Being Human #2.9 “When I Think About You I Shred Myself” Recap & Review

In what might be new best episode of the season, we deal with some major relationship developments, truth and loyalty in friendships, and…yeah, you’re just thinking about that big Fight Club reveal, aren’t you?

Recap:

Aidan brings the skinless Henry back to his house to recuperate, which also involves using his Jedi-Vamp mind powers to convince two women to come over, think Henry is hot, and have some sexy time with him as he sucks their blood.  The mind trick breaks too soon, though, and they see Henry for the skinless vampire he is.  To keep their secret, Aidan snaps both of their necks, but kicks the healed Henry out of the house because of the guilt.  In flashbacks to World War I, Aidan was shot and Henry was a military doctor.  Henry witnesses Aidan heal quickly, but keeps his secret, while a French soldier sees him drink blood and calls him out on being a vampire.  The soldier tries to stake Aidan, but during the confrontation Henry is staked instead.  Aidan vamps-out and slaughters the entire tent, takes Henry to safety, and turns him to save his life and repay him for his protection.  He also forces him to eat a live human, confirming his creation.

Josh and Julia agree to be friends to put the angry ex stuff behind them.  But the arrival of the ghost of Josh’s friend Stu (Jay Baruchel), who died in the original werewolf attack, throws a wrench in things.  Stu knows Josh is a werewolf, and tries to give him tips on how to deal with Julia.  However, after a night of drinks, Julia gives signals that she does want to get back together with Josh.  He initially turns her down, but then they unexpectedly go back to her apartment and sleep together.  Turns out it was Stu possessing Josh; he’d been in love with her since high school and came to Boston because he was following her, not looking for Josh.  Josh tries to turn down Julia again, but she decides she wants to stay with him, crazy or not.

The Reaper is training Sally to take his place by convincing her to reap more souls, which Sally still has problems doing.  She questions how reapers can know who’s supposed to go and what ghosts have done—questions which come to the forefront when Boner, whom Stevie supposedly killed, pops up in her kitchen looking for Stevie.  Terrified, Sally tries to get help from Zoe and Nick, who suggest asking the ghost therapy group.  When Sally arrives, the Reaper has already taken everyone out—and Zoe believes Sally to be responsible.  Sally tries to protect herself with salt at her house, when Nick arrives to offer her help.  The Reaper appears and attacks Nick, and everything becomes clear for Sally: there never was a Reaper, he was a manifestation of the evil side of her consciousness, and she’s been shredding the ghosts all along and lying to herself.  Aidan and Josh arrive and witness Sally shredding Nick, and when Sally goes full-on demonic, Aidan strikes her with iron and traps her in a ring of salt.

Review

What an episode!  I was hesitant to say this was the best of the season, because plot twists are like having a drunk conversation—you can feel really good and think you’re saying some really insightful things in the moment, but the morning after you look at what you said and realize it made no sense. One thing that many TV shows get wrong is the thought that throwing in huge twists automatically makes it “good”, but more often than not do we see twists that don’t make any sense, have no build-up, and only throw the story off.  I’m happy to say that Being Human actually pulled off a couple of fantastic shockers without it feeling forced—from Boner’s appearance, to the quick reveal that Stu was possessing Josh, to the huge shocker that Sally was the Reaper all along.  In both cases, there was clear build-up, some clues and hints, and you could reasonably predict it, but it was executed well-enough that only the most adept viewers would figure it out.

The smallest of the reveals, that Josh was possessed by Stu, was great.  The scene was off-putting at first with the abrupt shift, but the quick surprise was very well handled.  It’s nice proof that you can have a great plot twist with lasting implications even if it’s something simple and quick; it doesn’t have to be a long term thing.  As soap opera-y as it the “Stu was in love with Julia” thing is, it works.  It adds a much more tragic edge to Josh’s admittedly typical tragic werewolf tale.  I mentioned this last week, but I’m surprised to see that Sam Huntington and Natalie Brown do actually have some good chemistry.  Julia’s constant “you left me at the altar” references were a little annoying at first, but as it went along it felt like more of a comedy-defense mechanism to lighten up the situation than her just being bitter, which I appreciated.  I’m glad Julia is likeable, which makes this storyline much more tolerable than I would have expected.

I’ll admit that I didn’t suspect the Reaper/Sally twist completely until just before its reveal (though in retrospect it was actually fairly obvious in the scene with Zoe) but either way, both the reveal and the build-up were great.  Sally had been getting the short shrift from every story angle this season, but seeing it all come together in what’s obviously going to have major implications justifies her storylines thus far.  It would have been nice to see her have a little more fun before things went dark for her, but I’m pleased to see the care that was taken in developing this storyline nevertheless.  Also, cheesy “deep dark demon voice” aside, Meaghan Rath did a nice job at making the normally bubbly Sally very psychotic and creepy.  She wasn’t as over-the-top as I expected from her, particularly in the flashes to her shredding ghosts; she really only changed her facial expressions slightly, but enough to clearly be different from the person we’ve grown to love.  I can’t express how excited I am her develop this further.

Anyway, Fight Club twists aside, what made this episode so enjoyable was that the stuff before and after the reveals was extremely solid.  There was plot momentum (Josh and Julia’s relationship, Sally’s arc) character exploration (Aidan’s and Henry’s history) and character development (basically everything).  The theme this week was about friends—can you trust the people you think you know so well?  Josh questions how to be friends with Julia, while questioning the actions of his friends Stu and Aidan.  While his conflict with Aidan about killing goes unresolved thanks to demonic Sally, there’s an interesting triangle brewing between Josh, Julia and Stu.  Whether or not Stu hangs around, his actions still forced Julia to move up from a friend to Josh, which is no doubt going to shake things up when Nora inevitably returns.  Should we start placing bets now for whether or not Julia will survive all this?

Even though Aidan and Henry say this is a father/son relationship, it’s definitely been more of a brotherly/friend relationship, which fits more into the episode’s theme.  Aidan—surprise!—feels guilty for making Henry into a monster, when we see that he and Henry became fast friends back in WWI thanks to Henry having a surprisingly open mind.  I’m sure Aidan questions what could have been had he not turned Henry and kept him as a human pal—or if that were even a possibility.

Speaking of which, I have to give props to the show for going full-on with the skinlessness.  I assumed it would be an offscreen thing, but wow.  The make-up for that was very well-done, too; the show seldom goes the gore route, but it definitely succeeded this time around.  Seeing him in the bloody bed with the women was actually disturbing, and served as great visual evidence for how low (and creepy) Aidan is willing to go for his friend.  It was a little predictable to have one of the girls “wake up” from the delusion, but the speed and intensity of how it all progressed worked well, especially considering the moment Aidan snapped their necks.

We’ve still got four episodes left to go, and if this show has taught us anything it’s that it can pack a lot into just a few episodes.   Seeing how the guys—who are now finally involved in Sally’s storyline—deal with this new ghost situation is sure to be a treat.

Some stray tidbits:

• Though mostly off-screen, what we saw of Aidan ripping apart the troops in the tent looked very cool, though admittedly just a tad too Underworldish.
• As cool as the stuff with Sally’s story is, her deepened voice is way too cheesy and overdone, and it really ruined the good moment.  Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll hear it next week, too.
• I really liked Kyle Schmid as Henry in this episode, specifically in the flashbacks.  He carried himself strikingly differently in his human doctor form, much weaker and more unsure about his actions.
• On the other hand, I wasn’t a fan of Jay Baruchel as Stu.  Don’t get me wrong, the guy was great at the part of the awkward young guy, but something just felt off about him.  That might be a good thing, since his actions were very creepy and awkward, but he just didn’t feel right.  Maybe if he appears again, he’ll grow on me.
• A kid named Boner was really really important to this episode.  Where else could you seriously write that?