A deserted prison is the setting for all sorts of anomaly-related shenanigans, while the ARC team also find a familiar face popping through to say “‘ello!”. Add evil time-hopping psychopath Ethan into the mix and there’s little time for anyone to catch their breath… including us, and this is a problem.
As series finales go, the episode has plenty of bang for your buck, but it also sacrifices whole storylines and promising character developments just so that it can be pointed out that these glitter-ball anomaly things are really really dangerous. There’s barely time for Becker, Abby, Lester or Jess – and even Matt, surely still mourning the death of his father – to get any quality screen time in. In their place, we mostly get lots of Emily, who is determined to look wet-eyed and thoughtful at every possible opportunity as if auditioning for a hair commercial.
Fortunately amongst all this are the now-expected high quality effects and well-choreographed action sequences. Terror birds strut about, people get shot and, of course, there’s lots and lots of running around. On the dramatic side, the closing scenes with industrialist Philip Burton (played with effortless creepiness by Alexander Siddig) stand out in particular. Where he could have easily hammed up the villainy, his measured characterisation is absolutely spot on.
All in all, the episode is a mixed bag – the creative team clearly tried hard to resolve and revisit as many plot points from the series as possible, hence the focus on Connor and his anomaly theories. It’s just a shame that this is at the expense of such a strong ensemble cast.
Despite initial reservations about whether the TV world really needed Primeval to return after its two year hiatus, Series 4 has been a thoroughly enjoyable run and Series 5, beginning in May on pay TV channel Watch and airing on ITV1 early next year, can’t come quickly enough.
Airs at 7.30pm on Saturday 5th February 2011 on ITV1.