"Dead Victorian kids are so annoying."

So now we've had it confirmed that Series 5 of Being Human is going to be the last one as suspected. With Yer Actual Devil as this year's Big Bad, I'm not sure there was any point pretending they were going to come back next year with something bigger and scarier. Although ever since the pilot, there's been one phrase in the Being Human universe that's been scarier than any other...

"Sticks and Rope" by Daragh Carville, directed by Philip John. Spoilers under the cut.

- As well as using the fact that the series is ending, I like how Toby Whithouse is using the entire cast changing to his advantage, with the ongoing importance of a trinity to the story. Vampire/werewolf/ghost is a combination that always needs to exist somewhere in the BH universe, or at least has to ever since they first got together in last week's flashbacks. Hal/Catherine/Emil -> Hal/Leo/Pearl -> Mitchell/George/Annie -> Hal/Tom/Annie -> Hal/Tom/Alex.
- I've been a fan of Michael Socha and Damien Molony's chemistry before, but let's just say it straight up, Tom and Hal is the best relationship in Being Human, ever. And if that seems an exaggeration, here's the evidence: Tom and Hal are set against each other BY THE DEVIL HIMSELF and the end result is a custard pie fight. QED.
- As further evidence, there's Tom's "I can't go in there, I've got sore... I've got sore" and Hal's reaction to it, plus their reactions to the payoff about Alex playing the piano.
- Molony didn't take his shirt off this episode. So let's do this instead:

- Having Alex be good at looking after people but really reluctant about it is a nice contrast to Annie keeping herself going by obsessing about housework and tea. Actually Hal and Annie really should have been at each other's throats more last year about the best way to keep the house tidy.
- Did I miss how Crumb got out of The Department after killing his sister and niece? And if he was so desperate for blood he barely paused in killing them once the door was locked, how come he never attacked Rook and Alan on the way there? They didn't seem to have any form of protection against him.
- So... vampire geek army?
- I loved Captain Hatch reminiscing about The Fall in terms of a friend stabbing him in the back.
- I was generally satisfied with the way the actual appearance of The Men With Sticks And Rope tidied up how they've varied in significance over the years. They are scary creatures but only to ghosts who don't pass over when they're supposed to, they don't represent what the afterlife is actually like (so the Series 3 arc of Annie being pursued by TMWSAR for escaping makes sense, but so does her happy ending at the end of last year.) In this episode they present a more general threat, but then they are being manipulated by Hatch.

Favourite lines:
- "Have The Unemployed Stolen The Memory Of Diana?"
- "I keep thinking to myself, was it something I said?" (Captain Hatch after talking a girl into suicide.)
- "You know when I transform? I should drag you round on a piece of string in the woods... ... ... ...I'm saying you're a chicken." "Thank you, I got the analogy."
- "How dare you, you great baggage!" "Yeah, whatever Niles."
- "You get this very special pen." "Does it shoot poison gas? Or pellets? Or poison gas pellets?" "No, it's essentially a pen."
- "I have a dancer's back."