic World Dominion. In Camp Cretaceous season 5, Darius (Paul-Mikél Williams), Brooklynn (Jenna Ortega), Sammy (Raini Rodriguez), Yasmina (Kausar Mohammed), and Ben (Sean Giambrone) foil the plans of Daniel Kon (Andrew Kishino), the father of Kenji (Ryan Potter). Kon, the President of Mantah Corp, brought Kenji to his side and struck a deal with Dr. Lewis Dodgson (Adam Harrington) to sell his technology to mentally control dinosaurs to BioSyn.
Kenji realized his father was a terrible person and he returned to his friends, regaining their trust. Meanwhile, Mr. Kon and his mercenaries took control of the dinosaurs, including the Toro the Carnotaurus from Isla Nublar and the Spinosaurus, and the villains nearly killed the teenagers. However, Kon fell into an elaborate trap by the Campers to make him believe that Mantah Corp island's core was undergoing critical mass. Kon fled the island, abandoning Kenji in the process, although he was arrested by the police. After they saved Mantah Corp Island and the dinosaurs, the Campers were then reunited with Brand (Benjamin Flores, Jr.), Darius' older brother, as well as the kids' original Camp Counselors, Roxie (Jameela Jamil) and Dave (Glen Powell), and Dr. Mae Turner (Kirby Howell-Baptiste). Roxie, Dave, and Brand mounted a rescue mission for Darius and the others and they met Mae on Isla Nublar. At long last, they brought the teenagers home, where the Campers were reunited with their loved ones. Because of their incredible story of surviving Jurassic World, the kids have become known as The Nublar Six.
Camp Cretaceous season 1 was set during the events of Jurassic World in 2015 and season 2 took place in the aftermath of the dinosaurs taking over the island. Camp Cretaceous season 3 saw a time jump that took the story into the prologue of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and seasons 4 and 5 happened in the weeks afterward when the Campers escaped Isla Nublar and found themselves marooned on Mantah Corp Island. After season 4's awkward shift in tone and direction, Camp Cretaceous season 5 successfully reset the story back to emphasizing the kids saving the dinosaurs. In addition, romance bloomed between the teenagers: Brooklyn and Kenji became a couple, although she grieved his temporary turn when he joined up with his father. Yasmina and Sammy also began their own relationship. With the Nublar Six's ordeal now over, here's how Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous' ending fits into the larger story of Jurassic World Dominion.
When Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous' Epilogue Takes Place
Camp Cretaceous season 5's epilogue takes place immediately after the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The second Jurassic World film is set in 2018, 3 years after the Nublar Six were stranded in Jurassic World and, subsequently, Mantah Corp Island, throughout Camp Cretaceous. Counting the six-month time jump between Camp Cretaceous seasons 2 and 3 that brought the Netflix show up to the prologue of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom when the Mosasaurus escaped the island - which happened about a year and a half before the main story of Fallen Kingdom - the Nublar Six were likely missing for about an entire year. All of the teenagers should be roughly a year older by the time they were finally rescued.
The approximately 2-year time jump between the end of Camp Cretaceous and the epilogue set at the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom lines up with how much the Nublar Six has changed. Darius is visibly older and he's roughly 16 in the epilogue. The dinosaur expert has also become a celebrity, giving public talks online about his experiences with the prehistoric creatures of Jurassic World. Kenji is also older and in his late teens; apparently, he inherited his family's fortune and he's been adopted by Darius' family, the Bowmans. Sammy is back on her family's ranch in Texas and Yasmina visits her, while Ben, who is also visibly older, gets to vacation on Mantah Corp Island to see his pet ankylosaurus, Bumpy. Dr. Mae Turner also cares for the dinosaurs on Mantah Corp Island. Brooklynn, who has become an underground reporter, also asked Darius if he's heard of Lockwood Manor, but she was cut off before she could report that the dinosaurs have been set free by Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon). The last shot of Camp Cretaceous season 5 is of Darius seeing a brachiosaurus appearing near his house, which means the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has already happened.
T-Rex Gets Revenge On The Spinosaurus From Jurassic Park III
Camp Cretaceous' season 5 finale gave the T-Rex revenge on the Spinosaurus, at last. In Jurassic Park III, the Spinosaurus established itself as Isla Sorna's apex predator by quickly killing the T-Rex. Camp Cretaceous season 5's penultimate episode, "The Last Stand," repeated this T-Rex humiliation when the Spinosaurus, which was under the mind control of Mr. Kon and his mercenaries, seemingly killed Mantah Corp Island's biggest T-Rex, Big Eatie while the younger T-Rex, Little Eatie, watched helplessly. However, Big Eatie survived and returned for revenge against the Spinosaurus in Camp Cretaceous' series finale. Even though the Spinosaurus was free of Kon's mind control, she found herself at the mercy of both T-Rexes, Big and Little Eatie. The T-Rexes double-teamed the Spinosaurus and sent her running. Although they're different T-Rexes from the one the Spinosaurus killed in Jurassic Park III, Camp Cretaceous' Spino is the same as the one in the movie, so it's a spiritual victory and revenge for the T-Rex's death at the hands of the Spinosaurus.
There's also another nod to Steven Spielberg's famous "Raptors in the Kitchen" sequence in Jurassic Park. Some of the Nublar Six are trapped in a warehouse with Velociraptors in Camp Cretaceous' season 5 finale, and the scene plays out as a cat-and-mouse game similar to the "Raptors in the Kitchen" moment in Jurassic Park. Just like Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex Murphy (Ariana Richards) did, the Campers survived the raptors and ultimately escaped the dinosaur-filled island.
How Camp Cretaceous Leads Into Jurassic World Dominion (And Creates A Plot Hole)
Camp Cretaceous season 5 has two major tie-ins to Jurassic World Dominion. First, Lewis Dodgson's visit to Isla Nublar allowed him to find the Barbasol can his younger self (played by Cameron Thor) gave to the late Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) in Jurassic Park. This explains why Dodgson (Campbell Scott) had the Barbasol can Jurassic World Dominion, which the film never explained. Dodgson also survives a Dilophosaurus attack in Camp Cretaceous season 5, previewing his eventual death by a Dilophosaurus attack in Jurassic World Dominion.
In addition, Mantah Corp's technology to mentally subjugate dinosaurs, which was developed by Dr. Mae Turner, is how BioSyn was able to control the dinos in their Italian Sanctuary in Jurassic World Dominion. Dodgson made a business deal to buy the tech from Mr. Kon in Camp Cretaceous season 5. However, the Nublar Six foiled Kon's ability to manufacture the microchips implanted into the dinosaurs, which leaves a plot hole as to how BioSyn had the technology anyway in Dominion. The most likely solution is that Dodgson and BioSyn must have bought Mantah Corp in the years between Camp Cretaceous season 5 and Jurassic World Dominion. This would have meant that Dodgson learned the location of Kon's secret island and acquired all of the technology (and dinosaurs) within.
Why Jurassic World Dominion Never Mentions Camp Cretaceous
For audiences who watched and enjoyed all five seasons of Camp Cretaceous on Netflix, it's disappointing that the events of the show and the characters are not referenced in Jurassic World Dominion. After all, given the callbacks to Steven Spielberg's films and the numerous Easter eggs of the Jurassic franchise, it would have been easy to drop a mention of the Nublar Six somewhere in the film, perhaps during a television news report. It's also rather frustrating that Camp Cretaceous is ignored since Jurassic World Dominion relies on the animated series to explain why Dodgson had Nedry's Barbasol can and how BioSyn had the technology to control dinosaurs, which was the focus of Camp Cretaceous seasons 4 and 5.
However, the audience who watched Camp Cretaceous on Netflix is still relatively small compared to the general audience for Jurassic World Dominion. The film is also set four years after Camp Cretaceous' epilogue so the survival of the Nublar Six in Jurassic World isn't quite as big news anymore by Dominion's timeframe, especially since Isla Nublar has been wiped out by Mt. Sibo's volcanic eruption. In addition, the Nublar Six can't easily be referenced since the voice actors only somewhat resemble their animated characters, so it would have been challenging and distracting to integrate them into Jurassic World Dominion. In addition, Dominion's focus was on teaming up Jurassic Park's legacy characters with Jurassic World's heroes, and none of them had any interaction with or direct knowledge of Camp Cretaceous and the Nublar Six.
Why Camp Cretaceous Season 5 Is The True End Of The Jurassic World Story
By releasing on Netflix over a month after Jurassic World Dominion, Camp Cretaceous season 5 ends up being the last word of Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World trilogy and the overall six-film cycle that began with Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park. Thankfully, Camp Cretaceous season 5 doesn't drop the ball. The final 12 episodes of the series fully explored the bond and found-family closeness between Darius, Brooklynn, Sammy, Kenji, Yaz, and Ben, as no one else on Earth could ever understand the ordeal they went through, which will unite them for the rest of their lives. Indeed, the Nublar Six's tale of friendship and survival is more impressive than any of the live-action Jurassic movie characters.
Further, the final two seasons of Camp Cretaceous accomplished the neat trick of refocusing the Nublar Six's motivation to be about saving the dinosaurs. Even after all of the times dinos tried to kill them, the teenage heroes realized the prehistoric beasts are animals who deserve to be valued and protected. In turn, they risked their lives over and over to save the dinosaurs from Mr. Kon and his cronies at Mantah Corp. In contrast, Jurassic World Dominion wasn't really about dinosaurs, even though it was set in a world where humans and the rest of the planet are forced to co-exist with dinos. Dominion was really about stopping a plague of locusts from wiping out the world's food supplies. As the last Jurassic World project to be released, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous season 5 persuasively communicated the importance and majesty of dinosaurs, and the animated series ends as one of the best Jurassic stories of all.
All episodes of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous are streaming on Netflix.