Episode 2 (Primeval)

"Episode 2 (Primeval)"

Episode Two is an episode of the ITV sci-fi drama Primeval. It was broadcast in the UK on February 17, 2007.

Synopsis

After a London Underground cleaner is killed by a giant spider, the team investigate an underground time anomaly that leads to the Late Carboniferous period. They soon face a deadlier creature than the spiders.

Plot

A train on the London Underground stops in a tunnel between stations because of signalling problems at Parsons Green station (which does not exist in the real world). A giant spider gets on the train and tries to bite a woman, but the window between carriages shuts on it and cuts one of its appendages off. Later, in a lab, 3 government men discuss the resulting reports of giant creepy-crawlies and whether to believe them.

Back at the university, Connor Temple is trying to convince his two friends, Tom and Duncan, about the anomalies and the prehistoric creatures he saw, although the government warned him not to and although he had signed under the Official Secrets Act. They both laugh at him. Later when going through a web site about supposed official conspiracies he finds what looks like another anomaly sighting in the New Forest.

Abby Maitland and Rex are at home. Connor Temple arrives with reports of another anomaly and discovers that Rex came back through the anomaly and that she has been keeping him in secret. Abby begs him not to tell about this, and in exchange Connor convinces Abby to investigate the anomaly with him. He also convinces her not to tell anyone, so that they will have the glory for themselves and show Nick how useful they are.

A workman goes along the affected London Underground tunnel with a big backpack sprayer full of insecticide, spraying about. A giant spider sneaks out and catches a rat behind him.

Back at the Home Office, James Peregrine Lester is growing increasingly sceptical of Cutter, but Claudia Brown defends him as their only expert and eventually convinces Lester to keep him involved ... for now. Lester also makes the very astute observation about Claudia's interest in Nick Cutter and warns her against having ulterior motives like romance for keeping Cutter on-board.

In the tunnel, the giant spider, which has been following the workman at a distance, attacks him.

In his office, Nick and Stephen Hart are going through Helen Cutter's files despite having gone through them years ago. Nick says that he feels guilty about his wife Helen disappearing, because Helen went to investigate an anomaly without him because of an argument between them about whether anomalies like this had had an effect on biological evolution. Interestingly enough he decides not to mention the ammonite incident in Episode One or that he saw Helen; he keeps that information to himself.

Abby and Connor go to the New Forest to investigate the anomaly. They eventually get talking and Connor learns, to his dismay, that Abby is more interested in Stephen than him. He says that Stephen has no relationships with women and may be gay. Unknown to him, Abby then telephones Nick and tells him where they are.

In the dark beside a lake, Connor has fallen asleep when he should be on guard duty. Then what looks like an Allosaurus-like creature rears and roars, but it is an animated fake model and its two operators (Connor's so called friends who arranged the whole thing) run away as a Stephen and Nick arrive with swarm of government agents, assuming they where saving Abby and Connor from mortal danger. When they discover it was all time-wasting hoax, at the worst possible time, Nick removes Connor from the team.

In a hospital the bitten workman is examined: the wound is like a poison-injecting sting or bite but is much too big for any native insect or spider. The man manages to talk about monsters before he dies.

Back at the Home Office Lester decides to close off the affected part of the London Underground and send a team of men to investigate. Captain Tom Ryan and his Special forces men with rifles and night-vision goggles and the brightest torches available and go into the affected tunnel. Nick and Stephen want to go in with them but are not allowed to.

The special forces men later find an abandoned room with a colony of giant spiders in. The spiders, defending their offspring, drop on the men and try to bite them. In the ensuring battle the men find that their guns are malfunctioning, sparking. A spider falls on one man's neck, but another man knocks it off him quickly. Ryan calls a retreat. On the surface he reports what he saw and tells them that the rifle fire had made sparks, showing that there was elevated oxygen level in the air, as if a different atmosphere was coming through the anomaly. Nick deduces that the anomaly is not linked to the Permian like the last one but to the Upper Carboniferous.

Nick and Stephen are allowed down. Abby goes too after lying about her experience with spiders. Using what they learned from Ryan and his men, they are armed with bright torches and, as expected, the giant spiders retreat before their light. They go through a torn hole in some metal netting. They discover the anomaly in a corner of the room, and when they are investigating it, Abby sees two big long trailing arthropod appendages disappear round a corner. Nick sees that it is a giant centipede. In the mêlée, Abby and Stephen flee to the surface, and Nick gets driven deeper into the tunnels by the centipede which blocks the exit.

On the surface, Claudia tells them that Nick is in a tunnel which is blocked at its far end. Hearing this, Stephen goes back into the tunnel alone and calls for Nick. In the tunnels, Stephen finds a brazing torch or similar and sets it to act as a flamethrower. Its flame drives the giant centipede back and Stephen continues onward. However, when he passes the anomaly its magnetic field sucks away the brazing torch and the centipede attacks again and Stephen is bitten.

On the surface Claudia is forced to seek Connor's help although he has been removed from the team. Back in the tunnel Cutter finds Stephen still alive but delirious, and supports him on a shoulder as they go to safety. Stephen says "Helen will be waiting on the other side of the anomaly if he wants to know the truth."' On the surface Connor is discussing what the creature is: Arthropleura is suggested.

When being taken to hospital Stephen invites Abby out to dinner and the hospital staff inform everyone that unless they find a sample of the venom, so they can test it and see if it has any modern day equivalents; they cannot produce an anti-venom and Stephen will die. Nick then instructs not to let the Arthropleura go back as it must be caught to get a sample of its venom. Cutter then offered to be the bait to catch it.

Ryan and his men run up along a tunnel. The giant spiders retreat before the men's bright torches and go back home through the anomaly. But the Arthropleura is nowhere to be seen. They then discover that it has burrowed a vertical hole in the wall.

Ryan, Nick, and Connor go along the narrow tunnel to a disused machinery room. (Ryan's rifle seems to be an M4, upgraded version of the M16.) The Arthropleura is on a rafter watching them. It comes down and attacks Nick, as it bites he pushes forward against its mouth so that its fangs close encircling his waist and inject venom into two absorbent pads which he had under his suit. Ryan shoots it in the head. It rears about, knocking the gun from his hand. As Ryan scrambles for his gun, Connor begins hitting the centipede with a metal stool. The enraged and wounded Arthropleura graps the stool and rips it from his hands, but in doing so hits against some electric machinery and gets a heavy electric shock in its head; it goes into convulsions and died falling off a balcony.

In the hospital, Stephen recovers slowly but does not remember anything about Helen or asking Abby out on a date. Back in the underground, Cutter is watching the anomaly while they wait for it to close. He tells Connor that he will give him one last chance ... but not a cool nickname. He then feels at the anomaly before it closes, thinking about his wife, but does not go through it.

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
• Dr Lewis — Stephanie Street
• Woman on Tube — Emily Dobbs
• Cleaner - ?

Animals seen

From the Late Carboniferous period, 290 million years ago:-

• Giant Solifugae, described as "giant spiders". (A colony came through the anomaly, returned home.)
• Arthropleura. (One came through the anomaly, it was killed)

Production

• This episode was advertised in the February 16 edition of thelondonpaper with a full front page fake news story "Giant Monsters On Tube", featuring "exclusive CCTV and mobile phone pictures" of giant insects. The paper is popular with tube commuters.
• The original UK transmission was watched by 5.9 million viewers.

Errors

• The Arthropleura has been heavily re-imagined as larger than the real animal and much more aggressive. This was done for dramatic effect..
• The high levels of oxygen make the soldiers' guns malfunction yet has no affect on Stephen's brazing torch.

External links

• "Episode 2" at IMDb