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Being Human: series two, episode five

Herrick makes a welcome return – albeit in flashbacks – and things move quickly between George and Sam
Being Human: Lucy Gaskell as Sam, Molly Jones as Molly, Russell Tovey as George
Being Human: Lucy Gaskell as Sam, Molly Jones as Molly and Russell Tovey as George. Photograph: BBC


Daniel Martin's episode four blog


This week, the show gives its twisted take on love and family. How can a supernatural being hope to attain those things? It also gives Mitchell some proper stuff to do; his relationship with Lucy contrasted with the flashbacks to 1969. There's a lovely symmetry between the events that led to him to quit blood, and the ones that appear to be leading him to relapse.

The extended flashbacks also provide another gift for fans. Herrick! Last seen being torn limb from limb by George last year, whoever hoped we'd get to see him again? Being stuck in the flashbacks allows him to be even more camp and messianic and deranged than ever. But his lecture to Mitchell about the vampire kind's inherent superiority was still delicious and chilling. Who, people, is the more badass out of Herrick and Ivan? More holy continuity moments arise when it's revealed the hostage girl with the nasty case of Stockholm Syndrome is Josie. Remember the dying Josie, saving her old lover's life 40 years on?

People who joined the action with series two can't hope to know much of what is going on. But deeper down, we get to the meat of what's been becoming a bothersome mystery – how apparently easy it is for a vampire to quit blood. On one level, it's a bit sappy that love – from Josie then or Lucy now, is all it takes Mitchell. But alongside that lies a more disturbing question. The crooked Chief Constable surely "had it coming", but is the inference that he deserved it more than the paedophile? Either way, Mitchell has killed again. This isn't going well, is it?


George hasn't learned a single thing from last week's failed experiment with the sedatives. He's still blindly freewheeling into a fast-tracked relationship with Sam, and showing signs of actually losing it by pushing her to move in together after only two weeks. The next week trail shows that she agrees. The house is fragmenting and there's still no sign of Nina. No good can come of this.


Here's the thing; the Annie stuff makes no sense. None whatsoever. After her awesomeness last week, she's apparently a "celebrity" among ghosts because "Sykes has been telling everyone" about her door-closing exploits. Do ghosts just wander round exchanging neighbourhood gossip? Do they have coffee mornings? Sewing circles? Everything we've seen so far paints them as a moody and enigmatic bunch who barely communicate. And why does this woman just waltz in, dump the baby on Annie, then waltz back? And why does Annie just accept it? It doesn't bear thinking about. Yes, having a baby dumped on them is a staple of the flatshare format. And yes, there needed to be a way of bringing Annie into the episode theme somehow. And everyone made the best of it but it was so weird it was as if even the writers got bored and just left it dangling halfway through the episode to allow more screentime for Aidan Turner shagging.


The series' central arc is moving along nicely now, but we're still fairly clueless as to what their actual plan might be. But whatever it is, I don't think Lucy's been fully informed. Was she always intended as a honeytrap? It seems odd that a professor would let herself be used like that – but in that case, why is she involving Kemp? Her decision not to kill some Mitchell suggests this is becoming a legitimate relationship. Kemp, also, is beginning to rock fairly hard, finally getting some funny lines in his disgust for how the modern world has people using the word "tea" instead of "supper".

Best Scene

There barely seems any point in choosing one of the high-minded thematic soliloquies? Everyone's just going to choose the five-minute montage of Aidan Turner shagging, aren't they?

Best Line

Chief Constable (to Mitchell): "And they chose a toothless fucker like you for a leader? That's politics all over."

Cast 'n' crew

Way back when I visited the set in November Aidan Turner hinted that Mitchell's journey wasn't going to stay so squeaky clean. Now we know what he was talking about: "A couple of times he just gets sick of humanity, this thing that he's wanted to be part of for so long – 'what's the big deal?' kind of thing. What's all the hype? And if you start thinking that way then the first thing you think of is to go back to what you know best, which is killing people and drinking blood, so morality flies out the window a little bit. But yeah it does kind of get dark …"

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