Monday, 13 January 2014

Lost Girl, Destiny's Child - Jan 12



Last night’s episode of LG was very important both by introducing new plot developments and by introducing new Fae, period. Let us start with them.

Huginn and Muninn, aka thought and memory, were the ravens of Odin, the king god of the Vikings, and were basically though and memory made flesh. Naturally, when Mr. Trick, after doing several tricks with his own – and other Fae – memories had bad experiences, when he encountered just one of the ravens...pardon me, crows. 

WTF? As Kenzi could say – “Ворон – это не муж вороны. Это две разные птицы.” “Raven isn’t the husband of crow. It is two different birds.” Symbolically, however, they are similar, and since they played a relatively minor role in this episode, let us just accept that they are crow Fae, rather than raven, and let it slide.

The Leviathan, however, is harder to swallow. In this episode, she plays the role of a caretaker of the dead, perhaps even a goddess of the dead, similar to the Vikings’ Hel or the Slavs’ Baba Yaga Bony Leg, but Baba Yaga had been already depicted in LG S2 episode, so this character had to be named after the ultimate sea monster from the Old Testament and beyond, a formidable creature to be sure, but one having nothing to do with kingdoms of dead... Michelle Lovretta, it should be noted, is really fast and loose with identifying new Fae species, so this is no surprise. 

The oriental Fae, the Lou-dann, that Mr. Trick came over for help, is actually an independent creation of LG, making one wonder why Mr. Trick did not advise Bo going to them for help with her memory problem – the physical pain and nosebleed side effects were nasty, but their methods do work. (I am guessing because they would derail the entire plot line of Bo’s quest for her lost memories, so instead they were kept on the wall like Chekov’s gun that would fire only when it is supposed to.)

Back to the Norse. The Wanderer, whose actual name is Rainer, was also an Einherjar – a heroic human warrior who died and was taken to the Vikings’ heaven Valhalla by Valkyries, like Tamsin. Only Mr. Trick, being the Blood King at that time, interfered with this process, for Rainer was his enemy and a defiant rebel against his rule. As a result, Rainer became the Wanderer (until the end of this episode, when Bo broke the curse off screen) and Tamsin became Tamsin from S3. Naturally, this raises questions – what will become of Tamsin now, will she return to her old roots or will Kenzi change her even more?

Let me rephrase this. After her run-in with the Blood King, Tamsin changed from a traditional Valkyrie (a caretaker of the dead) into the character we met in S3. But since her return in this season, she has been changing as a character, and now she may be forced to make a choice – to return to her roots or to follow Kenzi’s philosophy of following her own destiny...or perhaps those options are not mutually exclusive. We will have to see.

The others, of course, will also have to make a choice in the next few episodes: Bo, being a romantic at her heart, declared herself to be on team Rainer, who is apparently Mr. Trick’s mortal enemy – and so far the audience’s sympathies are not with Mr. Trick...but that does not mean that Bo’s friends’ are not. Plus there is the jealousy factor – Bo cannot help but arouse sexual feelings in almost everyone around her (because she is a succubus, which is what her kind does). Dyson and Lauren have finally pulled their mutual dislike and distrust of each other aside to save Bo from the crows’ and the appearance of a new rival will not go easy with them, potential or not. And it is unlikely that Bo will go platonic with Rainer – that is more Kenzi’s style, when you think about it.

Kenzi, incidentally, continues to grow into her own – she continues to take charge of Tamsin (well, Tamsin lets her take charge, let’s be honest) and though she worked behind the scenes, she was important...yet again, this was a separate plotline (Kenzi and Tamsin) from the main one. LG is really continuing with those separate story lines in S4, it seems, as well as playing not-with-a-full-cast all the time. Vex, for example, and Hale were not even in this episode without any voiced reason. Ah well, LG is still successful, so this tactic obviously works.

So: Bo introduces a new twist into the show, Dyson and Lauren have learned to work together, Mr. Trick has to confront his past in the latest big showdown since the Garuda, Kenzi and Tamsin bond... and several new Fae appear in this episode as well. This is very cool, actually!

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