It’s the last episode of the season – and Malachi seems
to be well and truly winning. The school is in tumult, there are no pretences
of lessons and many students are painting Malachi’s mark everywhere. It seems
the whole school has fallen under his sway. Arrogantly, Malachi even dismisses
Jo’s worries about Ella – he believes he’s untouchable with everyone in hand.
Except Roxanne – who is still praying in the chapel. Personally I’d think the
goal would be less convert Roxanne and more spread beyond one school, if
they’re going to be bringing about the end of days and all. At the moment they
have end of maths – a relief, yes – but it’s not like they studied it much
anyway.
Still, Malachi is determined to turn Roxanne and she’s
determined to talk about God and Heaven and faith and further blame herself for
Jez’s death. He keeps trying to get to her – and kisses her, which puts him
back to square one and her leaving.
Leon is imprisoned in Ella’s room and is spending lots of
time taunting Ella and Thelma. Thelma throws anger back, Ella just kind of
looks sad and tortured, as usual. They have a plan though and drug him with a
sausage roll (which is so classily Thelma. She also pokes his unconscious form
with a sausage roll as well)
Thelma enters his brain where she finds him in bed, in a
forest, with blood slipping from his mouth (similar to how Ella’s dreams looked
when she was in Malachi’s thrall) – and like when she attacked Ella with fire,
she attacks Leon with his worst fear – castration. He wakes, a little freaked
out and confused as to why he’s in a cage. He’s back (shame they couldn’t have
figured this out before murdering Mia.)
Then comes the awkward moment of explaining to Leon that
he killed Tom, thinking he was an Incubi – and that Ella didn’t tell Leon his
deepest desires. He blames her for not trusting him, for having such a low
opinion of him – if she had kept him in the loop he wouldn’t have made the
mistake. He begins to tell her they’re basically done as a couple, how she
carries some responsibility for killing Tom – and how she consistently uses
people around her (which, though puts her in tears, is pretty much true). He
leaves and Thelma comes in to comfort Ella while she cries.
Later, once the tears are done, Ella uses the spying
tunnels to check on Roxanne rejecting Malachi yet again. Time for Ella’s
cunning plan (oh dear).
This involves Thelma putting the spirit liquid (the stuff
that lets humans see ghosts) in Roxanne’s drink, then going looking for clothes
in the morgue (while eating a pork pie. Of course). And goes to visit Roxanne
in the church – dressed as an Angel. No, not like Raphael – with wings and a
harm and a halo. She is Trainee Angel Xena. After much inept fumbling, she sets
Roxanne on her path (sure, she’s not a convincing angel, but she is dead which
gets some supernatural points).
Now comes Ella’s role – which is frightening and
unpleasant (as always). To remake her Orichia dagger she needs to forge it in
fire – and she has to hold it in the flame with her bare hands because it feeds
off her pain and fire.
Off Roxanne goes to Malachi, setting him up to meditate
while searching his room – and returns to the chapel holding the amber stone.
Remember that one? It can alter time and space. The Dues Ex Plot Device. Which
she gives to Trainee Angel Thelma, who is awesome.
Leon goes to Tom’s grave and gets a little visit with
Tom’s ghost who shows up to give Leon forgiveness and absolution. And to urge
Leon to return to Ella.
Leon goes to the pub – where he runs into Mephistopheles,
the suave demon who is looking a little rough after his past intervention got
him punished. He fills in Leon on what’s happening, the school taken over – and
Malachi trying to cause the end of days, when Heaven and Hell fight each other
(and he makes it clear he doesn’t particularly care for either side and whoever
wins, dark times will follow). And to deliver a hallmark card on how wonderful
love is. Hey, Leon, got the message yet?
With the gem, Ella and Thelma can put their plan into
action – he’s too strong to kill with the knife now. But once he was as weak as
a baby – flashback to when he was a baby in an incubator watched by the fairy
Perie.
Ella uses the stone to travel back to then and opens the
incubator. Of course Perie intervenes (which Ella didn’t see coming). They have
a fight one in which Ella yet again forgets she’s telekinetic, and Ella
head-butts the fairy out of commission.
Ella ignores her and goes to stab Malachi but gets a ridiculous flashback of Leon’s
oh-so-mean words and hesitates, allowing Perie to stab her with her own knife.
Ella knocks her aside and she bangs her head on a plastic ridge and slips to
the floor, eyes wide open in a way that suggests she’s dead (there’s an
anti-climactic death).
Grasping the stone, Ella returns to the future (without
killing the baby), gasping and in pain (yes the laid down sweating in agony
look, again) while Thelma provides amateur first aid. And we have desperation –
because Ella made the knife strong, pouring all her fear and pain into it. Ella
has another goodbye scene with Thelma, thinking of Leon and crying and grieving
and lamenting that Leon was always her true love, her perfect fit, while Thelma
comforts her (comforts the murderer of her OWN true love, I might add).
In the main hall, Malachi gathers the whole student body
– and drags Roxanne down to join them – and he fills her in on the End of Days
as well. Dramatic scene time! Apparently, they need to sacrifice a pure soul to
finally declare war. By sacrificing someone who belongs to God, they will
provoke a response. The dramatic fire begins to burn the whole school down.
Leon hurries back to Ella’s side and finds her dying in
bed (again) and instantly decides to cauterise Ella’s wound (more dramatic Ella
pain, laid on her back sweating and suffering) before Leon helps her run down
stairs with Thelma following – laden with the knife, the book and the blasty
thing of Orichia – fleeing the burning school as Roxanne is sacrificed.
We end with Thelma, Leon and Ella together outside the
school – and the mark of Malachi filling with blood.
Y’know they’ve got the crystal, they could try to kill
Baby Malachi again, I’m just saying
After this season they never bothered to make a season 3
and, sadly, I think I can see why. It’s a shame because I liked the setting,
the world and the plot as it were and certainly the characters (mostly,
especially Thelma). It had a lot of potential
But it didn’t live up to it in season 2, I think. And the
main reason is Ella. It started so well, arse kicking demon slayer ready to
take on Azazeal, the Nephilim and everything else. Then we had the love
triangle – does she love Leon? Does she love Malachi – and there is absolutely
no damn good reason why she and he should have fallen in love – and we had to
endure episode after episode of Ella and Malachi and Leon relationship drama
with Raphael and Mephistopheles throwing in their opinions. It completely
derailed the story for no damn good reason and it made no sense at all.
And Ella completely lost any sense of being pro-active or
strong. She spent the entire season being victimised, tortured, suffering,
cowering in fear, screaming or grieving and angsting – and over and over again
she assumed the pose of laying on her back, sweating, cowering and whimpering.
Over and over again it was her main pose – sweaty and suffering. Her facial
expressions were fear or pain and little else. Tortured by Azazeal, in the
mental institution, detox from St. John’s Wart, afflicted by boils, grieving
over Leon, grieving over Malachi, grieving over Thelma – always crying or
suffering. She is a constant victim. Towards the end even Leon pinned her down
and nearly bled her to death- and she couldn’t kill a demon without Leon saving
her.
And the way she treated Leon and Thelma was pretty damn
shoddy as well. She used Leon from first meeting but even as they became
friends and lovers, it was all about what Leon could do for her – and huge
risks and sacrifices he took for her – while she constantly regarded him with a
low level contempt. Thelma as well slotted quickly into the role of sidekick,
Ella inheriting her from Cassie and it reached such levels that this episode
Thelma comforted Ella about Leon – her LIVING boyfriend – after Ella had
murdered Mia not a few days before.
Which brings me to sexuality. Several lesbians and a gay
man – all dead. All of them. Most of them ghosts for a little while but there
is some serious subtext here. Gay people lurking among straight folks,
invisible, unable to interact, barred from being part of life and society,
hidden from the eyes of straight people? Yeah, I call subtext with a whole lot
of gay death thrown in – with Thelma, Mia and Tom all dying in part due to
their sexuality and their love interest as well! And Thelma spent the whole season
– 2 seasons in fact – being constantly manipulated through her sexuality and
love life. Even Tom's ghost only made a reappearance to urge Leon back to Ella.
Racially, we had a token inclusion at best, even if
Headmaster David was awesome in season 1.
I didn’t particularly like the Roxanne storyline either,
as I mentioned before with her being shamed and painted as the perpetrator. But
making her good and chaste and pure and chaste and holy and chaste – and did I
mention chaste? Was she an unpleasant character before – sure, she was vicious
and cruel. Her sex life wasn’t why she was evil.
All in all the first season was great, the second season
had amazing potential – but it crashed and burned.
