Contributor: John Keegan
Written by Jeremy Carver and Anna Fricke
Directed by Stefan Pleszczynski
I’m not sure if Jeremy Carver is still heavily involved with this series and just not acting as showrunner, given his duties on “Supernatural”, but I was happy to see his name still prominently displayed in the credits. For all my disappointment with the second season finale, the rest of the season was quite good, and took the concept into directions that the British original never conceived.
It’s been 15 months since the end of the second season, and things are not in a good place. Aiden is still buried underground, Sally is trapped in limbo, and Josh and Nora are trying desperately to find their friends. Let me get this out of the way early: I love the fact that Kristen Hager is apparently sticking around, even if it means that I’m heavily distracted during the actual episode! But more than that, Josh is far more interesting with Nora at his side.
I’ll continue with that side of the story, because it’s a rather interesting twist. I was never entirely convinced that killing Ray was going to cure Josh, and overall, I don’t think it’s quite so simple as it has been portrayed. I see bad things coming in the future. But I really like the notion that Josh is human again, leaving Nora as the werewolf.
Speaking of restorations that are unlikely to be so simple as that, Sally is also human again! This is a huge departure from the direction taken from the same basic season-ending state of play, so this is a welcome turn of events. What better way to explore the premise in the title of the show itself than to have these two previous “monsters” restored to their human state? Will they be able to adjust, and how hard will they fight to remain human? Or will they fight at all?
I’m not convinced that Stevie and Nick aren’t resident in Sally’s brain, and won’t be fighting for control at some point and time. It’s possible that they were resurrected in their original bodies, and are therefore buried alive, but it was just a speculation on Josh and Nora’s part, not a sure thing. On the other hand, I don’t want a retread of what Sally went through in the second season with the “reaper”, since that was already done well enough the first time.
While there were surprising changes on the werewolf and ghost fronts, that doesn’t mean that the vampires were left out of the game. Aiden is “rescued”, but it’s not how it seems. Apparently, in the past year or so, a plague has been unleashed on the vampires, and most of the elders (if not all of them) have fallen to dust. One of the Dutch elders digs up Aiden (with some help) in the hopes that his blood, being untainted, will cure the disease. It doesn’t, which leave Aiden out of his penalty box, with no one to enforce his sentence anymore.
Aiden will no doubt be restored, but as one of (if not the only) non-infected vampire around, will he continue to be hunted, or will he have the opportunity to take control, much as he seemed to be doing at the end of the first season? There are a lot of questions as to the extent of the plague and its nature. Could Aiden become infected? I think it’s fairly clear that those questions will need to be addressed quickly.
It’s a strong start to the third season, and despite my fears that the series would stray back into the habit of riffing off the British original’s plot and character threads, that’s not at all what happened. “Being Human” has managed to subvert my expectations before, so I’m happy to see that the ride isn’t over yet!
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Score: 8/10
