Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Lost Girl, Season 5, Episode 8: End of Faes



Tamsin is still very unhappy and is throwing all kinds of snarling at Bo for not loving her (the woman who fell in love with Rainer lot loving you must sting Tamsin). Bo tries to get her to stay and fails - and is then distracted by a letter sealed by a triskele; probably from the Ancients.

It’s an invitation and she, Lauren, Dyson and Trick have all been invited. They decide to go for research since even mythological beings have a weakness – and Dyson decides to take Mark because we need to push Miniwolf into the story somehow. Vex is worried about mimiwolf in danger and offers to act as back up if needed.

To the party – and it’s a surprise party with a huge crowd. And it’s a party for Bo – why am I not shocked? Not being entirely foolish (no, really) they realise this probably has something to do with Bo’s dad. All of them follow their own missions – and Bo decides this is the best time to tell Lauren that after their sex during the blackout she wants to reboot their relationship. Tamsin is also there because we need more tension.

Elsewhere Hera (who got better after being stabbed) and Iris have a very disturbing relationship – with Hera having way too much power over Iris and is willing to use it to control her. Iris looks disturbed.

Bo ends up alone with Iris who is desperate for company (and asks to touch Bo’s hair – is this some kind of weird racial trope reversal?) Bo tries to succubus information out of her – and Zeus appears. She happily explains that she’s basically the head god of every pantheon (including Odin, that sound you heard was the remaining attempts of continuity with the previous season finally gasping and dying) and the Greeks depicted her as male because a) she has many forms and b) patriarchal societies depict their head god as a guy, no shocker. Also Zeus is totally on Bo’s side and wants to grant her her heart’s desire (freedom from her father) and to stop him ending the world using Bo. Ok, that would be bad

Dyson, meanwhile, injects Hera with bug spray (which Hera kinds of shrugs off not even treating it as a faux pas, I’m sure Ms Manners has something to say about injecting one’s host) and when he calls Alesha “his bitch” Dyson smacks him. I approve. Do it again. As an added bonus it also gets Lauren a blood sample to experiment on.

Bo decides that Zeus is being a big meany exploiting her heart’s desire and storms off, telling Trick they’re leaving. Trick takes a moment to exposition a powerful magic shield which will, no doubt, be important later before Trick, Zeus and Bo all drink a cocktail of oracle eyes to see what a big bad guy Hades is. Just in case “Hades, god of the underworld” wasn’t a sufficient clue. The vision is, predictably, awful and dramatic with everything all dead and gone.

Bo is connected to Hades so feeding him power – and Zeus wants to break the bond and separate them to keep hades locked up. Let the ritual begins! Of course it’s super dangerous but there’s no way Bo is going to die so let’s not even try to play the tension game. She has to choose one of many mythological weapons to remove Hade’s mark


Mark finds Iris all mopey about how controlling Hera is and Mark is duly outraged on her behalf, on her being treated like property and how Dyson never treats him like that (“never?” you’ve known him for like a week). They ditch the party together; though Mark’s plans didn’t include breaking and entering which seems to be on Iris’s to-do list.

Meanwhile Tamsin and Lauren (with a little help from Dyson) have kidnapped Hera just in case something goes wrong. Tamsin and Lauren have some Bo relationship issues – but then discover restraints on the bed. On Iris’s bed. Tamsin and Lauren out aside any differences and focus on how Hera definitely needs to die now; Hera claims they have to and Lauren and Tamsin realise that maybe Iris is a lot more powerful than her parents.

They rush out to interrupt the cleansing ceremony and warn everyone that Iris is more powerful than Zeus and Hera together- and Dyson realises Mark is alone with her. And that they’re good. They all delay the curse because “the most powerful of you is with the least powerful of us.” Um… so? She’s shown no indication of danger or hostility

Iris and Mark have sex in the house they’ve broken into – (while still wearing a surprising amount of clothes) and both wish how wonderful it would be without the interference of their respective parental units. When Mark goes to collect snacks he sees pictures on the fridge – including of Iris (or of the body Iris is possessing). Mark is duly freaked out and Iris follows up by saying she didn’t kill her vessel so the woman, Cecilia, is still in there. Mark is not thrilled with the idea of Iris taking over Cecilia’s life and family

When Mark hears Cecilia’s parents arrive he flees the scene, though Iris wants to stay and meet them. She stays to great her dad – who realises she isn’t really his daughter. So she rips her hand into his chest and he dies in a pool of blood; Mark realises that Iris is the one who has been killing everyone

Iris doesn’t seem to even understand death – and Mark tells her Hera has been using her. In rage, Iris tears off her bracelet, clearly used to control her. She seems to lose control of her powers and Mark urges her to run while he tries to deal with Cecila’s dad’s body – and get stabbed by Ceclia’s mother.

Meanwhile back at the Ancient’s, Tamsin gets all weepy over Bo in front of Zeus. After a moment of comfort it turns into a challenge and Zeus strikes Tamsin with lightening. Because she’s Zeus and you don’t go toe-to-toe with her.

Dyson and Lauren go looking for Mark – and find him stabbed and being half-carried by Vex; apparently Mark called him. Vex staggers off for help while Lauren does the doctor thing

Bo finds Iris – where she’s accidentally turning flowers and police officers into dust. Bo tries to be sympathetic but ignores Iris’s warning about touching (and using succubus mojo) and her hand starts to blacken. Bo realises the horrible vision they had of the future wasn’t her dad – it was Iris.

She takes her blackened hand to show Trick and he realises they’ve filled Iris with the Nyx – goddess of night and chaos. Trick knows of only one thing that could stop the Nyx – a music box, the same box that Hades gave Bo. Bo goes to collect it – but Zeus is there before her. They fight, Zeus’s lightning bolt doing nothing to Bo’s blackened hand. It’s not an impressive fight, I have to say. Bo, Zeus, I expected better than rolling on the floor. Bo wins, half strangling Zeus with her blackened hand and throwing her out of her house.

Really, Zeus? That’s the best you can do? Through the door, Zeus begs Bo not to open the box as it will release her dad. But we get a completion of the Oracles vision – showing daddy as somewhat kind and determined that his daughter stop a big threat worse than him and telling her only family can destroy the ancients. He even asked her to share his victory over night which she thinks is a bad thing. He throws out a lot more riddles because that’s what he does.

They’re not complex riddles – after all, she is Bo. She plays the music box. Zeus backs away in fear.






On top of the many many many retcons (hi Tamsin’s characterisation!) am I the only one bemused by Bo’s heart desire being freedom from her father? I mean, beyond a vaguely ominous but ill defined shadowy presence here and there, has Bo’s father ever actually had any real influence in her life? She only actually entered Hade’s domain because she deliberately went exploring the underworld and seducing her step-mother. Suddenly Bo is desperate to be free, but the show has done nothing to establish her as trapped.

Mark has gone from “you don’t tell me what to do!” to eager-to-please puppy in a couple of weeks. Character development is for other shows!

I’m also not really following why Iris alone with Mark is a threat. Is she uber powerful? Sure, but, as Bo said, he’s the least powerful of their group. It doesn’t matter how powerful Iris is, she was always going to be more powerful than Mark. Why the sudden concern for his welfare?


So it looks like we’re throwing Iris under the bus (possibly along with Hera). Either she’s the TRUE big bad, and/or they’re making her a tool in Hera and Zeus’s ongoing plan, a weapon they can unleash and Hades isn’t the threat they predicted. Either way this makes her the killer, the out of control, super powerful dangerous killer - which has the added badness of having her destroy her Black family, serving as a justification for her being restrained and controlled AND making it likely she’s not going to last that long. On top of that, even her actions don’t tell of much agency – she seems more out of control and confused than capable and directed.