Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Being Human U.S. Season Two, Episode Seven: The Ties That Blind

Monday's episode was filled with drama, though I am not sure that it greatly advanced the plot.

Sally

When we first see Danny she in the house and the furniture has all been rearranged and the lights are going on and off.  Josh is upstairs in the shower and discovers the word whore written on the mirror. Both Aidan and Josh believe that Sally is responsible for what is going on.  Josh's reaction to the lights make me wonder if he has epilepsy.  If so, that would make him one of the few disabled characters in urban fantasy on television; however I am not holding my breathe on this one. 

Alone at home, Sally expresses her frustration at what is going on.  At the hospital with Aidan, they do a google search and discover her abusive ex boyfriend Danny, who was serving time in prison for murdering her and burning down the house died in jail. Aidan promises to help her deal with the issue and assures her that has been a ghost so much longer than Danny that she can take him.  He tells her that iron causes a ghost to disperse.

At home, Danny makes his big appearance.  He quickly disarms Sally and informs her that because he died in a prison he knows all of the tricks.  Sally tries talking to distract her but Danny attacks.  When it is clear that he is going to seriously harm her, the reaper appears and destroys Danny.  The Reaper tells Sally that it is his job to keep the balance and that normally he does not converse with the ghosts he takes but he finds her interesting.  Apparently he has quotas to fulfill and tells her to get her affairs in order.  When Josh and Aidan return the next day, they tell her that they had a hard night and head upstairs before Sally can tell them what is going on with her.  She sits sadly and the stairs and whispers goodbye, though neither Josh or Aidan can hear her.

It's about time that the storyline with the reaper got moving.  I feel like it has been dragging on forever.  The fact that Aidan did not come back to the house to help Sally though he knew she faced a life and death situation reveals that his relationship with Josh, is clearly the relationship he sees as primary.  Sally is in the position that she is because she gave up her door to help save him, and he didn't even give her a second thought.  I don't expect a man to come running to the rescue of a woman, but if he promises to be there, he should damn well be there. 

Josh

Nora finally made her return to the show this week.  She and Josh first meet in the cafeteria and tells him that she was worried that he would not to see her.  He is clearly hurt by the fact that she turned her back on him.  Nora spent the time alone rather than with Connor and Bryn as they has insinuated. It turns out that she is not the least bit sad about killing her abusive ex, and see it as an act of her wolf.  Josh does not see grey in this area, and sees it as outright murder. I normally support abuse victims but in this case, because her ex was not currently threatening her, I have to agree with Josh that this was without doubt murder.

Unlike Josh, Nora has completely embraced her wolf and has come to see Bryn and Connor as her pack.  Josh at first lies and leads her to believe that Aidan has interfered with the twins but when Connor and Bryn set up a hunt, he comes clean about his role in giving Cecelia the weapon to kill them. Nora is horrified and feels that Josh has turned his back.

During the hunt, Aidan injures Nora with a steel knife, and Josh jumps between them to protect her.  In the morning, Nora admits fully that she wants to be a wolf all of the time, which disappoints Josh.  When they return to the cabin, Aidan shows up.  Connor foolishly taunts Aidan and this results in Aidan shooting him dead.  When Bryn jumps forward, Nora grabs her and holds her back.  At the point of his death, Connor shift back into a wolf.

As I said earlier, I don't agree with Nora's guilt free feelings of murdering her ex.  Though he was abusive, killing someone should never be easy.  I am however beyond irritated with Josh's continuous urge to rush in and save Nora.  She is a grown woman and is capable of making her own decisions. In many ways his behaviour is infantilizing Nora.

Aidan

As I mentioned earlier, Aidan promised to be there for Sally and he was not.  Clearly he has decided that Josh means more to him than her.  I am actually quite troubled by this because not only is Sally a woman, she is a woman of colour. He barely blinked an eye when Sally told him that she was almost raped the first time she invaded and violated a body. Each time that Sally has been attacked, Aidan has treated it lightly which leads me to believe that he does not see violence against women as problematic. 

When Aidan first learns that Josh cut a deal with Cecelia he was very upset. He felt betrayed by Josh because this of course dragged Aidan even deeper into vampire politics - the very thing he was hoping to escape.  When Aidan calls Cecelia to try and straighten out Josh's mess, he learns that Bryn and have kidnapped and beaten her. Aidan demands that they stop hurting her and he agrees to meet with them.

Aidan's problems increase when Adley approaches him at the hospital asking questions about Hegemon.  It seems that he was supposed to get a ride back to Pennsylvania with him.  After asking around, he has determined that Aidan has something to do with Hegemon's disappearance and makes it clear that the only reason Aidan is still alive is because he saved Hegemon from Bishop.

Aidan decides to kill to birds with one stone and take Adley to the arranged meeting with Brynn and Connor.  He tells Adley that they are going to attack and kill the two wolves that are responsible for Hegemon's death.  At first, Adley is full of bravado when he learns that the wolves in question are alphas because he believes that they are always over confidant.  The moment he learns that he will have to deal with four werewolves instead of the two he had planned he takes off leaving Aidan to fend for himself, having deciding that avenging Hegemon is not worth his life.

Aidan manages to find Cecelia how is very badly hurt and when cornered by the four wolves, Cecelia tells him to leave her behind because she will only slow him down. He places her on the ground and the wolves eat her.  Cecelia's death greatly pissed me off. From the very beginning she was nothing more than a walking stereotype.  At first she was the dark temptress, then Suren turned her into a servant, and now she has sacrificed her life so that Aidan can live.  Can a dark skinned Black woman ever catch a damn break?

The next morning before returning home, Aidan drops off Connor's body and tells Adley that he can tell people whatever he wants.  He declares their business done, and tells him to leave Boston.  When he returns home, he briefly asks if Sally is okay.  How sweet of him to finally getting around to remembering her before going upstairs to bed.