Review: Being Human 3.5: The Longest Day

A frightened and confused Herrick

Pure f*****g gold. I must say, my expectations for this episode were waivering slightly - the decision to "resurrect" Series One villian Herrick at the end of the last series was very rushed and, as we've seen, has taken quite a while to pay off. But pay off it has, and this episode excells in delivering a perfect mix of all the themes that Being Human holds to its heart. There weren't any sudden jumps in tone or attitude; everything flowed into one another and made for a powerful experience. Add in the opportunity for some fan-speculation, and you've got yourself the perfect formula.
     While wandering around near the acute psychiatric ward, George notices Herrick and is visibly shocked. Somewhat luckily for him, Herrick has absolutely no idea who or where he is. After alerting Nina, the two, hoping to avoid the police photographing the vampire, take him home and pretend that he's Nina's uncle Billy, an identity that Herrick seems to accept. Annie and the two Werewolves, while at first cautious, eventually decide that he's harmless company for the moment. A paranoid Mitchell has other ideas, and is hell bent on either staking Herrick or finding out how he was ressurrected.
      Two unlikely visitors arrive (seperately) to spoil Mitchell's rampage - manic social worker Wendy (Nicola Walker, whose comic relief character not only sews together the episode but stands out as realistic and wonderfully understated) who has arrived to check up on "Uncle Billy"'s care, and then Cara (an ex-regular Vampire played by Rebecca Cooper, in one of the more sympathetic portrayls of her character). Mitchell finds out from Cara that Herrick was resurrected by her blood, and upon learning that Herrick (who now only knows her as "that woman that bled on me") is disgusted by her she stakes herself.

Wendy. "Bloody Druids on the Motorway"

     Wrapping up, Wendy is sent away nicely by Nina after a really quite fun exchange. Herrick is starting to get suspicious after realising that Annie was invisible to the social worker, and later finds Mitchell's book of newspaper clippings about his activities that he requisitioned off of Grahame, and shows it to perceived Niece Nina, who in her anger at Mitchell informs on him to the Box Tunnel 20 helpline. Meanwhile, George has confronted Mitchell about his mad behaviour and threatens to permanently end their friendship if he stakes Herrick. Mitchell "realises" to himself that the Wolf-shaped bullet could be Nina, who already hates him with a passion.
     Following on from last week's lessons about the Pack, George and Nina started to act a lot more pack-like in nature, ganging up on Mitchell who they perceived as a potential threat to their unborn child. Following internet theories, Herrick himself didn't seem to be able to smell the two Werewolves, and made many, many self-referential puns about dogs ("Come on, throw the dog a bone", etc.) as if to suggest that his murder by George's claws had left him with something more than amnesia.

Herrick's rushed "resurrection".

     The subtlety and wit in this week's script was amazing, and so was the tremendously powerful and damn flexible acting that put it to screen. This is, I must say, the best episode of the series so far, no doubt assisted by the acting talents of the understated Nicola Walker and the menacing presence of Jason Watkins as Herrick. Good bloody job.

Becoming Human, Episode Four
Ok, now that I'm over the whole time thing, I can take a look at the episode critically. Like usual, we didn't progress much past a single scene, but that scene did manage to get across a decent coformplexity of character across the spectrum for all three characters. The only actor whose a bit rusty is surprisingly the most experienced; Craig Roberts felt at times like he was just reading his lines.

Thanks.