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Primeval: 3.2
Air Date: Saturday, May 23 on BBCAmerica
This week’s Primeval put a scifi spin on an old fashioned haunted house tale. It begins fourteen years ago when three teenage boys went in but only one came out. Fast forward to today and the house is a derelict monstrosity that couldn’t be anything but haunted!
Back at the ARC, Cutter and his new assistant Sarah Page are building a 3-D model of time that marks the initial sightings of a variety of mythical beasts. Through this bit of existential art, they hope to predict where the next anomaly will pop up.
The addition of Sarah Page to the crew was a necessity as we need an uninformed person to be the audience POV. Last year we had Jenny, but now that she’s a well informed member of the gang, we needed someone on the outs so they could explain everything over and over for new watchers. And can I just take a moment here to comment on how zippy everyone looks in this season. Is it me, or does Cutter look younger than he did a season ago? Even Connor looks a bit more buttoned up and Abby is rock star. I like it.
Now back to the story. Cutter predicts that the next anomaly will open inside that haunted house, so Abby, Connor and Jenny go to investigate. From there on in, its a series of jump-outs and fake-outs as we realize that the ghost is really a gremlin-like creature who can blend into the background.
The scene where Abby stares up inside the chimney was a great fake-out and poor Connor having to be the victim of her prank. The monster was very cool and very creepy. It had personality and facial expressions — two elements you don’t usually find in the creatures on the show.
But the exploring is cut short twice by the arrival of police detective Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng) who arrests Connor, forcing Jenny to go the police station, leaving Abby on her own. After a close call or two, Abby discovers the truth about the house, there’s an exciting chase scene between all the major players and one frightened real estate agent that ends with the creature going back through the anomaly.
Or not! There’s one last jump-out (literally) moment that has Officer Quinn saving the day and doubting his sanity, I imagine. We find out that Quinn was the brother of one of the missing kids. He resigns from the police force but since he’s now in the opening credits, I’d guess he’s joining the team.
In the side story, Helen sends in the clones but the man is discovered going through Cutter’s locker at the ARC and he’s killed — again. When we last see Helen, she’s digging around for hair and dirty glasses at Cutter’s place — ah ha! She’s collecting Cutter’s DNA and there’s no question in my mind about what she’s going to do with that.
Overall, this was one of my favorite episodes. I enjoyed seeing Abby and Connor take a leading role in the story and the monster of the week was very cool. I also got a kick out of the little girl who turned out to be a red herring. I thought she might be a real ghost but to find that she was caring for the monster so it wouldn’t eat people was a neat little twist.
Looks like the gang is back together next week including more from new team member Becker:
Episode 3.3
In this episode, creatures from both the past and the future threaten the team. Some cute but surprisingly dangerous burrowing creatures called Diictodons almost cause a disaster at a hospital when an anomaly opens from the Permian era. Calamity is averted by Cutter, Connor, Abby and Becker who, in the course of the story, are obliged to get the creatures back to their own time whilst simultaneously delivering a (human) baby. A dogged journalist, determined to catch one of the creatures and expose the ARC and its secrets to the world, doesn’t help the situation. Meanwhile Lester, Jenny and Sarah are confronted with an attack on the ARC, led by Helen and a small army of “Cleaner Replicas”.
Watch Primeval every Saturday at 9:00 on BBCAmerica.
Photo Credit: Impossible Pictures
