When the episode begins, we immediately learn that Nina (Sinead Keenan) has moved into the house, but that she and George are not getting on well. They aren't having sex, they aren't talking to each other, they are both just harbouring building resentment. We know that Nina's issue isn't so much that George is a werewolf, but that he scratched her and she may well be one too, but George has no idea about this.
He's also basically going on a bender, enjoying the part of himself that is the wolf, and becoming more and more aggressive, less and less the George we've come to know.
If tensions at home aren't bad enough, two vampires - old friends of Mitchell's - show up to see the chaos that they believe will ensue after the death of Herrick. I still haven't quite got a read on the man and what he wants, but the girl is vulnerable and violent and does everything on a whim. She seduces George, offering sex (which he has been missing) and permission to give into his violent side. And he does give in. Later, however, when he finds her in the hospital preparing to kill an old woman he learns is her daughter, we discover that she hasn't been able to get over everything about the life she had 80 years ago, and George finally realizes what's important to him.
Mitchell and Annie did get some lighter moments. Mitchell's met a new colleague who's got a life about as shitty as his and could use a friend, while Annie decided to get a job in a pub. I really loved her 3-year-plan for the pub, and the negotiations to hire her. Gave me the laugh I needed at that point in the episode. But most of the time it seemed as though the 4 friends were simply lashing out to hurt each other because they couldn't contain their own hurt.
Nina, it turns out, is also a werewolf. The morning after her transformation, she and George really get into it, and most of what they are saying is trying to hurt. Finally Nina plays the trump card and tells George he's infected her with the curse. She hadn't wanted to tell him because the news would have destroyed the old George but this new George is such a prick that it doesn't seem to matter anymore.
In the end, though, they make up. There's something typical and tragic about the image where George is bawling his eyes out over his grief of having done what he did to Nina while she holds him, comforting him, but it's really a necessary step for him to be able to help her. She needs to grant him permission to try to repair what he has done, something that he can't ever undo, and he can't do anything for her until she allows this.
By the end, all seems well as George has returned to us, he and Nina are together again, and Mitchell, Annie and George pledge to help her figure out how to be part of this world. But there is an image from the night of the transformation which is burned in my mind, one of a werewolf not transforming but bleeding out throughout some sort of medical experiment. It doesn't matter how happy our heroes look, staring up at the sky surrounded by joy, because something ominous is lurking nearby.
All I can say is that I hope that we don't lose the lighter moments. While I appreciate the darkness, we need a reminder of what it is they are fighting for - the chance to watch Casablanca and see where Mitchell knocked over a bench.
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