Lost Girl, Dec 22 - Le Fae Epoque

Due to the unexpected emergency – i.e. Toronto’s black out last week – I was unable to watch the latest episode of LG completely, so the review will have to wait for another date.

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!

S.H.I.E.L.D., Dec 10 - The Bridge

And so, “Agents” have returned from their latest hiatus with a vengeance. Mike “The Hooded Hero” is back from the pilot episode as is Raina and her ally Poe from ep 5. By now “Centipede” has perfected their serum to an extent – it is now stable, but its soldiers’ are much more cybernetic than Mike is...but do not show much superiority over Mike, on the other hand.

The main villains of the episode, Poe and Raina, are still impressive – nearly emotionless and inhuman, but not quite, as there is a scene that shows them caring for each other at least. Pity that they do not care about anyone else.

Mike, on the other hand, is an emotional mess – he cares either too little for his son or too much. Then again, it is hard to gauge people when their families are involved, or to judge. Mike made his choice and he apparently died for it in the explosions that occurred once the hostage exchange went wrong. Of course, his choice also involved in handing Coulson over to the enemy, so the titular characters are also having problems.

That aside, most of “The Bridge” went like a typical episode, where the agents are fighting their enemies and defeating them through their teamwork skills, but... after the fight with the soldiers the team began to have new problems.

For one thing, May is not as comfortable with Ward as she thinks she is, or perhaps she is more comfortable: she assumes that Ward pushed her out of harm’s way for his feelings for her, and when he denies – in a rather May-like way – that, she turns on Skye.

Skye’s beef is that she is with S.H.I.E.L.D. because she is looking for her parents who may have been S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Only “The Bridge” implies that they were something else, somebody that S.H.I.E.L.D. was not particularly friendly with, and that Coulson intends to lie to Skye, with May alongside him. That did not sit well with May, and she turned on Skye, suggesting that she is relinquished her family search or S.H.I.E.L.D. membership, in a matter of speaking.

The Fitz & Simmons duo were in the background for this episode, but considering that this episode was more action than research, it worked. And Ward is still Ward, he is getting better with his fighting, with his talking to women and he is left-handed, apparently. Funny that.

Speaking of ‘funny’ as ‘weird’, why does S.H.I.E.L.D. disbelieve in psychics? After the events in “The Girl in the Flower Dress”, for example, they had to deal with a fire-generating enemy, for example. How’s clairvoyance a stretch from that? But a stretch it is.

Incidentally, but has Mike died, or at least been incapacitated, because he was an individualist, while “Agents” are a team-oriented show? Perhaps, and if he had put more trust into his new teammates, the ending of the episode would have been different.

So: Mike came and went, Raina returned with a new friend, and both she and Poe show every sign of staying, Coulson was captured and the rest of his team are in trouble, both with his kidnapping and between themselves. Hopefully then, the next episode will start resolving those problems.

PS: Oh, and the titular bridge? It is possibly refers to the place where the hostage exchange went sour at the end of the episode, or – something else. Maybe the next episodes will shed more light on this question.

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

Lost Girl, Dec 1 - Turn to Stone

Last night’s episode of LG was interesting on several levels.

First, this marked the end of Kenzi’s attempts to be Fae. Personally, it was obviously doomed from the start – the most that Kenzi manifested was a series of glittering lights or sparkles – not very impressive and easily exhaustible. Also, it is obvious that the late druid had no intention of giving Kenzi a long-term solution, because she was a good customer of his, and he was a greedy jerk, to put it lightly. As long as Kenzi paid he would continue to sucker her, and when she stopped, he would get his money from her some other way.

That said, this story arch is mostly over – the druid is dead and Kenzi now knows that she does not have to Fae to be accepted by Bo and the others, so they are square.

Secondly, more of Lauren’s pasts become known than it ever did before – as she told Crystal (the not-Tamsin from her waitressing job), she was a fledgling eco-terrorist, but could not take the pressure and fled, becoming involved with late Nadia and with the light Fae in the process. Consequently, she nowadays is some sort of a super-scientist with esoteric Fae knowledge and Kenzi taught her how to pick locks as well. Go Lauren! Her new main flaw is that she is arrogant, and assumed that Hale (as the last Ash that she knew of) was behind the kidnapping – apparently he is not, but the Una Mens (Fae elders?) are still in the running.

Speaking of Una Mens/Fae elders, how does Bo know where to find them, even if they do have a branch in Toronto? Bo may or may not be dark (“Welcome to the Dark side, Skywalker!”) but she still isn’t that high on the Fae totem pole to know where the Una Mens are located, isn’t she? If they are a very important organization, then they should have some sort of security to keep intruders such as Bo out – but apparently they do not.

What they have are gargoyles that function rather like the Weeping Angels from Dr. Who – statues that move. Sadly, unlike Dr. Who, this does not really work – LG gargoyles are clearly statues that are moved by the magic of CGI and television. That said, this is probably the best that the LG staff could come up with – this show generally does not use specialized computer graphic if they can help it, but to use people in make-up was probably too low-brow for them. So stone gargoyles and TV magic was the best they could come up with.

The same can be said of Tamsin’s new wings. Apparently, they signify that the Valkyrie is living her last life...if only they were not so obviously wire, paper and other props – that is one. And second, Valkyries did not have wings either. Yes, they took the souls of dead Viking braves to Valhalla, the Norse heaven, but they utilized flying horses to do that instead. No wings. Is Tamsin is supposed to be angel? Probably, because otherwise the entire commotion of her making a choice between Light and Dark is meaningless.

Well, actually it is meaningless, through and through. The Light and Dark Fae are based on the Seelie and Unseelie courts of folklore, and there were little difference between them when it came to humans – the Seelie were more merciful towards them (i.e. Lauren), but not much. By coming over to the Light side Tamsin is unlikely to gain anything new – and we still don’t know who the new Ash is, if s/he is a real arsehole, then Tamsin may be better with the Dark – at least there one knows where one stands...

Finally, Dyson. (Trick and Hale were not in this episode.) He and Bo are back to season 1 in their relationship – actively screwing each other, but in denial of their feelings, at least on Dyson’s end, and now he has the Norn to blame for. Bo and Lauren/Karen may be wrong for each other, but so far the ‘ship Dyson/Bo isn’t sounding any healthier.

On the other hand there is the ‘ship Dyson/Kenzi. Obviously Kenzi has feelings for Hale and vice versa, but her crush on Dyson probably is not going away anytime soon, especially since Dyson appears to be around, and Hale is not. Hopefully, he is not the one holding Lauren captive by proxy, if not literally...

So: Bo and Kenzi have it out in the open, Bo and Dyson just have it, Tamsin now has wings and Lauren has been captured. Oh, and Bo apparently joined the dark side while no one else was looking. A rather exciting episode, if you ask me.

PS: And with a misleading title as well. “Turn to Stone” – well, no one got turned into a rock in this episode, fortunately.