Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Review of Being Human U.S. Season Two, Episode 13: It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want to

Well we have finally reached the end of an uneventful season two of Being Human.  For all the promises of how dark this season was going to be the deviation from the original BBC program has turned the U.S. version into a pale and boring cousin.  

Sally

Sally is feeling guilty once again for everything that she has done.  She is desperate to make things right.  Sally wants to go into limbo to somehow save the spirits that she sent there through her reaping activities.  Her ex told her that she can get there by walking through someone else's door.  She waits in a hospital room for a woman to die but when her door appears and she confronts Sally, Sally backs away.

Sally tries to tell Josh and Aidan about her feelings of guilt and mentions her plan to head to limbo.  Aidan stops to ask her if she knows how to return and Sally admits that she does not and so he suggests that Sally stay home.  This of course is all the time that Josh and Aidan have to spend dealing with Sally's issues. It once again highlights the fact that Being Human is solidly focused on men's issues despite the fact that we are told that the story is supposed to reflect equally on Josh, Sally and Aidan.

After helping Josh to lure Ray's wife, Sally goes to the hospital to see her mother.  She begs her mother to shred her but she refuses saying that Sally needs to come to term with what she has done and move on.  As they get into a heated argument they are interrupted by Nora.  When Sally turns to talk to Nora, her mother uses this excuse to disappear.  When Sally returns home her mother shows up and she admits to not being there for Sally as much as she should have and pledges to spend as much time with her as possible now.  With these words, her mothers door appears.  Sally tells her mother to go but she offers to let Sally take her door in order to deal with her unfinished business.  Sally refuses to let her mother turn down her door for fear that this decision will lead to mental instability.

Okay, we are going to have to pause her for a moment.  I cannot stand the idea that someone's actions or decisions lead to a mental disability.  This may just be just a show about the supernatural but that does not make it any less disableist.  Becoming disabled is never a consequence of one's actions or a failure to conform to expected norms and considering Being Human's track record when it comes to disability, I am not the least bit surprised but I can say that as a disabled person, I am offended.

Sally decides to shred herself while her mother watches.  Later we are shown the empty house as the camera focuses on the radio playing in the kitchen. The radio dial begins to move until we hear Sally's voice crying out for Aidan and Josh.  It seems that now that she is in limbo, it has finally occurred to her that her little act of spunky agnecy might not have been such a good idea after all.


Josh

He is extremely upset about the death of Julia and so he drives home to go to her funeral but is stopped before he can enter by his sister.  In the car talking to his sister Josh realizes that home for most people means safety, a shelter from the storm but because of who is and what he has done, home will never mean that to him again. As he sets into a full out mope, he gets a text informing him that Nora is in the hospital.

When he rushes to Nora's beside, she is shocked to see him and realizes that he is still her emergency contact.  Because of the eclipse, Nora had to run and hide and in the process fell and hurt herself.  Josh feels responsible for what happened to her but Nora does not blame him. She tells him that she is glad that he didn't kill the man that turned him into a wolf because then he would cease to be the Josh she has come to know and respect.  Nora can see the desperation and hurt in Josh's eyes and so she makes him promise not to kill his maker and he agrees.

As soon as Josh returns home he makes the decision that he is going to kill Ray.  He is joined by Aidan who has decided to kill Mother (more on that later). For her part, Sally finds the fact that Aidan and Josh are going to kill for the women they love sexy.  Could this be anymore twi and wrong?  Violence, no matter the reason is never ever romantic.  Aidan tells Josh to get Ray out to the woods and that he will meet him there.  For his part, Josh asks if Aidan needs any help, but Aidan declines.

Josh is unsure of how to lure Ray into the woods.  Sally offers to help him by taking over Ray's wife's body.  Ummm didn't she just go through a round of body thieving and decide that this was not a good thing to do?  In Ray's wife's body she calls Ray and informs him that she has a flat and he agrees to drive out and take care of her. While they wait for Ray, Josh and Sally embrace for the first time because they have come to the realization that if Josh is indeed able to kill Ray, that he will no longer be a werewolf and therefore be unable to see Sally.  Over his shoulder Sally sees Scott AKA the sexay reaper, who tells her that he knew it was only a matter of time until she back to her old tricks.

When Ray shows up, Josh brandishes his gun and forces him to walk into the woods.  When he gets to the cabin, he realizes that Aidan is not there.  Ray starts to plead for his life but Josh tells him to shut up.  Unfortunately for Josh, he is not a tough guy and Ray ends up disarming him.  As Josh lies on the ground after being beaten, Ray points the rifle at him only to be stopped Nora who aims her own gun at him.  Josh begs her to shoot him believing that she should at least take the opportunity to end her own suffering. 

Aidan

Aidan and Suren meet up where he tells her that he had managed to secure amnesty with the children of the corn vampires.  Suren tells him that she had to go back because she believes that Mother will never release her. Aidan tries to assure her that she had the strength to live on her own terms but Suren insists that Mother would have killed Aidan and she simply cannot watch him die.  Oh lord the love angst. For a moment I thought I was watching Bella and Edward.  If they are going to get this emo, they might as well have Aidan sparkle.

Aidan goes back home and he plots with Josh to kill both Mother and Ray.  Aidan has decided that Mother deserves to die for what she has done to Suren, as well as to the other vampires.  We get some flash back scenes of Aidan visiting Suren's grave once a year on the anniversary of the day that she was put to ground.  Mother is not the least bit pleased to see him there and despite his repeated appeals to release her from the ground, Mother asserts that Suren will remain in the ground until she gives up whatever latent humanity she exists with.  Mother tells Aidan about the fact that some mothers in the wild will kill the weakest child and actually laments that because she only has Suren as a daughter that she has no other choice but to try and reform her.  Talk about the mother of the year. 

Aidan approaches Henry who is working security at mothers big gala and tells him of his plan to kill Mother.  Henry rightfully points out that this is an impossible task and that Aidan should rethink this but Aidan is determined to forge ahead.  He has figured out that the only time Mother is vulnerable is when she is sleeping and so he asks Henry to kill all of the guards to allow him to slip in and kill Mother while she sleeps.

At the gala, Mother announces that thanks to the way that Suren has handled Boston, that she is going to officially declare her, her heir.  Suren is pleased, falsely believing that for the first time in 800 years that she has finally pleased her parent.  When Aidan slips into the basement he finds Henry hanging from a hook and quickly realizes that his plan, that is if we can call his half baked idea a plan has fallen to threads.  How did this man survive to be as old as he is with absolutely zero ability to be even remotely cunning? Mother barges in with her security in tow.

Aidan is dragged in by Mother's security and he has clearly been beaten.  Mother tells Suren that her last test is to kill Aidan and she hands her a stake.  Suren vacillates between the two, as Aidan encourages her to kill him. Finally, Suren decides that she cannot kill Aidan and falls to the ground in a heap crying.  Mother gets to her knees and comforts a crying Suren as she slowly picks up the stake and drives it into her heart.  Suren crumbles to ash as Aidan screams.  Aidan manages to break away from the security but before he can stake Mother he is stopped.

The security drag him out to the very same plot of land where Suren was buried for over 100 years.  Mother tells him that being put to ground is a fate worse than death. She takes pleasure in informing him that over time he will slowly lose his mind.  Right, so being neurologically atypical is a fate worse than death now.  Can Being Human get anymore ableist? Aidan counters by telling Mother that she is going to have to live with the fact that she killed her own child and then instructs her guards to start commence burying him.

Okay, so we have Sally in limbo, Aidan is in the ground and we don't know between Josh, Nora and Ray who was actually shot.  I bet the writers thought that this was a great climax, but in fact, it was boring. We know that Josh is not in any real peril and I highly suspect Nora isn't either.  Sally will find a way back and Aidan will be dug up.  I have never understood why writers think it is a good idea to put protagonists in mortal peril, when everyone knows that they will not die.  Where is the suspense in this?   The second season of Being Human was anything but compelling and I hope that with Sally in limbo that this is an indication that in the third season they are going to return to the storylines already aired on Being Human U.S.