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Primeval: New World 1.08 “Truth” REVIEW
THE ONE WHERE After Evan gets slimed by a Pachycerphalorsaurus, he hallucinates seeing the Albertosaurus that killed his wife and becomes a danger to the team.
VERDICT This was the first episode in the series to give the full-on wow factor. Although its starts a bit ho-hum comical (unsuspecting iPod-wearing jogger is oblivious to dinosaur sneaking up behind him; jogger sees bystanders waving frantically to warn him; jogger turns around and sees dinosaur; jogger is shocked) once Evan is puked on by the Pachycephalorsaurus everything took a wibbly-wobbly turn for the better with some major plot and character development and flashbacks, as well as secrets revealed (hence the episode title), including who Evan has locked up in the Cross Photonics freezer.
There’s still lots of action for all the dinosaur lovers, with the Pachycephalorsaurus at the beginning, and also the Albertasaurus (even though it’s only an hallucination) still providing some great FX and tense scenes. But the focus isn’t really on the dinos this week; this episode is about finally getting some answers.
It’s Mac’s body in the freezer! Well, a parallel Mac, who travelled timey-wimey through an anomaly and saved Evan from also being chomped by the Albertosaurus, but was fatally wounded himself and died in Evan’s arms. Mind blown. Now that’s a twist! No one could have seen that one coming… No wonder Evan hasn’t told anyone about the body in the freezer – it would be a hard one to explain. But now that Mac knows the secret Evan has been keeping from him, can their fractured friendship be repaired now that it’s at a breaking point?
Another relationship to suffer was Angelika and Evan, when Evan, clearly hallucinating, mistakes Angelika for Brooke and expresses that he’s still in love with her. Ouch. Poor Ange. That’s enough for her to hear and she immediately says goodbye to Evan and Cross Photonics. This really doesn’t seem like too much of a loss however, because their romance did feel a bit forced and fake. But if this is her farewell to the series we’ll miss some pretty awesome martial arts skills.
For all the answers we do get, we still don’t know exactly what Lt Leeds is up to (sigh) although he is still the go-to-guy for the creature/anomaly clean-up. And now that a crowd of civilians has seen the Pachycephalorsaurus in the streets, does that mean the secret about the anomalies and the creatures is out? How will they cover that one up, hmm?
“Truth” is a satisfying episode because we finally get some answers, and maybe a few more questions develop too about the parallel timeline with Mac and his involvement with the ARC. But the secrets that Evan has been keeping really aren’t going to help the camaraderie in the team, and perhaps he finally got what he deserved – prehistoric puke in the face.
CREATURES OF THE WEEK A Pachycephalorsaurus (the herbivore kind) and an Albertosaurus (the hallucination kind).
DID YOU SPOT? The logo on parallel Mac’s arm is the ARC insignia, which is a short form for “Anomaly Research Centre”, the organisation and home base for the team from the original British Primeval series.
SPECULATION If parallel Mac is from the original British team and didn’t return home, does that mean we’ll get another visit from Connor Temple? Yes, please.
BEST LINES:
Dylan: “Toby, are you okay?”
Toby: “No, I'm not. Evan shot my server!”
Kell Harker
Primeval: New World airs in the UK on Watch, Tuesdays, 9pm
• Read our other Primeval: New World reviews
