Episode 10 (Primeval)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Episode 10
Series = Primeval


Caption = Connor rescues Abby from the vicious future "Mer".
Season = 2
Episode = 10
Airdate = 2 February, 2008
Production =
Writer = Cameron McAllistor
Director = Jamie Payne
Guests =
Episode list = List of episodes
Prev = Episode 9
Next = Episode 11

Episode 10 of the ITV sci-fi drama "Primeval" was broadcast on 2 February, 2008.

ynopsis

When a teenager disappears and the team are dispatched to investigate, a vicious carnivore from the future, only known as the "Mer" comes through an anomaly. Matters swiftly become worse when Abby is dragged underwater by one of them.

Plot

The episode begins as a group of teenagers are playing basketball in a park. One boy, Lucien Hope, manages to knock the ball out of the court, and is teased by his friends about not being able to play well. As he walks over to get it, a manhole cover is slowly lifted as the water level rises.The ball has landed in the now open manhole. Lucien picks it up and begins to return to the court, when he is suddenly dragged into the manhole by an unseen creature.

Cutter and the team immediately investigate, only finding Lucien's tattered trainer. The pipe leads into a canal and Cutter tells them to close the canal as the anomaly must be there. He then phones Connor and Abby.

Meanwhile at their flat, Abby practices martial arts, Connor reads and Caroline makes breakfast. Annoying Abby by showing off her kickboxing skills, Caroline then sneakily deletes Connor's missed phone calls from Cutter. Abby suddenly gets a call from Cutter saying he's been trying to call Connor for ages. Caroline denies any calls on his phone and Connor, believing her, reluctantly leaves. Alone, Caroline approaches Rex, looking sinister.

Cutter and Stephen explore the underground tunnels leading to the canal, when they hear singing, like that of a whale. They leave to meet with Connor and Abby at the canal.

Jenny, Connor and Abby get into a boat to search the canal. As it gets darker, Connor and Abby argue about Caroline, among other things: their argument only serves to infuriate Jenny. When something hits the boat, and Jenny falls into the water, the team notice a ominous fin moving slowly in their direction. Abby and Connor desperately scream for Jenny to swim, but she merely thrashes about, claiming she can't swim. As the fin gets closer, Nick and Stephen's boat appears: Nick pulls her aboard, while Stephen shoots and kills the creature.

Later, Cutter and the others investigate the creature's body. Cutter thinks it is the future evolution of the shark. Cutter cuts the beast open and finds a trainer, like Lucien's, and a basketball. However, Cutter thinks another creature killed Lucien, however, as there are no real remains left of Lucien and a shark would usually take days to digest its prey.

At Abby's flat the next morning, Connor and Abby find Caroline asleep on the sofa. Thinking it's sweet she waited, Connor goes to her while Abby looks for Rex. She hears a familiar chirping from the fridge and opens it, only to find Rex half-frozen and barely alive. She screams in fury, demanding answers, to which Caroline claims he must have crawled in while she was putting things away. She then leaves to the displeasure of Connor. Abby orders Connor to get tinfoil and wrap it around Rex. Connor does this, then quickly chases after Caroline, who Abby is furious with.

The next day, Stephen thinks they should continue searching for the creatures which may have taken Lucien in the canal; however Cutter has a hunch that the real creature is elsewhere. He asks for ten minutes searching somewhere else, and Stephen reluctantly agrees. As Cutter goes to search elsewhere, he sees a guard he recognises and begins chasing him among a collection of boats. Eventually the mysterious guard descends below the deck of one of the boats and stands facing a wall. Cutter approaches him, asking what's going on, but is hit and knocked out cold. When he comes round the man is gone.

Later, Connor, Cutter and Abby are in a boat on the canal. Stephen thought they should have had backup, but Cutter disagreed. Cutter tells them about his encounter with the mysterious guard. Connor tells him he and Abby saw the same man, and then before that he was a cleaner in the shopping mall. Cutter ponders if the team is being followed, possibly by Lester.

The team are using recorded footage of the creature singing to lure it to what it may think is a friend. As Cutter and Connor talk, Abby sees a hideous face in the water. She jumps up in shock, but dismisses it after not seeing it when she looks again. A few moments later she is suddenly dragged into the water by a huge creature with tusk-like fangs and webbed hands - the Mer. Connor yells after her and Cutter jumps in, telling Connor to get backup now. A major search of the canal begins to try and find Abby.

Later, Stephen and Cutter order the search for Abby off, believing she is dead. Connor cries at them to continue when Lester and his team arrive. He tells Jenny to take Connor home, then fires Cutter and states that Stephen is now in charge. Cutter doesn't leave the area, but simply goes out of sight, only to be found by Jenny who gives him a letter of complaint from a builder about a flooded basement. Cutter concludes that this must be where the creature that took Abby is and prepares to go looking for it. Back at Abby's flat, Connor starts to cry thinking he has lost her forever- even Rex seems mournful.

Meanwhile Abby finds herself neck-deep in water next to Lucien. Above them is an iron grid which prevents them escaping upwards. She hits the grid trapping her and Lucien under the hole. Lucien tells her it won't work since he's already tried it. When she continues in her efforts, a Mer roars at her from above. Lucien asks her who she is and if he's going to survive. She reassures him that friends are coming and that all they're fighting is an overgrown tadpole.

Cutter rings Connor for his help investigating the basement. Connor does not answer, simply listening. Cutter gives his condolences and pleads for Connor's help. In the end he hangs up and says that if Connor wants to help, then he can. Cutter goes to the building and finds the entrance to the basement barred. Connor turns up with a crowbar, offering his help, saying it's what Abby would have wanted. As they work, Connor laments the fact that he never told Abby how he felt for her, but Cutter reassures him that she probably knew. As they attempt to break in, the portable anomaly detectors inform them that the anomaly has reopened. After breaking through the bars, they get down into the basement and, after hearing screaming, break down a weakened wall, finding Abby and Luican underneath the iron grid. Just as they arrive, Abby is pulled under the water by one of the creatures. Cutter and Connor get Lucien out of the water, and he tells them that the Mer have Abby. Connor runs off to find her, while Cutter and Lucian are left alone.

After a few moments, a Mer jumps out of the water and roars at them. Cutter is armed with the crowbar, while Lucien picks up a rock and hurls it at the Mer. It bounces off a pipe and hits the Mer on the head, presumably killing it. Cutter congratulates him, only to be pounced on by a second Mer. He is thrown into the water: he manages to swim to the surface, but the Mer resurfaces and faces him, ready to attack.

At the same time, Stephen is sending a camera on a remote controlled submarine into the water. After going into the drains, it comes across the attacking Mer and Cutter. The creature, having noticed the submarine, attacks it, and Stephen, having witnessed the situation, jumps into the water to save Cutter, armed with a pistol and machine gun.

While the Mer is distracted, Lucian and Cutter try to escape, but they are surrounded by more Mer. Before the creatures can attack, Stephen emerges from the drains and cuts them down without mercy using the machine gun.

Connor finds Abby next to the anomaly. He runs towards her when an enormous, red-skinned Mer rises up from the water. It brutally knocks Connor into the water and takes Abby through the anomaly. Connor quickly swims to the surface, and heads into the anomaly.

The future region is mainly rocky desert close to an ocean- the sky is dark and lightning strikes frequently occur. He finds Abby below the small cliff he is standing on. Walking to the edge of the cliff, he drops a rock on the head of a Mer menacing Abby, killing it. Abby begins to climb up towards Connor and grabs his hand: however, Connor struggles to pull her to safety. Realising that their prey is escaping, more Mer appear, including the huge Mer which took Abby through the anomaly. Abby urges Connor to let her go, saying there is no point in getting both of them killed, but Connor refuses, saying he loves her. As the Mer come closer, Abby and Connor appear doomed: Abby dangles helplessly over the cliff, her weight threatening to drag Connor over the edge. Just in the nick of time, Cutter appears with Stephen, preventing Connor slipping off the cliff. After helping pull Abby to safety, Stephen and Cutter arm themselves, then shoot and easily kill the gigantic Mer.

Lucien is taken into an ambulance and says goodbye to Abby, commenting on the achievement of her "boyfriend", referring to Connor. Abby informs him that Connor is not her boyfriend. Lester and Leek arrive, and Lester orders Leek to seal the anomaly site in concrete. He also grudgingly thanks Cutter for reappearing and chastises Stephen for making the wrong choice. Abby asks whether what she saw through the anomaly is humanity's future, but Cutter disagrees, saying humanity will be extinct long before that future becomes reality; or maybe mankind will simply "return to the waters from which it came", implying that the Mer might in fact be distant descendants of humans. At Abby's flat, Connor and Abby are about discuss what Connor said about his feelings for her. During an awkward silence between them, Caroline returns and reminds Connor of their plans to go to the theatre. As she and Connor leave, Caroline patronizingly suggests that she could help Abby with her makeup. Abby, standing bedraggled and alone, seems to realize she may have feelings for Connor as well. Rex, however, seems glad to see Abby back.

At the end, Oliver Leek is in a meeting in his car with the mysterious guard and another individual. Leek warns the guard, who is speaking to them via a video-link that he needs to be more careful, as he is potentially jeopardising the operation. After the guard is gone, Leek tells the mysterious figure in the back of his car that such mistakes will not happen again. The figure leans forward - revealing herself to be Helen Cutter - and warns Leek that they both have a lot riding on the success of the operation, and that she hopes she has not misplaced her faith in Leek by over-estimating him. Leek assures her he won't fail her, and then Helen disappears from Leek's car, seemingly without getting out.

Production

Filming took place on Fuerteventura in Summer 2007.

Creatures Seen

*Mer creatures (at least ten are seen in the future, at least five enter the present)
*Shark (one attacks Jenny Lewis' boat, is from the future)
*Rex (is shut in the fridge by Caroline but was rescued by 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
*Mysterious Man - Tim Faraday