Primeval: Episode 9

by Jason Hughes

BBC America

(Series 2, Episode 3)

While Cutter continues trying to deal with the changes wrought in the series one finale, he’s most distraught by the transformation of Claudia Brown into Jenny Lewis. While he and Brown were developing feelings for one another, Lewis is proving to be more of a thorn in his side. Meanwhile, Abby Maitland has been keeping her pants on the last few episodes, which is a huge disservice to the fan-base. It’s interesting that Lucy Brown (Claudia/Jenny) is only two years older than Spearritt (Abby), and yet on the show the difference seems significantly greater.

Tonight, the gang faces off against a saber-toothed tiger in a theme park. But there may be more going on than just another prehistoric creature coming through another random anomoly. You know, saber-toothed tigers have really long teeth … that can catch on clothes … like Abby’s pants. Or Jenny’s. I’m not picky. I’m not saying it will happen. I’m just saying it should happen.

Of course Connor’s new love interest can’t be just that, can she? After all, this is a drama and every new character has an ulterior motive in a drama. Plus, we’re clearly building toward some sort of connection between Connor and Abby, despite the fact that he likes to create huge panics and shoot at men in lion costumes. At least his anomaly detector panned out.

But that’s because a new girl, who seemed to have at least a slight interest in Stephen, turned out to be up to no good as well. Too bad that was so painfully obvious. I guess the moral of the story is that chicks are evil? Except for Abby. So to find chicks that aren’t evil, look for the ones in their underwear? Thanks for clearing that up, Primeval.

So not only did Valerie know about the saber-tooth tiger being on the loose, hell she was responsible for it being there. And while the deaths were clearly unintended, does someone really love their pet so much that they’ll let it maul people and still try to protect it? Oh wait. Valerie was never in her underwear. That explains it.

Shards

Wow, so Jenny thinks avoiding a media blitz is more important than saving human lives. Sure it was just kind of glossed over in the episode, but that makes her a bit of a monster, doesn’t it?
As she continued throughout the episode trying to smooth over every possible angle in which the story could leak, she became more and more covered in slime. While it’s interesting to watch, I miss Claudia Brown. At least she had a soul.
At least she wasn’t alone as the theme park manager was an even bigger dick.
Did anyone else notice in the scene when they looked at the photos of the saber-tooth tiger, we cut to a scene of Cutter and he was against a completely black background saying “Wow,” but they were sitting in a brightly lit room the whole time?
When Cutter was held at gunpoint he did a really shitty job of trying to explain what was really going on to Valerie. Why do the good guys insist on talking vaguely even when their lives were at risk.
I wish the budget had been a little better to allow for a more realistic animation for the tiger.
Final scene count of Abby in her knickers: 0. Bad form, Primeval. Bad form.

With the tiger killed and destroyed against Cutter’s wishes, apparently things aren’t as rosy back at Anomaly Headquarters as Cutter might have hoped. I do like that they’re buliding a larger background threat behind the “monster of the week” motif. Now there’s something else to keep you coming back week after week.

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