Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Being Human (US) Season 3, Episode 7: One is Silver and the Other Pagan




Aidan is lying on the floor looking all kinds of nasty from the werewolf blood Teen Wolf slipped him, Josh is heading home – which makes Pedigree Liam, Alpha Werewolf and Vampire Slayer (but only when they’re weak and helpless because he’s not THAT alpha) decide to drive on and not help Teen Wolf with her vampire slaying (what, you were facing down Josh with a gun earlier, but Josh with 2 cans of whipped cream is to terrifying a thought? Are you lactose intolerant wolfy? Because that artificial stuff hasn’t been near a cow). Maybe he’s afraid of Aidan because even full of wolfy blood he still manages to kick Teen Wolf into a wall of shelves. Which is when Josh comes in to find Erin unconscious and bleeding from her ear and Aidan unable to talk on the floor with werewolf blood seizure.

To the hospital with Aidan and Josh watching the unconscious Erin, Josh worries about making sure Erin comes up human on the testing, then asks Aidan what happened. Aidan tells him his supply was spiked with wolfy blood and that Erin likes to carry around a wooden stake and attacked him. Josh doesn’t get it and has a full on flail “she likes you more than me?! She likes you enough to make me irrationally jealous!” He’s very confused but thank gods we don’t do the whole “zomg Aidan you ate her!” foolishness.

No, Nora arrives to do it instead. She decides to blame Aidan and not listen for a second to what he has to say because… because… actually I have no damn idea why. She decides to threat Aidan for daring to defend himself – she’s really dropping in my estimations of a character. Time for a sit down with Nora and Josh at Erin’s bedside with Nora worrying about what they have to do and worrying about the collateral damage that comes from Aidan trying to be a better vampire. Yeah, that and the pesky self-defence thing. Which Josh explains – Nora doubts it instantly but Josh remembers that when Erin ran away it was Pedigree Liam who brought her back.

Hey this makes a lot of sense. But Nora asks why he can’t admit that Aidan has done something wrong… because it doesn’t make any sense. Aidan wouldn’t attack Erin to drink werewolf blood and why would he just randomly attack her? I ask Nora why she’s so determined to make Aidan the bad guy even in the face of common sense? Someone go home and pick up the damn stake already. Nora asks which one Josh would choose – her or Aidan. Aidan, love, because you’re annoying the hell out of me.

Elsewhere in the hospital Aidan goes to see Kenny and meets Blake – a vampire and she’s also dipping into Kenny’s blood. She tells Aidan that Kenny has finally met his maker. She says she’s been following Aidan –and any other vampire left standing, to find safe blood and believes it’s time for vampires to take blood with consent. Also, she wants to give Kenny the gift of eternal life. Aidan goes with the whole “no bad, bad idea no, no no no,” because Blake hasn’t told Kenny the cost of the “gift.”

As they leave he grabs her and makes threatening sounds if she’s compelled him. She points out he’s a 17 year old boy and she’s the first scrubs-free woman he’s seen in years, he doesn’t exactly need compelling. And the reason she’s doing the whole “eternal life is fun!” kick is because she may believe it – she’s 11. She thinks he’s jaded and he’s also special, sat at Mother’s side, son of war, purebred wolf killer. Seems Aidan has some almost worshippers among the younger vampire crowd- and she thinks the deal with Kenny is mutually beneficial.

Sally, meanwhile is off reconnecting with her friend Bridge (Bridget). Who thinks she’s managed to contact the other side and seen a ghost, to begin with, before heading off for lunch together. Bridge is taking things amazingly well and quickly leaps to the idea of Sally being undead, though she doesn’t like zombie. She wants to talk to her because she heard Sally, on some level, even when she was a ghost. But since that experience, Bridge has now become a wiccan and wants Sally to come with – which Sally is all kinds of doubtful about, but since it apparently is Bridge’s new life, she ends up agreeing

At the house Aidan pours away his tainted blood and Kat, Nora’s friend/tenant arrives to complain that her plumbing is acting up and she can’t get hold of Nora. After much awkward do-si-do Aidan offers to fix her pipes (not a euphemism). He turns out not to be a great plumber being archaic but they do have lots of awkward there’s-no-sexual-tension-in-this-room-honest and she’s capable enough to fix it. Oh and she’s a history buff and they have a geek-sexual-tension-moment over the Revolutionary war (is this is where we pretend that their sexual attraction is based on a meeting of minds and not on the fact Aidan is so hot he’s a fire hazard? Uh-huh)

At the hospital Josh has another empty confrontation with Pedigree Liam and Josh’s sister, Em, drops in because she had a lunch meeting with Nora where it becomes subtly clear that Em isn’t exactly Nora’s biggest fan but Josh wants them to be friendly because Em was so close to Julia. Em has put 2 and 2 together and realised Josh is close to asking Nora to marry him – so gives him their grandmother’s engagement ring, that Julia had returned to her when she thought Josh was never coming back. They have a discussion about marriage and divorce and how their parents’ break up was ugly and Josh wasn’t there and how she’s totally on Josh’s side.


Aidan goes to see Kenny again and finds him weak and exhausted – Blake has just been. He catches up with her, demanding to know how many vials she took and she protests she was starving. He warns her that he gives a damn about Kenny and, after a deep breath and a step back, he tells her to pace herself. He concedes that she’s young but she can’t afford to be stupid – to which she asks him for help. There are so few vampires left and she’s had no-one to help or support her. But she also has hope of rebuilding vampiredom after the virus, when it finally fails – and they could run Boston, maybe more! She should have kept to the “I need help” because Aidan points out he’s already run Boston and it wasn’t that fun.

And Kat comes to the hospital to bring casserole and cookies to Nora in her time of worry – and meets Aidan again to find out he’s a nurse which adds more points to her perfect guy boxes I think. And then Nora arrives and when Kat leaves tells Aidan to stay away from Kat and Erin. Because she’s Nora and something needs to eat her

Aidan goes down to see Kenny who is feeling pretty awful and Kenny confesses that Blake scares him. We cut to seeing hospital security escorting Blake off the premises thanks to Aidan while Aidan tells Kenny that he doesn’t understand vampires, that vampires are killers and have to fight against that, even him. He also adds that a vampire and his maker are bound together, it’s a complex relationship and Blake is not maker material. But Kenny repeats he has to get out of the hospital and she’s his only choice

Blake compels her way past security and storms towards Kenny, starving when Aidan intercepts her and tells her he’s agreed to turn Kenny. She accuses him of putting humans before his own species. He doesn’t want to father any more sons, but he’ll do it to protect him from her.

And despite Nora’s warning he goes to Kat and invites her out on a date.

Sally goes with Bridge to her Wiccan meeting and meets Barb, Bridge’s high priestess. Sally starts uncomfortable and gets more so as they begin a ritual to summon ghosts – and then ghosts arrive to play with them. They’re not the ghosts being called and mock the Wiccans (with extra sexism) and one possesses Bridget. Sally stands up and shocks the ghost out of her by calling the ghost by name. Of course the other wiccans can’t see what’s happening and are angry with her for disrupting the ceremony but she focuses on the ghosts. One tries to possess her but doesn’t work with her amulet – and she disperses him with iron. She takes Bridge home with her and tells her about ghosts and how the ghosts possess them. She warns Bridge she’s seen it drive people made – she’s seen it and she’s done it. Bridge considers helping them move on but Sally says no – and blames herself. Bridge needs to move on, needs to forget about spirits and ghosts and even Sally herself. She reassures Bridge that she did help her when she felt Sally, she’s helped a ghost – and gives her her anti-possession amulet to keep her safe.

Nora and Josh have a bonding moment in which he declares her to be his person and he will always chose her even if Aidan is like a brother to him. Boooooo something eat Nora!

Pedigree Liam goes to see Erin just as she wakes up and tells her she will serve the will of the pack – then suffocates her with a pillow. Will of the Pack is a nice way of saying “my will”.

Nora and Josh come running, but Erin is dead.

Pedigree Liam catches up with Blake – and she threatens him with a “purebred killer” which makes him very thoughtful and shocked.

Free from all the drama because no-one has bothered to talk to her, Sally brushes her hair – which starts falling out – along with a chunk of flesh from her head.


Thank you Being Human. Thank you for having this moment when josh could have easily said “evil Aidan, rawr!” and didn’t. Thank you for not playing out the overdone trope of the grand-misunderstanding! Thank you for not having good friends instantly assume the other is lying just because. Thank you for having friendship mean some level of trust. And thank you for not letting Josh believe something RIDICULOUS for the sake of extra drama.

Shame about Nora, but at least Aidan’s actual friend avoided that trope.

Can we have something eat Nora? Chomp! NOMNOMNOMNOM.

Sally is completely separate from the others again. I don’t like that she felt pressured to join in a religious ceremony she doesn’t share – but I’m also not fond of how the Wiccan ceremony was presented as more than little silly. She’s also moved on to a non-meta place she’s just having an incident this week not an ongoing plot.