Primeval – Series 2 – Episode 7 – Review (Spoilers)

“I’m foolin’ ’em with my funny footprints.”

If you haven’t figured out what the obvious outcome of this series had to be then this review contains a major spoiler.

Summary

At the end of the last episode, Cutter and his team (sans Stephen, who has left the team because of his own paranoia) have been captured by Leek and Helen. Cutter is shown a menagerie of fearsome creatures from the other sides of the anomalies.

Leek unleashes a “Silurian scorpion” on a popular beach resort, and lets Lester know that he’s holding them to ransom or he’ll release other creatures. Lester calls Stephen for help with the scorpion. Stephen agrees, but only if he’s left completely alone. Helen has completely fooled him into believing that Lester is the traitor.

In Leek’s hidden base, Carolyn has been exposed as a spy for Lester and, when she tries to leave, is taken prisoner with the others. A cat fight between her and Abby ensues, ending only when Conner intervenes.

Cutter fools Helen into believing that he’s both impressed with her intellect and still in love with her. She reveals to him her master plan: To remake the world into something “better” by changing history on the other sides of the anomalies. When Cutter points out she might destroy mankind completely, she simply points out that if she does, she can bring them back again, too.

That’s not Leek’s plan, of course. His is much more mundane: Knowledge of the future and power in the present, but he doesn’t know what Helen is up to.

There are escapes and captures. Stephen subdues the scorpion. Leek has future predators mind-controlled with future-technology brain implants. Cutter effects the escape of the others who were about to be eaten by the saber-tooth cat. He kills one of the predators by removing its brain implant and he tricks Leek into infecting his computer system with Conner’s computer virus.

Conner, Abby and Carolyn have to escape on their own. Meanwhile, Helen, seeing everything fall apart calls in her trump card, Stephen. She tells him that she saw Lester kill Cutter and the others, and that he needs to come help her immediately.

Cutter manages to free the future predators from Leeks mind control and they devour him, unfortunately they, along with all the other creatures are on the loose. Cutter must find a way to destroy them all.

Stephen arrives and Helen tries to convince him to escape with her to the other side of an anomaly. Stephen wants to confront Lester, but then he sees Cutter alive. Knowing that Helen said she saw Lester kill Cutter, he begins to have his doubts.

The three of them work together and get the animals back to the cage room. If they can lock them in they will destroy each other. The door is busted – one of them will have to seal the door from inside! Cutter goes, but Stephen punches him and takes his place. While Cutter watches through the window, the trapped creatures kill Stephen. Helen slips away.

At Stephen’s funeral, Carolyn tries to make peace with Conner and Abby, Cutter comes to grips with the fact that Claudia is gone forever and then another anomaly interrupts them. Off to new adventures! (This time Conner has a gun!)

After they leave, Helen arrives and talks to Stephen. She lets him know that his death may not be permanent, then her army of clones of the mercenary soldier formerly in Leek’s employ show up for a group photo shoot around Stephen’s grave.

Analysis

Years ago I had a friend, Woody Harper, who would have loved Primeval. Every time someone in a science fiction program would come up with an incredibly daft plot point or plan, he’d say, “I’m foolin’ ’em with my funny footprints” an allusion to the absurdness of cartoon plans of Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny.

As Helen was explaining her grand plan of scientific discovery, Woody’s voice haunted me, “I’m foolin’ ’em with my funny footprints.”

Where did they go wrong on this one? Answer: Character motivation. Surely this is elevating the Frankenstein-esque amoral scientist to cartoon proportions. (The amoral scientist is a fictional stereotype and lame writers’ crutch that I find particularly offensive, anyway.) That, of course, and the fact that she’s just bat-shit nuts.

Leek is not much better, but at least he’s just a classic “nobody recognizes how incredibly smart I am until I take over the world and beat up all the bullies who beat me as a child” character.

Stephen, of course, was destined to die. Even though Stephen’s seduction by Helen was a major point in the second series, it was clearly obvious that his character has played a significantly smaller role this year. Instead, Conner has been Cutter’s favorite son this time around and we can only assume that was based on audience feedback from last year.

All in the all, the (real) ending of the show was very anti-climactic. The whole second series has been building towards a fizzle. Leeks army of creatures is no credible threat. Cutter’s team has been working in secrecy and attempting (for the most part) to minimize the potential alteration of the timeline. Leek holding these creatures after their anomalies have closed for all practical purposes nullifies the later concern. If he released them, the former would be moot. These creatures might cause death and destruction, but it’s nothing the police or, at worst, the proper military couldn’t clear up in short order. The effect would be little different then if he just threatened to let the lions out of the zoo.

Even the future predators wouldn’t be hard to mop up. Afterwards, Leek wouldn’t have any reserves to fall back on. (“I’m foolin’ ’em with my funny footprints.”)

Now, let’s discuss the “fake” ending. I was particularly pissed off at the final scene with Helen and her army of cloned soldiers coming up and doing the group pose around Stephen’s grave. (Or are they refugees from alternate timelines? Have we established that there are alternate timelines or is it just one malleable reality. From Helen’s plan to change time, it would seem to be the latter.)

What was the purpose of that? It wasn’t even a proper plot complication. The only hint of foreshadowing was that some of the soldiers who were in the shadow’s at Leek’s base seemed to bear a similar physical appearance to clone-boy. I thought it was my imagination the first time I saw one killed. Even now I’ll need to go back and watch again to be sure. What’s an army of cloned soldiers got to do with her plan to change history just to see what happens? If she had her own army, why didn’t she utilize them earlier? If Leek had them, why didn’t he? Why would she bring a large contingent of them with her to the grave? Why would they be hiding until she mugged it for the camera the end?

I think one of the biggest problems Primeval had this series was that, last year, it was renewed for a guarantied second and third series. I suspect – no – I can only hope that the writers fluffed off series two so that they could have some ideas for a bang-up series three.

Perhaps an anomaly will form in the real world, someone will go through it, and in our present, the writers of Primeval will mysteriously do a sort of Claudia/Jenny transformation and really surprise me next series.

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