Episode 9 (Primeval)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Episode Nine
Series = Primeval


Caption = Valerie calls off her "Smilodon"'s attack on Cutter.
Season = 2
Episode = 9
Airdate = January 26, 2008
Production =
Writer = Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle
Director = Jamie Payne
Guests = Gillian Kearneycite web |url=http://www.whatsontv.co.uk/tvg_detail?class=tvlistings&tvgRegion=South+West&tvgBroadcaster=WotvMain&x=34&y=9&tvgBegin=215&tvgScroll=Later&tvgListingID=53070771&tvgShowID=868691&tvg |title='Primeval' Series Two]
Episode list = List of episodes
Prev = Episode 8
Next = Episode 10

Episode Nine of the ITV sci-fi drama "Primeval" is set to be broadcast on 26 January, 2008.

ynopsis

A sabre-tooth cat rampages across Blue Sky Park, but the team suspect human involvement in the creature's attacks.

Plot

Connor has managed to create a new piece of equipment for the team: the A.D.D, or Anomaly Detection Device. However, it fails on its first test when a young paintballer named Warren is fatally mauled at Blue Sky Park. Unable to find any trace of an anomaly, Abby suggests that the boy was killed by a British big cat, of which several hundred sightings are reported each year. Despite these warnings, the park manager is unwilling to evacuate the park due to the potential cost of compensating the ejected guests. Jenny Lewis provides information on a local man called Robert West, who had illegally kept lions on his farm. Nick and Jenny go to investigate, but West, having since moved on to breeding guard dogs, denies any knowledge of the creature.

As the team searches a nearby forest for the creature, only Connor is left behind to guard the visitors. When he spots a large cat-like animal scaring the tourists, he chases it down and shoots it with a hunting rifle before realizing that it was the park manager dressed as a mascot, and that he nearly killed the man. The team head off into the forest during the night and look for the cat again. Using thermal imaging, Stephen finds a park ranger, Valerie Irwin, lost in the forest. She attempts to learn the cause of the secrecy surrounding their investigation, but Stephen reluctantly refuses to answer her questions.

As he drives her home, the park manager, on his way to the park office to explain the shooting incident, is attacked and killed at a train station by a large sabre-tooth cat. A trainspotter captures the attack on camera, and the team identifies the creature from the pictures as a Smilodon (although Jenny has to bribe the man to surrender the photographs). While the team digs traps in the forest in order to capture the creature, Valerie arrives at the scene and becomes visibly upset at what they are doing. Stephen is concerned, but Cutter and the others dismiss Valerie's behaviour as stress and shock over what has happened. However, while digging a tiger pit, the team discovers the mangled remains of a man who was killed by the cat. Before they can investigate further, the Smilodon attacks Cutter. Abby fights it off with a JCB, giving Cutter time to climb a nearby tree. The cat gives chase as he uses a zipline, cornering him upon landing, but it is scared off when Abby shoots at it with a hunting rifle.

The fact that the body was savaged by the Smilodon and then buried leads the team to conclude that someone knows of the creature's existence and is covering it up, also that because the body was about a week old the anomaly must have already closed, explaining why the A.D.D did not detect it. Oliver Leek suggests West is to blame, and informs the team that Jenny had gone to his farm to create a cover story for the press. While Cutter stays behind to investigate the body, the rest of the team goes to West's farm, arriving in time to stop him from shooting Jenny, who had threatened to unveil his dog-fighting operation unless he cooperated.

Cutter discovers that the body he found in the trench was Valerie's boyfriend, and goes to her home to confront her. Soon finding a photo of Valerie holding a Smilodon cub, Cutter calls for backup and turns to find Valerie threatening him with his own tranquilizer gun. Valerie believes the Smilodon was created by genetic experimentation and Cutter has come to reclaim it. She explains that she found the Smilodon unexpectedly as a cub in her garage (suggesting it strayed through a now-closed anomaly) and that she kept and raised it. She also admits that the body was her boyfriend, who underestimated the creature and was killed by it. Cutter tries to warn her that the Smilodon is a wild animal and is beyond her control, but Valerie believes the cat has imprinted on her as its mother and won't harm her. She tries to shoot Nick with the tranquilizer gun, and when she misses, she apologizes and releases the Smilodon, locking it in the same room as Nick.

After Cutter desperately fends the Smilodon off with a table, a spray can of deodorant and a lamp, Valerie calls off the cat's attack, saying to Nick that she's convinced it won't hurt her. In a fit of frenzied anger, however, the Smilodon leaps at her and kills her. The team arrives and the cat is tranquilized by Stephen. Frustrated and angry, Stephen turns on Cutter, asking how many more Valeries there will be before word of the anomalies goes public. Cutter accuses Stephen of telling Valerie what they were doing. Stephen replies that he didn't, but that he wishes he had.

Back at the ARC, Cutter is confronted by Leek, who says that the Smilodon died during transportation of a stress-induced heart attack. Cutter does not believe this, saying it was a perfectly healthy animal and dismisses Leek's feeble excuses of a mistaken tranquiliser dosage. When he demands the right to do a post-mortem, Leek explains its remains were destroyed to prevent the possible spread of disease. However, at that moment, alarms begin sounding and the A.D.D lights up. Connor excitedly explains this is not a demonstration: a new anomaly has been detected. The team quickly leave to investigate, despite Connor lamenting the fact he will miss another date with Caroline.

Caroline Steel and Oliver Leek are then seen meeting in a car, exchanging money and making deals, revealing that the two of them are working together to observe Connor and Abby.

Cast

*Nick Cutter — Douglas Henshall
*Abby Maitland — Hannah Spearritt
*Stephen Hart — James Murray
*Connor Temple — Andrew-Lee Potts
*Helen Cutter — Juliet Aubrey
*James Lester — Ben Miller
*Oliver Leek — Karl Theobald
*Jenny Lewis — Lucy Brown
*Caroline Steel — Naomi Bentley
*Valerie - Gillian Kearney
*Warren - Thomas Aldridge

Creatures Seen

*"Smilodon" (one specimen seen all around the park)

Production

*Location scenes for the fictional "Blue Sky Park" were filmed at Thorpe Park, Surrey.

References