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Episode 1.3

From Primeval Wiki

Series 1 Episode 3
Creatures: Mosasaur
Hesperornis
Pterosaur
Broadcast: 24th February 2007
Series: 1
Episode: 3
Setting: Lambeth Baths
Queen Mary Reservoir
Wakefield Road Basement
Cretaceous
Home Office
Preceded by: Episode 1.2
Followed by: Episode 1.4


"I offer you the key to time. The key to time, Nick. And you turn your back on it. Call yourself a scientist?"
―Helen Cutter


Contents

[edit] Synopsis

A 75 million year old Mosasaur kills a lifeguard at a local swimming pool. Nick Cutter must brave the icy waters to find an underwater anomaly that may lead to his wife, Helen.

[edit] Plot

Cutter is desperate to make Lester realise the seriousness of the situation, but he remains infuriatingly optimistic, hoping that this problem will disappear as quickly as it arrived. But he's not in luck.

The arrival of a vicious sea creature, a Mosasaur, at a local pool is bad news for a pair of young lifeguards. The boy becomes the Mosasaur's next meal and the girl is charged with his murder. However, Cutter realises the truth when the boy's regurgitated body is found in a nearby reservoir; they've got a prehistoric killer in their waters. Claudia tries to get the girl off the charge, but Lester believes it better to imprison her and quietly drop the charges later, rather than let the press know that "an ancient sea monster is crusing our swimming pools, consuming lifeguards!".

The anomaly has moved from the swimming pool to the depths of the reservoir, something the team haven't seen with the anomalies before. While scouring the reservoir for it, a military diver is lost into the darkness of the anomaly, and the Mosasaur, on the loose in the reservoir, tires to attack Abby and Connor, though he manages to fend it off with an oar. Beaten and wounded, the beast retreats through the anomaly, which closes behind it, leaving the diver trapped in the past.

Cutter thinks the anomaly is running along a kind of temporal fault line, but Lester is quick to dismiss his ideas, claiming the movement is simply coincidence. Meanwhile a young mother (who lives along the predicted line) is in the basement when she notices a small leak, which quickly turns into a flood. She sends a plumber down to investigate, but a creature from the Cretaceous is waiting, ready to pounce. It attacks and eventually kills the plumber. Meanwhile, Connor's friends, Tom and Duncan have become extremely suspicious of Connor's strange activities and obsession with prehistoric beasts, and decide to keep a closer watch on Connor.

The Home Office team

Captain Tom Ryan and his team are sent to investigate and finds the dead plumber, and also the diver who disappeared in the reservoir. The diver is dead, apparently from shock. Tied to the diver's wrist is a message from Helen Cutter written on a handkerchief which is recognised as being Helen's. Claudia then reports this to Lester after she and Cutter arrive at the scene and she learns that he was aware that his wife is still alive. Furious, Claudia tells Cutter he has no right to withhold such information, no matter what it is about.

Lester personally arrives on the scene in an unmarked car and comments Helen's knowledge regarding the anomalies could be invaluable to them and therefore she is to be brought back to the present day...by force if necessary. When Cutter remarks she is still his wife, Lester retorts by ordering him to go through the anomaly with an armed team and bring Helen back. Faced with that, or the choice of being booted of the project and having Lester bring Helen back by force, Cutter agrees to go through but alone, and if Helen refuses to return, she is to be left alone. He sets off through the anomaly, clad in scuba gear and armed with a harpoon to deal with predators, finding himself in a Cretaceous sea teeming with life.
the anomaly site
He comes ashore and puts his scuba gear down on a sandy beach. The sky is clear, the calls of dinosaurs and other creatures sound nearby and Pterosaurs are flying above. He climbs over some rocks housing a Hesperornis rookery, and finds Helen swimming in a shallow enclosed pool, and calls to her. Helen answers him as if expecting him, and comes out and dresses. Two Hesperornis investigate, and she shoos them off by throwing small stones, and says that they are aggressive but stupid. Nick and Helen then have a long discussion: Helen reveals that she did know about the anomalies, but kept it to herself because she wanted to study them, fearing Nick would expose them to the wider scientific community and she would never get a look-in. Nick tries to convince her to come back to the modern world with him, but Helen counters, saying that she has been exploring the anomalies, seeing many wonders, and wants Nick to join her in that time-wandering life, but Nick cannot forgive her for letting him think she was dead all this time, nor can he bring himself to abandon his work or his friends in the present day.

Enraged by his refusal, she claims that he should have moved on after her apparent death, like she did, and that the people who die on the streets of London are just nobodies; she remarks that humans will be extinct soon and nature will not care about them anymore than the dinosaurs. Nick realises that the Helen he knew is gone and goes back alone, much to Helen's fury and disgust. While swimming for the anomaly, the mosasaur attacks. He fires a harpoon at its head, but its skin is too thick to penetrate. He keeps dodging it as it charges but it rips open his scuba leaving him without air. As the mosasaur swings round for its final attack, a bigger mosasaur arrives and attacks it. Nick, who is towed back through the anomaly by the rope, needed artificial respiration but lives. When recovering, he is horrified to discover that Lester has sent Captain Ryan and an armed team through the anomaly and have brought Helen back by force. As Lester's soldiers hold Nick and the others at gunpoint to stop them intervening, an enraged and bewildered Helen is dragged out of the house. She glowers angrily at Nick before she leaves in the custody of Claudia and Lester.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Continunity

  • The first Cretaceous anomaly opens.

[edit] Ratings

5.8 million (25%)


[edit] Errors

  • The Mosasaur was shown with an armoured crocodile-like body, but in reality it would have been smooth-skinned and streamlined. Also its jaw and enlarged neck muscles were evolved to tear and rip prey apart and would have made it nearly impossible for it to have swallowed the lifeguard whole.
  • It could be that the armour wasn't armour, as the Mosasaur seems to have enough protection. Instead, they could have been hardened fat reserves, which being fat didn't fossilize.
  • The Hesperornis is described as having scales instead of feathers, and walking upright; this would be impossible for hesperornids.

[edit] Appearances

Characters


Locations


Creatures


Organisations

[edit] Reviews and Ratings

Please use this space to write any comments or reviews about this episode. Add your rating out of ten as well. Thanks!

  • This episode is good, but I like some others better... I give this one 7/10. ZEM talk to me! 16:35, September 12, 2009 (UTC)

[edit] External link

  • Episode Guide on itv.com [1]
Series 1
Episode 1.1  • Episode 1.2  • Episode 1.3  • Episode 1.4  • Episode 1.5  • Episode 1.6
Retrieved from "http://primeval.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_1.3"