Contributor: Bronzethumb
“Lost Girl” continues to be a fun show with a mix of genre elements, good characters, interesting plots in the private eye mold and a healthy dose of fanservice. For the most part, this fourth installment is no exception, but the character moments veer a little too much into melodrama territory for this episode to rate above average.
After trying to get over the Dyson situation with a medicinal threesome – and please, do take a moment to say the phrase “medicinal threesome” out loud, because you’ll rarely have the chance –Bo gets drawn into a case of infidelity between a Fae couple that quickly spirals out of control, and the writers take the opportunity to further juxtapose the Fae world and the real world. The rules and the players are very different, and like we’ve seen with Dyson, Bo’s place in each is quite unique. As a private eye case, there’s a particular set of rules and archetypes being adhered to, and as another bit of Fae business that Bo and Kenzi get wrapped up in, there’s a whole different set. It adds a nice little twist to the proceedings as they unfold, reminiscent of “Supernatural” or the “Dresden Files” TV series in the best way.
The case itself is interesting too, though it takes its time to unfold as Bo and Kenzi sort through the flotsam and jetsam from the end of the previous episode. It’s a fun take on the classic infidelity case that’s the stock-and-trade of fictional PIs, as right from the get go we’re presented with a bit of a left turn from how these stories are usually presented. The bad guy’s identity isn’t too hard to figure out, but it’s still a nice surprise and adds a bit more twistiness to plot.
And as far as the tone goes, much like Bo herself, “Lost Girl” seems to have found a good balance between the dark and the light, the fun and the serious, when it comes to the A-plot mysteries of an episode and the general presentation of the show. Bo’s arched-eyebrow style of snark and Kenzi’s strange energy keep things fun the whole way through with a steady stream of jokes and witticisms, letting the audience laugh and giggle even while heads roll and skulls go flying everywhere. Even more impressive, it all happens without feeling like two incompatible elements are rubbing up against one another: no whiplash, just a good cohesive whole of strange, oddball fun.
Unfortunately, despite their comic contributions, some of the characters themselves don’t deliver in quite the way they have in previous episodes. In the previous episode, Bo’s enthusiastic reaction to her newfound situation with Dyson was a little jarring but understandable. This time, her weird mopey near-depression bordered on the melodramatic, and seemed like a disservice to a so-far pretty kickass protagonist. It weighed down the episode, and not even Kenzi’s hilariously well-meaning efforts to bring Bo out of her funk managed to keep those scenes in the black. One would think that having the episode put a firm stake in this particular character plot at the end would be a saving grace, but even that felt mishandled, too fast and far to over-the-top.
Dyson, on the other hand, got a far better showing this time around. We found out more about his ability in the previous installment, but this episode scratched a little deeper into the character in a far more organic, interesting way. The therapist is an easy-to-fumble method of character exploration, but the minimalist use of that character provided a good chance for Kris Holden-Reid to do some great non-verbal acting, as we see him bristling and grinding his teeth in that office. On the whole, that actor’s performance has been subtle and restrained but definitely expressive, and the way he played the final moments of the episode, making use of a single line of dialog to convey a lot of repression and angst, really does put him in the top tier of actors on this show.
A lot of the fun “Lost Girl” elements are front and centre, weighed down by melodrama on the part of the protagonist that was just invasive enough across the entire episode to bring the score down. It felt like a disservice to a good character, but a fun case and some development of one of the other principals reinforces “Lost Girl” as something to keep a solid eye on.
Rating: 7/10
