| "Episode 23" | |||
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| Primeval episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 10 |
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| Directed by | Matthew Thompson | ||
| Written by | Steve Bailie | ||
| Original air date | 6 June 2009 | ||
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| List of episodes | |||
The twenty-third episode of Primeval is the final episode of the third series, it aired on 6 June 2009 on ITV1. It features the climax to the storyline of series villain Helen Cutter's attempts to "save the world" by preventing the human race from ever evolving. It also continues on from the climax of the previous episode.
People who purchased the DVD of the third season were able to watch the episode before it aired, as it was released before the airing due to a week's delay in broadcasting it.
Contents |
In the wake of Helen Cutter's attack and the murder of Christine Johnson, the team head for the contained anomaly to the future at the racetrack site, hoping to follow Helen and stop her before more people die because of her deranged schemes. Becker gives Danny his shotgun and a number of stun grenades to deal with Future Predators. But just as the team are about to leave, an anomaly is picked up by their detectors at Johnson's old headquarters. Not wanting to lose Helen, but knowing the anomaly has to be dealt with, the team decide to split up: Danny, Connor, and Abby head for the future, while Becker and Sarah go to investigate the anomaly. Danny tells Sarah to lock the anomaly again using the Anomaly Locking Mechanism once they have gone, then re-open it in two hours: he also refuses to say goodbye, asserting that the team are all coming back. With their specific tasks, the team part ways...
Once the trio arrive at the future, the team decide to head for where Danny last saw Helen. The group are on edge: the ruined streets are deserted, and there's no signs of activity, from either Helen, or the creatures that inhabit the future. Suddenly, Abby hears a strange buzzing: the team look round and see three Megopterans flying above them. As the insects move in to attack, the trio run for it: as Danny holds them off, Connor finds another anomaly inside a ruined building- the team duck out of the way, and the Megopterans fly straight through. Danny guesses that the anomaly leads to Johnson's base, but there's no time to go back and help Sarah and Becker: Helen is the priority. The team decide to start searching the buildings around them for her, but as they go in, they don't know a future predator is stalking them...
Meanwhile, Becker and Sarah arrive at Johnson's base to find it abandoned. As they enter to investigate (finding, among other things, the remains of Captain Wilder), an insectile chittering sounds. Suddenly, a Megopteran swoops down and attacks: Becker is able to hold it off and injure it badly, but loses his gun in the process. The duo make a run for it to another part of the facility, only to find themselves being pursued by two of the creatures. After a harrowing chase through the corridors and passages of the building, Sarah and Becker find themselves trapped in a cargo lift with the Megopterans trying to break in and kill them. Just before the ravenous insects get in, Becker seizes two wires and hits the metal lift door with them, fatally electrocuting the two Megopterans. With the creatures dead and the anomaly closed again, the pair head back for the racetrack to wait for Danny and the others.
Back in the future, the team are searching the buildings for Helen, while musing on what she is doing in the future: Danny comments that while Helen is mad, everything she does makes sense. Before they can debate further, the future predator that's been following them attacks; before it can get them, they manage to seal it behind a steel door. As Danny and Connor joke over the fact Becker won't be happy Danny's lost his favourite gun, Abby notices something much more worrying: the door they just sealed is marked with the logo of the ARC. Realising they're in the ARC (or at least a future version of it), and remembering Helen's remarks that the ARC is the cause of the end of the world, Helen's motives for coming to the future make sense. The trio search the ruins of the ARC, and spot Helen working at a computer console. She hasn't seen them yet, and the team attempt to ambush her: however, Helen is aware of them and foils their plan, tasering Danny and forcing Connor and Abby out of their hiding places at gunpoint. Helen is coldly dismissive of the team's threats that they will stop her and goes back to her work. She produces the artifact and comments that since Nick's death, she has been working to unravel its secrets, ignoring Connor's sniping about her murder of Nick stemming his understanding of the artifact: she also justifies that the knowledge was worth Nick's death and that he would have understood what she needed to do (Connor sneers that Helen sounds more to be trying to convince herself than them). She then inserts the artifact into the computer and delightedly comments that none of the devastation they see around them will happen, as she intends to save the world. When Danny coldly comments that Helen has never cared about the human race before, Helen retorts she has no intention of saving humanity....
Using the computer and the artifact, Helen then activates a strange digital map, similar to Cutter's Matrix. Connor and Abb finally realise that the artifact contains a map of every anomaly that has ever or will ever appear. But as they share their excitement at this discovery, Helen continues her work: using the computer, Helen uses the map to create a set of directions to an unspecified point in history, then downloads it to the device she used to open and close anomalies before. She then uses the device to open an anomaly and snidely remarks that the team should enjoy what little time they have left...which isn't much. She then removes the artifact from the computer and, despite Connor's desperate pleas, smashes it on the ground, destroying it, before making her escape through the anomaly, which closes behind her. Despite the loss of the artifact, Connor believes he can retrace Helen's intended location from the computer's hard drive. Abby remembers that the site Helen was after was coded '333': when Danny enquires about this, a horrified Connor explains that it is the term used for an archaeological site in the Rift Valley in Africa where a family of 13 of the earliest hominids were found. They realise that this is Helen's plan: by killing the first hominids that will evolve into humans, she will prevent human evolution and destroy mankind, therefore (in her mind) saving the world.
Connor and Danny are able to power the computer and, using another of the devices, download Helen's planned path and escape just before a huge pack of future predators attack.Through the anomaly, the team find themselves in a prehistoric woodland, which Connor suspects to be Cretaceous. Tracking the footsteps Helen left as she made her getaway, the team come to a clearing while Connor lists a number of the carnivorous dinosaurs they are likely to come across. Suddenly, Connor spots one of the creature he has just listed: in the clearing, three infant Deinonychus are feeding on the carcass of a dead fourth one. Suddenly, the raptors spot Danny and charge. Running for their lives, the team quickly get lost, particularly Abby, who is in mortal danger as the raptors chase her. Just before the raptors get her, Danny and Connor pull Abby to safety up a tree. Unfortunately, now trapped up a tree with three starving raptors after them, the device breaks: the team now have no way to open anomalies, find Helen or get home. Suddenly, Danny spots Helen in the distance: knowing that she's won if she reaches the next anomaly, he pulls out a stun grenade and drops it to deal with the raptors. But then disaster: while the blast takes out the raptors, it also knocks Connor out of the tree, who is left badly injured on the ground. Though he survives the fall, Helen has heard the blast and reached the final anomaly she needs to get to. Abby and Danny are faced with a dilemma: to stay with Connor and let Helen get away, or follow her and leave Connor to his fate. At Abby's urging, Danny reluctantly leaves her and Connor to chase Helen: he races through the anomaly, not noticing that Helen has dropped the device in her haste to get through. Unknown to both of them, an adult Deinonychus follows them through...
Abby is able to reawake Connor and get to safety before the raptors reawake, whereupon they decide to find somewhere safe and await Danny's return. Danny finds himself in Pliocene Africa, 4 million years ago. He sets off after Helen, unaware he is being followed himself by the adult Deinonychus. Helen, meanwhile, has seemingly reached her target: a family of 13 Australopithecus gathered beside a river. She then slips poison into the water the hominids are drinking from and waits for it to take effect. Danny comes upon the massacre shortly afterwards and is overcome by the slaughter. As he is about to grieve at the fact he's failed, Helen appears on a cliff above him and delightedly screams "You're too late, Danny: it's already begun!". Danny accuses her of murdering the Australopithecines, but she retorts that it is justified by the fact other, better species will evolve in peace once mankind is gone. Danny claims that as they're both still alive, she's failed by killing the wrong family of Australopithecus, but Helen laughs cruelly, saying she still has more to destroy (though since so few hominids evolved into humans, it won't take her long), as well as being uncaring of the fact that destroying mankind will kill her as well: she also mocks Danny and Nick's belief that humanity will evolve no matter what she does. Her point proven, Helen coldly sneers "Goodbye, Danny" and reaches into her backpack for her gun; suddenly, the Deinonychus that has been following Danny leaps out of nowhere and attacks, knocking Helen and itself over the cliff edge. Danny leaps aside, narrowly avoiding being crushed as the dinosaur and a screaming Helen plummet to their deaths. Danny runs over to finish them off, but stops when he sees Helen is dead along with the dinosaur, wryly thanking the raptor with the compliment "Good boy!".
Back in the Cretaceous, Abby and Connor hide up a tree for the night and simply enjoy each other's company as they wait for the morning. In Pliocene Africa, with Helen dead, Danny attempts to make his way back. As he travels through the African bush, he sees a huge group of Australopithecus in a verdant valley. He laughes at the fact that, against all odds, they have succeeded: Helen has failed, and mankind will survive. With the mission complete, Danny begins to make his way home, reaching the anomaly...but to his horror, it's closing fast. He runs for it, but to no avail: the anomaly shuts just before he can reach it. Danny can only scream in frustration and horror as he comes to terms with the fact he's now trapped in the past...
Back at the racetrack, with no sign of Danny or the others, Sarah suggests an idea to Becker...but with no idea of where their teammates are, or how to find them, can they save Abby, Connor and Danny?
This episode marks the final appearances of both Helen Cutter and Sarah Page. While Helen is killed on-screen by the raptor, we do not witness Sarah's death which takes place between the third and fourth series which is alluded to in the web episodes that lead up to and the first episode of the fourth series.
James Lester is also absent from this episode due to his "meeting with the minister". This is the first season finale of Primeval in which he does not appear. Lester does however return from his absence in the next series.
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