The non-human sides take control of our leads this week, as Sally is intent on being reincarnated, Aiden fights off his bloodlust harder than before, and Nora’s wolf-half gets kicked into full gear. The only one in control is Josh…and he’s a little busy with the return of a surprising someone I completely neglected to mention in last week’s review.
Recap:
Aidan’s got a new woman friend that brings him the joy he’s been missing out on since Rebecca died, but it’s also bringing back his taste for blood. Meanwhile, Josh rents out some storage units for him and Nora to change in, and plans to videotape their transformations to get more information on how to cure them. Both of these “side-projects” are stopped to a screeching halt when it turns out Aidan’s new friend is Josh’s ex-fiancé, Julia—and she’s working at the hospital with both of them. The same hospital also features a reincarnation section of the nursery, run by a nurse named Zoe who can see ghosts and guide them to be reincarnated if they’re worthy. Sally tries out, but Zoe turns her down after hearing about Sally’s occasional murderous rage (directed towards Danny last season.) However, after the shadow creature from Sally’s nightmare nearly attacks Sally and an infant, Zoe decides to help her uncover what’s after her. Because of his friendship with Josh, Aidan breaks off his fling with Julia, who was unfortunately getting attached. To make matters worse, the hospital has heightened security on their blood storage after determining someone had been stealing from it. Aidan tries to quit cold turkey, but ultimately resorts to going to what’s essentially a blood prostitute, severely backtracking on his anti-blood lifestyle. Julia vents to Nora about the kind of person Josh is, and says he’ll probably leave her too. The wolf-side of Nora emerging has left her emotionally unstable, and her confrontation with Julia sets her off. She tells Josh it was his fault for staying and scratching her instead of running away like he did to protect Julia, and then follows Julia home. Before we can see if she confronted her, Nora returns to the storage unit to transform.
Review:
Man, how much really happens in that one Boston hospital? Right off the bat, most of the main plots of this episode are set off because of a plot contrivance. First Josh’s fiancé just-so-happens to get a job there, and she just-so-happens to hook up with Aidan. Plus there just-so-happens to be a whole reincarnation setup going on in that hospital that neither Sally nor Josh and Aidan (who both work there) have noticed before. Is there a reincarnation guide in every nursery around the world? Zoe’s story sounded a little too specific, unless there are tons of babies that get semi-possessed and then go on to be nurses. If there’s not, then yeah, it’s definitely a little too coincidental that the one reincarnation dealer in America is in Boston.
The first season did a nice job of keeping all of the conflicts personal; they only happened because our three leads were here. But throwing in some random occurrences that just-so-happen to take place where our leads are is a bit of a step back. It’s certainly okay once in a while, I just hope it doesn’t become a crutch, considering how the show’s went so long without having to use it.
Despite all that, I did enjoy Sally’s reincarnation story quite a bit. Personally, I’m not sure I see the appeal of permanently jumping into a baby, but I guess merging with a newborn is a better alternative than being bored for the rest of eternity. Zoe seems like a fun character to keep around; she’s delightfully cynical, not in the whiny way our leads can be, but in a “just doing my job” kind of way. I’m very glad she told Sally off about being lucky to have friends. It will be nice to have Sally interact with another female who can put things into perspective, as well as shed light onto this shadowy thing coming after her.
The concept of reincarnation is cool, too, since it doesn’t necessarily step on any established religious beliefs, just places them in a more down-to-earth context. Although I have to say, the leather jacket-wearing ghost that explained all of it? Wow, could they have gotten a more annoying person to deliver that exposition? I assume he’s supposed to be some stereotype, but I honestly could not tell what that stereotype was. I felt the same way Sally did when he got to be reincarnated.
Now, the Julia problem. We had to meet Julia eventually. But having her sleep with Aidan just seemed so forced. It definitely provides drama, I’ll give it that, but was it worth it? We could have had Josh meet her on the street, which would have been coincidental, but not that coincidental. Or maybe she even went looking for him to get closure, though I guess that would be too close to Josh’s sister’s story. While I certainly gasped when her identity was revealed, as soon as it went to commercial I found myself thinking, “…really?”
And wow, Josh was way harder on Aidan than he should have been. Yeah, it makes sense to be upset, but accusations about Aidan losing control were uncalled for, considering he gave his approval mere hours ago. Granted, it was kind of justified since Aidan is sort of losing control, but he’s done a darn fine job coping considering all the crap that’s been thrown at him lately. Like he said, he didn’t orchestrate it specifically to hurt Josh.
And, of course, this gives Aidan yet another thing to feel guilty about. In a way, I can see why Julia was the one that’s brought out his taste of blood again—it kept the story tight, instead of adding a throwaway character for Aidan to sleep with. But, it’s hard to get past that contrivance when the results, at least thus far, haven’t felt worth it. Aidan’s back where he’s been before, at the mercy of his bloodlust. Given where he’s at with Suren, this could be potentially exciting if he becomes even more at mercy of his fellow vampires, but based on this episode alone, it’s not terribly interesting. On a positive note, though, Aidan’s make-up when he breaks it off with Julia was very well done. Even though it was subtle, Aidan’s paleness was surprisingly horrifying when standing next to the very flesh-colored Julia. He really wasn’t looking too good at that point.
What I really liked about Julia’s arrival was how it brought out the worst in Nora. It’s been very interesting seeing her slowly lose it over the course of this season, especially considering how reserved she once was. Julia was actually very civil towards Nora considering the weird situation (well…to an extent, I guess) but it still prompted a much darker version of Nora, played adeptly by Kristen Hager. She was a little scary when she stalked Julia, and her speech to Josh essentially laying on the blame was brutal. She didn’t immediately go into campy sinister territory, but instead came off as feral and instinctual; not lashing out because of jealousy, necessarily, but pure anger and frustration. We aren’t clear yet if she actually confronted Julia or not; I’m assuming she didn’t, because if she attacked her as a human, that might be taking this arc a little too far. We’ll find out next week, but as it stands, I like the idea of someone like Nora coping with letting the wolf go loose, and Hager does an amazing job portraying that.
Like last week, another thing I enjoyed was the interaction among the three roommates (aside from the Aidan/Josh confrontation, that is.) We got more of it this week, and it brought an otherwise angsty episode a much-needed bit of lighthearted fun. I loved Sally and Josh poking fun at Aidan at the beginning, and it’s nice to see them on good enough terms to make fun of “Princess Suren” without it being awkward. I also adored Sally’s moment with Josh, telling him how she’d miss him if she left. Even though I’ve only seen a bit of the original UK series, I always felt like Annie’s relationship with the guys in that series was chummier than her Boston counterpart, so it’s nice to see the show address Sally’s feelings toward them. She simply doesn’t know how good she’s got it, and it was cool to turn that into a small, but important character moment for her and Josh.
I suppose the big problem with this episode, ultimately, is that it’s all setup. But while the premiere moves the pieces into very intriguing places while remaining logical, this episode resorted to forcing some plot movement for things that could become intriguing, but aren’t quite there yet. Not a boring episode in the least; on the contrary, it’s actually very engaging and tense at times. But as soon as it’s over, it just doesn’t feel earned. Hopefully as the stories progress this episode will tie in and feel right in retrospect. But standing alone, it doesn’t quite work as well as it should.
