I missed last week’s penultimate episode of Being Human, but caught up with it on iPlayer on Saturday. I tell you this because I had thought the series had dipped a bit in recent weeks after its magnificent start. But nothing prepared me for just how good episode five was. It was so good, and set things up nicely for a proper battle royale in the last night’s series ender. We last saw Mitchell being skewered by Herrick, and Annie pondering whether to go through her door of death, so who knew what was going to happen last night.

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So there I was, settling down for some serious Herrick versus Our Heroes action. Everything had been set-up for the mother and father of fight-offs. But, in regulation tease style, we were made to wait. The first scene was a flashback to when Micthell first met George (saving him from Herrick’s mob outside the cafe where our friendly werewolf was working at at the time). OK, that’s a nice back story touch Being Human people, but what about the action? I wanted action!

Finally we got to the present day. The questions whether both Mitchell and Annie survived their various ordeals in episode five were soon answered. Mitchell was in hospital healing quicker than any doctor thought he would (because you know, he’s beyond human these days), and Annie and George were steadfastly by his side. There were a few hospital-based bits – Mitchell’s ex-lover finally succumbed to lung cancer, George and a priest saw off some of Herrick’s lot, and George and Herrick had an entertainingly sparky verbal joust in the hospital canteen.

After Mitchell got out of hospital, it was surely time for Hammer Time! Yes! Hammer time! A day of days, a massive scrap… fireworks! Well, not quite yet. There was still some setting up to be done.

Mitchell knew it was time for all this festering, simmering hatred between good vampire (Mitchell) and bad vampires (led by Herrick) to be sorted out once and for all. He asked Herrick for a showdown just between the two of them because he wanted to spare George and Annie’s lives (who were rapidly becoming involved, especially after the last episode). Herrick, in his usual humorously flippant way, said yeah ok then.

Back at the house Annie was well up for a scrap, especially now that her door of death had gone and she was stuck on Earth long-term. But George wanted out. He knew that his future was with Nina and that contrary to the other two, he really did have a shot of a proper future with a house and kids and the whole domestic nine yards. Mitchell gave him his blessing; Annie was shocked. Before he left George told Mitchell he would try to talk to Herrick and try and persuade him not to fight, and that he would pass on the details of the showdown if negotiations failed.

Herrick, predictably, said no to George’s pacification request and explained (you know, I like Herrick – he’s definitely one of the more three-dimentsional villians we’ve seen for a long time) that Mitchell could not be allowed to get away with his subordination and that this kind of rebellion could inspire others to do the same.

So far, so jabbing left-right-left-right. Characters had been dancing around each other up to this stage, both verbally and almost literally, and the tension had certainly increased exponentially if the state of my monkey stump was anything to go by. I’d been sitting on the edge of my seat pretty much for 40 minutes.

And then it kicked off.

George actually gave Herrick the address of the room beneath the hospital. GEORGE SACRIFICED HIMSELF TO SAVE MITCHELL! HE WAS GOING TO FIGHT HERRICK! Herrick laughed. Mitchell and Annie realised what was going on (after a little tangental scene where Annie rescued the prisoners from the undertakers with new-found ghost super powers… BIFF!) and rushed to the scene. They met Nina on the way, who was fretting because George had chucked her. They all got there just in time to see… George turn into a werewolf and rip a smiling Herrick to shreds. Actually they tried to stop George first, but George said it was ok and told them to lock the door behind them. That was the end of Herrick.

But there was more to come. Nina looked as though she had been scratched by George, when she tried to remonstrate with him before his flesh-ripping scrap with Herrick. Will we be getting TVs first lycan couple in series two? Looks that way. And who was the mystery craggy-faced man at the end who rang some Professor to tell him that he had “found them” (them being George, Mitchell and Annie)?

Who cares for now? I was too busy getting my breath back. It was a very good finale, teasing and raising the tension nicely before the big kick-off at the end. For such a dramatic and bleak storyline, some the series’ trademark humour had to be sacrificed (although Annie did come up with the killer, “I see you’ve perfected the skill of speaking like a twat” line to one of Herrick’s minions when she started talking in cliched vampire talk) and there was an inevitable rise in the traditonal fantasy genre stuff, but that was ok – I was so emotionally invested in the characters I didn’t care by that stage.

And that was the great thing about Being Human. Despite all the vampire and werewolf stuff (stuff that I normally run a mile from), it was still essentially about three young people sharing a flat and overcoming life’s problems. It was funny, it had action, it was well-acted and supremely written and if any character lapsed into corny fantasy dialogue, they were ripped to shreds. I liked that a lot. I liked Being Human a lot.

In the flat after the battle, George explains to Nina what happened to him. She goes off to the bathroom to inspect some scratches George gave her while he was turning. Neat twist.

Final scene showed craggy, evil-looking chap interviewing Owen in the looney bin then speaking to Professor someone or other on the phone, saying that he’d found ‘them’.