WRITER: Toby Whithouse[SPOILERS] In this penultimate installment, events boiled over in shocking ways for Mitchell (Aidan Turner) and George's (Russell Tovey) storylines, although Annie (Lenora Crichlow) was again sat quietly on the periphery. There was enough excitement and development to mark episode 7 out as a clear highlight of the series, as things are racing towards a conclusion -- but, despite the assured hand of creator Toby Whithouse steering his ship into port, it still suffered from moments that didn't make much sense, or just felt clunky...
DIRECTOR: Charles Martin
GUEST CAST: Donald Sumpter, Lyndsey Marshal, Paul Rhys, Sinead Keenan, Molly Jones, Lucy Gaskell, Adrian Schiller, Amy Manson, David Webber, Michael Begley & Paul Kasey
Nina (Sinead Keenan) is back, eager to introduce George to her new friends -- defrocked priest Mr. Kemp (Donald Sumpter) and scientist Professor Jaggart (Lindsey Marshal) -- whom she believes are close to discovering a "cure" for their lycanthropy. She's not best pleased to learn from Annie that George is living with another woman now, but considering the fact she asked him to get on with his life she's forced to swallow her displeasure and rise above it.
George got the episode's juiciest material; first having to deal with the return of the girl who broke his heart, before agreeing to hear Kemp's theory that werewolves are people possessed by demons. More excitingly, George's trip with Sam (Lucy Gaskell) to a school parent's evening delivered a devastating blow when he realized he'd failed to remember Daylight Savings time and started to "wolf out" halfway through a chat with Molly's teacher, and suddenly faced with the nightmare scenario of transforming into a werewolf while inside a primary school full of children and parents.
This sequence was a standout for the show, employing great use of the SnorriCam -- where a camera's attached to an actor's body, pointed at their face, to give us a unique sense of delirium as they appear fixed in place as the world behind them tilts and canters crazily as they move. Combined with frightening makeup (canine fangs, husky facial hair, bloodied claws) as George struggled to get to the safety of his bedroom cage, by racing across town bumping into frightened pedestrians, this was a fantastic sequence of horror expertly sold by Tovey's gripping performance.
I think the biggest letdown of the episode was Mitchell's storyline, partly because it's exasperating how he never talks to his own housemates about what's going on in his life (do George and Annie even know half of what's happened with the vampires this year?), but mostly because this episode saw Mitchell team up with Daisy (Amy Manson), the only other survivor of last week's funeral parlour explosion, and they both decide to go on a murder spree to vent their anger at what humans have done.
Now, I can just about accept that a hellcat like Daisy would tempt Mitchell into appalling behaviour, and that he's justifiably angry his kinfolk were exterminated so callously, but I just didn't buy into seeing Mitchell leering at Annie and baiting George to make himself feel better. Even less plausible was Mitchell and Daisy slaughtering a train full of innocent passengers, which is the kind of atrocity it'll be hard for Mitchell to earn forgiveness for.
I can't be alone in thinking that was an act of mass murder that'll forever taint our perception of Mitchell. The carefree, hunky Irish vampire who just wants to set a good example to his own kind? Sorry, he's more like an idealistic timebomb that'll go off every few decades now. Still, maybe that was the point and we'll get a darker, even guiltier version of Mitchell now. Is more angst a good thing for his character, though?
As usual, Annie's storyline was the weakest and most exasperating, as she started to believe Kemp could help her "cross over" and find peace, with the help of a psychic medium and a tedious exorcism. My confusion rests with the indistinctness surrounding the minutiae of ghostly existence on this show, as Annie's spent the majority of the series in fear of "The Door" (giving us the impression the "afterlife" is essentially oblivion, so you're better off having fun as a ghost), but then episodes like last week's clearly show other spirits peacefully walking through The Door willingly.
And here, Annie's disappointed that Kemp's psychic can't summon The Door, which she's suddenly keen to step through. Sorry, but it feels like we're being jerked around because there just isn't much you can do with Annie's character -- so, all of a sudden, the terrifying "death" The Door signified has been rewritten as something that's, well, not so bad after all. So why did the "entities" who wanted Annie to pass over not a try a softer approach if The Door isn't something ghosts should fear?
Anyway, things were set up very nicely for next week's finale: George has left Sam after realizing Molly's (Molly Jones) now petrified of him -- as she saw him mid-transformation in a school hallway -- and this spurs him into accompanying Annie to Kemp's facility to be cured alongside Nina; and Mitchell finally learned that that "Jaggart" is his supposed girlfriend Lucy, and one half of the duo that have manipulated his friends. I'm predicting a Mitchell-led search-and-rescue mission next week, but is that enough to redeem his reprehensible actions aboard that train?
Asides
-- Seriously, do the writers get cash rewards for mentioning The Real Hustle?
-- I loved the prologue showing how Ivan (Paul Rhys) turned Daisy into a vampire while they were both sat inside a WWII bomb shelter; I just wish it had more relevance to the storyline that followed.
-- The Door. Is it imperative that Annie go through because she denied the opportunity when it was presented to her last year, which most ghosts don't? So, the cosmic balance has been upset until she does? That's the best thing I can come up with for why it's a portent of doom for her (well, until now), but not other ghosts.
-- Their methods are questionable, but Kemp and Jaggart are more sympathetic than I thought they would be when series 2 started. I mean, up until very recently the vampires they bombed had been vicious murderers, Kemp's attempt to help Annie with an exorcism seemed benevolent enough, and maybe their experiments with the decompression chamber (which has resulted in fatalities) is above board? I mean, Kemp did say to George that the technique isn't without danger, and Nina knows that from experience but she's still a willing participant. And if they were vehemently anti-werewolf, there are easier ways to just kill George.
-- I was a little disappointed that the possibility Molly was psychic didn't go anywhere. I guess she just had a bad dream about George because of her intuition about him.
-- There was some really bad soundmixing in this episode.
21 FEBRUARY 2010: BBC3, 9PM / BBC HD, 10.10PM
