Image Credit: Huw John

Before you get upset about the title of this post, hear me out: I stole it from one of you, who promised in the comments to last Sunday’s Being Human Q&A that by episode 3, Damien Molony’s posh new vampire Hal would have us asking “Aidan who?” in reference to Aidan Turner’s dearly departed, long-loved bloodsucker John Mitchell. I just think it happened a week earlier. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not foolishly saying that Mitchell wasn’t Being Human’s cornerstone for the last three years (he was), that I don’t love him (I do), or that I’m glad he’s gone (I’m not). But the hole left by the death of Mitchell—and his then best friend, George—closed up for me yesterday night… [If you haven’t watched last night’s Being Human on BBC America, rentaghost to another post immediately if you don’t like spoilers] …right around the moment when Hal finally met Tom and Annie.

If the point of last week’s premiere was to say goodbye to George, establish werewolf Tom and ghost Annie as the protectors of “war child” Baby Eve, and introduce Hal, then episode 2 was about bringing Tom, Annie, and Hal together to reestablish Being Human’s werewolf-ghost-vampire holy trinity. Hal, a very old, apparently once very vicious vampire, has spent the last 55 years dry and living above an Essex barbershop with his best friends Leo (a werewolf) and Pearl (a ghost). Then Leo, who is dying, hears the voice of an “angel”—presumably the mysterious Girl in Yellow from 2037, who might be the grown up Baby Eve, but also wants to kill Baby Eve—that instructs him to go to Barry where a werewolf and a ghost are caring for an infant who could save his life.

But Baby Eve has no such powers and Leo does die, taking Pearl, who declared her 50-plus year love for him, to the other side, and leaving Hal to live with Tom and Annie. I assume this was the Girl in Yellow’s plan all along: But was it so that Hal, who can read the skin scroll, will be there to protect Baby Eve when the Old Ones finally arrive in the U.K. or because he’s the supernatural most likely to bite her face off? My guess is the latter—which nearly happens when the Girl in Yellow appears on the TV coaxing Hal to “do it” while he’s holding the infant—but the former is what actually happens. After Leo’s death, grief sends bloodthirsty Hal to Eve’s crib (where he is intercepted by Tom) and then to attack the owner of a local pawnshop (where he is intercepted by Tom and Annie). But then when he’s back at Honolulu Heights, safely ensconced on the couch with a cup of Annie’s black tea, he admits that he really wants the skin scroll’s prophecy to be true and that he hopes Baby Eve is the war child who will wipe out vampires forever.

NEXT: Mitchell vs. Hal vs. Tom vs. George