Valerie Irwin was a park ranger at Blue Sky Park who secretly harboured a Smilodon.
Biography[]
A photo of Valerie with the Smilodon as a cub.
Sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s, Valerie found a Smilodon cub in her house's garage and took it in. Valerie and her boyfriend Dave raised the creature over the years, but once the Smilodon matured, it began going into Blue Sky Park in search of more food, eventually turning into a man-eater. Valerie was apparently aware of this but did not attempt to stop the creature. The Smilodon eventually killed Dave, forcing Valerie to bury his body in the park's forest area.
Episode 2.3[]
When the Anomaly Research Centre team investigated after the Smilodon killed a paintballer, Valerie quickly worked out that they were looking for the Smilodon, and came to believe that they were a government organisation that had created the Smilodon in a genetic experiment and now wanted to recapture and experiment on it. Valerie got close to team member Stephen Hart, leading him to believe that she was completely uninvolved with the creature incursion, and at one point distracted him from capturing the Smilodon without giving herself away.
Sensing the ARC team was close to capturing her Smilodon, she arranged a mechanic to drive her car around the park, as to distract the team.
Valerie and her Smilodon confront Cutter.
When Nick Cutter went to Valerie's house and worked out that she had been harboring the Smilodon, she threatened him with his tranquilizer gun and accused him of planning to experiment on the Smilodon. Cutter asked Valerie to give the creature up so that he could help it, but she sadly refused and set the Smilodon on him. She watched the cat attack Cutter but she intervened when Cutter tried to defend himself with a pitchfork and tried to calm the big cat down. However, as the Smilodon was, at the time, in a frenzy from the fight, it instead attacked and killed Valerie.
When Abby Maitland encountered the Smilodon again, she recognized it as Valerie's killer. (Episode 2.7)
Trivia[]
- Valerie was the first woman in Primeval to be killed by a creature onscreen, as well as the first woman to be killed by a creature from the past.
- The fact that Valerie did not attempt to stop the Smilodon from killing and eating other humans may suggest she was mentally ill, extremely misguided and untrusting, or misanthropic, as she seemingly cared more for the sabertooth cat than the lives of the victims it took.