Contributor: Bronzethumb
Written by Alexandra Zarowny
Directed by Lynne Stopkewich
For the first time this season, “Lost Girl” has managed to deliver two solid episodes in a row. It’s not a one-two knockout like most of the other quality episodes of season two, but all the pieces are in play and working well to deliver the kind of fun, character-driven storytelling one hopes to find on any given installment of the show.
This episode returns to some classic PI tropes as Bo and Kenzi are forced to compete, so to speak, with Dyson and Hale in order to solve their case. When three Fae strippers manage to walk into the police station and walk out again with a suspected killer using some kind of hypnotic power (and not just the obvious one), the cops mobilise to track down the killer and his accomplices; Bo and Kenzi are also trying to track down the accomplices, but that’s because one of them is a missing person whose mother is willing to hire a neutral Fae PI to track her down.
The division between these two groups of protagonists makes for a more interesting case of the week, since the writers can take it from two directions and tease out the details until the trails meets in the middle. For the most part it’s a very engaging case too, and not just because both trails quickly lead to a strip club, but from the use of Fae phlebotinum to support a story about characters and choices and conflict. Unfortunately things descend into the saccharine in the last five or ten minutes and the cutesiness of the case’s conclusion take away from it.
One of the main ongoing character stories, Bo and Dyson’s saga, is handled with more subtlety than normal and is all the better for it. From the get-go, they’re split from one another in the A-plot and remain that way for the entire story. She’s more concerned with the emotional people-driven side of things, and he’s all business and concerned entirely with solving the crime as its presented, and it’s only at the end of the episode that we see a twinge in that stony façade. From references in the dialogue, it’s clear they rarely see one another anymore, and those relations are cordial at best. Add to the mix the fact that Ciara is still around, becoming more and more involved in Dyson’s life. Credit to Anna Silk for the way she plays her scenes with Ciara and with Dyson, expressive without getting melodramatic and supported by the writing.
What was surprisingly compelling, and what the audience was probably hoping to see more of, were the moments where the larger Fae world intrudes on the story. Trick shows up for about two scenes and in both, he looks like he’s forming a one-man war council as he responds to Fae incidents across the city. Sadly, there was no real context given, just a promise from Lauren to investigate what’s happening in the Light camp. And speaking of Lauren, she makes a few appearances, as do the consequences and implications her revelation from the end of “It’s Better to Burn Out Than Fae Away”. Those looking forward to a confrontation between her and Bo won’t be disappointed, and the episode ends with the promise of this storyline leading somewhere interesting.
It’s not the best episode, lacking in the kind of rule-of-so-cool-its-awesome that bigger episodes of this and last season ran on, and the tantalising elements of Fae subplots weren’t enough of a feature to heavily influence the quality, but it was a very solid, very fun and very watchable hour of television. It’s great to see two quality episodes of “Lost Girl” back-to-back in season two, and hopefully the next one will make it three.
Rating: 7/10