Review: Being Human 4.7: Making History

Cutler tries to impress.

Is it really the penultimate episode? I've spent so long for this series to really get going that it doesn't really feel right for the usually powerful pre-finale to be here yet. Nevertheless, Making History did not disappoint. While it wasn't as powerful as previous pre-finales, it advanced the plot and developed the characters in ways that this series desperately needs. And, while its cliffhanger didn't have the cinematic thump that I've come to expect, it did leave me hoping that this finale would be better than the three we've had so far.
     Cutler prepared Tom to supposedly destroy the Old Ones, the arrival being merely a day away. At the same time, Hal's investigations into the Vampire PR stunt lead him to Cutler - a man whom he made and tortured a few years before he decided to go clean. Being given blood by a scheming Cutler, Hal fights between his newfound sense of ethics and his primal urges, ultimately settling upon the former when Cutler explains his plan to introduce Vampires as the saviours of the world. The Vampires, copying one of Hal's old tricks, have killed Hal's girlfriend Alex and fed him her blood, but this only makes him more resolute.
     In the afterlife, Eve takes a confused Annie on a sight-seeing tour of the future, discussing how Annie has evaporated out of sadness, Tom was killed in a dog-fight after being put in a Werewolf/Human concentration camp, and how Hal has become the most ruthless killer in the Vampires' arsenal. Claiming that the final part of the prophecy says that the war-child must die, and that she herself is the killer, Eve tells Annie that she will have to kill her at some point.

Alex is a ghost now. Woo. (pardon the pun).

     I'm just going to take issue with this for a second. Now this is immensely stupid for two reasons. The first is something I brought up when this plot reared its head in the premiere: that this is Paradox 101 and if you're trying to be a clever sci-fi writer then you should know that this is impossible. We're not talking some obscure rule of Time Travel that might have gone over the writer's heads, this is really, really basic stuff to tackle when writing about Time Travel. The second is slightly more frustrating, in that this isn't a live Eve telling Annie this, this is Ghost!Eve. Eve thinks that the young version of herself needs to die when hey, SHE'S ALREADY DEAD! By dying and coming back in time she's changed the future enough for Hal to reject blood and try and save the world, her job is as good as done. She does not need to then be incredibly stupid and try and destroy the space-time continuum!
     Hal, with the ghost of Alex (whom I hope will become the Annie's replacement in the Trio), manage to help everyone escape from the hall where Cutler had planned on revealing Werewolves, and they stop Tom from killing anyone. As we see Hal get mauled (maybe), the Old Ones arrive.
     This week shone a light very much on Cutler, and that really pushed Andrew Gower to the depths of his character. It was revealed this week that his nervous exterior was simply the reaction his original making by Hal, who, as we see in the episode's flashbacks, tortured him in many cruel and unusual ways. It was really quite interesting to see how much the power dynamics between Hal and Cutler in 1955 and 2012 affected their behaviour. This followed the pattern of previous finales, having the vampire revert to his bloody ways, but this time it was done in a much more human way.
     Eve and Annie's storyline was the one that I was most interested in, although it didn't really have the impact that I expected it to. It felt very much like a budget-saving exercise; wandering around abandoned buildings while only sound-effects of these supposedly horriffic acts of torture and despair occurred. Aside from the odd mentality, as I covered about, there was something about Eve's attitude which felt a little off to me, which was probably from Gina Bramhill's interpretation. There was the hint of a mother/daughter-esque relationship between the two of them but because of all the conflicting storylines it never got a chance to shine.

Mark fucking Gattiss is head of the Old Ones.

     Making History certainly wasn't disappointing by any stretch, and its character work was really some of the deepest that we've seen in this series so far. It's really up to viewer to decide whether this character focus makes up for a plot that promised an epic scale and has, ultimately led to answers that we worked out six weeks ago. Now I can only hope that the finale will make justice of what has been a difficult rebirth for this troubled series.

Thanks.