Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Superstition, Season 1, Episode 4: Through the Looking Glass



Time for a nice day in the life moment at the Hastings. They have an unclaimed body and are about to dispose of it. Something Tilly and Garvey are happy to do since the body is covered in vile racist tattoos, while Bea insists in giving the man a proper ceremony because he’s someone’s son

Bea is a much better person than I will ever be.

Thankfully the only person who shows up is the man’s son who promptly urinates in his urn. And lo, some people say you should not speak ill of the dead. I say if you leave a legacy which ends up with your loved ones wanting to piss in your urn, then that’s on you not on them.

So to the actual plot - May is raiding a drug ben in a squat in an old abandoned mansion and in the altercation she gets hit in the head - and has to be resuscitated. And her soul gets trapped behind a mirror. Because mirrors are creepy, everyone knows that.

She starts wandering through creepy mirror world (complete with red foliage and ominous emptiness), able to see into our world through other mirrors (this is the rule of mirror worlds, everyone knows this) but can’t make anyone hear here. There are also mirror world zombies who try to grab her but she’s saved by Mirror World Denizen Sarah who explains she took an overdose next to the mirror which is why she got sucked in. She can fight off the zombies with lights because light is bad.

In the real world, everyone’s all cut up about May: we learn Bea is May’s guardian after May’s parents died and obviously loves her like a daughter. The machines are showing no brain activity and the doctor is advising they say goodbye: May’s own wishes are recorded as “do not resuscitate”. Garvey is obviously in full denial and anger, lashing out at everyone - including the doctor and especially Cal. There’s a lot of powerful emotion here and it’s clear that they’re a family and through it all Bea is their backbone and foundation

Thankfully before they do anything drastic, Cal touches a mirror and the ring of Deus Ex kicks in letting him talk to May. They all gather round and begin to put together the woo-woo necessary to get her home (May also takes the chance to defend Cal to Garvey who is still so angry).



This is when we also find out that Sarah is not an innocent addict caught in the mirror but that she wants to steal May’s body to come back to the real world. She’s a witch who played with dark magic long ago and kinda sorta found immortality - if living forever in a mirror world counts as a good deal. Damn those loop holes.

This is all provided by Tilly who did some research and also they have enough woo-woo to send Cal through. This causes Garvey all kinds of emotions because she may lose both parents and she doesn’t seem him as a parent but still he is and we’re in COMPLICATED places here

Of course Cal goes through and meets up with May and in between lots of mirror zombie killing there’s some relationship back and forth. He asks her on a date while she is very unimpressed by his timing and is he serious about this. She also reminds him of the whole harbouring a fugitive thing and a three year gap on his record: yup she’s throwing it all in there. She’s not trusting him until she can see reason to

Cal changes the subject and yes this may be the smartest thing he did all day. Though i do think a conversation about why he can’t discuss highly classified operations may be in order

Lots of emotion and messages for Garvey if May doesn’t make it and they get to the hospital room where the mirror is set up - only to find Sarah already there. She promptly tries to steal May’s body

So Tilly kills May “just a little”. And then uses magical TVlandia resurrection skills to bring her back. She does this with a lot of snark which makes we like Tilly all the more.

Cal gets shot but that doesn’t seem to overly bother him and he uses a witch bottle to steal Sarah’s magic. Back in the real world they sensibly break the mirror and call that job done.

May’s back and health and willing to give Cal another chance at a fresh start… and Garvey is, well, thawing to Cal but not quite ready to embrace happy families just yet