Lost Girl, Dec 15 - Of all the Gin Joints

Last week’s LG episode was delivered wonderfully, as LG usually does. For the record, it was Vex and Tamsin’s turn to be absent for one reason or another, so let us not speak of her for a change. 

As for the other Fae... “Of all the gin joints” introduced the Alkonost, which was one of Russian birdwomen, who sang, supposedly, with such joy that people just died from happiness. One can see her connections to the sirens of the Greek myths – and to Hale, who is a siren himself. Curiously, his sonic skills so far are depicted as sonic beams with which to stun his opponents into unconsciousness. Ah well, no one has called LG’s Fae depictions canonical...

The other Fae included the Buraq, named after a winged – and human-headed steed of Mohammed, upon which he flew over the universe before launching the Islamic religion and the Kemazon, which is basically a corrupted version of the Amazon, who already appeared back in S3. 

That is the new Fae. What about the already established ones? Bo and Dyson are reigniting their relationship, and while the physical part of this ‘ship are proceeding as it always does – smoothly, the rest of it – not so much. Dyson simply has problems with commitment; he may not be as bad as Angel from BtVS may, but he would rather do anything than talk about his feelings, or about anyone’s feelings, or about anything at all! Maybe it is because he is behaving as a stereotypical male does, or because he is a werewolf – and when was the last time that an average werewolf quoted Lord Byron or Leo Tolstoy? – but still...

The peak of this Dyson character trait comes at the end of the episode, when the Una Mens make their reappearance just when Bo was having her mental breakthrough and Dyson went on the offensive. Considering that the Una Mens are protected against physical attacks, Dyson’s strategy is really thoughtless and will only result in him getting hurt – but we will have to wait until the next episode to see.

Bo, on the other hand, has had a breakthrough – she realized that it was her father who sponsored her entry into the dark Fae – and she is not happy about it. That prompted Dyson to comment, that among the Fae the light and the dark are just labels..., which is true – this whole system is based upon folklore’s Seelie and Unseelie courts, whose relationship to each other was enigmatic, but to humans they were equally unfriendly and occasionally lethal. That said, quite a bit of LG world-building was built on the supposed antagonism between the light and dark Fae, so Dyson’s statement was probably OOC rather than canon...which is why the Una Mens may have come – but again, we’ll see in the next episode.

Mr. Trick, admittedly, did appear here, but mostly as a secondary character, preferring to stay in the background, so let us keep him there this time too. Hale and Kenzi, on the other hand, were very much in the foreground, as they finally admitted their feelings to each other... it is about time. Their ‘ship, while not exactly absent, usually was barely present, so, again, it is about time for them to resolve their relationship – are they a couple or not? And it looks like they are, at least for now...

Finally, the second plot line, Lauren is moving out of her old digs and the Morrigan is there to help. I have to admit – that was unexpected, and Lauren probably agreed: her interactions with the Morrigan were wary to say the least, but the Morrigan did get Lauren to commit to work for her and the rest of the dark Fae as a doctor, so go team dark. Lauren, on the other hand, got the Morrigan’s DNA (or maybe a tissue sample) so go team dark Lauren as well.

Crystal – Lauren’s former co-worker at the diner – was absent this episode, which makes one wonder what is up with her. Fae-human interactions are unpredictable, so Crystal could have been simply eaten for all we know, but Lauren’s nonchalance about her is still strange...

So: Kenzi and Hale have a relationship breakthrough, Bo remembered some of her recent past, Dyson is about to get hurt and Lauren is reinventing herself, with the Morrigan’s help. As the previous episode had spoken, let the dark times roll!

Lost Girl, Dec 8 - Let the Dark Times Roll

Yesterday, we got more of Bo and her world. 

First of all, this time it was Dyson & Hale’s turn to sit things out – Dyson was out looking for Lauren, unaware that she was back in town, and Hale must have tagged along. Seriously, ever since he confessed his love to Kenzi back in the second episode, he had been avoiding her – an episode hook, perhaps? Anyways...

Bo is dark, but she still has a window of opportunity - which is closing fast, admittedly – to get out of the dark Fae...and into the light? Somehow this question is not asked in this ep, but S4 is only just beginning, there is still time.

Incidentally, the Morrigan is good deal more formidable than Vex is, as she can almost go toe to toe with the Una Mens. The latter appear to embody the Fae version of laws and are as relentless and oblique as law should be, allegorically (or metaphorically?) speaking.

This episode reveals something new about the Una Mens, too. Initially, they were to number the Blood King (our favorite bartender, cough) among them, but the latter just grabbed his holy papyrus seed and got out of town; the penultimate scene of the episode indicates that it got stolen – or something got stolen, at any rate, so the fact that Mr. Trick is an ‘acting Ash’ now doesn’t improve things much, either.

Speaking of Ashes... how does that system work? The first 2 seasons of LG created an impression that being an Ash is a life-long job, not unlike that of the Morrigan (who had outlived two Ashes at least, BTW). Now Hale (yes, our Hale), who had been the Ash in S3 has resigned...and that is it. No ceremony of shame, no nothing. Ergo, this raises the question – is an Ash a life-long leader of Toronto’s light Fae, or some sort of an elect official...and where does that leave the Morrigan? Can she be impeached, if push comes to shove, maybe? And push will come to shove – two Alpha females, (the Morrigan & Bo) will not rest easily alongside each other, simply because they have to be in charge – and they do not tend to share.

Speaking of Alpha females and sharing... Karen/Lauren has broken up with Bo. That is not surprising, the final episodes of S3 were leading to this moment, but it also marks a change in the relationship of Doctor Hotpants and the succubus – the former is not going to let anyone make decisions for her, not if she can help it. In the relationship between the two women, Bo was... if not the butch partner, but the domineering one for sure, and Lauren had enough. As friends, team Doccubus was great; as lovers – not so much. Now it seems that team Doccubus will have to work out just where they stand in relationship to each other: Bo is not happy with Lauren’s decision and Lauren is not backing down either.

On the other hand, we have team K/T on our hands as well: Kenzi got Tamsin to rescue one of her dark Fae friends from being someone’s slave – Kenzi does tend to do that, and this was clearly a secondary plotline to the one where team Doccubus was capturing Vex – but what was Tamsin wearing? That was just messed-up, especially when compared to Kenzi’s own threads...but that is not the point.

The point is that the Fae society is deterministic – once you are something, you are something, until someone (like the Morrigan or the Ash) changes your situation. Human society is not like that, there is free will, at least in theory. Kenzi is trying to teach Bruce that now he can be somebody else – and Tamsin is eavesdropping on it with a smile. This raises a question: is Tamsin going to be a main character of the show? Not unlike how Vex became in S3? If so, then hopefully she will not get to be just Kenzi’s foil, a big blonde to the smaller brunette...

And speaking of Vex, he actually proved more impressive than he was at the beginning of S4. For once, he is wearing something respectable and not transsexual. For another, he was evoking “sympathy for the Devil” here, being the last one of his kind and all. Maybe he is, I do not dispute him, but...

But the blade of Chronus was an annoyance of its own – Chronus did not have a sword or scimitar of any sort, he had a sickle, an agricultural tool shaped like a crescent moon with a handle attached to one end. In more recent times it may be replaced by a scythe instead.

What the LG delivered was a jambiya, a one-sided dagger that was used by Lawrence of Arabia in the last season of DW, BTW. It was not used by Chronus nor is it a scimitar – it is a knife. Yeesh! Yet dagger, sickle, scimitar or jambiya, Vex has lost his infected hand, which is odd, because the Una Mens have poisoned him by stuffing another larva or grub down his throat. Oh well, maybe Mesmer Fae anatomy works like that, who knows?

Finally, the Una Mens have appeared in the final scene of the episode – they have learned the name slash identity of Bo’s sponsor-initiate into the dark Fae and they are very upset. Considering that they do not have any emotions this makes Bo’s new mystery man someone very troublesome indeed!

And there you have it, people – an episode where Bo and Lauren change their relationship, Kenzi and Tamsin bond, Mr. Trick gets a new job and Bo and the Morrigan get up close and personal (though not like that). Oh, a Vex has his hand chopped off. Hopefully, it will work out for him.

End