After fighting off their urges for so long, our three roommates finally decide to “say yes” and give in to their impulses. Aidan drinks, Sally jumps, Josh…accepts help from rich kids. Unfortunately, none of these can lead to anything good.
Recap:
Zoe tries to tutor Sally on ways to improve herself for reincarnation, but Sally, ever the life-improver, tries to set Zoe up with a doctor; Zoe fails miserably. Zoe invites Sally to a group therapy session she hosts for ghosts, where Sally encounters Nick (her fling from last season’s “I Want You Back…From the Dead”) who has improved his “emo” attitude thanks to Sally telling him off in their last encounter. However, by pushing Zoe to pursue a man, and improving Nick’s attitude, Sally inadvertently pushes them together, and Zoe and Nick become a couple. Jealous of pushing her new living friend into the arms of the ghost she was interested in, Sally gives in to her impulse and jumps into a woman in mid-makeout with a doctor Sally had the hots for.
Aidan flashes back to the 1930s, when he was Suren’s escort. It turns out they had feelings for each other, but Aidan is afraid if they consummate those feelings, he’ll incur the wrath of Mother and the other superiors. After back and forth contemplation, Aidan finally decides to run away with Suren—only to discover he waited too long, and he catches her having sex with his right-hand man and sire, whom he promptly stakes and kills in anger. In the present day, a mobster comes to Suren and wants to be turned. Aidan chastises him for being willing to sell out his own mob family and refuses to turn him, continuing to irritate Suren, who is only trying to rebuild the vampire community. Meanwhile, Aidan’s “blood hooker” has run dry, and he’s in a bad state. She says she’ll set someone up for him named Darla, but Aidan is horrified to discover that Darla is her daughter, a little girl. Out of options, Aidan decides that constantly rejecting Suren like he did in the past would only lengthen the time he’s under Mother’s control, and decides to say yes. He begins to turn the mobster, but instead drinks him empty with Suren, killing him. Aidan and Suren start to get it on, and he finally gets the girl he’s wanted to get for decades.
Josh encounters two purebred werewolf twins, Brynn and Conner. Having been werewolves since birth, their senses are permanently heightened, allowing them to spot Josh as a werewolf. However, it also means they have to work hard to suppress wolf urges through the use of Wolfsbane. Josh is unsure what he thinks of them—they’re typical privileged rich kids who like to party—but they offer to provide funds to help pay for Josh’s mission to find a cure. After some pushing from Aidan to “say yes,” Josh decides to show them his work, and how he’s working to find the “trigger” to turning so he can turn it off. It turns out that the twins, however, want the trigger to be permanently turned on; they feel trapped in human skin, and want to be wolves permanently. Josh rejects this idea at first, but tells Nora via phone message that he might consider their help. Meanwhile, the twins violently chase down and eat a live deer…as humans.
Review:
Like I said in the intro, the theme of this episode (and counting Nora last week, this entire season so far) is giving in. Saying “yes.” What’s interesting is their reasons for doing it. Sally and Aidan have selfish, but understandable reasons. Sally is jealous and wants to feel again. Aidan is certainly not healthy with the lack of blood, but ultimately the joy he gets comes from finally getting Suren (and by proxy, his revenge on his right-hand man that betrayed him.) I can’t fault the two of them for getting what they want, considering the hell they’ve both gone through, but they are at fault when they hurt other people for the sake of feeling better.
However, Josh’s “yes” isn’t quite on the same level, and I found myself really interested in him this week because of that. While Aidan and Sally are both struggling with their own personal desires, most of Josh’s actions are, well, reactionary. Nora is the one dealing with being with a werewolf. Josh was only pushed to find a cure because of Nora. And he only went out with those werewolves because, well, they’re other werewolves; he had no interest in partying. But at no point is he truly trying to change just to make himself feel better; he’s doing it for Nora and potentially for Brynn and Conner. Yes, a part of it is certainly to alleviate his guilt, but the efforts are still noble, and he’s only helping people through finding the cure. This is an interesting shift from last season, where Josh quite frankly came off as selfish most of the time. So it’s nice to see Josh having grown up this season, at least enough to be sure of himself and more determined to do something for someone other than himself.
The twist with the wolf twins was really cool. The best part is that their argument is completely valid; the wolves are their real selves, and they want to be that more than anything. It’s the exact reverse of Josh’s predicament in every way. Aside from the money, they have it worse than Josh does. So, I’m glad we saw Josh’s call to Nora, showing that he didn’t completely shut them out. Last season I could see Josh labeling them as bad guys and moving along, so it’s nice to see how he’s grown up a bit and does at least consider the opposite perspective. He’s still in a tough spot, though, considering what we saw of the twins in the last shot. At least they’re not eating people, right? …Right?
Sally’s plot lightened things up by focusing mostly on a typical relationship story. Zoe trying to ask out the doctor was hilarious, and made me laugh out loud. It’s standard “ghost friend” fare, sure, but it didn’t make it any less funny. Susanna Fournier nails the awkward introverted Zoe without making her too annoying. Sally, on the other hand, did come off as a little annoying in this episode; Meaghan Rath’s performance was fine, but she felt a little more childish than we’ve come to expect from Sally. She’s always had a little bit of an attitude, but she occasionally teetered from the edge of quirky into completely insensitive. It wasn’t really out of character, just a little too cartoony. On the upside, it was definitely entertaining, and wasn’t particularly angsty, which was nice.
And, yes, I hated Sam Witwer’s 1930s mustache a few weeks back. But yes, it grew on me in this episode. I think it has to do with Witwer’s performance; he carried Aidan as almost a different character entirely, giving him a flavor of arrogance and some old-fashioned mobster a flair. He spoke differently and carried himself differently, and suddenly the ‘stache fit. I see its merits, and I’m officially a fan. Kudos to Witwer for pulling that off. Overall, the 1930s mise-en-scene, though limited, was pulled off well. Even in the few short scenes, it did feel like a different place and time period entirely.
Even outside of the 1930s flashback, Witwer really brought his A-game this week. I was shocked at Darla’s reveal, but what really resonated was Aidan’s reaction to the situation. It isn’t much different from a child prostitute being offered up, and Witwer sold his complete horror at how low he’d sunk. And, pre-killing, his realization made plenty of sense; giving in to Suren would get him out faster before he sinks so low he does drink from a child. But, just like anyone who’s dealt with drug abuse knows, going back just a little bit can spark a complete return to addiction, and that’s exactly what happened to Aidan here. He didn’t just drink from someone, he murdered a guy. Aidan’s been on a downward slope this season, but he’s suck very low this time. Luckily, Witwer is great at portraying the ambiguous good/evil struggle as sympathetic no matter how despicable the character gets (something Witwer probably did too well when he was on Smallville) so we can’t immediately hate Aidan here, just be disappointed.
As a quick aside, Dichen Lachman has been awesome as Suren. Admittedly, there’s not much depth to the character, but Lachman makes her interesting just because of how she carries herself. She already has a strange-yet-sexy exotic look naturally, but seeing her shift from insane and joyful in flashbacks to subdued and straightforward in the present is very mysterious.
Plot-wise, the werewolf twins are definitely the most interesting development thus far. I’ll admit, after complaining so much about Julia’s coincidental arrival last week, it seems unfair to not call out the appearance of two random werewolves in the same way. But in this case, the story that came from it is a little more interesting, and it will definitely have huge impacts as the season develops. And even though I’m sure Aidan and Sally can sink much, much lower, this still might be the lowest point both of them have sunk. It will be exciting to see where they go from here—are they going to be immediately repentant for their actions, or might they live up the lifestyle for a while? Either way, it’s sure to be a fun ride.
