Sunday, September 18, 2011

Lost Girl Season One Episode Five: Dead Lucky

I am almost at the halfway point of the first season, and I think that I am about ready to declare Bo yet another female protagonist that I don't like.  Bo and Kenzie are partners, and yet Bo does not seem to take Kenzie seriously.  She orders Kenzi around, and takes her into dangerous situations, without ever once questioning the potential harm that could happen to her interacting with the fae.  Considering that Bo never seems able to save herself, and constantly has to turn to Dyson for healing, she should have long ago realized that she is vulnerable.

The episode begins with Dyson and Bo getting it on just for kicks.  On her way to meet Kenzie, Bo is kidnapped by Myer -- a luck fae who works as a bookie.  This is where it gets rather irritating. This whole thing is occurring in an Asian restaurant, with characters making sarcastic comments about dim sum and egg foo young, but there is not a single Asian person to be found.  Lost Girl is filmed in Toronto, which has a very large Asian population.  There is no reason that the director could not have found Asian actors to play Myer's role, but barring that, setting his gambling den in an Asian restaurant is highly prejudicial at best.

If you somehow managed to get past the dim sum commentary, Myer's niece Cassey should have just about made your head come close to exploding. Cassey is dressed in Asian themed garbed and greats everyone with "what's up homeys?"  She clearly looks like what you see when Whiteness wants to construct Asian women as cute little sex nymphs. Not Cool. Cassey tells Bo about the first time that she slept with a man.  Apparently, Bo knew it was wrong to have sex, because her adopted parents told her so but she gave in to an insistent boyfriend.  Unfortunately, she got hungry and feed off the man until she passed out. When she awoke, she felt like a sinner, a killer and a beast, and this is why Bo has been on the run ever since.

In the meantime,  Kenzie sits with a client, who wants to hire her to deal with a cat that is trying to kill her.  Considering all that Kenzie has seen of the fae world, she should have seen this as normal, but when the woman tells her that the police looked at her like she was crazy, you can see the clear agreement in her face.  When she asks where Bo is, Kenzie answers, "she's probably out wrangling some sociopathic kitties. the woman responds, "Miss snickerpants isn't sociopathic, she's possessed.   This was yet another opportunity for Kenzie to check her able bodied privilege, but instead, she tells the woman, "you know we get paid in real life money".  Just in case you missed the point that Kenzi intended to be disableist, the fact that she refers to the woman, as "Miss. Paranoid puss in boots," when she leaves a message for Bo, should settle the issue.

Bo decides to take on Myers case in order to pump Cassey for information about her parents. We learn that a man who should not have won placed a bet and walked away with 200K.  When Bo tracks him down with Dyson's help, they learn that the man is dead and could not possibly have placed the bet, though he was seen on camera.  It turns out that his body was taken over by a chien -- otherwise known as a body jumper.  It's clear from Dyson and Trick's comments, that body jumpers are generally disliked amongst the fae.  Trick says,"humans are for eating, not for wearing".

Dyson takes Bo to see a Hsien named Eddie, to see if he was responsible for cheating Myer out of money. When they arrive at the morgue, Eddie is in the body of a human woman. She is dressed in a short pink nighty and is dancing suggestively to Black Velvet. Umm super yuck. Eddie tells them that the body jumper they want is named Lucas, but not before informing them that he has to talk to his sponsor, about the fact that he slipped yet again.  Okay, huge side eye.  Twelve step programs are for people who are in recovery, and to appropriate this and attach it to a supernatural being is horrendous.

When Kenzi and Bo report the news to Myer, he sends them to an underground poker game.  They go in intending to question Jasper, but he has other ideas. Jasper attacks Bo and attempts to kill her, but surprise to surprise Kenzi bursts into the room and kills Jasper.  How is it that a human is able to kill a supernatural being, but a succubus cannot?  We are constantly told that Bo has not come into her full powers yet, but seriously, I would like to see one episode where she is not in need of saving.

Kenzi takes Bo back to Dyson for healing.  When they are through humping, Kenzi tells Dyson, "your junk could totally cure cancer." I have to admit that this had me cracking me up. Dyson gets a call from Eddie, who sounds afraid and so he and Bo go back to the morgue. When they get to the morgue, they find that Eddie is dead and that Lucas is wearing his body.  Lucas traps Dyson in a locker room and proceeds to attempt to kill Bo -- clearly he knew who the real threat was.  Unfortunately for Lucas, Dyson frees himself and once again saves Bo.

They take Lucas back to Myer and learn that he was working for Myer's nephew Seymor. As a reward for her work, Myer lets Bo have one more session with Cassie and promises to owe her one favor.  Nope, Cassie has not changed, and is still wearing psuedo Asian garb.  Cassie tells Bo that her mother is still alive and is going to escape her prison, and look for her. Cassie also tells Bo that she is going to have to make a choice.  Apparently, fate has a lot in store for Bo.  I guess it's a good thing that Bo has Kenzie and Dyson to keep saving her.