Episode 4 (Primeval)

"Episode 4 (Primeval)"

Episode Four of the ITV sci-fi drama Primeval was broadcast in the UK on 3 March, 2007.

Synopsis

A new anomaly brings a flock of dodos with a deadly secret: they carry unique parasites that pose a lethal threat.

Plot

In a block of flats, a woman shouts down annoyed at some children playing noisily outside. Inside, there is something in a toilet bowl; the resulting emergency call draws the attention of the anomaly team, who arrive with a squad of special forces to discover that it is only an escaped modern python: a false alarm.

In the Home Office a team interrogates Helen Cutter trying to get her to tell what she knows about the anomalies, to save lives. Helen refuses to co-operate. She is the only one who understands how the anomalies work, but for now she's keeping her secrets safe. Lester makes a veiled threat about torture and everyone thinking she is already dead so no one will come looking for her. She then offers to talk but only to her husband.

When she and Nick Cutter meet she blames him for setting her up. He tries to tell her he knew nothing about Lester's plan to capture her, but she refuses to believe him. She then suddenly relents and says that unless Nick acts, in a few hours, 'a pride of sabre-toothed killers will be rampaging through Central London'.

James Peregrine Lester claims that this is a trap. Claudia Brown agrees, although her motives for disliking Cutter's reappeared wife are of a more personal nature. But Nick puts their scepticism aside, and convinces them to give Helen a chance. Meanwhile, Connor Temple's secret life, full of late-night excursions, is starting to be a serious concern for his friends Tom and Duncan, in case he is part of a Government conspiracy that they suspect: they place an electronic bug on him and set out on a mission to discover what he's doing.

Helen leads the special forces to an anomaly in Matchroom football stadium's catering storeroom with Tom and Duncan in hot pursuit. However, it was a lie and Helen breaks away and escapes through the anomaly. Captain Tom Ryan and Stephen Hart chase her through to a wide grass plain with dozens of anomalies. With no way of knowing which one she went through; they are forced to go back without her.

In the present, five dodos come out of the anomaly. The team manage to catch four of them, but one runs away, swallows the tracking device from Connor's bag, and wanders outside where it is found by Tom and Duncan. They take it to their flat, believing the conspiracy that they suspect that Connor is involved in, is cloning the dodos. At the stadium, one of the dodos captured by the team mysteriously dies. As Nick, Stephen and Abby prepare to conduct an autopsy, a worm-like creature emerges from the dodo and tries to attack them. The team learn the creature is a type of giant cestoid parasites that use the host body to reproduce, killing the host and themselves when this is achieved. The parasite changes the hosts behaviour, making it more aggressive, so they can spread by the bites (but they can also spread by kissing).

In the flat, the dodo is friendly at first, then goes vicious and bites Tom. Tom soon becomes controlled by the parasite, but being human he understands he's acting out of character and tries to resist the mental effect.

Back at the Home Office, Nick tries to half-heartedly defend his Helen but Lester points out the bitter truth he's avoiding by telling Nick that all she cares about is herself, and that she doesn't care about what happens to people back in the present- at best, she sold them out- at worse she deliberately unleashed this pandemic on them as part of her "Twisted Plan."

Duncan goes to Connor for help in desperation. They find the dodo's corpse, but Tom is nowhere to be found. Cutter explains that the parasite is light-sensitive, which means Tom will be trying to stay in the dark. He also says they may have a chance to save Tom if they can find him soon, before the parasite reaches the end of its lifecycle, which only lasts a few hours. Tom, meanwhile, is at a nearby hospital: he receives a CAT scan, which reveals to a doctor the presence of the parasite, but before they can remove it, Tom bites the doctor and flees. Nick, Stephen and Claudia reach the hospital, putting out a cover story of a possible rabies outbreak. The doctor argues that what he saw on the scan wasn't rabies, but Claudia replies rabies sounds better than 'we have no idea!'. The doctor asks what can be done: Nick replies his only chance is to have the parasite removed before it becomes too advanced.

Stephen and Claudia assess the situation: they have no idea where Tom is and how he is moving- the only chance of finding him is that someone will raise the alarm if and when he attacks again. Cutter explains the fact Tom is a human, not an animal, and therefore his willpower is going to fight the parasite's hold may make the time between attacks longer. Stephen and Nick interview Connor and Duncan about Tom and where he might go; Duncan admits to bugging Connor. He explains that the dodo swallowed the bug and therefore, Tom will head for it. They find, because of this, that Abby is in danger.

He finds the dodo, and Abby Maitland, and although he does not want to hurt her, he wants answers. Tom is still trying to get answers from Abby and because of the parasite, he is getting more aggressive. Still believing his theory of a conspiracy, he attempts to use force to get answers. Abby says she will tell him, and takes him to the stadium.

Connor, Duncan, Nick, and Stephen get to the lab, but no one is there. They use the tracker to try and find Abby and Tom. At the stadium, the anomaly has closed, so Abby cannot prove anything. Tom becomes extremely aggressive and attacks: Abby has to fight Tom off and run for her life. However, everything is locked, and she can only run further into the storage area. Tom gets annoyed when he can't find her, but she ambushes him and runs. However, he catches up, and tries to bite her when everyone shows up. Captain Ryan and his men train their weapons on Tom and prepare to shoot, but Connor begs them to hold fire, and tries to negotiate with Tom.

Connor tries to get Tom to leave Abby. He uses negotiation and Tom's human memories to jog Tom's memory into remembering him, and appeals "You can resist the dark side." as in Star Wars. Tom calms down, and he becomes safe again. The parasite is still in him, but Connor plays along with his conspiracy theory, and comforts him. Tom says he fought the "mind-controllers", and with Connor playing along with his theory, Tom, because of the parasite, dies as happy as he could be in the situation. Just before he collapses, Tom realises how well he has done and says 'I'm a hero,' before leaning forward, dead. Connor, distraught and upset, tries to leave the group, but Nick persuades him to stay in the group, for Tom's memory.

Cast

• Nick Cutter — Douglas Henshall
• Abby Maitland — Hannah Spearritt
• Stephen Hart — James Murray
• Connor Temple — Andrew-Lee Potts
• Claudia Brown — Lucy Brown
• Helen Cutter — Juliet Aubrey
• Sir James Lester — Ben Miller
• Captain Tom Ryan — Mark Wakeling
• Tom — Jake Curran
• Duncan — James Bradshaw
• Mrs Davis — Manjeet Mann
• Small Boy — Amaar Sardharwalla
• Doctor — Billy Carter

Production

• Final viewing figures for this episode were 5.81 million.

Continuity

• Helen is only just being interrogated, having been captured by SAS soldiers in the final scenes of the previous episode.
• Connor moves into Abby's flat, as he was kicked out of his own when he lost his door keys, which he in fact lost through an anomaly.

Animals seen

The anomaly led to a strange grassy field which had at least 7 anomalies, including one leading to the present. The wildlife in it came through from these other anomalies from other places and times, one of which was Mauritius between the 15th and 17th centuries:-

• Dodo (a flock came through the anomaly, returned home except for two which died of parasite infections.)
• Cestoid parasite (species unknown, two came through the anomaly, both later died upon reaching the ends of their life cycles; one had descendants who also died through not finding new hosts.)

From elsewhere:-

• Python (an escaped pet from the modern world.)

Errors

• Helen stated she saw a Utahraptor in the Jurassic, but Utahraptors were only alive during the Cretaceous, although it might have gone through an anomaly as many other creatures have.
• The Dodos were depicted as fat and clumsy, as those bought to by sailors for zoos were due to overfeeding in captivity; real wild Dodos would have been somewhat slimmer than shown in the show.
• The Dodo is said to have a relationship with a tree called the Ambalacoque whereas as in real life the Dodo had a relationship with the Tambalacoque tree, Sideroxylon grandiflorum.

External links

• "Episode 4" at IMDb