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In a bowling alley at the Castle Cross Mall, a girl gets a good shot.
Her ball is then swallowed by an Anomaly. Hard luck.
Is it usual for British shopping centres to have bowling alleys? Over here in Ireland it's not, although increasingly cinemas in centres have video games and things to occupy you while you're waiting for your movie to start.
Nick recaps Season One in seven sentences.
Nick attempts to jump back through the Anomaly, which is fading. Connor and Stephen hold him back until it closes fully.
Oddly, although he’s so close to the Anomaly the light’s passing in front of him, it still takes him about five steps to get to it – long enough for Stephen and Connor to grab him.
He tries again to make the others remember Claudia, but they don't know her; day-to-day operations, previously Claudia's job, are now handled by Oliver Leek, and they're working out of the Anomaly Research Centre – ARC. Significant acronym ahoy!
Lester, completely uninterested – “Is he having a nervous breakdown? Anyway, I’ve got a meeting, so if someone could call an ambulance...” – wanders off, as do the others. Friendship!fail, by the way – they're not concerned even when Nick collapses! Surely whatever he’s saying, they should still worry when he falls.
(Teeny continuity error – when Stephen and Connor are grabbing for Nick, you can see Abby’s jacket sleeve flying around on the left of the screen. Two shots later, after Stephen’s line, Abby is pulling the jacket free from around her waist. Guess watching her boss go crazy makes her cold? She’s wearing it a minute later, anyway.)
The Mall has closed for the night. Two security guards see something odd on the CCTV. Investigating, they're eaten.
At the ARC, the team wander through the rec room. Nick, who has never seen this place before, is a little bewildered and heads into the main room. Lester and Leek have just been informed of a new incursion. Nick doesn't recognise him, but pretends to. Only Connor is not fooled. Leek sucks up to Lester.
Connor decides he believes Cutter, which is a huge relief to him. He offers to kiss Connor, immediately launching a thousand slash fics.
"One thing, though. How do I know I'm different? When I don't know what I was like before?"
"Apparently some people never change."
"Is that a bad or a good thing?"
British people, do you call them malls? I thought that was an Americanism?
At the mall, Stephen and Abby are amused when Connor asks for a gun. Poor Connor. Not only do they not give him a gun, they leave him to lock up the gun boxes when they're done.
Apparently the ARC only had Ryan and his two men, because there are no soldiers accompanying the team. I thought that was against the rules? Maybe not in this universe.
They head across a concourse into the mall proper, where they almost kill the duty manager. Nick orders him to leave and lock them in. The manager agrees, and it only occurs to him to question them as the shutters are closing.
Per Andrew-Lee Potts, the watch-looking thing on Connor’s wrist is actually a compass. Odd, then, that he’s using a handheld one to look for the Anomaly...
Stephen attempts to apologise to Nick for sleeping with Helen. Nick doesn't want to hear it right now.
Connor finds the Creature on the CCTV. It's a Raptor. Our first real dinosaur! Nick is entranced, as always.
Nick and Stephen find the Anomaly in the boiler room. It seems to have moved from the bowling alley, for some reason. They can't tell how many might have come through or if they've gone back. Nick is almost hit by a spanner as it flies into the Anomaly.
I have a problem with that; if the spanner was loose enough to fly into the Anomaly, why only do it now? And if it wasn't loose enough, what changed?
Upstairs, Connor is helping himself to a slushy. On the upside, he pays; on the downside, it's Abby's money, though she seems more fond than angry as she gives it to him.
Before he can enjoy the drink, a Raptor appears. It's not terribly interested in him until he starts running; Abby is lowering a shutter, and he dives under it just in time. It's very Indiana Jones – he even has the hat.
Bizarrely, he then complains of a brain freeze even though it’s been at least a minute since he had a drink. Isn’t brain freeze more instantaneous than that?
The team come across the Cleaner on the upper level. Nick sends Abby and Connor to get him out of the building.
At the ARC, the Ministry want Lester to hire a PR manager. Lester doesn't like the idea, until he realises it would mean he wouldn't have to lie the Anomalies away anymore. He's also kind of nasty to Leek, who is irritating, but at this point doesn't seem to have anything else wrong with him.
The Cleaner needs his jacket, so Abby and Connor divert to a locker room.
Nick and Stephen track the Raptor to a laser quest arena. It jumps Stephen, who drops his gun; Nick attempts to shoot, but the gun jams. The noise and lights of the arena scare the Raptor off.
Connor begs the gun from Abby and acts out his James Bond fantasy.
"Clear! Clear, guys."
"Connor. You're ridiculous."
"What d'you mean, I'm ridiculous? I'm just doing my job."
A baby Raptor, hiding in exactly the right locker, jumps out at the Cleaner and bites him in the neck before darting under a bench.
Connor, in trying to shot it, actually hits Abby in a feat so impossible it should be lauded, before eventually hitting the baby.
Upstairs Stephen has accused Nick of deliberately not firing, hoping the Raptor would kill him. Revenge for Helen. Nick scoffs. He doesn't care enough about Helen to want revenge on her behalf. Also, he'd just kill Stephen himself if that was what he wanted.
They hear something below them and head down a staircase to check it out. The Raptor attacks them. Stephen attempts to shoot it but the gun jams. On his second try the Raptor goes down. It looks very fake when it collapses in from of Nick.
A little later the pair are admiring the Raptor.
"Look at it, just a perfect killing machine. Do you know, in a fair fight, mammals wouldn't stand a chance."
"Well, speaking as a mammal, I'm all in favour of cheating."
They make up over Helen, deciding not to let her hurt them.
Connor arrives, pulling the unconscious Abby on a trolley. Stephen says she should be fine, apart from a bad headache.
Connor brings Nick back to the locker room, but the Cleaner has vanished. Connor, did you actually leave a badly injured, bleeding man alone in a mall with Raptors in it? Really? You’ve got a radio, why not call for help? Also, neither of them seem to notice that there’s no blood. Someone’s cleaning up, pun intended.
Nick collects the baby Raptor, telling Connor to bring it back to the bowling alley and then meet him 'at the store'. Surely the whole place is full of stores? Isn't that the point of shopping malls?
Connor isn't happy at his assignment. "What if it's just playing dead?"
"Well, it's a Cretaceous era predator, so this creature is pretty smart, so....yeah, he's probably...watch out for that."
Nick and Stephen pass an electronics store with the Raptor. For some reason, the radios are switched on, and some of them are broadcasting static.
Connor leaves Abby in the bowling alley, along with both the parent and baby Raptors. Bravo, Connor.
The others are in the security office when Connor joins them.
Brief worry about who's guarding Abby escalates into panic when they realise there are two parent Raptors, and the loose one is heading for the bowling alley. Nick and Stephen run for it, leaving Connor on the cameras.
There's a lot of running around before Nick and Stephen reach the bowling alley. The raptor hasn't reached it yet, and Abby is still safe.
“Connor, she’s fine.”
The baby Raptor starts to wake up. Nick suggests using it to draw in the other one. Connor arrives as they secure the baby. It cries hard enough to draw in the last Raptor, which promptly eats it. Apparently it can also bite through chain, as the one holding the baby disappears well before the Raptor eats it.
Abby wakes up at just the wrong time, drawing its attention. Connor tries to pull her away, but the Raptor cuts them off. Nick and Stephen try shooting it, but it doesn't work. Connor arms himself and Abby with pool cues.
Luckily, they don't have to use them, as a game machine suddenly sparks to life – what is it with this mall? Where I work, everything bar cameras and air con goes off at night – and the Raptor kills it before wandering off.
Nick suggests uping the tranquilizer dose. Stephen is not down with that shit and goes after the really big guns. Nick tries to stop him, because what if they change the past again? Stephen doesn't believe the past has changed at all yet.
They pass some kids playing in the car park.
"Hey! Did you see an animal pass this way?"
"A dog, a polar bear, what?"
"No, trust me, you'd know if you'd seen it."
Nick and Stephen pinch their motorbikes and start back to the mall, drawing the Raptor after them. It’s very James Bond-y music. They drop the bikes once inside and head for a lift. The Raptor clings on underneath and swings up after them when they reach the next floor.
Connor, in his Big Damn Heroes moment, barrels up from behind them "Look out, out of the way!" and shoots. He takes the Raptor down in ONE SHOT. ONE SHOT, y'all.
Nick gives him a hug, which he definitely deserves.
Connor accompanies Abby down a flight of stairs a little later. Why? The lifts are working, Nick and Stephen were in one a few minutes ago! Why make the poor girl hobble around like that?
Connor attempts to reassures her, but being Connor, it doesn't go very well. "You know, Abby, I want you to know something. If I was going to shoot anyone, you'd so be like the last person I'd shoot. Apart from me mother, obviously. But you'd be way down the bottom of the list with her. In fact I don't think I'd shoot either of you."
Abby is not reassured, especially since he's playing with the gun and aiming it in her general direction.
Down at the Anomaly, Abby is examining the Raptor by feel. Connor, meanwhile, isn't too happy about the plan - "All we have to do is drag two of the angriest creatures in the known universe, through a hole in time, back into an ancient world where we don't know what's waiting on the other side for us."
"When you put it like that it sounds so easy."
I love the effects here – parts of the Anomaly are floating in front of them, it’s gorgeous.
Nick takes Connor to the electronics store, where the radios are still spitting out static. Nick's theory is that the Anomaly is causing the interference; Connor realises that if that's true, they could detect Anomalies within seconds of their opening. No more waiting for people to die or Creatures to appear. Nick puts Connor in charge of that project "if I don't make it back this time."
Abby asks Nick about Claudia.
"She was okay. Good at her job, loyal. Team player. And not as tough as she pretended to be. But she was strong when it mattered."
Abby tells him she's sorry. "That I didn't know her, and 'cause you lost her. I want to believe you. I really do. But it's hard."
Nick brings all three Raptors through the Anomaly. He considers for a moment before turning to walk away.
Stephen has followed him, though, guessing he'd try something like this. Nick wants things back the way they were. But Stephen points out that he could travel the Anomalies the rest of his life and never make it back."You could change a million things and still not get Claudia back. All you know, is what's happening right here, right now. Now, for once in your life, forget about the past, 'cause you've got a job to do."
Nick capitulates and they head back for the Anomaly. Displaying fantastic dramatic timing, it starts to fade. And then a Raptor starts chasing them.
Nick dives back through the Anomaly. Stephen makes it halfway, but a Raptor is chewing on his foot. Nick and Connor pull him fully through and the closing Anomaly chops the Raptor in half.
Connor and Nick sit in the electronics department. The static has vanished. Connor thinks he’ll be able to build a detector now. “Now all we have to do is find out what’s causing the anomalies in the first place.”
“That might take a wee bit longer.”
At the ARC Lester is so pleased to hear the Anomaly’s been dealt with – “You deserve a rest and a chance to recover. Take an hour. No, let’s not be mean. Take two.” He wants Nick and the others back to meet the new PR guy.
Nick doesn’t much care and is late back to the ARC. Lester is not impressed, but puts up and introduces Jennifer Lewis.
“Claudia Brown.”
Her ball is then swallowed by an Anomaly. Hard luck.
Is it usual for British shopping centres to have bowling alleys? Over here in Ireland it's not, although increasingly cinemas in centres have video games and things to occupy you while you're waiting for your movie to start.
Nick recaps Season One in seven sentences.
Nick attempts to jump back through the Anomaly, which is fading. Connor and Stephen hold him back until it closes fully.
Oddly, although he’s so close to the Anomaly the light’s passing in front of him, it still takes him about five steps to get to it – long enough for Stephen and Connor to grab him.
He tries again to make the others remember Claudia, but they don't know her; day-to-day operations, previously Claudia's job, are now handled by Oliver Leek, and they're working out of the Anomaly Research Centre – ARC. Significant acronym ahoy!
Lester, completely uninterested – “Is he having a nervous breakdown? Anyway, I’ve got a meeting, so if someone could call an ambulance...” – wanders off, as do the others. Friendship!fail, by the way – they're not concerned even when Nick collapses! Surely whatever he’s saying, they should still worry when he falls.
(Teeny continuity error – when Stephen and Connor are grabbing for Nick, you can see Abby’s jacket sleeve flying around on the left of the screen. Two shots later, after Stephen’s line, Abby is pulling the jacket free from around her waist. Guess watching her boss go crazy makes her cold? She’s wearing it a minute later, anyway.)
The Mall has closed for the night. Two security guards see something odd on the CCTV. Investigating, they're eaten.
At the ARC, the team wander through the rec room. Nick, who has never seen this place before, is a little bewildered and heads into the main room. Lester and Leek have just been informed of a new incursion. Nick doesn't recognise him, but pretends to. Only Connor is not fooled. Leek sucks up to Lester.
Connor decides he believes Cutter, which is a huge relief to him. He offers to kiss Connor, immediately launching a thousand slash fics.
"One thing, though. How do I know I'm different? When I don't know what I was like before?"
"Apparently some people never change."
"Is that a bad or a good thing?"
British people, do you call them malls? I thought that was an Americanism?
At the mall, Stephen and Abby are amused when Connor asks for a gun. Poor Connor. Not only do they not give him a gun, they leave him to lock up the gun boxes when they're done.
Apparently the ARC only had Ryan and his two men, because there are no soldiers accompanying the team. I thought that was against the rules? Maybe not in this universe.
They head across a concourse into the mall proper, where they almost kill the duty manager. Nick orders him to leave and lock them in. The manager agrees, and it only occurs to him to question them as the shutters are closing.
Per Andrew-Lee Potts, the watch-looking thing on Connor’s wrist is actually a compass. Odd, then, that he’s using a handheld one to look for the Anomaly...
Stephen attempts to apologise to Nick for sleeping with Helen. Nick doesn't want to hear it right now.
Connor finds the Creature on the CCTV. It's a Raptor. Our first real dinosaur! Nick is entranced, as always.
Nick and Stephen find the Anomaly in the boiler room. It seems to have moved from the bowling alley, for some reason. They can't tell how many might have come through or if they've gone back. Nick is almost hit by a spanner as it flies into the Anomaly.
I have a problem with that; if the spanner was loose enough to fly into the Anomaly, why only do it now? And if it wasn't loose enough, what changed?
Upstairs, Connor is helping himself to a slushy. On the upside, he pays; on the downside, it's Abby's money, though she seems more fond than angry as she gives it to him.
Before he can enjoy the drink, a Raptor appears. It's not terribly interested in him until he starts running; Abby is lowering a shutter, and he dives under it just in time. It's very Indiana Jones – he even has the hat.
Bizarrely, he then complains of a brain freeze even though it’s been at least a minute since he had a drink. Isn’t brain freeze more instantaneous than that?
The team come across the Cleaner on the upper level. Nick sends Abby and Connor to get him out of the building.
At the ARC, the Ministry want Lester to hire a PR manager. Lester doesn't like the idea, until he realises it would mean he wouldn't have to lie the Anomalies away anymore. He's also kind of nasty to Leek, who is irritating, but at this point doesn't seem to have anything else wrong with him.
The Cleaner needs his jacket, so Abby and Connor divert to a locker room.
Nick and Stephen track the Raptor to a laser quest arena. It jumps Stephen, who drops his gun; Nick attempts to shoot, but the gun jams. The noise and lights of the arena scare the Raptor off.
Connor begs the gun from Abby and acts out his James Bond fantasy.
"Clear! Clear, guys."
"Connor. You're ridiculous."
"What d'you mean, I'm ridiculous? I'm just doing my job."
A baby Raptor, hiding in exactly the right locker, jumps out at the Cleaner and bites him in the neck before darting under a bench.
Connor, in trying to shot it, actually hits Abby in a feat so impossible it should be lauded, before eventually hitting the baby.
Upstairs Stephen has accused Nick of deliberately not firing, hoping the Raptor would kill him. Revenge for Helen. Nick scoffs. He doesn't care enough about Helen to want revenge on her behalf. Also, he'd just kill Stephen himself if that was what he wanted.
They hear something below them and head down a staircase to check it out. The Raptor attacks them. Stephen attempts to shoot it but the gun jams. On his second try the Raptor goes down. It looks very fake when it collapses in from of Nick.
A little later the pair are admiring the Raptor.
"Look at it, just a perfect killing machine. Do you know, in a fair fight, mammals wouldn't stand a chance."
"Well, speaking as a mammal, I'm all in favour of cheating."
They make up over Helen, deciding not to let her hurt them.
Connor arrives, pulling the unconscious Abby on a trolley. Stephen says she should be fine, apart from a bad headache.
Connor brings Nick back to the locker room, but the Cleaner has vanished. Connor, did you actually leave a badly injured, bleeding man alone in a mall with Raptors in it? Really? You’ve got a radio, why not call for help? Also, neither of them seem to notice that there’s no blood. Someone’s cleaning up, pun intended.
Nick collects the baby Raptor, telling Connor to bring it back to the bowling alley and then meet him 'at the store'. Surely the whole place is full of stores? Isn't that the point of shopping malls?
Connor isn't happy at his assignment. "What if it's just playing dead?"
"Well, it's a Cretaceous era predator, so this creature is pretty smart, so....yeah, he's probably...watch out for that."
Nick and Stephen pass an electronics store with the Raptor. For some reason, the radios are switched on, and some of them are broadcasting static.
Connor leaves Abby in the bowling alley, along with both the parent and baby Raptors. Bravo, Connor.
The others are in the security office when Connor joins them.
Brief worry about who's guarding Abby escalates into panic when they realise there are two parent Raptors, and the loose one is heading for the bowling alley. Nick and Stephen run for it, leaving Connor on the cameras.
There's a lot of running around before Nick and Stephen reach the bowling alley. The raptor hasn't reached it yet, and Abby is still safe.
“Connor, she’s fine.”
The baby Raptor starts to wake up. Nick suggests using it to draw in the other one. Connor arrives as they secure the baby. It cries hard enough to draw in the last Raptor, which promptly eats it. Apparently it can also bite through chain, as the one holding the baby disappears well before the Raptor eats it.
Abby wakes up at just the wrong time, drawing its attention. Connor tries to pull her away, but the Raptor cuts them off. Nick and Stephen try shooting it, but it doesn't work. Connor arms himself and Abby with pool cues.
Luckily, they don't have to use them, as a game machine suddenly sparks to life – what is it with this mall? Where I work, everything bar cameras and air con goes off at night – and the Raptor kills it before wandering off.
Nick suggests uping the tranquilizer dose. Stephen is not down with that shit and goes after the really big guns. Nick tries to stop him, because what if they change the past again? Stephen doesn't believe the past has changed at all yet.
They pass some kids playing in the car park.
"Hey! Did you see an animal pass this way?"
"A dog, a polar bear, what?"
"No, trust me, you'd know if you'd seen it."
Nick and Stephen pinch their motorbikes and start back to the mall, drawing the Raptor after them. It’s very James Bond-y music. They drop the bikes once inside and head for a lift. The Raptor clings on underneath and swings up after them when they reach the next floor.
Connor, in his Big Damn Heroes moment, barrels up from behind them "Look out, out of the way!" and shoots. He takes the Raptor down in ONE SHOT. ONE SHOT, y'all.
Nick gives him a hug, which he definitely deserves.
Connor accompanies Abby down a flight of stairs a little later. Why? The lifts are working, Nick and Stephen were in one a few minutes ago! Why make the poor girl hobble around like that?
Connor attempts to reassures her, but being Connor, it doesn't go very well. "You know, Abby, I want you to know something. If I was going to shoot anyone, you'd so be like the last person I'd shoot. Apart from me mother, obviously. But you'd be way down the bottom of the list with her. In fact I don't think I'd shoot either of you."
Abby is not reassured, especially since he's playing with the gun and aiming it in her general direction.
Down at the Anomaly, Abby is examining the Raptor by feel. Connor, meanwhile, isn't too happy about the plan - "All we have to do is drag two of the angriest creatures in the known universe, through a hole in time, back into an ancient world where we don't know what's waiting on the other side for us."
"When you put it like that it sounds so easy."
I love the effects here – parts of the Anomaly are floating in front of them, it’s gorgeous.
Nick takes Connor to the electronics store, where the radios are still spitting out static. Nick's theory is that the Anomaly is causing the interference; Connor realises that if that's true, they could detect Anomalies within seconds of their opening. No more waiting for people to die or Creatures to appear. Nick puts Connor in charge of that project "if I don't make it back this time."
Abby asks Nick about Claudia.
"She was okay. Good at her job, loyal. Team player. And not as tough as she pretended to be. But she was strong when it mattered."
Abby tells him she's sorry. "That I didn't know her, and 'cause you lost her. I want to believe you. I really do. But it's hard."
Nick brings all three Raptors through the Anomaly. He considers for a moment before turning to walk away.
Stephen has followed him, though, guessing he'd try something like this. Nick wants things back the way they were. But Stephen points out that he could travel the Anomalies the rest of his life and never make it back."You could change a million things and still not get Claudia back. All you know, is what's happening right here, right now. Now, for once in your life, forget about the past, 'cause you've got a job to do."
Nick capitulates and they head back for the Anomaly. Displaying fantastic dramatic timing, it starts to fade. And then a Raptor starts chasing them.
Nick dives back through the Anomaly. Stephen makes it halfway, but a Raptor is chewing on his foot. Nick and Connor pull him fully through and the closing Anomaly chops the Raptor in half.
Connor and Nick sit in the electronics department. The static has vanished. Connor thinks he’ll be able to build a detector now. “Now all we have to do is find out what’s causing the anomalies in the first place.”
“That might take a wee bit longer.”
At the ARC Lester is so pleased to hear the Anomaly’s been dealt with – “You deserve a rest and a chance to recover. Take an hour. No, let’s not be mean. Take two.” He wants Nick and the others back to meet the new PR guy.
Nick doesn’t much care and is late back to the ARC. Lester is not impressed, but puts up and introduces Jennifer Lewis.
“Claudia Brown.”
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