This week, George goes home to see his dearly departed dad. And in Barry, a young policewoman comes to follow up on the anonymous tip that John Mitchell knows something about the Box Tunnel Massacre.
The following contains spoilers for this episode of the BBC’s Being Human.
This week’s episode begins in Paris, 1933. Mitchell and Herrick are in a sumptuous drawing room wearing tuxedos and drinking blood from cut crystal goblets. Herrick is doing a crossword and Mitchell is rubbing his jaw. Apparently Mitchell was trying to recruit the girl who now lies dead on a chaise longue near them and Herrick stopped him. Herrick tells Mitchell that the Old Ones kill indiscriminately, but recruit very rarely, often only once. They choose a protege for an eternal bond. “If you choose an heir, they inherit all your secrets and become a dark angel. Your protector, your savior.” Mitchell asks “Savior from what?” “Perhaps a fate we have been lead to believe there is no salvation from.” If something happens to you, your savior can bring you back. Not only that, but more. There is a knock at the door and a man with a rather exaggerated mustache comes in and sees them sitting with the dead girl. “Ah,” sighs Mitchell. “Tomb service.”
In the present, George is watching Nina sleep. As she wakes, he tells her he can’t believe she’s his. She smiles sleepily and says it’s Ted Bundy-esque, but cute. Then he talks about all the things they’ll teach their baby, like how to ride a bike, and they’ll have to set a curfew. Nina says they’ll have to relocate to 1950s America where they actually use the term “curfew”. She goes on to say it’s not exactly the ideal baby-raising environment, what with a dementia-ridden vampire lurking in the attic. They need to start thinking about the future and she will do anything to keep the baby safe.
Mitchell sneaks into his room with a handful of newspapers, scouring them for more articles on the Box Tunnel Massacre. Annie pops in and scares him. She tries to be sultry with her “coffee, tea or me?” line, but Mitchell says coffee would be great. She notices the papers and is shocked by what she finds. Mitchell says he will explain everything. Annie asks him if George knows. She hands him the newspaper page with the death notice of one George Sands, Sr.
Down in the kitchen, George can’t take his eyes off the paper. Mitchell says he’s sorry, Annie tries to help by reciting W.H. Auden’s “Funeral Blues” which somehow drifts into Cheryl Cole’s “Fight For This Love“. Bless her, she’s trying. Mitchell rescues George by saying he needs time alone. Annie, resisting the urge to hug him, punches him in the arm instead. After they’ve gone, Nina asks what George’s dad was like. “Boring. I’d look at the other kids at my school and there was always drama. Someone’s father was an alcoholic, someone else’s gambled. Someone else’s parents were getting divorced and from the outside it seemed glamorous. But my dad…he worked hard, never played away [had an affair], I don’t think I ever even heard him raise his voice. He’s…he was…ordinary. Boring. I don’t think I ever realized just how wonderful that was.” He suddenly realizes he needs to go to the funeral. He’ll be discreet so no one need know he’s there. Nina begins to make preparations so they can go and he says he needs to do it alone.
George learns about his father's death in the newspaper. Credit: SFX.com
Mitchell and Annie adjourn to Mitchell’s room where Annie can’t believe what a doofus she was. Mitchell says she was trying and that’s what she does. She makes people better. Upstairs, Herrick is writhing on his bed in agony. He’s going through blood withdrawal. Mitchell arrives and tells Herrick he’s probably begging a God he doesn’t believe in to take the pain away. If God does exist, he doesn’t listen to people like Mitchell and Herrick. He tells Herrick he can help him. Herrick doesn’t understand why he’s suffering, but deep down he must know because drinking is instinctive. Mitchell cuts his forearm and forces Herrick to drink, despite Herrick’s protests and struggling. As he’s force feeding Herrick, Mitchell reminds him that he was ripped apart by a werewolf, yet he survived. Mitchell wants to live now that he’s got something to live for and is happy, but Herrick needs to remember who he is so he can tell him how to come back. He climbs off Herrick and Herrick immediately rolls to a sitting position and tries to spit the blood out of his mouth. Mitchell realizes he alone won’t be enough to restore Herrick and vampire blood isn’t as good as fresh, human blood.
George is sneaking around a cemetery while George, Sr’s funeral is going on. He sneaks closer and closer, skulking behind trees, until he gets close enough to see someone else watching from a distance. He clears his throat a couple of times to attract the other onlooker’s attention and when he turns George realizes it’s his dad! His father can’t believe it’s him. He hoped and prayed, but he never thought he’d see George again. George can’t speak until his father tells him to say something. “I missed you, Dad!” and they embrace. George tells Dad that he’s a ghost. George, Sr. is finding it hard to take it all in. “That’s my funeral, that’s my coffin. And I’m a ghost. And no one can see me or hear me?” George reassures him that it takes a little getting used to and he’ll be fine. But Dad feels guilty, because now he knows why George stayed away for three years. Gorge is initially shocked that his dad knows what he is, then he remembers Annie knew instantly, too. George asks if his dad thinks he’s a freak. He says of course he doesn’t. Dad asks when it, y’know, how did it begin for George. He said he wished George had come to him and he says his mother never gave up hope. George notices the man standing next to his mother is his old PE teacher, Mr. Logue. “Made my life a bloody misery! Left me hanging from the high bars for forty-five minutes once! Still can’t watch the Olympics without having flashbacks.” He turns to his dad and asks what exactly is going on.
At the B&B, the buzzer rings. Mitchell goes out to see, but there’s no one there. He steps out and a woman is there. She asks if he’s John Mitchell, he says yes and she flashes her badge at him. She’s DC Reed from CID. If he could answer some questions, great. If not, that’s okay, too. Because she’s “from a major time-wasting unit and she needs to make sure she inconveniences as many members of the public as possible.” Her heel broke and she fell most spectacularly, gashing her shin in the process. She asks to come inside to clean it up.
The law comes for John Mitchell. Credit: BBC.co.uk
George’s dad takes him to the caravan where he’s been living since George’s parents separated. Apparently, Mrs. Sands and Mr. Logue were in the same salsa dancing class and got paired up and it “just went from there.” They take a minor detour about whether “kick-ball-change” is used in salsa dancing or not and we suspect this is where George gets his pedantry. George asks what he did when he found out about the two of them and he seems resigned to the fact that his wife of 25 years would rather go off with some new fella. Logue makes her happy. George can’t believe his ears and wonders how Logue wound up moving into their house and his dad wound up like the King of the Gypsies. Dad says he’ll make them a cup of tea and George sighs, “Oh God, not another ghost who makes tea they can’t drink.” George’s father stops a minute and says it’s a force of habit.
The two of them are walking through some allotments, and George, Sr. is grilling George about passing over. George says a Door comes and then you walk through. George, Sr. wants to know what kind of Door. “This is what concerns you?” George chuckles. “Not what lies beyond the Door but the materials used to construct it?” He explains that his dad is obviously hanging around for a reason and when that reason is resolved, a Door will appear and he can move on. They get to a burned out shed and Dad explains that there was a fire in the shed. George is distraught that his dad died in such a scary and painful way but George, Sr. just brushes it off. He fell asleep in the shed and when he opened his eyes it was over. George wants to comfort his dad, but Dad doesn’t know why he came back and wants to leave in a hurry.
Nina is helping DC Reed clean up her leg and Herrick is listening in at the fireplace in the attic. She tells Nina she’s on a murder investigation and she’s responsible for following up the anonymous tips that are usually some nutter with an axe to grind. She complains it couldn’t be further away from real police work. As they talk, Herrick makes a hole beneath the loose floor board where Graham’s scrapbook is kept, through the ceiling and into the bathroom where Nina and DC Reed are talking. But Herrick is far more interested in Reed’s blood than their conversation. All cleaned up, DC Reed and Nina head down to the kitchen where Mitchell and Annie wait. There’s an extra cup of tea and Reed asks if it’s for her. She’s told yes so she takes a sip and stops dead. “My God, that’s a good cup of tea! Seriously, I think I’ve shagged people for less.” Annie seems quite pleased with herself, probably because no one ever compliments her on her tea-making. DC Reed asks if Mitchell knows anything about the Box Tunnel 20 and he nervously stammers that he doesn’t. Reed babbles on about how it could be an ex-girlfriend, a neighbor, someone who doesn’t like his hair or his accent, but they’ll probably never know. Reed says that’s all she has, thanks them for the truly amazing cup of tea and Mitchell escorts her to the door. Annie asks Nina who would give them Mitchell’s name and Nina says, “Like she said, we’ll probably never find out.” Annie laughs it off. “This is Mitchell we’re talking about. He’ll find out.” And now it’s Nina’s turn to look nervous. She goes into another room and calls George, saying she feels it’s better for her to be with him right now, but leaving out the part about not wanting to be at the B&B when Mitchell finds out it was she who made the call to the tip line.
George and his dad are sitting out in the rain under an umbrella discussing what George, Sr’s unfinished business might be. Senior reveals he’s never seen Titanic. George doesn’t think that’s his unfinished business, but they bunk down in the camper to watch it anyway. Next up, an unpaid newspaper tab at the local newsagent. So George dutifully goes down and pays, struggling to find the correct amount but he insists it must be paid in full. If it’s not, his dad can’t rest, though he doesn’t mention that to the man behind the counter or the growing line of angry customers behind him. George, Sr. also apparently told Aunt Linda that she could eat pasta on the Atkins Diet so George makes the call and corrects her. Having gone through their list, George, Sr. tells George that when he’s gone, George should go see his mum. George says no, the only reason he came back was for his funeral. He has to keep what he’s become separate. Dad says she would cope, after all, he did. George says that death gives a great sense of perspective and he can’t ever go see her. Nina arrives at the trailer and greets George, “So…your dad’s a ghost. AND a pikey.”
Back at home, Annie is giving Mitchell the third degree. She wants to know why someone is trying to pin the murders of the Box Tunnel 20 on him. He says it’s like the policewoman said, they’ll probably never know. Annie says she might believe that if he weren’t so shaken by the accusation. Mitchell swears he had nothing to do with it and Annie begs him to tell her what’s worrying him. Mitchell finally admits it was Daisy, but he can’t give her name to the cops because it would throw a light onto their world, which has been carefully hidden from humanity for centuries. Mitchell says they have a code and they all have to live by it but Annie says it’s only them and if he won’t protect himself then she will.
Herrick is sneaking around upstairs and goes into the bathroom where Nina helped DC Reed clean her wound. Herrick seems drawn there, like he smells the blood. Sure enough, he digs the blood-soaked tissue out of the wastebasket and shoves it into his mouth, sucking. After a short but rhapsodic moment, he seems to realize that this is what he needs.
Back in the caravan, Nina and George, Sr. are getting to know each other. He shows her his prized “Sporch”, a spoon with a torch (flashlight) on the end. “When you live life on the open road, everything has to earn its place. No room for luxuries.” Just then, something in the kitchen dings and he announces that their cupcakes are done. He says to Nina that George told him she and he had the same thing. He asks if that was how they met. Nina fudges the details and said yes and that they met at a hospital with her ranting in George’s general direction. She says she should rein it in but George, Sr. says no, that’s the spark a relationship needs. When Ruth, George’s mum, lost that spark, he couldn’t help her get it back. “I’ll tell you something. When everything fades to silence, you miss those one-sided arguments.”
George and Nina are walking arm in arm down a leafy path. George comes to the realization that his parents’ separation is more than just about his mum having an affair, the stress of his disappearance tore them apart. Nina says George, Sr. wanted her to tell George something about his unfinished business. It’s not something Dad needs to do, it’s something George needs to do. If he goes to see his mum and reunites as a family, George, Sr. knows he’d be able to move on. He says he can’t do that but Nina says she doesn’t think he has a choice.
DC Nancy Reed is having a hell of a time dealing with her boss, Cooper. He calls her “Nancy Drew” because she’s so desperate to find clues for the Box Tunnel Massacre. She wants to go back and re-interview Mitchell because she could tell he was hiding something. He angrily tells her to drop it and that she’s grasping at straws. Anyway, it doesn’t matter because, under his boss’s orders, she’ll be stuck in the office for a while helping out with the witness appeal. She makes an impassioned plea to Cooper. She saw what was left of the bodies in that train carriage and she wants to catch the butcher who did that to them. He dismissively says that she will. Annie has been watching the exchange and tells her, though Nancy can’t hear it, that she shouldn’t beat herself up about it. Looks like Annie’s taking the case, too. As Nancy is working on a photo board for the Box Tunnel 20, Annie saunters up pretending she’s a hard-boiled cop and tells Nancy she’s phoned and gotten Cooper off her back. Nancy steps away and Annie stops. There’s a face she recognizes on the victim board: Lia.
George and Nina walk to his mother’s house, named “Sandscastle”, and he knocks on the door. When she answers, he simply says, “Hi, mum.” Inside George and Nina (mostly George) are getting the third degree from Mr. Logue. He’s assumed his PE teacher persona and George falls right back into nervous, unathletic student mode. Logue wants to know why George left and George manages to stammer something about joining a cult. George details their escape from the cult, which sounds remarkably like the escape in The Shawshank Redemption. Too bad for George, Logue seems to have seen that movie, too. Nina says “Well, that’s where we got the…frankly ludicrous idea from.” Even Nina looks like she’s on the naughty step now. Logue steps up the interrogation, determined to find more holes in George’s Swiss cheese of a story. What was the name of the cult? “The…uh…Church of Earth…the Church of Earth…Wind…and Fire.” Mum says she can’t believe all this. She had thought maybe he’d tell her he’d had an accident and suffered memory loss. “Yes, which, arguably, would have made more sense,” admits George. Logue tells Ruth that she has to take some responsibility for George. Obviously he didn’t have a disciplined upbringing and if you don’t get the basics right, they’re going to be screwed up. Nina’s had enough. “You sound like an expert, Marcus.” “Well, I am a teacher.” “Of rounders.” Ruth says George’s dad wasn’t very good at disciplining and Logue snaps back, “He wasn’t very good at anything. Apart from getting himself killed.” George is finally driven to anger and Logue dismisses him as having anger management issues as well. Nina tells him to ignore Logue. Ruth says it was cruel and selfish of him to not contact them for three years and she excuses herself from the room.
Annie is in the kitchen telling Mitchell what she saw in the police station. Her seeing Lia has impressed upon her how everything is linked and how everything happens for a reason. She shows him Lia’s photo from the wall. He is stunned, but manages to cover and asks who it is. Annie says surely he must know, but he denies it. She says she saw Lia in Purgatory and thought he might have seen her, too. He asks why she has the photo and Annie said she was one of the Box Tunnel 20. She needs to help Nancy solve the case, not just for Mitchell’s sake, but for Lia’s too. In the office later, Nancy sees a post-it on her monitor reading: “Box Tunnel 20 – Ask J. Mitchell what Daisy did.” Annie is there, proud she’s helping and getting Nancy to move forward on the case.
George and Nina are back at the trailer, where there’s music blaring. George says he knew it didn’t work because his dad’s still there. They open the door to find George, Sr. dancing and eating crisps. George exclaims, “Oh my God! You’re not dead!” Caught in the act, Dad says, “I can explain.” He goes on to tell them how one night he couldn’t sleep so he went down to the allotments and his shed had burned down. His friend Paul, a policeman, was there and shocked to see George, Sr. because they had found a body in the shed, burned beyond recognition. It was probably some homeless guy looking for warmth, but everyone assumed it was him. Paul handed him his phone so he could call someone to let them know he was okay, but he realized he had no one to call. So he decided to start over and convinced Paul to help him. By the time George showed up, it had gone too far, but the talk of unfinished business made him think he could stall for time and spend more time with George. Nina asked why he went to his funeral and he said he wanted to see Ruth before he left. Nina knows he still loves her and George says he can’t just walk away from her. As proof she still loves him, he shows his dad the death notice where she had written: “Always in my thoughts, always in my heart.” George, Sr. looks at the notice and points out a “your/you’re” error and we know for sure that’s where George got his pedantry.
George sees his father again for the first time in three years. Credit: audenshawreviews.blogspot.com
Cue the training montage. George and Nina are trying to help George, Sr. figure out what to say to Ruth when he sees her again. He tries being forthright and logical but comes off more as an accountant. Then he tries forceful and sounds “rapey.” They try to steer him more toward “Funny/butch, witty but tough, rugged but quirky.” They arrive at Sandscastle and Ruth welcomes them in with a smile, wanting to do things properly this time. George stops her at the door and unveils George, Sr. She is beyond stunned, but Logue comes around the corner and stops. “Oh, you’re having a f***ing laugh!” In the back yard, Logue is grilling and complaining that they should let him know when more dead relatives are due to arrive. Ruth ignores him and attempts to understand why George, Sr. faked his own death. Logue bitches and moans and stomps off into the house. She still loves him, but when she told him about Logue all he said was, “That’s a shame.” He didn’t fight for her. He wants to try again and she’s about to agree when Logue shows up to shoo them all off. He’s not having it. Logue pushes him and Dad punches him, laying him out. Ruth sees her husband in a whole new light. He is willing to fight for her! George, Sr. says he came back from the dead for her. Logue packs his things and leaves, screaming that they’re all a bunch of weirdos. “You don’t know the half of it,” smirks George.
Back inside, George sits his parents down and explains that he wasn’t really in a cult. He wants to come clean with them and Nina asks if he’s sure. He nods and eventually says the words, “I’m a werewolf.” It’s a big moment for him. But his folks obviously believe it’s something more mundane. Dad asks if he’s on medication and George goes along with it. They say he’ll get better and they’ll make sure he does.
Nancy wants information about Daisy from Mitchell, but he’s not exactly forthcoming. Annie badgers him to tell all about Daisy so Nancy can go after her. Nancy asks if Daisy ever mentioned the Box Tunnel 20 to him. He says she did, shortly after it happened. She seemed to know a lot about it, describing the scene and the bodies, like she’d been there. When asked if he knows where to find Daisy, he says he doesn’t. She excuses herself to the bathroom, giving Annie time to glower at him.
Back at the campsite, George’s parents are making preparations to take the caravan on the road to Cornwall. George is glad he finally came clean to his parents, even though they don’t believe him and will probably have him committed – at least he told them. Dad misquotes Titanic and George tells Nina, “don’t ask.”
As Nancy’s washing up in the bathroom, someone appears on the other side of the beveled glass door. It’s Herrick, looking all sinister and stalkery. She asks if he lives there and Herrick replies he’s staying with his niece. She says she thinks Nina is lovely. And what about John? He’s lovely, too. Herrick says she wouldn’t say that if she knew. He advances on her and she steps back. He says he’ll tell her, but it’s a secret. She says he can whisper if he likes. Nancy leans in and Herrick can hear her blood rushing through her veins. He leans in, struggling to control his impulse to bite when she’s practically offering her neck to him. He finally says, “I can’t tell you, but I can show you.” He takes her up to the attic and shows her the scrapbook. She runs downstairs and is almost out the door when Mitchell stops her. He tells her if he hears anything from Daisy he’ll let her know. Then, as she’s rushing out the door, he says, “I thought you were supposed to solve crimes, not commit them.” He’s seen the scrapbook in her bag but she denies it. He menaces her and she says it’s quite the collection. He admits to being interested and she says it’s a sick hobby. “So is taxidermy, but there’s no law against that either. Now unless you produce a warrant from that ridiculous bag, I suggest that you give me back that book. I won’t ask you again.” She wrestles it out of her bag and shoves it at him. She reaches behind her and feels for the doorknob, keeping eye contact until the door is open and she’s on her way out. She races to the car and, once she’s safe inside, looks back up at the house and says, “Gotcha.” Mitchell heads back into the back yard and has a fire lit in an old oil drum. He rips out the pages of the scrapbook and tosses them into the fire, then tosses the whole thing in and watches it burn.
From outward appearances, a seemingly inconsequential filler episode with George going home to see his parents, but it’s the B-story here that grabs your attention and drives the season forward. The police are finally on to Mitchell and, sooner or later, he’s going to have to pay for what he and Daisy did on the train. Not only that, but Annie’s going to help him get caught, whether she realizes it or not.
Back to the A-story a moment, though. This aired in the UK the same week we got the Syfy episode where Josh goes to see his own parents, who also split up over the loss of their son. There’s no doubt in my mind that the US episode was copying the UK storyline despite the fact we got this episode weeks later. If you’re a fan of British television, how cute was it to see James Fleet (a.k.a. the lovably dim Hugo Horton in The Vicar of Dibley) as George Sands, Sr.? I squealed when I saw him and thought he was perfectly cast. Sure, he’s not exactly acting royalty, but it’s been nice to see guest stars of the caliber of him and Robson Green this series. And if you’ve never seen The Vicar of Dibley and are a fan of British comedy, I strongly encourage you to check it out. It’s available on Netflix and should be at most good DVD rental outlets.
And what about Herrick, still shuffling around upstairs in his pajamas? He showed Nancy the scrapbook and really got her thinking she’s got her man. He still doesn’t remember who he is, but he’s got an irresistible hankering for blood that he’s bound to succumb to, and soon. There are only two more episodes this series, you know.
And speaking of those episodes, next week, McNair and Tom are back at Honolulu Heights and it’s the night of the full moon! And DC Reed is back again, too. She’s hot on Mitchell’s trail and Annie is proud of how she’s helped her, but with obvious misgivings as she’s launched a little blonde bullet straight at Mitchell. Though it’s not a wolf-shaped bullet…but with all four werewolves under one roof, can that be far away?
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