Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Being Human (US) Season 3, Episode 11: If Only I had a Raw Brain



 
Josh confronts Aiden about him telling the vampires that werewolf blood is the cure and getting Pete chomped on. Josh is furious that Aiden picked sides – picked them over Pete.

To add to the complications of Aiden’s life, Kenny is planning on upping and leaving because he thinks Aiden is backing out on their deal. Aiden is holding out that Kenny has been scheduled for bone marrow transplants that may help him anyway – if he can do that it’s better than vampirism. Kenny doesn’t like that idea because the procedure is deeply unpleasant and doesn’t have a very high success rate. Aiden brings up his parents but Kenny rejects that – his parents don’t have a life now but feeling guilty and visiting him, spending their life savings trying to find a miracle cure. Kenny lays down the line – he is leaving today, with Aiden’s help or without. Aiden caves and lets Kenny out

Outside Kenny is overwhelmed by sensory overload – his world is so expanded beyond what he’s used to, living entirely in a sealed room. Just the green of the grass impresses him. He asks Aiden for 1 days as a teenager before being turned.

Meanwhile, Sally is arguing with Nora and Josh because she wants them to lock her in her room – she’s hungry and she couldn’t stand it if she hurt them. She makes a beautiful speech about how she wanted to be at Josh and Nora’s wedding and how much she loves them – Nora tells her she’s not giving up on them

And Aiden comes home with Kenny. Josh and Nora who work at the hospital, know who he is and what ailment he has are confused and disapproving. Except Nora… agrees

*faint* *gasp* *die* WHaaaaat?!

No she makes a good point – they may hate what they are, but if they can use their curses to help someone then they should. (Especially since vampirism is a dubious “curse” anyway in this world). When Aiden and Kenny leave, Nora even talks sense to Josh to bring him round. My gods… I am actually… Team Nora. Who would have thought?!

But saying “ we will do anything to protect our friends” spurs Josh into action – they will take Sally, go find Donna and kill her. Yes, as Sally puts it, he went dark awfully fast. But if it’s Sally or Donna he chooses Sally. Given the lack of plan it’s perhaps a good thing that when they arrive, the food bank where Donna works is missing – just an empty plot of land.

Pro tip – should one find a witch who can make buildings disappear, one should refrain from antagonising said witch, lest she should turn you into small amphibians.

This causes a small amount of despair and Nora encourages Josh to think on what Sally did get before she started rotting. She also has a suggestion for a distraction – get married now. They don’t need time to invite their families – who they’re not really in touch with – but that way they can invite the family they have: Aiden and Sally. But when they go to tell Sally, she’s gone.

She’s gone to see Max at the funeral home to tell him everything. Oh and she hungers for human flesh – I think even Max’s legendary coping skills are stretched. She doesn’t want to eat people – but she saw an obituary for a Ms Hannover who died without any family and… Yeah cue Max’s little freak out. This freak out if delayed because Sally says she doesn’t want to be asking the man she loves to let her eat a body in the freezer. Yes, cannibalism concerns shelved because she said she loved him. She also says how scared she is now she’s made a deal for her soul. But Max says his whole reason he helped her before was because he considers himself a Guardian for the dead – so he cannot let Sally eat Ms. Hannover.

Back to the house where Sally has apparently phoned to assure how OK she is and Nora and Josh are now wedding planning – for a wedding they set for Thursday. And Emily, Josh’s sister arrives to provide Josh with a Bachelor party – which involves Aiden, Josh, Emily AND Kenny planning to go to a strip club. (Emily suggests one that doesn’t serve booze because of Kenny but Aiden and Josh declare that to be “no point.”)

Sally, being told no instead gets her old job back prepping the body of the dead with Max, they bond, he steps out – and she rips out a chunk of flesh from the body. Then she flashes and sees Max’s body on the slab instead – then wakes up at the house, in bed. But has another chunk of flesh missing from her back.

At the strip club Kenny nearly spills the vampire beans to Emily by saying he could have any of the girls in a few days – including the lesbians – eeew, rapey and homophobic, not loving it. Aiden intervenes before he spills the secret but Josh still thinks Kenny is the next Henry and it’ll be entirely the same based on… actually based on very little. Aiden points out he’s a very different person from when he made Henry (Josh denies this and thankfully even Aiden challenges how the hell he could have known that) And Kenny’s outside his room Josh, if Aiden changes his mind now, then what? The diseases he’s picked up that his compromised immune system can’t fight will kick in. Emily takes issue with Josh and Aiden’s seriousness in a strip club and orders Josh a lap dance from the stripper she knows by name. As she leads Josh away, Aiden sees an odd, cowled figure in the crowd

Whereas Nora and Sally have a bachelorette party through a door (she really wants to come out but she also really wants to eat Nora) where they drink wine coolers (hey, where’s their stripper?) and discuss wedding plans (Sally ensconced as Maid of Honour).

Josh’s lap dance is hindered by josh’s supreme nervousness and then the stripper going all vampire and trying to bite Josh. Aiden moves in to intervene. She pushes him away – and Aiden stakes her. Josh asks why Aiden is carrying stakes and Aiden points out Josh is starting to smell wolfy like a werewolf – which is when Emily makes a run for it trying to deal with a stripper being stabbed and disappearing.

 So begins the big reveal to Emily and she asks if Josh hates being a werewolf so much why marry another werewolf, why live with a vampire – why add more supernatural. Then he makes a totally out of line comment about how he accepts her for who she is and she calls him on it – asking if he’s seriously comparing murder and being gay. She turns and leaves

Back in Aiden’s basement, he tells Kenny it’s time for the change. And Kenny is nervous – worried about what happened to the stripper and that Aiden’s last vampire child was made 100 years ago and he died from the virus. Kenny is nervous about the vampire immortality being far from certain. Aiden assures him that, as long as he’s alive, he will keep Kenny safe. Kenny sits down and exposes his neck – and Aiden bites him.

Josh and Aiden have a moment in the kitchen where Josh apologises for ever thinking Aiden would side with the vampires over them. Hey talk again about living with their curses, being friends and Josh also gives his tacit approval to Aiden siring Kenny.

Aiden goes to see Sally and Sally begs him to promise that he will kill her when necessary, the hunger is getting too strong. He refuses, Josh and Nora have found a psychic (Ilana, the one won wouldn’t exorcise Sally back in season 1), they’re going to keep trying. He also demands that she let him help – how? He offers to let her eat him. And then clarifies that he doesn’t mean that euphemistically.

She bites him in the side in one of the most comic scenes we’ve had so far. She complains at how it’s like biting a tower and complains about him flexing before finally getting a good bite.

She goes to see Ilana the next day looking much less rotty. Ilana advises her to stay away from Donna as she told Josh and Nora. Sally doesn’t want to die and wait for Donna’s door – which Ilana questions so Sally tells her about the identical doors Stevie and Nick received – so it’s not a door into the next life. Sally asks if she can ignore it and live as a ghost but Ilana doubts Donna would allow that. Instead Ilana suggests going through the door – but being read for Donna. Sally thinks that’s a bad idea but Ilana points out she resisted an exorcism, saved 2 souls from limbo and came back from the dead – Sally is a powerful spirit.

Sally asks how she gets ready (I love this conversation, every time Ilana is woo-woo and abstract Sally’s quick to follow up with needing specifics or clarifying that it isn’t a metaphor) which means resolving any issues she has and then grabbing her spell book.

First step, seeing Max to say goodbye and resolve all her issues.

Aiden walks home with a nasty wound in his side from Sally and he sees the man from the club – looking a bit scrabbly round the edges. Aiden asks what he wants and he says “you” and that he’s so hungry – they fight and clearly the man has some extra strength and speed. Aiden stakes him and he says “why did you do this to me?” before turning to dust. As he dies he remembers Jeff Weston. Nah I don’t remember him either.

At the house Josh is having doubts – his sister hates him, Liam wants him dead and Aiden’s strongly worded warning isn’t keeping them safe. All Nora wants his him though. And not to let Sally eat her before she says “I do”

Aiden angsts over Kenny’s body. As he does

And Ilana comes downstairs to find a man there asking if she helped Sally against Donna. Ilana starts to banish the spirit possessing him, and he breaks her neck.



On Aiden’s decision to reveal the cure? It’s not simple – sure it was inevitable that some werewolves would get killed from this, but then, the werewolves had declared open season on vampires – and the alternative is having vampires become pretty much extinct. Ultimately, Aiden has the choice of letting the werewolves drive vampires to extinction, or allow vampires to kill werewolves back to the top of the food chain and re-establish the old status quo. Neither choice is great but only one comes with an extinction.

On Aiden and Kenny – interesting storyline… but NOT NOW. Seriously Sally is going through some major can we PLEASE focus on zombie Sally and beg Kenny to give you a week while you focus on Sally for 5 minutes. Has anyone even asked the 300+ year old vampire whether he knows any witches? Or has ever encountered zombies? Has he spent any real time looking at Sally’s problem?

I have to say this new Nora makes me smile, sense and compassion – who are you and what did you do with the old Nora?

And though I actually loved the idea of moving the wedding forward to include Sally – it meant that everyone changed to another focus that didn’t involve Sally.

Emily Emily, Emily, I don’t mind the character, but her entire existence does revolve around Josh which, given the givens wouldn’t be so awful if, in 3 seasons, she wasn’t the entirety of the GBLT inclusion. I’m really hopeful that the reveal means she’s now going to take part more in the show as a real character. while I think dismissing the self-defence of Aiden is off and we don’t need another Nora-style “waaah, Aiden is evil” I am so beyond glad to finally see ONE show or ONE book in this entire genre shoot down the continual comparison of being a murdering monster to being gay. This whole genre is full of this really really offensive comparison and I am ecstatic to finally see ONE media in this genre say what bullshit it is.

Since we're 2 episodes away from the season finale, Josh's sibling drama and Aiden's Kenny drama and this guy who may or may not have been an old creation of his? Seems a bit much.