The team is at a loss. Connor has disappeared through Philip's anomaly and Matt thinks that his mission is over – Philip has won. Matt has a decision to make about what to do next – and jumps through the anomaly to save Connor.

He finds himself in a barren desert world, with Connor struggling in the immense heat and deadly sun's rays: a world we recognise from Matt's dreams. Worse still, coming towards them are a group of disgustingly mutated future predators, intent on causing some damage. They're facing a deadly attack with no defence, until an EMD shot rings out; Abby has followed them through the anomaly. Luckily, Matt seems to know his way around and the group head for a bunker, protection from the threat of the heat and the predators. Beginning to recover, Connor's guilt about his role in Philip's project is overwhelming. It takes a whispered promise from Abby to give him the impetus to carry on and get back to the ARC in one last attempt to save the world…

Back at New Dawn, Emily has been captured and questions Philip about what he's done, but they're distracted by the anomaly, which is rapidly increasing in size. The scientists are starting to abandon ship as the building begins to shake, but things are even worse at the ARC, where, although all the anomalies have closed, some kind of strange atmospheric changes are playing havoc with their comms.

Connor, Matt, and Abby make their way back to the anomaly, shocked by its now-enormous size. They arrive back through it to find an abandoned New Dawn. But Philip, shocked by the atmospheric changes taking place, watches from inside New Dawn as dark clouds gather and the Earth seems to be taking its revenge.

Connor gives Philip an impassioned speech about what they're seeing and about the effects his machine will have in the future. Philip knows there's only one thing he can do: attempt to shut down the machine alone. He knows this is suicide, but he has to do something to try to right his wrongs. New Dawn explodes under the pressure but, to the shock of the team, the anomaly still remains.

At the ARC, future predators have managed to infiltrate it via Connor's small man-made anomaly, which has reopened with Philip's machine. Jess and Lester are facing a losing battle as they run out of weapons and ammunition. As the team arrive back, they're faced with Jess cradling a mortally-injured Lester and they're thrown into a fight to save the ARC and bring down the future predators. Suddenly, Connor realises how they might be able to stop Philip's anomaly expanding, but they need to utilise his stable, man-made version to do so.

They face a race against time to get Connor's anomaly to New Dawn in time to stop it. However, for it to work Connor's anomaly needs to go into the big one. Matt knows this is his time and he tells the team he'll drive the anomaly into New Dawn's anomaly. Emily and Matt have a tearful goodbye as Matt drives into the anomaly. Will he make it back or is he gone forever?

This creature is obviously not based on any real animal but it is assumed that as long as the Earth's climate remains as seasonal as it is then mammals will continue to be the dominant group of animals. If that is so then rats and bats are by far the most common groups of mammals (accounting for three-quarters of all mammal species) and any large predator could well evolve from them.

The future predator was first encountered in the final episode of series one when the team first discovers that anomalies can open to the future as well as the past. Genetic tests reveal the predator is a type of wingless bat with lightning-fast reactions and the ability to stalk its prey using high-frequency sonar.

In this episode, the future predator, having evolved through thousands of years of catastrophic change in the Earth's environment, is one of the last species left. However. the atmosphere has taken its toll and the future predator is now a deformed, sickly, malnourished creature struggling to survive - but still as vicious as ever . . .

The exhausted ARC team are struggling to cope as more anomalies are opening. As the whole team let Lester in on the secrets of Matt's mission, they are interrupted by worrying news – anomalies are opening everywhere and there are reports of a T Rex loose on the streets. Matt knows this is something important – the time he's been waiting for is now. His main aim now is to get to Philip's machine and switch it off before it can create havoc. Asking Connor to distract Philip, Matt heads off to New Dawn, while the others go off into the field to deal with the multiple anomalies.

As he attempts to run interference and stop him leaving, Philip lets on to Connor about the coming climax of convergence – his work has contributed to a machine that will not only solve the world's energy crisis but also close the anomalies and stop the threat of creatures from now on. Accompanying Philip to New Dawn to keep an eye on him, the pair are interrupted by a rogue Gorgonopsid forcing them into a major car accident, leaving Connor trapped and Philip just crawling to safety. Realising Philip is about to get away, Connor attempts to stop him, revealing the truth about Matt and the mission. When Philip is dismissive, it's all Connor can do to pull his EMD on him - only to discover that a paranoid Philip has disabled it. As Philip escapes to New Dawn, the race is on to get there before he can turn on the machine.

While the rest of the team fight the creatures, Abby rushes to save Connor, where the pair reconcile over his recent behaviour. Matt and Emily race to New Dawn, fighting off a swarm of vicious Anurognathus, as Connor and Abby arrive to help. Finally they make it to Philip's control room - before a stand-off with Philip ensues. As Abby and Emily run interference to distract the creatures, Matt attempts to reason with Philip while Connor climbs inside the machine to disable it. But as convergence reaches its climax, Philip moves to turn on the machine, harnessing the energy of the anomalies. In the process, Connor falls into the newly-created monster anomaly. Is he lost forever?

Philip and Connor secretly open an anomaly within the ARC, which connects to a time far in the future. Philip is excited; this is providing them with the best anomaly data yet, and even better, they created it themselves. But Matt is worried – an anomaly should be locked. Philip strongly refuses, and even posts a guard at the lab to prevent the team from interfering.

Matt expresses his concerns to Abby, who asks him to give her some time to try to persuade Connor to stop before Matt destroys the machine. As she does so, the guard is overwhelmed by vicious beetles that strip him to the bone.

Very soon the swarm of beetles is taking over Connor's lab, chewing through everything in sight. The ARC bio-scan soon kicks the building into lockdown, isolating the creatures and Matt realises the beetles will suffocate inside the room. But before long, the creatures are chewing through the wall and into the air ducts, quickly swarming through the building.

While the others track down the beetles through the ducts, Matt sees his chance and destroys Connor's machine while he can.

The team work out a way to stop the creatures, using their queen to lure them into the Ops area and pesticides to take them down. However, in the operation Jess is bitten by a beetle and goes into anaphylactic shock. In his anger, Becker shoots at the queen, killing her and losing control of the swarm. The ARC quickly becomes overrun with the creatures, which are spreading throughout the building. As the outer boundaries of the ARC become threatened and Prospero Industries - the scientific company that owns about half of the ARC - comes under scrutiny, Philip has a solution but it will destroy the ARC, taking the team with it.

As Becker, Abby, and Emily attempt to find a way to treat Jess, Connor has an idea to try to redeem himself and his actions: he can harness the power of this future anomaly to create a shockwave that will wipe out the beetles. The problem is, Matt has destroyed the machine. It seems all is lost, until Matt produces from his pocket a hard drive containing the data that Abby downloaded from Connor's machine. With time running out, the pair fix the machine and fight their way back through the beetles to join the others in the menagerie. We see the building rock as the pulse created by the closing anomaly echoes through the ARC, shaking it to its very foundations . . .

Battered and bruised, the team emerge from the room, having defeated the creatures and closed the anomaly in one go. But as the massive ARC clean-up begins, Connor is beginning to doubt Philip's motivations. Does he really have the best interests of the ARC at heart?

This creature will be bigger and meaner than the one that exists now. They are coming through the anomaly from the future and have evolved into something that can withstand the hostile environment that the Earth's surface has become.

The Devil's Coach Horse beetle, which is part of the same family, raises its long and uncovered abdomen and opens its jaws, rather like a scorpion, when threatened. Although it has no 'sting in its tail' it can give a painful bite with its strong pincer-like jaws. It also emits a foul-smelling odour as a defensive secretion from a pair of white glands at the end of its abdomen.

A regular anomaly alert turns sour when the team realise they've accidentally returned a raptor through to the wrong time. With the sense of responsibility weighing on their shoulders, Matt returns through the anomaly, asking Abby to find out what Connor's been up to in his lab. He thinks it's got something to do with whatever Philip's been planning. Abby is reluctant to betray Connor's trust but shares Matt's concerns about what Connor is up to.

Realising the raptor is responsible for a number of gruesome murders, Matt soon manages to track down the creature to a fruit warehouse. He's about to take it down when a mysterious cloaked figure distracts him and leads him straight into the path of a raptor attack. The hood falls . . . Emily is back. Just as they struggle to come to terms with seeing each other again, two dark strangers grab Emily from behind and drag her away, leaving Matt unconscious…

Meanwhile, back at the ARC, Abby knows she has to try to reconnect with Connor, as they've been spending too much time apart. However, a nasty encounter with April on her way to his lab makes her wonder if Matt is right – Connor is up to something in his lab that she isn't meant to know about. Before, she was completely against it, but now she's more convinced than ever that she needs to know the truth and hatches a plan to infiltrate Connor's lab…

Emily is attempting to escape from her captors, who are revealed to be her husband and a doctor from the Bethlem hospital - her absence and "strange" behaviour have led to her husband having her sectioned. Just as it seems that all is lost the raptor returns, attacking their coach, killing the doctor, and allowing Emily to escape back to Matt and the warehouse - but not before a passer-by notices the carnage and blames Emily for it. Mob mentality ensues as Matt and Emily become trapped in the warehouse with a raptor on the loose.

With the mob building in numbers outside, Matt and Emily struggle to get control of the raptor. Having found and stunned the creature, the only option is for Matt and Emily to take it back through the anomaly. Emily takes some persuading - Matt's time isn't where she belongs. But as he points out, here, they think she's a murderer. Just as it looks like she's made a decision, her husband reappears, brandishing a pistol. Distracting him, they make a quick escape through the anomaly with the raptor.

Abby is hiding out in Connor's lab, downloading his data to a portable hard drive. But little does she know that a suspicious April in stalking around, looking for her. Just in time, she manages to finish before April can stumble across her.

Returning to 2011, Emily has to think hard about her future – return home to 1868 as an accused murderer or stay out of time with Matt. But there's little time to argue as her husband bursts through the anomaly, shooting at the team. Eventually capturing and disarming him, it looks like he'll go back through the anomaly willingly, but he has other plans – grabbing Emily as he attempts to go through… Things look bleak until the raptor, freshly conscious, attacks and kills him. With nothing left to go back for, Emily decides to stay in the present.

Returning to the ARC, Abby and Connor are once again at odds – April has persuaded Connor that Abby is up to something and Connor can't help but wonder. Even news of Philip's involvement with Helen does nothing to persuade him that Abby is on his side. Feeling further apart than ever, Abby decides she has just one option and heads to Matt's lab to hand over the hard drive.

Meanwhile, working late in his lab, Connor has had a breakthrough that could change everything – and Philip is the first person he calls . . .

"Raptors" as a word was popularised by Jurassic Park and is slightly frowned upon by palaeontologists. It is a generic term to describe a group of agile dinosaur predators called the dromaeosaurids. This group were distinguished by their lightweight skeletons, long arms, and the lethal sickle-shaped claw on their second toe. Although as a group they evolved in the Jurassic period, they thrived throughout the Cretaceous.