Contributor: Bronzethumb
Written by Shelley Scarrow
Directed by Michael DeCarlo
This episode of “Lost Girl” was a lazy, wholly uninteresting effort on the show’s part that failed to be funny, had no tension and basically faffed the characters about for forty-five minutes without delivering anything close to a satisfying conclusion. It would seem the inconsistencies of season two are yet to be overcome, and it’s all the more disappointing because episodes like the previous one prove the show is perfectly capable of doing well.
“Fae-nted Love” sees Bo and Kenzi investigating a local church-cult whose pastor uses Fae abilities to brainwash his congregation. The pastor uses his ability to erase Bo’s memory, including her knowledge of having succubus powers, and to make things worse, she’s accidentally enthralled Ryan into a love-slave who’s determined to take advantage of her vulnerable state of mind. It’s bad enough that the writer has decided to borrow one the premise of some popular Buffyverse episodes, but on top of that, every element is stripped of whatever might’ve made it interesting.
The big focus of the episode is Bo and Ryan’s Fae-induced whirlwind romance, but there’s really no reason to watch. The obviously magical out-of-character moments mean we can’t take what’s happening seriously, but the storyline also lacks any kind of humor or insight. It’s basically just two caricatures doing lovey-dovey things for the bulk of the episode for no good reason, and the audience is expected to sit there and watch it all. Where’s the investment? Where’s something to keep people engaged (no pun intended)? And when it’s all resolved, the characters are no better, no closer and no more well-developed for the experience. It was lazy, pointless and a waste of screentime.
Trying to counterpoint all this is a subplot of Dyson, at the lowest point we’ve seen him at in the whole series, interrogating a murder suspect. Clearly the writers thinks they’ve created a Hannibal Lecter-esque villain whose mind games with Dyson can carry a subplot, but really, even Anson from “Burn Notice” would’ve been more compelling. This baddie wasn’t scary, interesting or compelling, which meant the whole plot amounted to exposition about how rubbish Dyson’s life has become. No wonder he makes the decision he does in the final minutes.
The only saving grace was Kenzi and Trick teaming up to save Bo, which was far too small a part of the episode. Knesia Solo’s tiny ball of snarky goodness can perk up any scene, and it’s nice to see Trick getting a little more involved in the story after a few episodes of offhand mentions and cameos — if only it wasn’t this particular story that marked his return. His conversation with Bo at the end of the episode heralds interesting revelations to come, but again, this episode has such a dearth of interesting stuff that surely something could’ve been pushed ahead to this installment.
Honestly, this just might be the show’s weakest and most boring episode to date. “Lost Girl” can usually salvage a bad A-plot or character beat, but it seemed like just about everyone was phoning it in and hoping the audience wouldn’t notice. Bad news, guys: we did. Please do better.
Score: 5/10
