Primeval: Season Three, Episode Three
A Clone soldier listens to his radio, nods, and orders "Go!" Other soldiers pile up stairs, holding guns. They burst onto a roof and cock their guns.
Helen turns off a stopwatch. It took them one minute twenty two. "Not bad." Ordering one soldier to follow her, she goes to the edge of the roof.
Several floors down are raised roofs over what might be greenhouses. Helen orders the soldier to jump; he considers it. Helen repeats, "Listen to my voice. I said jump."
He takes a run and smashes into the roof. Helen smiles. "Death means nothing to you, does it? You're lucky."
Credits.
In the ARC Lester comes to look at the Matrix. He edges around it on Nick's orders.
Becker arrives and reports that he's started a complete security review. Why are they meeting in Nick's lab? Lester has an office.
"You're sure the intruder was (Helen's) doing?"
"Can anybody else create an exact replica of a dead man?"
Sarah obligingly looks worried in the background.
At Evening News HQ Mick, the sleezy pap, is trying to talk his boss into running a story about dinosaurs. She doesn't like it but gives him a week to come up with evidence.
Sleezy Mike stalks Jenny, finding her outside what's presumably her home and demanding answers. He's got the name ARC from somewhere, but Jenny isn't giving him anything no matter how hard he pokes.
Connor's fiddling with the Locker, trying to get it to work. Lester is not impressed.
"You know, after a million pounds of research and development I was hoping for something a little more than 'theoretical'."
Jenny calls Lester away and Nick asks Connor if he's sure the locker will work. Connor agrees that he's pretty sure. They're interrupted by the Anomaly Alert and Connor goes to narrow it down.
I'm almost sure he says 'James' here - and my subtitles agree, but it could be 'ok it's...it's in the city.' Opinions?
The alert is at a hospital in the city. The team head off.
Helen and her soldiers leave the building she was training in. She picks up the new Anomaly and orders her soldiers to dump the dead guy.
At the hospital the team is just in time for the power to start fluctuating. Behind them, a pregnant woman is checking in; she's in labour. Hands up if you can see where this is going.
Abby and Nick find the Anomaly. There's also a hole been chewed through a nearby wall.
The pregnant woman is settling into her bed, talking to her bump. She settles in and closes her eyes. When she opens them, a small Creature is staring at her. It runs - or, really, waddles - away when she screams.
She brings Becker and Connor back to look for it. "It's a ratty, chipmucky, beavery thing." Connor isn't impressed with her description but passes it on to Cutter anyway.
Nick orders the hospital evacuated. Sleezy Mick sneaks around while the team gets started.
At the ARC Jenny tells Sarah to keep an eye out for Sleezy Mick. The conversation segues into a discussion of Cutter's suitability for Jenny. Sarah's a bit bewildered by the whole Claudia/Jenny thing.
Outside a Clone tells Helen they can't get in without a retinal scanner. "That all depends on who you know." Opening the back of her van, she reveals Nick.
At the hospital Nick finds Abby playing with one of the Creatures. Another bounds out of the Anomaly and the two start play fighting. They bolt off before Nick and Abby can do anything.
Pregnant!Lady is waiting in her room when a Creature takes a fancy to her blanket. She chases it out of her room; Sleezy Mick, now wearing a stethoscope as a disguise, follows.
Nick makes a dive for the Creature and only manages to rescue the blanket. Mick locks him, Pregnant!Lady and Abby into the room. Nick calls Connor to come and save them; neither Connor nor Becker know how to find them. Connor suggests asking someone. Becker decides to use his finely honed soldier skills instead.
Sleezy Mick wanders around, looking for the Creature. It's hiding with some stuffed animals in a paediatrician's room. Sleezy Mick attempts to take a photo, but it runs away.
Clone!Nick wanders through the ARC. He happens to pass Lester, who stops him.
"What are you doing here?"
"I work here."
"Yes, but what are you doing here now?"
"I work here."
"Are you feeling alright?"
"Yes."
"You don't seem quite yourself."
"I'm Professor Nick Cutter."
"Strangely enough, I hadn't actually forgotten that."
Sarah arrives to break up the moment by asking Nick to come and check her work. Clone!Nick wanders after her. Lester still gets the best line.
"Note to self, arrange regular mental health checks for all staff."
At the hospital, pregnant!lady is mildly freaking out over the Anomaly. Nick gives an almost plausible explanation;
"The power outage has messed up the atmospheric controls. It's kind of like a hurricane, but with electricity."
which lady does not buy at all. Luckily, she's distracted by a contraction. Nick tries to tell her not to have the baby, which, really?
Connor and Becker are still wandering around lost, and because of the evacuation there's no one available to help them. A noise overhead gets their attention.
"Catch it."
"What d'you mean, catch it?"
After some fumbling Connor gets a laundry basket under a loose ceiling tile, which gives way just in time to drop a Creature. Luckily, it's laundry-basket size, although to be fair anything much bigger probably would have ripped out the ceiling long before getting as far as them.
"How're you doing, mate? My name's Connor, this is...my name's Connor."
Not really getting that. Becker's been kind of short tempered, but it doesn't seem like they actually dislike each other, and Connor certainly knows his name.
Connor identifies the species. Becker doesn't care, throwing a blanket over it and heading off after Nick.
Abby and Nick are helping pregnant!lady onto a bed. Nick attempts to calm her by introducing Abby as a trained health professional. That kind of backfires when she asks what kind and Abby has to admit to being a vet. She has delivered lots of babies though! Lions and zebras and giraffes, oh my.
"The principle is exactly the same, only hopefully, your baby will have a shorter neck."
Oh, he's trying so hard and failing so miserably. It's kind of fun.
Back at the ARC Sarah asks Clone!Nick to check her calculations. He brushes her off - "I'm busy now" - and then tells her to be quiet. Jenny comes in while Sarah is still absorbing that and displays an odd amount of knowledge about him.
"You've changed! Your clothes, you weren't wearing that before."
Sarah wanders off, presumably annoyed at him. He tells Jenny he's leaving and she steps out of his way before stopping him.
"Do you remember that drink you talked about? How about tonight?"
"...I'm leaving now."
Rebuffed, Jenny attempts to assure him that it's fine, they can do it another time, and anyway she didn't really want to.
"No, there won't be another time."
Jenny accepts that and he goes, leaving her blaming herself.
Pregnant!lady is in the throes of labour. Nick is holding her hands while Abby busies herself at the other end. Between contractions, Lady is telling them how she wanted it to be beautiful. Nick attempts to cheer her up "In a little while, you'll be holding your beautiful baby."
She tells them it will be a girl - she just *knows*. She asks Nick his name and tells him he's a nice man.
They're interrupted when a Creature appears. Abby picks it up - no gloves, Abby, were you really trying to deliver a baby with no gloves? You're in an operating theatre. Nick urges her to put it back through the Anomaly but she hesitates, deducing that the noise it's making is a distress call. Instead of putting it back through, she holds it in front of the hole in the wall so it can call all the others.
Becker and Connor, having just cleared an empty theatre, realise their Creature is making noise. With no better options they follow it.
Pregnant!Lady - seriously, my subtitles call her Woman, why doesn't anyone say her name? - is about to give birth. Abby goes back to her, still gloveless and now having been handling the Creature.
More Creatures pile in from all sides. Pregnant!Lady is understandably upset by this.
"What's going on?"
"Don't worry, it's just the drugs."
"I haven't had any drugs!"
On a visual note, the way Nick just appears to deliver that line before ducking out of sight again is brilliant.
He lets go of the Creature he's holding and it scurries back through the Anomaly, followed by almost all the others. One is left behind when the Anomaly closes too quickly for it. Both Nick and Abby abandon Pregnant!Lady to stare at it.
In the ARC Clone!Nick knocks out a soldier and steps over his body into the security office. He calls Helen and is told, "Listen to my voice. Open the main security gate." He does and Helen drives in.
Lester and Jenny discuss Cutter's weirdness. Lester is worried about his mental health but before they can come to any conclusions, they discover that the ARC has been overrun by Clone Soldiers. Lester is remarkably calm. Must be that British reserve.
Helen leads Lester, Sarah and Jenny through the corridors. They come across Clone!Nick, who aims a gun directly at Lester's forehead.
"You are so fired."
Helen orders him not to kill Lester yet and leaves them in a storeroom, guarded by a Clone Soldier. She's careful to explain, presumably for her prisoner's benefit, that the Soldier should listen only to her voice.
Lester and Jenny debate whether Cutter has actually betrayed them or not. Sarah has noticed the way Helen spoke to her Soldier.
Clone Soldiers set up explosives around the ARC.
At the hospital, Connor and Becker finally find the others, who are admiring Pregnant!Lady's son. A nurse comes in behind them - apparently the staff have finally realised something's going on - and Nick excuses himself and the others.
"What are you going to call him?"
"I don't know...d'you think it'd be ok if I called him
Stanley?"
Abby adds her orphaned Creature to Connor's and they make friends.
Mick offers his blurry, uncertain photo to his editor, who hates it. He still manages to talk her into another chance. He's got to have blackmail material on her...
At the ARC Clone!Nick fiddles with some wires while Helen admires the Matrix. She has the Artefact.
Sarah kind of knows what's going on with the instructions. Lester has a Plan.
The others pull up outside. Becker's pissed that no one stopped them at the gate, so he goes to yell while the others head inside. It's empty and creepy and they're getting really upset when they reach Ops and find themselves surrounded by Clones. And also Helen.
Clone!Nick comes in behind Nick, who is very surprised to see himself.
Connor and Abby are locked in with the others while Nick and Clone!Nick continue to stare at each other.
Sarah's working with audio samples of Helen's voice to make a new message - "Stop, do nothing. Obey my voice." Connor and Abby arrive, passing on the news about Clone!Nick. Lester is not amused.
"Two versions of Cutter? Sounds like some kind of nightmare."
Sarah tries to get Connor's help to play the new audio file, but it's impossible from the room they're stuck in.
Nick inspects Clone!Nick. Helen explains that she found the technology in the future; Clone!Nick is basically a living photocopy, with only enough intelligence to follow basic commands. It's weird how his hair exactly matches Nick's. Nick thinks he's still human anyway.
Nick has a sudden terrifying thought; did she do this to Stephen? Helen neither confirms nor denies.
She does finally explain some of her motivation. She's seen the Predator's future
and she thinks the ARC is responsible for it. She's planning to alter things back in a better direction. Nick thinks it's not possible.
Becker jumps the team's guard and frees them. He's very confident.
"How many men are with you?"
"Just me. Should be enough."
"Becker, we need to get this (the audio file) to the PA system."
"What is it? Doesn't matter."
He's either cutting off a Connor-style explanation, or proving that he has faith in Connor. I go with the second, but it's up to you.
Helen is still talking about Predators. She thinks the ARC is going to create them. Nick is adamant that no, he will never let that happen. Helen agrees that maybe it hasn't happened yet, but it will.
She asks about the Artefact. Nick refuses to tell her what it is.
Helen orders Clone!Nick to shoot Nick.
Connor and Becker break into the PA room; Becker beats up the guard and Connor gets to work.
Clone!Nick starts counting. Nick attempts to talk him out of following Helen, but it doesn't work.
In the storeroom, the Clone Soldier wakes up and starts attacking. Apparently none of them thought to tie him up or lock him in a different room or something.
In the PA room, the Clone Soldier wakes up and attempts to break Connor's hands. Becker jumps it and Connor sucks it up and keeps working.
Abby and Becker, in their respective rooms, fight their Soldiers. It's all going badly until Connor gets the PA going. All over the ARC Clones stand down.
Helen orders Clone!Nick to complete his mission and he goes to set the explosives. Nick continues trying to talk him out of it.
"You don't want to die."
"I don't know what death is."
"Trust me. Life's better."
Helen runs for it, still hollering "Don't listen to him!" Clone!Nick looks sadly at Nick and advises him, "Save yourself."
Nick runs for it. Ops goes up in a massive ball of flame.
Becker leads the others out through rubble strewn hallways. Connor finds Nick in the Matrix room and helps him out.
Outside he realises that Helen is still inside and starts back in.
Jenny halts him; "She wouldn't lift a finger to save you."
"Yeah, I know."
"Don't go. This is a mistake."
He goes anyway.
Inside he picks his way through using a torch. There's lots of smoke and mess and fires burning merrily away. He finds the Artefact, wraps it in his jacket and hides it before rousing Helen.
He disavows all knowledge of the Artefact and starts out. Helen stops him, aiming her gun at him. Nick grimaces, seeming more tired than worried.
Helen apologies and shoots him.
"You know what, Helen? You're not as smart as I thought you were."
Outside the group look up as more explosions rock the building. Connor looks to Abby, who understands and sends him off with a quiet "Be careful." He ducks the others and races into the building.
Lester calls him Connor. He must be really worried.
Inside he finds Nick sprawled on the floor. He tries to help him up but Nick is bleeding out and moving hurts him.
"Sorry..."
"It's all right. Just...sit with me."
Connor, shell-shocked and near tears, sits carefully beside him. Nick retrieves the Artefact, passing it across to him.
"Listen...this matters. I don't know why, but it does. So you have to find out what it means, ok?...It's on you now."
Connor tries to protest but Nick is gone. Connor sits for a moment, very gently resting his head on Nick's.
Outside, the others see him come through the smoke, carrying Nick and the Artefact. Connor carefully lays him down; the others fuss around him but Connor backs off. Abby, Jenny and Sarah cry; Lester yells for an ambulance. Connor stares at the Artefact and quietly promises, "I won't let you down, Professor."
Helen turns off a stopwatch. It took them one minute twenty two. "Not bad." Ordering one soldier to follow her, she goes to the edge of the roof.
Several floors down are raised roofs over what might be greenhouses. Helen orders the soldier to jump; he considers it. Helen repeats, "Listen to my voice. I said jump."
He takes a run and smashes into the roof. Helen smiles. "Death means nothing to you, does it? You're lucky."
Credits.
In the ARC Lester comes to look at the Matrix. He edges around it on Nick's orders.
Becker arrives and reports that he's started a complete security review. Why are they meeting in Nick's lab? Lester has an office.
"You're sure the intruder was (Helen's) doing?"
"Can anybody else create an exact replica of a dead man?"
Sarah obligingly looks worried in the background.
At Evening News HQ Mick, the sleezy pap, is trying to talk his boss into running a story about dinosaurs. She doesn't like it but gives him a week to come up with evidence.
Sleezy Mike stalks Jenny, finding her outside what's presumably her home and demanding answers. He's got the name ARC from somewhere, but Jenny isn't giving him anything no matter how hard he pokes.
Connor's fiddling with the Locker, trying to get it to work. Lester is not impressed.
"You know, after a million pounds of research and development I was hoping for something a little more than 'theoretical'."
Jenny calls Lester away and Nick asks Connor if he's sure the locker will work. Connor agrees that he's pretty sure. They're interrupted by the Anomaly Alert and Connor goes to narrow it down.
I'm almost sure he says 'James' here - and my subtitles agree, but it could be 'ok it's...it's in the city.' Opinions?
The alert is at a hospital in the city. The team head off.
Helen and her soldiers leave the building she was training in. She picks up the new Anomaly and orders her soldiers to dump the dead guy.
At the hospital the team is just in time for the power to start fluctuating. Behind them, a pregnant woman is checking in; she's in labour. Hands up if you can see where this is going.
Abby and Nick find the Anomaly. There's also a hole been chewed through a nearby wall.
The pregnant woman is settling into her bed, talking to her bump. She settles in and closes her eyes. When she opens them, a small Creature is staring at her. It runs - or, really, waddles - away when she screams.
She brings Becker and Connor back to look for it. "It's a ratty, chipmucky, beavery thing." Connor isn't impressed with her description but passes it on to Cutter anyway.
Nick orders the hospital evacuated. Sleezy Mick sneaks around while the team gets started.
At the ARC Jenny tells Sarah to keep an eye out for Sleezy Mick. The conversation segues into a discussion of Cutter's suitability for Jenny. Sarah's a bit bewildered by the whole Claudia/Jenny thing.
Outside a Clone tells Helen they can't get in without a retinal scanner. "That all depends on who you know." Opening the back of her van, she reveals Nick.
At the hospital Nick finds Abby playing with one of the Creatures. Another bounds out of the Anomaly and the two start play fighting. They bolt off before Nick and Abby can do anything.
Pregnant!Lady is waiting in her room when a Creature takes a fancy to her blanket. She chases it out of her room; Sleezy Mick, now wearing a stethoscope as a disguise, follows.
Nick makes a dive for the Creature and only manages to rescue the blanket. Mick locks him, Pregnant!Lady and Abby into the room. Nick calls Connor to come and save them; neither Connor nor Becker know how to find them. Connor suggests asking someone. Becker decides to use his finely honed soldier skills instead.
Sleezy Mick wanders around, looking for the Creature. It's hiding with some stuffed animals in a paediatrician's room. Sleezy Mick attempts to take a photo, but it runs away.
Clone!Nick wanders through the ARC. He happens to pass Lester, who stops him.
"What are you doing here?"
"I work here."
"Yes, but what are you doing here now?"
"I work here."
"Are you feeling alright?"
"Yes."
"You don't seem quite yourself."
"I'm Professor Nick Cutter."
"Strangely enough, I hadn't actually forgotten that."
Sarah arrives to break up the moment by asking Nick to come and check her work. Clone!Nick wanders after her. Lester still gets the best line.
"Note to self, arrange regular mental health checks for all staff."
At the hospital, pregnant!lady is mildly freaking out over the Anomaly. Nick gives an almost plausible explanation;
"The power outage has messed up the atmospheric controls. It's kind of like a hurricane, but with electricity."
which lady does not buy at all. Luckily, she's distracted by a contraction. Nick tries to tell her not to have the baby, which, really?
Connor and Becker are still wandering around lost, and because of the evacuation there's no one available to help them. A noise overhead gets their attention.
"Catch it."
"What d'you mean, catch it?"
After some fumbling Connor gets a laundry basket under a loose ceiling tile, which gives way just in time to drop a Creature. Luckily, it's laundry-basket size, although to be fair anything much bigger probably would have ripped out the ceiling long before getting as far as them.
"How're you doing, mate? My name's Connor, this is...my name's Connor."
Not really getting that. Becker's been kind of short tempered, but it doesn't seem like they actually dislike each other, and Connor certainly knows his name.
Connor identifies the species. Becker doesn't care, throwing a blanket over it and heading off after Nick.
Abby and Nick are helping pregnant!lady onto a bed. Nick attempts to calm her by introducing Abby as a trained health professional. That kind of backfires when she asks what kind and Abby has to admit to being a vet. She has delivered lots of babies though! Lions and zebras and giraffes, oh my.
"The principle is exactly the same, only hopefully, your baby will have a shorter neck."
Oh, he's trying so hard and failing so miserably. It's kind of fun.
Back at the ARC Sarah asks Clone!Nick to check her calculations. He brushes her off - "I'm busy now" - and then tells her to be quiet. Jenny comes in while Sarah is still absorbing that and displays an odd amount of knowledge about him.
"You've changed! Your clothes, you weren't wearing that before."
Sarah wanders off, presumably annoyed at him. He tells Jenny he's leaving and she steps out of his way before stopping him.
"Do you remember that drink you talked about? How about tonight?"
"...I'm leaving now."
Rebuffed, Jenny attempts to assure him that it's fine, they can do it another time, and anyway she didn't really want to.
"No, there won't be another time."
Jenny accepts that and he goes, leaving her blaming herself.
Pregnant!lady is in the throes of labour. Nick is holding her hands while Abby busies herself at the other end. Between contractions, Lady is telling them how she wanted it to be beautiful. Nick attempts to cheer her up "In a little while, you'll be holding your beautiful baby."
She tells them it will be a girl - she just *knows*. She asks Nick his name and tells him he's a nice man.
They're interrupted when a Creature appears. Abby picks it up - no gloves, Abby, were you really trying to deliver a baby with no gloves? You're in an operating theatre. Nick urges her to put it back through the Anomaly but she hesitates, deducing that the noise it's making is a distress call. Instead of putting it back through, she holds it in front of the hole in the wall so it can call all the others.
Becker and Connor, having just cleared an empty theatre, realise their Creature is making noise. With no better options they follow it.
Pregnant!Lady - seriously, my subtitles call her Woman, why doesn't anyone say her name? - is about to give birth. Abby goes back to her, still gloveless and now having been handling the Creature.
More Creatures pile in from all sides. Pregnant!Lady is understandably upset by this.
"What's going on?"
"Don't worry, it's just the drugs."
"I haven't had any drugs!"
On a visual note, the way Nick just appears to deliver that line before ducking out of sight again is brilliant.
He lets go of the Creature he's holding and it scurries back through the Anomaly, followed by almost all the others. One is left behind when the Anomaly closes too quickly for it. Both Nick and Abby abandon Pregnant!Lady to stare at it.
In the ARC Clone!Nick knocks out a soldier and steps over his body into the security office. He calls Helen and is told, "Listen to my voice. Open the main security gate." He does and Helen drives in.
Lester and Jenny discuss Cutter's weirdness. Lester is worried about his mental health but before they can come to any conclusions, they discover that the ARC has been overrun by Clone Soldiers. Lester is remarkably calm. Must be that British reserve.
Helen leads Lester, Sarah and Jenny through the corridors. They come across Clone!Nick, who aims a gun directly at Lester's forehead.
"You are so fired."
Helen orders him not to kill Lester yet and leaves them in a storeroom, guarded by a Clone Soldier. She's careful to explain, presumably for her prisoner's benefit, that the Soldier should listen only to her voice.
Lester and Jenny debate whether Cutter has actually betrayed them or not. Sarah has noticed the way Helen spoke to her Soldier.
Clone Soldiers set up explosives around the ARC.
At the hospital, Connor and Becker finally find the others, who are admiring Pregnant!Lady's son. A nurse comes in behind them - apparently the staff have finally realised something's going on - and Nick excuses himself and the others.
"What are you going to call him?"
"I don't know...d'you think it'd be ok if I called him
Stanley?"
Abby adds her orphaned Creature to Connor's and they make friends.
Mick offers his blurry, uncertain photo to his editor, who hates it. He still manages to talk her into another chance. He's got to have blackmail material on her...
At the ARC Clone!Nick fiddles with some wires while Helen admires the Matrix. She has the Artefact.
Sarah kind of knows what's going on with the instructions. Lester has a Plan.
The others pull up outside. Becker's pissed that no one stopped them at the gate, so he goes to yell while the others head inside. It's empty and creepy and they're getting really upset when they reach Ops and find themselves surrounded by Clones. And also Helen.
Clone!Nick comes in behind Nick, who is very surprised to see himself.
Connor and Abby are locked in with the others while Nick and Clone!Nick continue to stare at each other.
Sarah's working with audio samples of Helen's voice to make a new message - "Stop, do nothing. Obey my voice." Connor and Abby arrive, passing on the news about Clone!Nick. Lester is not amused.
"Two versions of Cutter? Sounds like some kind of nightmare."
Sarah tries to get Connor's help to play the new audio file, but it's impossible from the room they're stuck in.
Nick inspects Clone!Nick. Helen explains that she found the technology in the future; Clone!Nick is basically a living photocopy, with only enough intelligence to follow basic commands. It's weird how his hair exactly matches Nick's. Nick thinks he's still human anyway.
Nick has a sudden terrifying thought; did she do this to Stephen? Helen neither confirms nor denies.
She does finally explain some of her motivation. She's seen the Predator's future
and she thinks the ARC is responsible for it. She's planning to alter things back in a better direction. Nick thinks it's not possible.
Becker jumps the team's guard and frees them. He's very confident.
"How many men are with you?"
"Just me. Should be enough."
"Becker, we need to get this (the audio file) to the PA system."
"What is it? Doesn't matter."
He's either cutting off a Connor-style explanation, or proving that he has faith in Connor. I go with the second, but it's up to you.
Helen is still talking about Predators. She thinks the ARC is going to create them. Nick is adamant that no, he will never let that happen. Helen agrees that maybe it hasn't happened yet, but it will.
She asks about the Artefact. Nick refuses to tell her what it is.
Helen orders Clone!Nick to shoot Nick.
Connor and Becker break into the PA room; Becker beats up the guard and Connor gets to work.
Clone!Nick starts counting. Nick attempts to talk him out of following Helen, but it doesn't work.
In the storeroom, the Clone Soldier wakes up and starts attacking. Apparently none of them thought to tie him up or lock him in a different room or something.
In the PA room, the Clone Soldier wakes up and attempts to break Connor's hands. Becker jumps it and Connor sucks it up and keeps working.
Abby and Becker, in their respective rooms, fight their Soldiers. It's all going badly until Connor gets the PA going. All over the ARC Clones stand down.
Helen orders Clone!Nick to complete his mission and he goes to set the explosives. Nick continues trying to talk him out of it.
"You don't want to die."
"I don't know what death is."
"Trust me. Life's better."
Helen runs for it, still hollering "Don't listen to him!" Clone!Nick looks sadly at Nick and advises him, "Save yourself."
Nick runs for it. Ops goes up in a massive ball of flame.
Becker leads the others out through rubble strewn hallways. Connor finds Nick in the Matrix room and helps him out.
Outside he realises that Helen is still inside and starts back in.
Jenny halts him; "She wouldn't lift a finger to save you."
"Yeah, I know."
"Don't go. This is a mistake."
He goes anyway.
Inside he picks his way through using a torch. There's lots of smoke and mess and fires burning merrily away. He finds the Artefact, wraps it in his jacket and hides it before rousing Helen.
He disavows all knowledge of the Artefact and starts out. Helen stops him, aiming her gun at him. Nick grimaces, seeming more tired than worried.
Helen apologies and shoots him.
"You know what, Helen? You're not as smart as I thought you were."
Outside the group look up as more explosions rock the building. Connor looks to Abby, who understands and sends him off with a quiet "Be careful." He ducks the others and races into the building.
Lester calls him Connor. He must be really worried.
Inside he finds Nick sprawled on the floor. He tries to help him up but Nick is bleeding out and moving hurts him.
"Sorry..."
"It's all right. Just...sit with me."
Connor, shell-shocked and near tears, sits carefully beside him. Nick retrieves the Artefact, passing it across to him.
"Listen...this matters. I don't know why, but it does. So you have to find out what it means, ok?...It's on you now."
Connor tries to protest but Nick is gone. Connor sits for a moment, very gently resting his head on Nick's.
Outside, the others see him come through the smoke, carrying Nick and the Artefact. Connor carefully lays him down; the others fuss around him but Connor backs off. Abby, Jenny and Sarah cry; Lester yells for an ambulance. Connor stares at the Artefact and quietly promises, "I won't let you down, Professor."