Contributor: Bronzethumb
Not for the first time, the “Lost Girl” writers have jumped the gun on one of their core story elements and muddled what might’ve been an otherwise very solid episode. It takes, perfectly in keeping with a show about a succubus, a big climax to keep this episode feeling worthwhile, but nothing quite detracts from the decision to put a big character misstep front-and-centre.
The well-named “(Dis)Members Only” sees Bo and Kenzi on the case of a missing immigrant worker who disappeared from his job at a prestigious country club. While Kenzi goes undercover as a new member of the wait staff, Bo ropes Dyson into playing husband and wife so they can join the club and use their new member status to investigate the other patrons. It’s a scenario ripe for fun, and the early scenes of the episode capitalise wholeheartedly on the awkwardness, the cheesy accents and just what a bright, cheery and Stepford-like scenario the characters have stepped into compared to the usual earthy-shadows of the Fae world. But as the episode wears on, more and more time is given over to the melodramatic B-story and the conclusion of the mystery almost becomes an afterthought, totally unrelated to the REAL climax of the episode. If it wasn’t for Kenzi doing some more brilliantly funny undercover work – I don’t know whether her faux accents count as a cheap laugh, but they get a reaction every time – this storyline would pretty much be a complete bust.
The melodramatic B-story is, of course, the Bo/Dyson relationship. This episode’s writer seems to have taken the bad cues of “Faetal Justice” and kicked it up a notch by launching a tense but genuine romantic tension into one of the most lovey-dovey things an audience is likely to see on the TV shy of the Lifetime channel. When did this happen? Viewers could be forgiven for thinking they’d missed an episode, because suddenly Bo and Dyson are “going steady” and acting like teenagers at a 90′s TV juice bar.
It feels unearned to jump from the tension straight into this, especially after most of the first season was spent laying groundwork that hadn’t come to fruition yet. And then to compound the problem, so much of the episode was then given over towards having Bo and Dyson dealing with the problems of a relationship that the audience never got to see the beginning of. It feels like a lot of air has been let out of the tyres of one of the show’s most interesting, well-written (until now) elements.
The saving grace of “(Dis)Members Only” is the big finale. It’s foreshadowed early in the episode with the quick return of Saskia, Bo’s not-so-kind-hearted succubus mentor from “The Mourning After”. Some quick bursts of fun action and, well, “fun action” are the least of what make the final minutes awesome: the implications of what happens, the tease of a new Big Bad, they all create a great lead-in for the season 1 finale.
“(Dis)Members Only” is another disappointment from what’s mostly been an outstanding first year for “Lost Girl”, but nonetheless, it finishes with a hell of a bang and will definitely keep audiences sticking around for the big finale. And in the meantime, there’s just enough fun Kenzi moments and much-appreciated fanservice on both sides of the aisle to make the rest of the episode worth watching.
Rating: 6.5/10
