The ARC springs a Leek…

Summary

A Columbian mammoth shows up on the M25 motorway, going on a rampage destroying cars and killing people. Meanwhile, Cutter has a secret meeting with the team, explaining that someone is working against them. Stephen is sure it’s Lester, but Cutter cautions that they need proof. Before they can continue the conversation, the detector alerts them to the anomaly.

On the way, Stephen is stopped by Helen, she convinces him that Lester is behind it and that they need to act. Stephen forces her to go talk to Cutter. She tell him he won’t listen.

While this is going on, the others fight a close won battle with the mammoth, but finally capture it. Cutter is nearly killed because Stephen isn’t there.

Cutter refuses to listen to Helen and fights with Stephen, culminating (later) with Cutter hitting Stephen. Stephen runs to Helen’s arms. Helen, meantime is setting up something.

Cutter and Conner set up a fake anomaly, knowing that whoever is intercepting the alerts will arrive at the scene first. Jenny arrives and, after a few tense moments, reveals that Leek sent her with all the troops available. Lester is left alone, and a future predator has been let loose in the base.

The predator is controlled by Leek, who expresses his hatred of Lester. Lester, however, isn’t just a paper pusher, and he gets the better of the predator, eventually killing it with the mammoth.

Once back at the ARC, Conner hacks into Leek’s file, which activates a bomb. Cutter and Conner defuse it with a second to spare.

Then they use the detector to track to down Leek. Lester takes the troops to deal with Leek. Conner, meantime figures out how to use the detector to track down Caroline, who has stolen Rex. Cutter, Conner, Abby and Jenny all go to recover Rex.

Lester has been led of a wild goose chase, and Cutter and his team are captured by Helen and Leek. When he asks what’s it all about, Helen shows him that they have a menagerie full of the dangerous creatures from the anomalies. The episode ends on that revelation.

Analysis

I wasn’t far into this episode before I realized this must have been written by a new writer. Although it had fewer opportunities for obvious glaring technical errors, it just felt more tightly scripted. After the fact, I checked and it was, indeed, written cy someone who has not previously written an episode of Primeval – Paul Cornell.

Cornell did write three Doctor Who episodes, Father’s Day, Family of Blood and Human Nature. To be honest, those are three of my least favorites, but he’s pulled it out of the fire with this episode of Primeval.

The Columbian Mammoth, being a large, hairless mammoth makes it possible to reveal one of the creatures to the general public and still have a somewhat plausible excuse: “It’s a really big elephant.” Anyone would believe that before they believed it was a living mammoth.

Also, for the first time, the “conspirators” in this episode actually seemed somewhat competent. They laid intricate plans that not gave our heroes a challenge or two, but also had intricate backup plans in case the first ones failed.

There would have been much simpler ways to capture Cutter and the crew and/or kill Lester, but if that had been the goal, it should have been done in the first episode, not towards the last. Given the premise that a conspiracy has been brewing, Paul Cornell’s script is the first to breath any credibility into it at all.

Helen, still acting like a jungle girl, is still the piece that seems totally out of place. For cryin’ out loud, she can front a conspiracy but she can’t get some new clothes? And why is she trying to use Stephen? So far, having him allied with Helen has played no noticeable part with the conspiracy. Surely she realizes that he’ll be a liability in the next episode when he finds out what she’s been up to.

Since I finally enjoyed this episode, I won’t pick on it too much. The biggest groaner I had was when Abby told Lester a mammoth would attack if it sensed a predator. I turned and shouted, “foreshadowing!”

I’m looking forward to next week when all hell breaks loose. Pity I’m already expecting it to end on a cliffhanger without explaining much of anything.

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