Episode 1.6 is the sixth and final episode of the first series of Primeval. It was broadcast as Future Foe[1] in North America, as Der gnadenlose Jäger (The Merciless Hunter)[2] in Germany and L'ultime Traversée (The Ultimate Crossing)[3] in France.
Summary
"Helen returns and claims a predator from the future is behind a spate of disappearances, prompting her estranged husband to join her on a desperate race through time to prevent further attacks. Claudia is skeptical about the scheme - and it seems her concerns are well-founded when a showdown between creatures from the past and the future ensues."[4]
Full synopsis
At the Central Metropolitan University, Nick Cutter is in his office playing makeshift golf with a mug as the hole and gets a hole-in-one. Claudia, who has appeared at the office door without Cutter seeing, is impressed, alerting Cutter to her presence. Claudia sits to discuss the Anomaly operation's situation with Helen Cutter, and Claudia admits that she is now unsure about whether or not Helen is the team's enemy or ally after she saved Claudia at the Anurognathus incursion, and Cutter notes that he has himself given up on thinking it possible to predict Helen's behaviour since he learned the truth about her departure from him through the Anomalies eight years ago. Though Cutter believes that Helen's mysterious reasons about leaving through the Anomalies to have likely not involved the two's relationship issues, Claudia suspects it may be possible since Cutter is not a very emotionally open man. When Cutter tries to prove this wrong by challenging Claudia to get him to open up about anything, Claudia asks whether Nick still loves Helen, prompting Nick to immediately instead try to change the subject. Cutter asks why Claudia really came since he doubts it was only to discuss Nick's personal love life, and Claudia says to Cutter that they need to try and work on their progress in the Anomaly project, as she thinks that they can't just keep on responding after the Anomalies and creatures appear and need to find a way of predicting the next Anomalies before they open. Cutter states he has a few ideas on predicting the Anomalies but needs more time to prove them, but Claudia is not feeling as patient. Cutter tries to get back to his golf game, but the argument and Claudia's expressed concerns are now causing him to start missing the shots. Claudia seems to give up on the argument, but appears to be somewhat internally haunted. Cutter notices and is concerned, and Claudia explains that she's been having poor sleep and bad nightmares recently. Claudia then goes to leave, but at the office door, she turns back to Cutter and brings up Cutter kissing her when the Anurognathus were attacking them. Cutter becomes highly awkward about this subject, and Claudia jokingly warns Cutter that harassing a civil servant is a great criminal offence. Claudia then heads out, her and Cutter both smiling happily to themselves.
At the original former Anomaly site in the Forest of Dean, something is heard happening inside the Anomaly site perimeters, and a Special Forces guard arrives to find that the Anomaly at the site has just reopened. The guard then hears metal grinding from somewhere off nearby and heads to investigate it, and finds the source of the sound at the Anomaly site perimeter - something has violently broken through the perimeter fences out of the Anomaly site. The Special Forces guard immediately calls the security breach in over his radio, while nearby, something is spying on him with a sonar-like soundwave-detecting field. Later on, the other Special Forces have arrived at the breached Anomaly site in the Forest along with Cutter and Stephen. At the breached security fence, Stephen has found that there are no tracks or trails or any other signs of a creature and relays this to Cutter and Captain Ryan. Cutter is still suspicious, but Stephen is unconvinced a creature has escaped as he believes the team would have found it by now, and Ryan assumes the creature must have gone back through the Anomaly. Cutter turns and looks over at the reopened original Anomaly ahead in the perimeter, smiling to himself. At Wellington Zoo, only one of the lions in the lion enclosure is active and awake. On the roof above the enclosure, a mostly obscured and unseen, clicking, arboreal, wingless bat-like creature arrives. In the enclosure below, the one active lion seems to become frightened and aggravated, as above, the creature begins tearing and raking through the enclosure's net ceiling and leaps in at the lion.
At Abby's flat, she and Connor are getting ready to go over girl-in-bar chatting-up lines and techniques to improve Connor's success with women, with Abby acting as the girl in bar for Connor. As the two begin practicing, the only lines that Connor can give are ones that Abby gives to him when he has difficulty, so she asks Connor to try and use subtle small talk. Connor then makes an effective line of recognising the woman-in-bar and offering to get her another glass (jokingly calling Rex, who is curiously watching nearby, the barman), but it turns sour when Connor asks the girl-in-bar about Marvel characters. Abby explains to Connor that women don't typically have the same comic book love that he does, and that to be more successful with them Connor will have to compromise in small talk on what the girls themselves like. Connor notes that that way will be rather boring for him, and he thinks he'll do well anyway because he can still talk to Abby; Abby says that with her it doesn't count in this respect as she feels she and Connor are just friends, although Connor clearly hasn't given up hope of intimacy between them. Abby's mobile phone then goes off, and she finds on it that she's been called over by Wellington Zoo to deal with a problem. At the Home Office, Claudia is discussing with Lester Cutter's reliability to the Anomaly operation as the expert and team leader. Claudia is willing to pardon Nick's keeping Helen's return secret because of the pressure it was putting him under, and she believes that Nick has proven to be the best and closest they have to a real Anomaly expert in his past feats of predicting the temporal fault lines and the Anomalies reopening. When Lester learns from Claudia that Cutter is however still not revealing how much closer he is to more progress or solving the Anomaly crisis, he is upset, as Lester believes that it is only a matter of time before they face an Anomaly which releases thousands of creatures upon humanity.
At the University, Stephen is alone in the campus fields, as someone glimpsed over his shoulders follows him from behind. Stephen seems to notice something, and turns around but sees no-one there, and Helen Cutter then reveals herself, seeming happy to see Stephen. Stephen wants to know why Helen is present, but she initially seems to try and brush it off with a comment on how lazy a species humans have become through their urban way of life. Helen notes to Stephen that humanity's current state of being able to stay this way without facing any predators is changing with the Anomaly crisis, and Helen suggests she and Stephen talk over what she wants over a cold beer. At Wellington Zoo's lion enclosure, Abby leads Connor into the enclosure, where the staff have found and are investigating the aftermath of the predator's break-in earlier, and she explains to Connor that they have found one of the lions has disappeared from the enclosure; though Connor is unconvinced it is anything concerning an Anomaly incursion. While the staff and Tim Parker continue to talk, Connor notices and silently points out to Abby a bloody leaf on the ground which indicates something got wounded when the lion went missing. Connor takes a sample of the blood on the leaf to try and confirm whether or not a creature is responsible for the lion's disappearance, but Connor notes that there's still no solid proof of a creature attack and he is still a little sceptical that it is indeed an incursion.
At the University, Stephen and Helen are talking over a beer in the café. Helen explains to Stephen that she wants to meet with Nick and Lester the next morning at a location and time she gives on a note, without any more ambushes or tricks from Lester, to talk with them. Stephen is doubtful that that will go Helen's way because of Lester and Nick's distrust of her, but Helen notes that they'll have to because of the seriousness of what she wants to discuss - within the last two days, three people have disappeared, and Stephen realises that Helen believes a creature to be responsible. Stephen wants to know what creature they are dealing with, but Helen brushes it off and ends the meeting, telling Stephen that she'd always favoured him as a student for his integrity and idealism. Helen then packs up and kisses Stephen on the lips before leaving. Helen notes that she's "missed that," and Stephen is left noticeably haunted and awkward by it. At the Home Office, Claudia arrives to work to find the offices completely empty, with all the other workers and staff gone and her completely alone. As Claudia looks around for anyone else, she stops when she hears inhuman thudding and growling behind her, and she slowly turns to see a Gorgonopsid arrive behind her. The Gorgonopsid targets on Claudia, who immediately puts herself behind a glass door. The Gorgonopsid attacks and charges, smashing through the glass door at Claudia. Claudia then suddenly wakes up at her desk in the populated Home Office, the Gorgonopsid attack having apparently been a nightmare. As Claudia looks around at the Home Office and staff to confirm this, the Gorgonopsid suddenly reappers and roars at Claudia. Claudia then abruptly wakes up in the Home Office yet again, having previously only dreamt she'd woken up from the nightmare.
In the enclosure fields at Wellington Zoo, Abby is alone, throwing out food in the fields for the animals, but it is then seen that the creature from the Forest of Dean is spying on an unaware Abby with its sonar field. But the zoo's elephants then arrive for the food Abby is throwing out, the loud noise the elephants are making disrupting the creature's sonar and leaving it unable to detect and focus on Abby properly. As the elephants eat around her, Abby looks up from feeding the animals, but there is nothing out of the ordinary in sight among the landscape. Elsewhere in the Zoo, an unaware Tim Parker is being watched by the creature with its sonar as he passes through a holding pen when he talks over his phone about the missing lion. As Tim heads through the holding pen, unnoticed to him, the creature to which the sonar belongs (the chiropteran predator that attacked the lion enclosure) is stealthily following and stalking him from behind among the holding pen; then when Tim goes out of the pen still on the phone, the predator speeds after him.
At the Home Office, as Lester, Cutter and Claudia arrive, Connor and Abby watch to themselves from nearby. Abby discusses odd behaviour that Stephen has been exhibiting all morning and is concerned about what's going on, although Connor finds it to be nothing relevant as Stephen also arrives. Connor then remembers and tells to Abby that the DNA results from the blood they found in the zoo's lion enclosure have come back from the lab - the results indicate that while some of the blood was lion blood, a small amount of the blood was from a bat. Abby doesn't see anything odd about this because of how common bats are, but Connor explains to her that the bat blood's DNA is very warped and unlike anything the lab has ever seen before. Abby then looks at her phone as though expecting a call, which Connor asks about. A concerned Abby explains to Connor that Tim Parker has recently disappeared with no trace other than his things, having bizarrely just vanished just like the lion. Elsewhere in the Home Office, Cutter, Stephen, Lester and Claudia are discussing Helen's message to Stephen in private. Lester is unhappy and is convinced that Nick should be the one to work this out if anyone, although Claudia tries to defend Nick by noting that Helen has already once saved her life. Lester is unconvinced that the disappearances involve the team as there's no solid evidence that a creature is responsible, but Stephen notes that that could change. As Lester's elevator then arrives, he wraps up the argument; bitterly agreeing to play along with Helen for now, but warning that if this turns out to be another one of Helen's tricks and manipulation, then she will immediately be declared their most wanted enemy again.
Later on, Helen arrives at a park and meets up with Cutter, Stephen, Lester and Claudia on a bridge. Helen tells the team that they are indeed facing a creature incursion, of a highly formidable and deadly ambush predator. Claudia is sceptical that the team wouldn't have noticed that there is a creature on the loose, but Helen explains that the creature is behind the three recent disappearances, having killed the three people and taken them to a lair for food; and Helen also reveals that she knows this from a close shave she has had with the creature. An impatient Cutter and Stephen ask Helen about what creature it is, and Helen tells Cutter that it is an unnamed species and states that it doesn't come from the past. Nick is confused by what Helen means, and Helen states that it is something Nick always knew since learning about the Anomalies would happen one day - a creature incursion from not the past, but the future. Everyone seems quietly shocked and worried upon hearing this. Back at Wellington Zoo, Abby is alone, heading down the zoo hills towards the sea lion house, noticeably feeling watched. As Abby heads down to the house, unnoticed to her, the Predator is heard following her from beyond the hill.
Back at the park, Helen talks with Cutter, Stephen, Lester and Claudia about the Future Predator, describing it as a very intelligent, agile and deadly stalker and predator unlike any other creature Helen has ever seen. Claudia still seems doubtful that the Predator would have allowed Helen to see it if it's as deadly and effective as it seems, and Helen explains that she saw the Predator in the Permian while it was distracted feeding, and describes it to Nick as a large, arboreal and very agile and fast animal. Cutter is hopeful that the Predator may actually just be an archaeologically undiscovered species, but Helen discredits this as the Predator is unlike anything in the entire past. Helen theorises that the only possible explanation is that the Future Predator came through an Anomaly from its future home into the Permian before eventually moving on to the present. The team are now apparently convinced that Helen is truthful and correct about the Predator being from the future, and Lester is especially stressed and dismayed that they now have to deal with creatures from the future as well. Claudia asked how the Future Predator got to the present from the Permian, and Helen claims she doesn't know and that she decided to do her best to help the team after she realised that it had entered the present (of which Lester seems both grateful and slightly skeptical). Helen then tells Lester that the team can contact her at the Cutters' house, to Nick's dismay.
Later, at Cutter's house, Helen is making herself at home again and discussing with Nick how he hasn't redecorated or changed the house since she last saw it eight years previously. Nick then demands the truth from Helen about what she said to the team, having recognised she was lying about something. Helen initially tries to deny lying, but an unimpressed Nick sees right through her. Helen then tells Nick that she was telling the truth about everything she knows about her encounter with the Future Predator in the Permian, and what the detail she left out is: when she discovered the Predator in the Permian, she unintentionally gave herself away and the Predator went after her, forcing Helen to flee to the present to escape the creature. Nick in turns realises from this that the Predator reached the present by following Helen in her escape route through the Anomaly and thus this is Helen's fault. However, Helen defends her mistake by pointing out how she chose to stay and help rather than leave the team to deal with the Future Predator themselves. Helen assures Nick that she is still human and still cares, and that she still loves Nick. This seems to reach and stun a silent Nick.
At Cutter's study at the University, Stephen and Connor are talking about what Helen told the team at the park, with Stephen having apparently relayed it to Connor. Connor thinks it may have something to do with the scrambled bat DNA from the zoo's lion enclosure, which he fills Stephen in on, and notes how a lion and Tim Parker have both gone missing at the zoo since the day before. Upon hearing about the two disappearances at Wellington Zoo, Stephen becomes concerned about Abby and where she is. When Connor tells Stephen that she's working late at the zoo, Stephen immediately goes to leave, instructing Connor to meet him at the zoo with maximum Special Forces backup. At Wellington Zoo, Abby is alone in the sea lion house, watching the sea lions in the water through the glass, when Stephen suddenly appears behind her, startling her. Stephen apologises and says he hadn't meant to sneak up on her, and then fills her in on the new creature incursion and how he thinks the Predator may be at the zoo and be responsible for the lion's and Tim Parker's disappearances. Abby is touched Stephen came out of mere worry for her, and Stephen then tries to awkwardly rule out the intimacy by saying he was also concerned for the sea lions. Suddenly, Stephen backs Abby up against the wall and gets her to stay still and silent, having noticed something - there is a shadow moving up ahead. As Stephen and Abby stay quiet and still against the wall, the Future Predator then arrives in the corridors up ahead. However, the Predator's sonar is unable to properly detect and focus on Stephen and Abby because of the sounds from the sea lions in the water behind the glass. The Special Forces then arrive in the sea lion house, prompting the Predator to immediately escape with lighting-fast agility and reflexes and to flee from the sea lion house with a burst of speed back into the countryside.
Later in a part of the zoo where Helen is sitting silently and alone, Claudia comes in with a Special Forces soldier and speaks with the soldier about the Predator incursion as Helen quietly watches. Claudia is in the middle of telling the soldier they need to contain the Future Predator before it kills anyone else, when Helen interjects and says they'll need dogs to track down the Predator's lair. Claudia then dismisses the soldier so she can talk with Helen in private. Claudia first thanks Helen for saving her life at the Anurognathus incursion, then shows suspicion of how late into the creature attack Helen interfered to help. Helen states that it was because it was only when Nick left that Helen thought Claudia needed help, and Claudia defends Nick's actions by stating Nick left to get Claudia help. Helen bluntly notes that Nick is attracted to Claudia and Claudia apparently reciprocates the feeling, and Claudia tries to deny it and brush it off. When Helen says this is her business because Nick is her husband, Claudia reminds Helen of how she abandoned Nick eight years ago. Helen is unfazed by this, and observes that Claudia is Nick's type of woman - independent, strong and intelligent. Claudia then asks that they get back on-subject and asks what Helen knows about the Future Predator. Helen explains the Predator is incredibly fast and well-camouflaged in most environments, and that the creature is also very adaptable and therefore very dangerous. Helen also speculates that the Future Predator may be how humanity ends in the future - by becoming prey to a stronger and deadlier species like the Predator.
Out in the fields, Cutter and Ryan are leading Connor, Stephen and several soldiers with hounds towards the woods in their hunt for the Future Predator's lair. Ryan asks what they'll do with the creature when they find it, and Cutter declares they'll kill it. Ryan doesn't understand why they're now ignoring Cutter's policy they only kill creatures in self-defence. Cutter explains that it's because the Future Predator is too dangerous to be kept alive, and even so Cutter believes that as it is a creature of the future, killing it won't affect the past or present. Ryan is happy about this change in policy, as he was starting to find the one to avoid killing creatures humiliating. The group subsequently head down into the trees, and the Special Forces begin scouring the area - mostly with the dogs, which begin growing crazy - while Stephen searches the ground for tracks. One of the soldiers is suddenly pulled from behind to behind a tree by the Predator from out of nowhere, and the entire squad and team suddenly begin searching around among the trees for any sign of the Predator, the soldiers with their guns drawn. There is no sign of the creature anywhere as everyone looks around, until they hear snapping and crunching of twigs and branches from around in the woods but can't pinpoint the source. Cutter recognises the sounds as coming from above them, up in the trees, and alerts the team, who look up for any sign of the Future Predator. The team spot the Predator up in the trees' branches, but it leaps from tree to tree before Stephen can even aim at it, then leaps down to the ground, just over Cutter's head. Stephen, Ryan and the Special Forces aim their weapons at the ready, but the Predator is already completely long-gone in that one second. Stephen, Cutter and Ryan are stunned at what their have just seen of the Future Predator's speed and elusiveness, and Cutter notes to Stephen that they're going to need better weapons than guns.
Later, the team discuss what they've seen of the Future Predator, and Cutter notes that it seemed to recognise every move they were about to take and reacted before the team even acted, with Helen noting that she did warn the team that the Predator was an intelligent and formidable creature. Nick is still unhappy that they still don't have any way of knowing how to stop a creature this elusive and deadly. Stephen agrees with Nick that they need to find some flaw or weakness in the Predator's defences if they want to so much as get close to matching against it, and Connor then realises something - just before the Future Predator attacked, the soldiers' hounds went crazy, as though they'd detected something that humans can't. Stephen says the dogs can't have been aggravated by smell since they didn't follow any scent trail, and Connor and Nick then realise what it is that allowed the dogs to sense before the Future Predator attacked - sound. Nick then realises and relays to the team that the Predator must use high-frequency soundwaves beyond humans' hearing but not dogs' as a natural sonar system to detect physical movement beyond visual range, like echolocation. Stephen notes that it is just like bats' echolocation, and reminds them of the bat DNA from the Predator attack in the zoo lion enclosure. Connor then pieces together from this that the Future Predator must be a predatory future evolution of a bat, and Helen notes that it does make sense since bats occupy a significant majority of mammal species in the present. Nick and Connor now know from this discovery that they can use the Predator's own weapon against it by tracking its sonar soundwaves with an oscilloscope, and Nick then sends Connor off to get an oscilloscope from the team's car.
Connor reaches and gets into the back of the team's car outside the trees, where he searches around for the oscilloscope and quickly finds it. Connor then switches the oscilloscope on and is about to return to the team with it when it immediately begins going off. Realising that this means the Future Predator is nearby, Connor looks around at the car park outside, before locking himself in the car. Suddenly, there is a loud thump from something on the car's roof and the oscilloscope begins to spike. Connor sits silent and still in the car, staring up at the ceiling above him, while, unnoticed to him, the Predator is visible in the windshield behind him climbing down off the top of the car. The oscilloscope's alarm begins going back down again, and Connor slowly turns around in the car to look out the windshield behind him, when the Future Predator suddenly smashes through the windshield in front of him and attacks. Connor immediately stumbles out through the car's side door, while in a reptile enclosure nearby, Abby seems to hear the commotion nearby. Back at Connor, the Future Predator climbs off the car and has Connor cornered on the ground, when Abby arrives and draws the Predator's attention by throwing a rock at it. The Predator now has its sights set on Abby and advances towards her, when Stephen suddenly appears and shoots at the creature, causing the Predator to immediately flee back into the woods. While Abby rushes over to Stephen, Connor remains on the ground, regaining his breath, and Stephen looks on after where the Predator disappeared into the trees and notes that it does indeed move fast.
Later on, Nick and Connor (the latter a little exasperated from his near-death experience with the Future Predator) discuss the close encounter, and Connor notes that he is rather thrilled he survived the encounter. Nick thinks this creature incursion may have proved to be a little too much for Connor and suggests he should probably go home, but Connor tries to bravely insist he should say, like Han Solo from Star Wars would. Nick admits that he's always seen Connor as fitting more R2-D2's character, but sees his point and respects Connor's decision. Nick then heads off, and Connor turns to Abby nearby to thank her for saving him from the Predator. Abby jokingly brushes it off as being because Connor has yet to pay her his monthly rent, then goes to head off. Connor stops Abby and thanks her properly, and Abby silently smiles and heads off, with Connor smiling to himself.
Elsewhere, Captain Ryan and his men are searching and scouring a run-down area of crate storage huts with tracking hounds, as Nick, Helen, Stephen and Connor (the latter with the oscilloscope) arrive. Helen notes that it would make a good lair for the Future Predator. Nick, Connor and Stephen look at the highly active and spiking oscilloscope, which indicates that the creature producing the high-frequency soundwaves is very close, and Stephen recognises that the dogs should be going crazy again if it's indeed the Predator. The team use the oscilloscope to pinpoint the source to a large, nearby hut, and Helen goes in ahead, followed by Ryan, the men and Stephen. Helen and Stephen find something in the hut among the storage of crates which shocks them, and Stephen then calls Nick, who is by the hut entrance, over to see it. Nick and Connor then come over to see what Helen and Stephen have found, and are shocked by what it is - a nest of five Future Predator babies, indicating that the Predator has given birth to offspring in the present. Stephen moves on and finds human corpses nearby among the crates, which Helen realises the adult Predator is storing as food for its young. At Connor, the oscilloscope abruptly spikes massively and Connor alerts the team that they have company, and Ryan, the team and the soldiers then hear the adult Future Predator has returned and is swiftly and silently moving and scuttling around on the roof above them, but they can't catch sight of it anywhere. As the soldiers look around, the Predator suddenly appears and takes one of them by surprise, but flees back into its camouflage in the ceiling before anyone can get a shot at it. The adult Future Predator then reappears, dodging the soldiers and their shots at it, and Nick immediately acts; he grabs one of the Predator young from the nest, which catches the adult's attention, and flees out of the storage hut with it. The Future Predator immediately gives pursuit, swiftly dodging back past Ryan and his men and out of the hut after Cutter. Nick, with the hostage Predator baby in his hand, flees down to the end of a long greenhouse, and turns to confront the adult Predator as it arrives in the greenhouse up ahead. Sensing its young in Cutter's hand through its sonar, the adult Future Predator menacingly advances down towards a cornered Cutter. However, Nick coolly raises his handgun, but instead of shooting at the Predator, he shoots through the greenhouse's glass roof panes one by one. At first, the sounds of the gunshots and of the glass shattering respectively distract the Predator's sonar away from Nick, and then the sheet of falling glass shards from the shattered panes in front of the Future Predator creates a sonic barrier. Once the barrier of glass has fallen down to the floor, the Future Predator re-focuses its sonar on Nick, but before it can attack, Cutter shoots directly at the Predator. Mortally shot directly in its cranium, the Future Predator lays dying on the greenhouse floor. Nick stands over the fallen Predator as it succumbs to the gunshot and dies, Nick's eyes steely and cold. Later, outside the hut, Ryan and his men have captured the Future Predator young, and are holding them in a crate outside, guarded by two hounds.
At the Home Office later on, Helen argues with Lester about whether or not to kill the captured Predator young; Helen is against killing them, arguing that they need to locate the future Anomaly in the Permian before any more creatures from the future come through, and explaining to Claudia that as future bats, the Predator young's chiropteran homing instincts could help the team locate and contain the Anomaly in the Permian. Lester asks what they do with the Future Predator young after the Anomaly has been contained, and Nick coldly and bluntly states that they'll kill them all. Everyone seems slightly uneasy with Cutter's cold and apathetic behaviour, and Nick argues that they must kill all and any of the Future Predator they can, because allowing any of the Predators at all to get loose in the past on the Permian side of the future Anomaly could allow the Predators to breed and spread in the Permian and to wipe out entire species there and change history on an unimaginably massive scale. Lester and Claudia also ask Nick if they really should, after containing the incursion, have their men stay in the past for life to keep a permanent watch over the future Anomaly there so no more Future Predators from it can threaten to change history. Lester makes a cynical comment about the team's brains over brawn strategies, then agrees to do it Nick's way. As Lester heads off, Nick and Helen look over to and smile a little at each-other. Claudia then heads off as well, and Nick follows. Later, in the Home Office's toilets, Claudia emerges from a cubicle, and is shocked by what she sees in front of her in the sink mirrors - where Claudia's reflection should be, the mirrors instead show an Anomaly-like shape. Hoping it to be a hallucination, Claudia turns away from the mirrors for a few seconds, then looks back - the mirrors now show Claudia's normal reflection, without anything out of the ordinary. Claudia cools down and relaxes, then heads out. At the Cutter house that night, Nick is outside his bedroom when Helen comes out. Helen flirtatiously notes that they never made the new sleeping arrangements now that Helen's returned, and Nick bluntly declares he'll sleep in the spare room. Helen offers Nick share their bedroom, noting they're technically still married, and when Helen begins to get intimate, Nick bluntly asks her to stand aside so he can pass. Nick does this and goes in, closing the door, and Helen is left alone in the hallway, smiling to herself.
At the Anomaly site in the Forest of Dean the next day, Nick, Helen, Ryan and the latter's men are preparing to go through into the Permian in search of the future Anomaly, with two of Ryan's men going ahead through the Anomaly with a box containing the Future Predator young. Nick and Stephen shake each-other's hands farewell, and Nick jokingly asks Stephen that if Nick doesn't get back home then Stephen will send Lester through the worst Anomaly he finds. Claudia is worried that the Anomaly will close while Nick is on the other side, but Nick is confident that if that happens, they will just have to wait for the Anomaly to reopen again. Helen notices how close Nick and Claudia are getting and bluntly asks that they get moving with the mission through the Anomaly. As Helen and Ryan's men get ready to go through with Nick, Claudia suddenly pleads with Nick not to go as she has a terrible feeling that this is a bad idea, but Nick assures her it will be fine and he'll be back. As everyone gets ready to go through the Anomaly, Helen and Stephen look over at each-other oddly, which Abby notices and seems silently suspicious of, as Captain Ryan and his other two soldiers then go through the Anomaly. Lester voices to Claudia his thoughts about maybe making a moon-landing-esque speech about this journey through time, but Claudia disregards Lester, rushes over to Nick and kisses him in front of the Anomaly, stunning Helen. Nick returns Claudia's kiss as the rest of the team look awkwardly, then the two part. Claudia then heads back over to with the team, with Lester jokingly noting that wasn't professional on Claudia's part. Nick and Helen then shoot each-other amused and shocked looks respectively, then they turn and vanish into the Anomaly together as Claudia looks on.
In the Permian desert on the other side of the Anomaly, Nick and Helen are hiking with Ryan and his men across the prehistoric landscape. Helen brings up a thrilled and happy Nick's romantic farewell to Claudia and asks if it was meant to in some way hurt Helen, to which Nick confidently exclaims to Helen that his kiss with Claudia wasn't anything about Helen. Back in the Forest in the present, as the team and the Special Forces wait for the Cutters and Ryan's men to return, Connor is talking on the phone with someone, apparently receiving some alarming news from the caller which he wants to make sure is confirmed to be certain. Stephen and Abby notice and come over to ask what it is, and once Connor finishes the call, he explains that that call was from the Home Office's lab - their autopsy on the adult Future Predator that Cutter killed confirms that it was definitely a male. Stephen thinks that can't be right since it is usually females who nurture young in mammals, and Connor suggests that it may just be that in the Predator's species it is the males who care for the young. Stephen grimly notes that Connor had better be right, because if he isn't, then that means that the mother Predator is still out there. On the table nearby, unnoticed to anyone, the oscilloscope begins to go off, and it is then seen that the team are being watched from in the vegetation with Future Predator sonar. An adult Future Predator is then glimpsed speeding across the Anomaly site, and when everyone turns and looks to see what it was, it vanishes through the Anomaly before they can get a look at it. Claudia and the team come over to see what happened, thinking something is wrong with the Anomaly, but Stephen is unable to verify that they saw anything, and Connor notes that the Anomaly's magnetic field isn't showing any changes or signs of weakening. Claudia remains worried and can only stare in fear and concern at the Anomaly. In the Permian desert on the other side, the mother Future Predator speeds across the landscape after her young.
Elsewhere in the Permian desert, Ryan's Special Forces men are setting up camp for the indefinite mission into the past, while Helen is taking photos of the prehistoric landscape. Helen calls Nick over from Ryan to take a picture of her with her camera, and Nick has her pose with a faraway herd of Scutosaurus in the background, then snaps the picture. Nick is horrified to recognise that he has seen the photo he's just taken before - it's exactly the same as one of the photos that were on the camera Nick and Ryan found on the first mission into the Permian, at the ruined old camp. Nick then realises that the old camp in the Permian from the first mission is the same one that they are putting up right now and thus their present selves are the others who went into the Permian, and he rushes over to Ryan to warn him of this. Ryan is confused about how that's possible; and when Nick verifies that the camp's food box is the same one from the camp ruins they found, Nick realises that the reopened Anomaly has sent them back to a point years earlier in the Permian than it did when they originally went through - thus, they've put up the camp so it can be found by their past selves on the first mission into the Permian in a predestination paradox. Before they can discuss what this means about the current mission, the infant Future Predators in the nearby cage begin acting up. As Ryan and his men look for signs of danger, Helen believes the Predator young's behaviour means they're near the future Anomaly now. Helen is thrilled and excited at the prospect that by finding the Anomaly they'll see what the future is; and a disgusted Nick realises that the entire time Helen was helping the team with the Future Predators, she'd actually just wanted to find the Anomaly so she could see the future for herself. Helen tries to kiss Nick, but a furious and disgusted Nick coldly rejects her. Helen is then about to shamelessly head off unstopped without Nick to find the future, when the mother Future Predator arrives and suddenly attacks out of nowhere, pinning and killing one of the soldiers and causing everyone to scatter.
The Predator young in their cage call out, which gets the mother Predator's attention; the adult Future Predator kills the soldier guarding the young and sets about freeing the infants from their cage, whilst Ryan charges from the trees' cover to catch the distracted Predator off-guard. Ryan shoots at the Predator, but this only enrages it into charging and severely wounding him, as Cutter rushes out from the trees and can only watch. The Predator then turns its attention to the exposed Cutter as Helen watches from the trees, when a Gorgonopsid arrives and enters the campsite. The two powerful creatures notice and react aggressively to each-other, the Future Predator's attention on Cutter lost as the latter takes cover; and the Predator and the Gorgonopsid then charge each-other. The Gorgonopsid throws back and knocks the Predator out, then is drawn towards the cage by the helpless Predator young's cries. With the Gorgonopsid distracted, Nick rushes over to a badly wounded and bleeding Ryan's side, while Helen stays hiding and watching among the trees. The mother Future Predator then recovers to find the Gorgonopsid is devouring its young alive from the cage; prompting the enraged mother Predator to launch a vicious attack on the Gorgonopsid from behind. The Predator uses its speed and small body frame to quickly slip and avoid the Gorgonopsid's bites and rip and tear at the Gorgonopsid's back and neck to cause damage. The Future Predator eventually manages to get the Gorgonopsid pinned down this way and tears at its head and neck - but the Gorgonopsid then throws its body up, the clinging-on Predator with it, which in turns crushes the Predator to death beneath the Gorgonopsid's back when the Permian creature lands. Victorious, the Gorgonopsid bounds off with the mother Future Predator's carcass for food. In the aftermath of the battle between the two deadly predators, as Ryan lays dying from his severe wounds at Nick's side, he realises something to Nick - the half-buried skeleton he and Nick find on the first mission at the camp's future remains was his own corpse from when he dies here and now. Nick can't say anything, and Ryan then passes away and dies from his injuries. Nick asks about the Future Predator young's fate, and Helen notes from their remains at the cage that it seems none of them survived the Gorgonopsid. Nick then declares to Helen that this is over and it's time for them to leave, then sets about burying Ryan and the other fallen soldiers.
As Nick and Helen finish the soldiers' burial at the spot where Nick and Ryan find Ryan's skeleton on the first mission, Helen is still eager and determined to find the future Anomaly and wants them to stay to still look for it. Nick jokes about Helen reaching the future, then declares to her that while he doesn't care if she stays to find the Anomaly, Nick has decided he won't be joining her and is leaving either way. Helen doesn't understand what Nick has in the present to go back to that's so good, and is unimpressed with Nick's feelings for Claudia; and Nick declares to Helen that he is going back not for Claudia, but because he now knows where he belongs. Nick then turns and heads off from the destroyed camp back towards the Anomaly to the present, leaving Helen seeming hurt and alone. Helen then goes with Nick back across the Permian desert towards the Anomaly, and as the Cutters leave, two infant Future Predators are seen to have survived in the trees; unbeknownst to the Cutters leaving two deadly creatures of the future to live and survive in the past.
Back in the Forest of Dean in the present, Nick and Helen return through the Anomaly from the Permian, to a waiting Connor, Abby, Lester and Special Forces. Nick informs the team of the mission's failure and the loss of Captain Ryan and his men, and declares that no-one is to go into the Anomaly again. Helen then tells Nick she only came back to the present for "unfinished business" and won't be staying. She then looks over at Stephen, which Nick notices; Helen then reveals to Nick in front of the entire team that before she left through the Anomalies, when she and Nick became distant, the rift between them sparked an affair between her and Stephen - Nick's own wife and his best friend. Nick is shocked at this, Stephen having apparently never told Nick about it; Lester likewise feels awkward, and Abby seems appalled towards Stephen. Helen reveals she's gotten lonely on her travels through the Anomalies, and so she offers Stephen to come with her and join her on the travels. Nick is furious and deeply hurt and upset with Stephen for keeping something like the newly-revealed affair secret from him for over eight years, and Stephen declares it was because he'd decided it was in the past and so there was no point in bringing the past up. An upset Nick stands aside while Helen waits for Stephen by the Anomaly, and Stephen looks torn between them. Helen asks again if Stephen will come with her; Stephen moves up to Helen and turns her down: "You know what I'd forgotten about you Helen? Sometimes you can be a real bitch." Helen looks silently angered and humiliated beneath her calm and collected face as Nick looks victoriously over at her, and Helen then turns and disappears back through the Anomaly without a word.
Once Helen has gone back through the Anomaly to find the future on her own, Nick notices that Claudia is absent among the team and asks where she is, but Lester doesn't know what Nick is talking about. When the rest of the team don't know who Claudia is either, Nick gets worried and serious about where Claudia is and why the team are claiming not to remember knowing her. Nick begins losing his temper as the team still don't recognise her, and angrily grabs Lester and demands to know where she is; but Lester and all the rest of the team are completely perplexed about what's gotten into Cutter and genuinely don't know Claudia or what he's talking about. Nick then realises in shock and horror that something to alter history happened while he was on the other side of the Anomaly, and something they did in the Permian has changed the past so that Claudia never existed. The team all look stunned and bewildered at this, and Cutter can only look and stare in horror at this new, alternate world without Claudia, as the Anomaly behind him begins to grow and expand.
Cast and Crew
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Cast
Stunts
Camera and Lighting department
Costume and makeup departments
Transport
Post-production
Other crew
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Head production staff
General production staff
Script
Art department
Special & visual effects
Sound
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Daren Horley was uncredited as the Creature Designer and Texture Painter
Appearances
Characters
- Nick Cutter
- Claudia Brown (latest appearance)
- Stephen Hart
- Captain Tom Ryan (death)
- Connor Temple
- Abby Maitland
- Rex
- James Lester
- Helen Cutter
- Tim Parker (death)
- Others
Creatures
- Anurognathus (mentioned)
- Future Predator (first appearance)
- Gorgonopsid (latest appearance)
- Coelurosauravus
- Scutosaurus
Objects and technology
- Oscilloscope (only appearance)
- Helen Cutter's camera (latest appearance)
- Toyota Hilux
Locations
- Home Office (latest appearance)
- Forest of Dean
- Permian hills (latest appearance)
- Wellington Zoo (latest appearance)
- Abby Maitland's flat
- Central Metropolitan University (latest appearance)
- Nick Cutter's house (first appearance)
Organisations
- British Government
- Central Metropolitan University (latest appearance)
- Department of Evolutionary Zoology (latest appearance)
- Wellington Zoo (latest appearance)
- Anomaly Research Centre (first appearance, not named)
Gallery
Continuity
- This episode is continued directly in the next episode; 2.1.
Trivia
- The time loop between Episode 1.1 and 1.6 is known as a Bootstrap Paradox or casual loop.
Errors
- When the Future Predator is stalking Tim Parker, the elephants in the nearby cage don't at all react to the Predator's presence.
- In the woods scene, when the lone Special Forces soldier is suddenly ambushed and pulled behind a tree by the Future Predator, no Predator or anything else at all is visible as he is suddenly pulled from behind.
- Nick appears to only take one photo of Helen, but in Episode 1.1 when his younger self found the future camera, there were at least four photos of her.
- Twice when Nick was adjusting the camera before taking the photo of Helen, he is looking to his left, but the camera's view shows Helen who was standing in front of him.
- Just before the mother Predator jumps onto the Gorgonopsid for the second time, a piece of filming equipment can be seen on the right side of the screen.
Story connections
- In references to Episode 1.1:
- The Forest of Dean - Permian hills Anomaly reoccurs.
- The photos of Helen Cutter and the remains of a campsite were revealed to be unknowingly made by the second expedition to the Permian.
- The human skeleton found at the campsite was revealed to be Captain Ryan (or one of the other soldiers).
- In reference to Episode 1.3, Claudia mentioned the fault-line Anomaly.
- In reference to Episode 1.5:
- Nick and Claudia talk about Helen saving her from the Anurognathus.
- Claudia later thanks Helen for saving her, then they talk about what Nick did before Helen arrived.
- Some Scutosaurus return in this episode and had previously appeared in Episode 1.1. They would reoccur in Episode 2.6 and 2.7.
- A Gorgonopsid appears, one had previously appeared in Episode 1.1.
- Claudia Brown is never seen again. However she is referenced numerous times in Series 2 and occasionally in Series 3. For full list of references see "Claudia Brown references". From the end of Episode 2.1 onwards, a doppelganger of Claudia appears.
- The Future Predators reoccur quite offen in Primeval. For full list of appearances see "Future Predator appearances".
References
Episode 1.1 • Episode 1.2 • Episode 1.3 • Episode 1.4 • Episode 1.5 • Episode 1.6