Written by Toby Whithouse
Directed by Colin Teague
Josie: “Being human means being mortal. It means dying. You can’t rob people of that.”
Mitchell: “No-one is being robbed, don’t you see? It’s a choice.”
When you fall off the wagon, you’re going to leave a trail of devastation in your wake. Mitchell however thought that he would be the exception and would miraculously end up making the world a better place.
He really should’ve seen the hints lying in his wake. The fact that Herrick chose a funeral home and made a point of evading the fact that it’s got a lot of storage would’ve been a good case of setting off some initial alarm bells as well as the irritated look that Herrick gave Lauren when she pointed out that bit of information.
Lauren was also the other clue that Mitchell should’ve paid more attention to. For weeks she’s been doing nothing but trying to get him back into the fold. Last week I assumed that she was lying when she said she was going to let him go but this episode revealed that she was being truthful.
She looked pretty disgusted when Herrick was welcoming Mitchell back into the world and while Mitchell waited for Duncan to rise, she pointed out that he had become corrupted. Surely Mitchell should’ve paid more attention to her this time?
It was also worth pointing out that Mitchell also made some bad judgement in getting Herrick to approach his old flame Josie. It’s nice to get a bit more on Mitchell’s past but the dressing down that Josie gave him should’ve been the very thing to snap him out of it.
I know that Mitchell got demoralised by his neighbours thanks to the whole Bernie debacle but he was getting dangerously close to sounding like a dictator as well. Josie was right to point out that Herrick had no right to decide how people lived or died. She also made the point of noting that Herrick’s ultimate plan would stunt rather than evolve the world.
Thankfully though Mitchell did finally come around to realising that Herrick’s plan was too good to be true. There’s no way that you could have a whole of vampires and survive. After all, there needed to be some humans left around for eating and Mitchell discovered a few of them nearly drained and dishevelled to his horror.
It’s not surprising that Herrick isn’t a man that allowed people to have a choice. The people looked in that room were definitely captured and most of them were seemingly on the verge of death themselves. Herrick wasn’t all that worried when Mitchell discovered the people.
Josie deserved massive points for telling George about Mitchell’s descent. The scenes where George and Annie were trying to rescue Mitchell were both tense and dramatically funny. As a vampire, I really don’t find Seth all that threat and the belligerent way he spoke to both George and Annie didn’t alter my opinion on him.
However as silly as the initial fight between the three was, I did have to laugh. George punching him was nowhere near as effective with Annie’s expertise with a chair. Seth really should’ve learned to duck during that scene.
Seth was a bit more vocalised in this episode. His scenes with Mitchell indicated jealousy that’s been hinted at in earlier episode, his loathing of werewolves was blatant in his hostility towards George but he was surprisingly impressed with the fact that Annie’s a ghost. Oh and Lauren staked him as well.
By doing that, Lauren officially put a bull’s eye on herself. Herrick did look like he was going to kill her earlier on in the episode but having Mitchell do the deed seemed more personal. In fact that scene was more than a little similar to Angel’s “Lullaby”. Lauren wanted to die because she was losing the rest of her humanity. Unlike Darla, however, she didn’t leave a newborn when she was dusted.
As for Mitchell, he might have been able to get out of Herrick’s gang but it didn’t stop Herrick from staking him either. Unlike other vampire based shows and movies, the staking effect does get dragged out and the last minute of this episode had Annie being forced to cross over while George tried to phone an ambulance.
Annie’s crossing over was deliberately going to happen during a moment when her presence was more than required. Her attachment to Mitchell and George got beautifully conveyed in the previous episode and I did love how before Mitchell got staked, George was desperate for her to stay. The two of them have come a long way as friends and flatmates.
The other juicy plot with this episode was Annie haunting Owen. Her first two attempts were natural failures, even if they succeeded in conveying how much of an evil bastard Owen really is. He even managed to get Janey to believe that she wasn’t seeing Annie at all while finding more ways to stick the knife in.
However I did love that Annie did manage to succeed in getting her own back. The scene where she, George and Mitchell faced off Owen was by far one of the wonderful moments we’ve had. Annie even came across as authentically scary during those scenes and whatever she said to Owen did the trick. I’m sure he’s in some asylum and to be honest, I have no sympathy for the character.
As for how the finale will pan out, I’m going to assume that both Mitchell and Annie will factor in a big way. Previews from BBC3 have certainly indicated that both characters aren’t done with just yet. After all, who would make fun of George and his shrieking? I guess there’s Nina but she doesn’t always get a lot to do per episode. She certainly had a smaller role here.
Also in “Episode 5”
This is yet another episode where George didn’t go into wolf mode. He also narrated the opening scene for this episode.
George: “I wonder what it says about us that we need jam.”
Annie: “It’s a gesture. They feel guilty.”
George: “Yeah, so is writing ‘paedo’ on the front door.”
I’m glad that we got some continuity on the neighbours from last week. At least they’re apologising.
Lauren (to Herrick): “Then you can explain something that’s been bothering me. A funeral parlour? Aren’t we skirting a bit close to a cliché here?”
Annie (re Owen): “I want to scare him. To make him cry and beg and scream. It’s not just about justice, it’s more jagged than that. Is that wrong?”
George: “It’s human. Not everything about being human is nice.”
I should note that a few days after this episode aired that BBC3 announced that the series would be coming back for a second season. How brilliant is that?
Owen: “Annie?”
Annie: “Not anymore. I am darkness. I’m death, vengeance and fury, fire and blood. Diamonds and bones. Sapphire and Steel. Confess, Owen. Confess.”
Owen: “I should’ve known that death wouldn’t be a match for one of your sulks. That’s what this is, isn’t it? It’s the Isle Of Wight all over again.”
Annie: “A sulk? You killed me.”
We found out in this episode that Owen was sleeping with Janey when he was still with Annie. Another reason to dislike him.
Owen (to Janey): “You know something? Annie would love this. She was always so bitter. All her life, bitter towards people who were cleverer than her, people who did something.”
George: “A wizard? That’s ridiculous.”
Josie: “Trust me, once you’ve dated a vampire you tend to have a different criteria for what’s ridiculous.”
Thanks to Josie’s comment, I do wonder if we will meet anyone (witch/warlock/wizard) who does practice magic. Does magic exist within the series world?
Seth: “You just hit me with a chair.”
Annie: “Yes. Sorry.”
Seth: “What’s wrong with you people? That totally fucking hurts.”
George: “That was pathetic. We’re the world’s gayest ninjas.”
Annie (re Seth): “I don’t get it. I hit him with a chair and nothing and you punch him with your girly arm and he’s knocked out.”
Seth called George “Digby” in this episode. I’m surprised he didn’t put a nickname on Annie while he was at it.
Mitchell: “You just wanna feed. You just wanna kill.”
Herrick: “But it feels so nice.”
George: “Who wants some of my chair?”
Annie: “Totally should’ve prepared something.”
Mitchell: “Run.”
Standout music: Some great stuff here with Scissor Sisters’ “Comfortably Numb”, Kings Of Leon “Use Somebody” and Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out”.
Annie (to Owen): “There’s a question you haven’t asked yourself yet – if I exist, what else does?You think you’re the big bad wolf, you should see George on a full moon. You think you’re a cold blooded murderer. Mitchell was killing eighty years before you were even born.”
George (to Annie): “If you don’t know what’s there, then why the hell are you going?”
Mitchell: “Because it’s an end.”
Chronology: A few days since the events of the fourth episode.
As preludes go, this felt way too much like a finale. Even when this show looks mundane, it still manages to feel really epic and the last fifteen minutes of this felt even more so. Looking forward to see how things are wrapped up.
Rating: 10 out of 10.
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