Being Human - S01E02

Admitting what you are is the first step to accepting, controlling, and being happy with who you are. Mitchell (Aidan Turner) denies his nature as much as George (Russell Tovey) does; the difference is that Mitchell has to be aware of his denial every single moment, while George's denial temporarily allows him to forget what he is. Annie (Lenora Crichlow) has no problem admitting that she is a ghost, but she has blocked out her reasons for staying behind far more definitively that either George or Mitchell.

When Tully (Dean Lennox Kelly) shows up, offering to help George learn to deal with his problem, George is terrified at first. He's not particularly good at letting people into his life in the first place, and this man, also a werewolf, reminds him every moment of what he is. Yet he quickly starts to see the advantages. Tully knows how to take care of himself in the forest, has tricks to protect the werewolf from detection, and to protect people from encountering it. He's charming and hitting on women comes so easily to him, and he accepts who he is and wants George to do the same. Mitchell, as much as he wants George to admit what he is and to become comfortable with it, does not want George to give in to that nature anymore than he wants to give into his own.

Of course, to those of us with discerning tastes, Tully comes across as a creep. Sure, he's charming, but his seduction is too intent. Any intelligent girl would reject his comments, as Nina (Sinead Keenan) does when George tries to use them on her. It's not just that George lacks smoothness, it's also that those lines only work on someone unused to any kind of flattery.

And when he tries to seduce Annie, an act that comes across far more like assault than romance, well, let's just say that Mitchell should maybe have killed the werewolf rather than let him stick around.

Still, George needed time to realize what a jerk Tully was. He knew that he didn't exactly like what he was turning into, and he knew that he didn't like how comfortable Tully was with what he was becoming, but when he learned that Tully was the werewolf who had attacked him, that his tricks didn't always work and that he was happy to have made another creature in his image, well, that George couldn't stomach at all. That's the problem with a nice guy like George. He's so easy to manipulate and so wants to hold on to things tightly that more often then not he says something he really regrets. Good thing he is able to make it up to his friends.

Meanwhile, Mitchell's attempts to ignore his blood lust suffer as Lauren (Annabel Scholey) refuses to allow him to do so. She shows up, she taunts him, and she sends him a very disturbing vampire-porno movie. And as much as he wants to shut that part of him up in a box, he really can't forget about it...even if Lauren wasn't trying so hard to keep the thought at the front of his mind.

Finally, Annie. In some ways, it didn't seem like her story developed much in this episode. Yet, that assumption would be wrong. Her relationship with Tully and her responses to it may well be very telling, and her decision to leave the house, terrified, because for once she felt safer to be outside than within also show progress.

Three rich characters, each getting proper attention, continue to give us fantastic episodes.