My Review of Being Human's 2x04: "Educating Creature"

Written by Jamie Mathieson
Directed by Kenny Glenaan

Lucy (to Kemp, re Mitchell): “He is capable of change and I will prove it.”

After last week’s excellent little ender, it would’ve been extremely unfair not to have delved further into the origins of Kemp and Jaggart but this episode doesn’t reveal all that much about the pair, except how they met, which was a year ago after one of Lucy’s paper impressed Kemp and he persuaded her to join with him.

If the series was going to go down the route of making Lucy into a total psychopath, then I’m actually glad that this episode didn’t. Lucy might be happy to experiment on werewolves and do her research on vampires but unlike Kemp, she doesn’t seem to harbour a total hatred for the supernatural, nor she is devoid of compassion either.

I’m not exactly giving Lucy a free pass but if it hadn’t been for her intervention in this episode, then Nina would’ve been a dead woman. Kemp and Lloyd were happy to do nothing when Nina was about to go the same way as the previous test subject. We can thank Lucy for actually getting involved and ordering Lloyd to lower the pressure of that wretched chamber.

This to me almost makes me think that Lucy Jaggart is a pawn in all of this as well. Given that her real identity had been concealed for so long, I did believe that she would be a bit more ruthless in proceedings. Her attitude towards werewolves was one thing, but her one towards vampires is also interesting.

Lucy genuinely believed that Mitchell had it in him to go clean and this was even after Kemp had shown her that a certain funeral home had become operational once again. When Lucy discovers more about Mitchell’s latest antics, well it can’t bode all that well for him, can it?

Four episodes in and Kemp does still feel like the main villains of the bunch. He didn’t hold back on his views that vampires couldn’t be saved and while he admitted that it was possible to save werewolves, he wasn’t exactly worried about Nina’s physical condition in the slightest. Nina had a lucky escape in this episode but that was all down to Lucy mind.

Although Nina had a minor role in this episode, the fact that she made contact with George at the end of the previous had consequences. The idea of George coming to terms with the fact that he only changed one night a month and wanting to live his life should’ve been a liberating experience for him. Why did it have to go so spectacularly wrong then?

He buys a cage for the house so that he doesn’t have to go out in the woods and then he used tranquilisers so he could keep the wolf asleep. I guess the lesson here was that you can’t really suppress the beast in you without it bleeding out into other parts of your life. George learned that in the worst way possible.

His bouts of Tourettes style swearing were amusing to begin with (Mitchell certainly got a laugh out of proceedings) but as the episode progressed, it just got more and more worrying. George couldn’t control his temper and while that irritating principal deserved taking down a peg or two, what George did actually scared me a little. Judging by the way George was crying in his cage at the end, it rightfully scared him too.

The other thing I didn’t like about George’s plot was him and Sam. I like the actress (she was Kathy Nightingale in “Blink”) but it just seemed a little tacked on giving him another romance when it’s obvious that he’s still pining for Nina as well. It also doesn’t help that Sam has her own baggage as well that George will inevitably have problems dealing with as well.

Speaking of dealings, Ivan helping Mitchell out with the rehab plot wasn’t something I was expecting. A part of me was then unfazed when Mitchell was forced into giving Ivan human snacks behind closed doors. It’s worrying how progressively dark both Mitchell and George’s plots have become just of late.

The rehab thing should’ve been great given that some of the other vampires were actually trying to stay clean but it was just another of validating Daisy’s previous statement of vampires being unable to suppress their true nature. It almost makes Kemp justified in his contempt for them as well.

The best plot of this episode however belonged to Annie. The men with sticks and ropes really are an ambitious bunch. I think there’s more than Annie just being a lost soul with the way that they’ve been sending agents to catch her. Something about Annie is specials because this lot are too determined to get her through that door.

Last season, Annie got some ghostly perspective from the lovely Gilbert. This season, we got Sykes who wasn’t as snarky as Gilbert but he certainly had some delightful moments. Testing Annie’s abilities to read auras was one thing but teaching her how to combat agents was another. That scene where Annie was talking to an agent wearing her own body was a creepy moment, not the creepiest in this episode but effective no less.

There are still a lot of questions about the ghost world that this show does need to look into but at least we did get more here. Annie now knows how to counter any more agent encounters and how to close those wretched doors. That might come in handy in later episodes for her.

Also in “Educating Creature”

Lucy was looking at a patient where both men were not the father but it was her papers that intrigued Kemp.

Sykes: “You closed the door.”
Annie: “A thank you would be nice.”

The actor who played Sykes popped up in Torchwood’s second season episode, “Adam”.

Annie: “I’ll haunt you.”
Sykes: “You can’t haunt a ghost.”
Annie: “I’ll give it a damn good try.”

Ivan (to Mitchell): “That’s addicts for you. Always looking for loopholes.”

Because we got Ivan this week, Daisy was missing in action. I wonder if she’s actually sticking with being clean – yeah, right!

George (to Annie/Mitchell): “So is there anyone left in Bristol that thinks you can have a shag without being tied up?”

Nina: “I have a nosebleed. Hello? Should this be happening?”

George thought that Lucy was out of Mitchell’s league. Similarly the principal thought that Sam was out of George’s league.

Annie: “George, I’m happy for you.”
George: “I’ve done it, I’ve put the wolf to sleep. I’m free. I don’t know what to do first.”
Mitchell: “Take a shower.”

Mitchell: “Do you have any idea what you’re asking me to do?”
Ivan: “I could ask you the same.”

Standout music: Nothing really stood out compared to other episodes, aside from the score music in places.

Sykes: “I’m a coward, Annie.”
Annie: “That’s the one thing you’ll never be.”

Chronology: None is specified since the previous episode.

I have to admit that while it’s a very good episode but it’s the weakest one I’ve seen so far. Annie’s story is probably the strongest right now, especially given that she isn’t tainted by darkness. Mitchell and George could do with some of that.

Rating: 7 out of 10.