Contributor: Bronzethumb
Written by Shelley Scarrow
Directed by Gail Harvey
How does one describe an episode as “average” without coming across as negative or insulting? Because that’s what “Can’t See the Fae-rest” feels like: an episode that hits that great “Lost Girl” baseline, that nice groove that season one slipped into so easily and season two has been having trouble finding. It’s not perfect, but it lacks big gaping flaws and nothing feels particularly out of place. By the end, the audience is ready for more and looking forward to where the show will go next.
Dyson and Hale are investigating a series of stranglings among the city’s elite and conclude that a Fae is responsible. To find out more, they enlist Bo and Kenzi to go undercover at a rich, swanky party; Ciara helps them to fit in and navigate among the kind of crowds they don’t normally associate with. The deaths start to pile up, the characters investigate and when all is said and done, it’s a very fun “Lost Girl” mystery of the week that harkens back to the first season.
Any chance for Kenzi to do some undercover work is a laugh-riot and Ksenia Solo certainly doesn’t disappoint. It’s just as great to see the whole gang working together on a mystery because it feels like it’s been a while since the ensemble was quite this together. Which is not to say it was perfect: red herrings and surprises are all well and good, but in the end it felt like the solutions came out of nowhere, without the kind of foreshadowing necessary for the audience to feel satisfied with how things wrapped out.
The big character focus this week was, surprisingly, on Ciara, but it’s a welcome departure. Since “Brother-Fae of the Wolves”, Ciara has been on the periphery but never felt like part of the core team, despite her close relationship with Dyson. This episode feels like the culmination of something started in “Original Skin” when she was drawn into that episode’s plot by accident. Here, she’s willingly offering her services, trying to convince Bo — and the audience — that she has a place within the ensemble.
And for the most part, it works: Bo and Kenzi take on the audience surrogate roles of disliking Ciara purely because she’s Dyson’s new love interest, but there’s earnestness to the character and a bright thread of goodness that shines through, impressing Bo and the audience. Her final scenes of the episode are the first in which it felt like she was driving her own character arc, in a moment with Bo and then a more important scene with Dyson. Though her introduction was sketchy, “Can’t See the Fae-rest” is hopefully marking this character’s more serious inclusion in the cast of characters.
The other big story thread of the episode involved Lauren and Lachlan, and from the first scene with these two it’s clear that whatever happens in this arc will have a huge effect on the season to come, given that it has absolutely nothing to do with the show’s protagonist and the storylines never intersect. Lauren has been through the ringer in season two and Zoie Palmer is going a great job of playing a character that’s smart, capable and usually in control but has been driven to the raggedy edge by all that’s happened. Adding to the energy is Vincent Walsh as Lachlan, who brings a subtle, almost light-hearted creepiness to everything he does (the accent certainly helps). The scenes between these two are brilliant to watch and the arc of this plotline, as Lauren slowly loses what little patience she has left, will surely have huge ramifications on what comes next for everyone in the show.
“Average, but in a good way” still doesn’t quite cover the majority of this episode. It’s good, and very fun, and hits the season one groove that’s eluded the writers for half a year now. Then it jumps up an extra notch for handling some character side-stories really well and getting the audience thinking about where the show will go next. Not for the first time, we can only hope season two has settled into a rhythm, because this episode certainly isn’t a bad template.
Score: 7/10
