Primeval 3.2

Spoilers...

Last week's episode of Primeval was, in a word, excellent. The whole episode had a nice creepy tone, and unfolded in a slightly slower, more suspenseful way than we're used to seeing from the series. What you can't see is often scarier than what you can, ya know? The whole tone of the episode felt like something you'd see on Torchwood or Doctor Who (it really reminded me of the Who episode "Blink," from series 3). This is a very Abby/Connor (Hannah Spearritt & Andrew Lee Potts) centered episode, which I absolutely love - the two of them are so stinking cute together! Hopefully Abby will light a fire under Connor sooner rather than later. *sigh* And Connor is hilarious - Potts can strike just the right balance between sarcasm and dorky humor.

A new character is introduced this week - policeman Danny Quinn, played by Jason Flemyng. Quinn's character is given what is probably one of the best introductions in the series (so far, anyway). If we're supposed to buy into the conceit that anomalies have been appearing for years, it only makes sense that other people would have encountered them (prior to the whole government conspiracy thing). Quinn's brother was one of two kids who'd disappeared thirteen or so years earlier, in a house that just happens to be the location of an anomaly and inhabited by a gremlin-like creature that looks like Gollum on crack. He's immediately suspicous of the government's interest in the abandoned house, and makes life extremely difficult for Abby, Connor, and Jenny (Lucy Brown) - all of this results in a hilarious scene where he carts Connor off to jail. That was really funny!

Dr. Paige (Laila Rouass) and Captain Becker (Ben Mansfield) didn't have too terribly much to do this week, though both were much "looser" and more relaxed than previously seen in their introductory episode, which was nice. Becker is too hot to make me want him to disappear from the show any time soon, so I really want his character to get better developed. And I like Dr. Page - she's obviously brilliant, but not terribly serious as to be boring. She's still enjoying learning the ropes of her new job, methinks.

And finally, Helen (Juliet Aubrey) and her cloned doofus solider are back, and this time they're out to steal some of Cutter's (Douglas Henshall) DNA. I loathe Helen. Absolutely cannot STAND her. It's hard to believe that Aubrey's been able to pull off the creation of such a fantastic villain, considering her past "good girl" roles in shows like Middlemarch and Bertie and Elizabeth. It was awfully nice to see Becker get the drop on creepy cloned soldier though. Obviously Helen is looking to expand her cloning experiments...not knowing her evil master plan, though, is a bit maddening! And so frustrating that Cutter is so dense when it comes to Helen...I mean he was freaking married to her, you'd think he'd be able to guess her next move once in a blue moon. Men! *sigh* ;-) Definitely looking forward to tonight's episode which promises to be a game-changer!