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MAJOR SPOILERS FOR NON CANADIANS:
This episode begins with things from a bird’s eye view, or what we assume to be from the bird’s perspective. A prehistoric bird accidentally discovers a portal into the modern world – a rail yard where two men, Blake (Patrick Gilmore) and Skeezer (Kett Turton) are growing marihuana.
They meet with a courier to whom they give a couple of bags filled with weed. He leaves on a motor bike as the two men get back to business.
They enter an abandoned train car they are using as their greenhouse only to hear a noise. These bad guys are always on the lookout for the cops, or even worse, competition, so they arm themselves and head cautiously, further into the train car looking for the source of the noise. They are surprised and relieved to discover that the interloper is a young bird of some kind.
Meanwhile, as the motorcyclist speeds along a highway, he is being pursued by something just as fast as he is. He turns in time to see a blur of beak and feathers as the shot cuts to black. Here, the brief image of the monster attacking the man gives the viewer the opportunity to let their imagination run wild. How fearsome must this creature be that it runs down a man on a motorcycle and easily dispatches him.
Toby (Crystal Lowe) and Evan (Niall Matter) are walking along a hallway at Cross Photonics. Toby is arguing for an opportunity to do some fieldwork. Evan is not making it easy for her, as he takes an unexpected detour into a room with a white board where he corrects a math equation. A white board? The show involves solving problems involving dinosaurs, not working with equipment that comes from the same era.
They head down to the lab where Dylan (Sara Canning) shows Evan some new equipment for taking down dinos. As they discuss the equipment, an alarm sounds. An anomaly has appeared in an industrial area, and as Evan and Dylan are about to leave, Toby draws attention to her previous discussion with Evan. Guilted into allowing her to come, he tells her to meet he and Dylan out there when Mac (Danny Rahim) shows up.
Evan and Dylan do not get far. Ange (Miranda Frigon) arrives as they are walking towards Evan’s vehicle. She is all business as she walks with them, first informing Dylan that she has paperwork to fill out as a new hire, then she attempts to convince Evan that he has to pay attention to the company, or he will have to lay off whole departments. Evan is still insistent that he needs to go and investigate this latest anomaly.
Finally, Ange pleads with Evan, “you’re going to get yourself killed, or you’re going to get her killed. I don’t want to go through that again”. That is still not enough to convince Evan to return to the office. These two people have got to work out their differences.
The drug dealers have ordered some chicken and seem to have made a pet out of their feathered visitor. It looks as if the creature has imprinted on one of the bad guys.
Mac has finally arrived at work just to have to turn around and accompany Toby out to the site of the anomaly readings. With Evan and Dylan already there, Dylan is treated to Evan’s gallant side as he helps her over a fence.
The one thing about drug dealers that makes a lot of sense is that they would set up an alarm system to warn them of intruders. Evan and Dylan, not realizing what they are walking into, accidentally set off the alarm. This gets them into a hostage situation, with the classic mistaken identity situation occurring where the two drug growers think Evan and Dylan are the police, whereas they just want to check for incursions.
As Evan and Dylan continue to snoop around, they come across the rail car full of cannabis. Not particularly perturbed about the whole thing, Evan comes out with, “looks like someone is growing pot out here”. Personally, I would assume that the owners of all the illegal plants might still be around. I would immediately back off and report my discovery to the cops. But that is me, and if those two did that, there would be no story.
The Blake and Skeezer point guns at Dylan and Evan. Obviously, the guy who was wielding the piece of lumber earlier, when they discovered the baby bird, has finally located his weapon. It is always good to be prepared.
Evan and then Dylan use the cover that they are animal conservation officers. They ask if the two criminals have seen anything out of the ordinary. Of course, despite the cover sounding legitimate, especially in light of their recent experience with the bird-like creature, the drug dealers choose to believe that Evan and Dylan are “narcs”, or “poachers”. So, these two dimwits are going to handle the situation. I am wondering which of them is going to get eaten first.
After accidentally hitting it with the SUV, Mac and Toby are on the lookout for a large bird that ran out in front of them, then dashed back into the woods. Toby admits that she is feeling somewhat afraid for her life. As they head back in the direction that the creature came from, they discover the telltale evidence of a motorcycle tire track, and then what is left of the rider.
Despite Toby’s fears about the damage that the creature could do, she is determined to find Evan and Dylan, who are not answering their cell phones. We can see here that the teams are forming up, with Dylan and Evan in one, and Toby and Mac taking over the other.
Back at Evan’s company, Ange has taken the call that she warned Evan about. It looks as if they have lost the contract. We can hear the frustration in her voice as she has had to make excuses for Evan. I think he should have given her authority to make the decision to sign the contract or not.
Evan and Dylan make some progress with the drug dealers. They convince the two men to let them see the bird. As one of the dealers opens a box, the young bird pokes its head out. We see the humans from the bird’s point of view.
Ange meets with Lt. Ken Leeds (Geoff Gustafson) who tells her that Evan Cross has missed three meetings with him. Ken is very astute. He has figured out that the company is likely hurting financially as a result of Evan’s distraction with the anomalies. Ken offers to arrange some deal with the government to help out. I would certainly jump at that sort of offer.
Ange is only interested in the government taking over the project with the dinos. Ange is obviously completely off her head if she thinks that will happen. Ken attempts to get her on his side by trying to call her Ange, but gets frozen out, “Ms. Finch is fine”, she answers. All he wants to do, says Ken, is show Evan Cross how helpful he can be, but he cannot do that as long as Evan will not hear him out. Ange responds that she may have an idea to solve that problem.
Dylan and Evan continue to discuss the bird that the pot perps are holding. They convince Blake, to let them leave with the bird, but then, he pulls a fast one and will only let Evan leave, “do you think I’m stupid? I’m the one with the gun, and you’re the one that came onto my property. You do what I say. She stays.” Evan leaves on his own.
As he steps out of the rail car, it looks as if it is dark outside, but the train car they were occupying is inside some sort of warehouse, so it just looks like it is night. Evan looks around tentatively. He picks up a piece of rebar to protect himself, and just in time, too, since big bird is back.
Mac and Toby have arrived at the site of the anomalous readings. Since they have had no contact with Evan and Dylan, they have no idea what they are walking into. They are smart enough to come armed.
Back in the train car, the two bad guys are arguing with each other. Most of the argument between the two crooks involves the bird and escalates until they are pointing guns at each other and Dylan is trying to referee, “nobody is shooting anybody…”
Outside, Lt. Leeds has arrived and caught up with Evan, just in time to get chased as well. Evan employs his rebar by whacking the birds head as it tries to climb through the space between the cars. A few moments later Mac shows up and shoots the creature several times. Evan, of course, tells Mac he did not need to shoot it that many times. All they want to do is knock it out, not kill it.
Then, a second big bird shows up; the one Mac hit with his car, and he is out of darts. The three men get chased to another car. They are able to get inside and shut the door, but Toby is still somewhere outside. She is also now the only person with a weapon.
Toby has found her way to the train. She enters one of the cars and eventually finds her way to the one occupied by the two bad guys and Dylan. She aims her weapon at both men, ordering them to put down their weapons. Things do not go well and Skeezer gets shot in the backside with a dart.
Dylan convinces Blake that she needs to help her friends. He lets her go and keeps Toby. He tells her that he will wait five minutes while Dylan gets things under control, then he will leave. That turns out to be a mistake. As soon as he leaves the relative safety of the train car, he is jumped by the last bird, then, eaten.
Now that the criminals are out of the way, they have one adult and one juvenile bird to worry about. The five team members split up to work from different angles to deal with the birds. Evan and Dylan have decided that they are going to push marijuana onto big bird. They are going to create a “hot box” in order to get the large avian toked up. Lt. Leeds and Toby have been sent to look for the portal.
Dylan uses herself as bait for the bird, leading it through the narrow passageway of the train until Mac and Evan close the doors on either end of the train, trapping the bird in the smoky interior. Evan asks Dylan if she is alright. She replies that she could use a snack.
During the debrief, a few more intriguing plot strands are set-up. Ken Leeds is integrated into the team having proved his worth, even if Evan does not seem to like him much, and even promises to help Cross Photonics get hold of some Government contracts to compensate for their lost revenue from Evan’s monster-hunting.
We discover that he has kept the baby bird in his car having said he threw it back through the anomaly in its cardboard box. This also leads to the conversation of how a cardboard box in the past might be viewed suspiciously by archaeologists but would decompose, which shows they are considering their impact on history.
Overall “Angry Birds” was a good episode with lots of action, some clever comedic moments and well thought out dialogue. Though we didn’t learn any more about Evan and the death of his wife and who exactly he has cryogenically frozen, we did lea
rn more about Ken Leeds and what his plans are and how they connect with Angelika, as well as some neat development in most of the other characters and the feeling that they are becoming more of a team.
It was also nice to see Patrick Gilmore back in a science fiction show like Primeval New World! His work in Stargate Universe was exceptional. His talent has been missed and I was happy to see him on screen again!
Thanks to Kenn for final staging of the audio video embeds and images in this news article and thanks to you for stopping by WormholeRiders News Agency!!
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Regards,
Thank you.
ArcticGoddess1 (Patricia)