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Roll over and play dead. CONTAINS DETAILED SPOILERS!
Writer John Jackson
Director Colin Teague
THE ONE WHERE Mitchell and Annie begin to realise the pitfalls of supernatural dating while George, Nina and Tom are caught by vampires, leaving McNair and Mitchell to forge an uneasy truce to rescue them.
VERDICT It’s been a while since we’ve had a meaty werewolf episode, but when it comes it is suitably epic. George and Nina’s desperation to connect with Tom and McNair to find out what will happen to the cub before full moon when she transforms – ‘until NHS Direct get back to me with my pregnant werewolf query we have no other option’ – adds a sense of immediate danger to things, even before suburban sex swinger vamps Richard and Emma return with the dog fighting. The final fight and the quadruple transformation is a great climax leaving you cheering the awesome foursome and hangers on – not least because somewhere along the way it is a bit like they’ve become a pack...
This is McNair’s episode though. Robson Green’s performance shows versatility and depth while the character itself is pleasingly complex – his werewolf is polite around women and gets flustered explaining the birds and the bees to Tom, but sees nothing of threatening George with an axe when he touches the van or storming a vampire enclave threatening to kill everyone in the room and then pretty much doing it. In comparison, our other new werewolf, Tom is a great mixture of lusty young man and naive lonely boy looking for a pack family and who’s been given a weird view of the world founded on lies – his passing comment about “the story of the three little wolves and the big bad pig that blows down the house” is funny but also a bit heartbreaking.
Meanwhile Mitchell and Annie, well, having waited so long to get together they really do go through the highs and lows of a relationship in one episode. From the ventriloquism, to Annie’s sex list (“I’ve been naughty... Fighting my lesbian twin in the mud”), Mitchell’s rant about fate to the twisted threesome which almost turns into a midnight feast, all signs are pointing to this going pear-shaped sooner rather than later. Will a relationship with Annie be enough to save Mitchell? At this point you can mostly only watch (and cringe – there were some real hide-behind-the-hands moments) and hope he doesn’t unravel any more...
FLASHBACKTASTIC 15 years ago McNair had bad hair and the same van he and Tom are still driving around in now - which might go some way to explaining why it’s in such bad shape now (and why McNair is now opting for the close shave look).
POP CULTURE REFERENCE OF THE WEEK From the very old ( Smokey And The Bandit ) to the recent ( Avatar ) in one line, Mitchell telling McNair “I’ve got your back Digby,” but the best has to be Annie at McNair’s solicitousness bordering on patronising: “Stop being so bloody Cranford about everything.”
BEING HUMAN LORE Vampires can enter caravans and mobile homes without an invite. Something to do with them not counting as actual homes.
LOOSE ENDS “Don’t you know who I am?” We know who he is. We’ve waited half a season for him to arrive. Unleash the Herrick. Or at least release him from that straitjacket...
BEST LINE:
Annie: “My first boyfriend took naked pictures of me while I was asleep and put them on the internet. My second boyfriend got drunk and asked my mum for a threesome. My third boyfriend pushed me down a flight of stairs and killed me. I think a vampire’s pretty much marriage material.”
Review by Narin Bahar
