And so, let us talk LG once more. Last week’s episode,
“Origins”, proved to be a very good episode, but...not downright great.
The main problem of “Origins” can be embodied by the
character of Rosette, Rainer’s traitorous lieutenant: to the audience she came
out of nowhere, but to the other characters – she had history. This created a
discrepancy that just did not work. Some visual back history could have helped:
Rosette, for example, supposedly tried long and hard to free Rainer from his
train? Then some flashbacks could have helped. Rosette had a conflict with
sister Epona before? Again – flashbacks can help. But there are none, and the
audience must accept Rosette without any back history, just upon some say-so
from the characters, and that just is not the same.
Sadly, this sort of phenomenon has plagued all of the LG characters featured in
“Origins”: if previous episodes of S4 featured just some of the
characters per episode, “Origins” tried to feature all of them, but just like
Rosette, who appeared out of nowhere just to fill-in a role that could’ve been
done by a more regular character, like Acacia, they appeared and/or vanished
into nowhere.
For example, Mr. Trick. At the beginning of this episode, he
was talking to the Morrigan (with Lauren eavesdropping) about making a united
front against Rainer/not Rainer and putting their differences aside. That is
it. After this scene he was not seen again. So...what’s the point? Bo and Dyson
took the druid to his pub, for crying aloud, and where was he? Now that Mr.
Trick is acting as a substitute Ash, he no longer cares about his place of
business? Apparently not, or Rick Howland (who plays Mr. Trick) just wanted to
be featured in this episode – who knows?
Dyson and co. had their own share of problems this episode.
Firstly, Dyson’s memorial speech for Hale was really smooth – i.e. Hale was a
conservative but with liberal ideas, an old soul with a young heart, et cetera.
All that was missing was “Hale believed in equal chances for everybody, but
thinks that Rob Ford is entitled to his own opinions” or something like that.
Smooth, Dyson, smooth, but OOC for you, and not in a good way.
Then we got the initial capture of the druid. He was not
killed because he whispered something into Dyson’s ear...what? Who his mother
was? Then why didn’t Dyson tell this to Kenzi? Kenzi was very devastated
by Hale’s death, unreasonably so, but to keep her out of the loop did not make
it better. And instead of sharing some information with Kenzi, Dyson
just took the druid in, making Kenzi only angrier and crazier. That is really
stupid and low, and for Dyson? Again OOC, and not in a good way.
The same can be said about Bo’s acceptance of that fact. If
Kenzi just got mad at Dyson’s actions, Bo... half-ignored, half-discarded them,
being busy with Rainer and the new prophecy instead. Kenzi’s accusation that Bo
does not have much time for her anymore has more than just a kernel of truth,
you know?
Aside from the druid-capturing scene, Dyson, alongside with
Tamsin, served mainly as council to Bo, her brain tank, now that she and Lauren
are on the outs, again. Tamsin, it should be noted, looked really good in her
business suit, quite different from her regular clothing. That said, her and
Dyson’s scenes just didn’t feel fully connected with the other scenes of
“Origins” Bo just appeared to be running back and forth between the two of them
and Rainer & Rosette while the other four just patiently agreed with that –
highly unrealistic! Kenzi, at least, had enough of Bo’s action of running back
and forth between everybody and split, signalling a very drastic change in
LG-verse.
Or, more precisely, Kenzi has up and left, leaving Bo behind,
coercing Bo to withdraw her claim of protection over Kenzi. This happened in
part because Dyson (and Bo) would not let Kenzi kill the druid, and Vex, when
Kenzi seemingly persuaded him into killed the druid, double-crossed her,
because the druid was his ward, or something like that. Yet Vex’s actions make
more sense than Dyson’s, because Vex, at least, explained them to Kenzi (and to
the audience). Now the only question regarding Vex is...is he going to stay in
Toronto, or is he going to London, England? Originally, that was his plan – to
take his ward and to go to England, but then the Morrigan, who is the druid’s
mother, called, and the druid came running to her. If the latter is true, then
Vex (Paul Amos) is the second character after Kenzi (Ksenia Solo) to leave the
LG-verse (or at least LG-verse’s Toronto). Vex may just be saving his hide;
Kenzi – because she wants to start a new life (again), but both of them are
leaving all the same.
One final note about Kenzi – what was she wearing?
Admittedly, Ksenia Solo may have gotten fed-up with her character wearing one
and the same thing all the time, but the bizarre – and shapeless – mourning
clothes that Kenzi was wearing in “Origins” were not an improvement – they
actually rivalled Bo’s corsage/skirt combo and Tamsin’s bizarre clothing in
“Sleeping Beauty School”. Why can’t Kenzi wear regular clothing? Would that
disturb her inner Zen or something?
Lauren, on the other hand, suffers from the opposite effect
– she was wearing some really, really stuffy clothing this episode. She has
also turned the Morrigan into a human using science! Admittedly, that was one
of the more awesome events that happened in this episode, but why? What is the
point? To protect Bo? (This episode reveals that the Morrigan did send her
mostly human son the druid after Bo, but that did not work, obviously.) Maybe,
but couldn’t she turn the Morrigan into a monkey instead? After all, the
Morrigan is dangerous not just because of her powers, but because she is also
cunning and clever – probably more cunning and clever than the other enemies of
Bo are – as is her son. Yes, the druid comes across as this pathetic and
wretched man-child, but he was able to acquire the origin seed from Mr.
Trick, as well as a lock of Tamsin’s hair - that is actually impressive! Pity
that the Morrigan did not see it this way and just demeaned and humiliated her
son as she could...until Lauren returned.
Let us get back to Lauren. Firstly, when she confronted the
now-human Morrigan, she proved to be rather evil herself, in a sort of an
emotionally detached kind of way. Lauren can
be ruthless: Crystal the waitress befriended and the betrayed her in the first
episodes of S4 – and Lauren promptly forgotten about her once the Dark Fae got
her out of their confinement unit. Considering that they are Dark Fae, who is
quite likely to make a captive (uninteresting) human into sushi...that was
cold. And the way that Lauren treated the Morrigan once she could not harm
Lauren – it was also cold.
But then the druid arrived and had the big moment with his
mother and Lauren walked in on them. The next scene – she and the druid are
elsewhere (vaguely resembling of a caveman exhibit in some museum) and the
Morrigan is not to be seen. Also, Lauren has a cut on her forehead – but
because there is no explanation as to how the two scenes are connected (did
Lauren just bolt when she saw the druid with his mother?) we are left to wonder
at what has happened...
And the same goes for the druid after he swallowed the seed.
Sure, he began to transform into a giant serpent (or something to that
nature)...but how does that tie-in with the other story lines? More
specifically, Bo has to face her father...or the giant dragon-horse...or her
father, who is the giant dragon-horse...so how does the druid’s ‘dawning’ tie
into this? Is he going to be taken over by the spirit of Bo’s father...or
transform into a dragon-horse, maybe? We will have to wait for the next episode
(the season’s finale?) to see.
Some final comments. Epona was a Celtic (Gallo-Roman)
goddess of horses, donkeys, etc. She was also a goddess of fertility, but that
is neither here nor there. Either way, this makes her appropriate to tie-in
with the dragon-horse/parapus that Bo might end-up facing – or not, if she ends
up facing her father/not the dragon-horse, and the dragon-horse will actually
prove to be the druid transformed, in which case Lauren will be devoured, or
will defeat him. Hopefully, the latter will be the case – since the beginning
of this season, Lauren proved to be increasingly self-reliant and competent,
when dealing with Fae, so perhaps she will be able to defeat the druid,
especially since he is mentally unbalanced and all.
Finally, about ‘Hel, the opposite of Valhalla’. In Norse
mythology, Valhalla was the afterworld of all the Viking warriors slain in
battle, a rather joyous, but also gory place – the idea of Heaven for the
Vikings. Hel itself was the opposite
of Valhalla – a cold and miserable place that was the afterworld of all the
people that did not die in
battle, evil or not. There was no fire in it, however, unlike, say, the
Christian Hell, so the flames that consumed Rosette, Rainer’s traitorous lieutenant
(but after the crows’ betrayal Rainer should have expected that) were
completely out of place...but after “Destiny’s Child” episode it is
obvious that LG just uses names of people and places however it likes.
So: major character and plot developments in this episode.
Kenzi leaves Bo; Vex leaves Toronto; Bo gets married to Rainer (wonder how long
that lasts); Lauren turns the Morrigan into a human and is captured by
the druid who gets transformed into something else. And Bo’s father, apparently,
comes to Toronto, and a dragon-horse is somehow involved in this. LG’s S4
finale is going to be very interesting indeed!
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