Contributor: Bronzethumb
Written by Emily Andras
Directed by John Fawcett
The penultimate episode of season two plays out as the writer exercising their own storytelling indulgences. They’re trying to make the season arc work for what they want to do, and while it’s great to see some fun secondary characters make a return, there’s such an inconsistent, off-the-wall tone to proceedings that the average viewer will come away thinking “Huh? What did I just watch? And don’t these guys have an actual villain to fight?
In the wake of some key deaths and big revelations, Bo sets out to balance the sides in the coming war by recruiting Vex for the fight against the Garuda. It turns out that securing Vex’s freedom from the Morrigan is only half the battle, and she’ll have to work twice as hard to keep Vex safe from other Dark Fae who want him dead. It winds up being an incredibly jarring throwback of a plot, especially coming so late in season two when the audience wants to see how the heroes will overcome the Big Bad. Instead, this winds up being a pointless side story to kill time, much like the earlier episode ‘Masks’.
For one thing, it only has the most threadbare connection to the Garuda. Early in the story, Bo learns that she needs to recruit someone from the Dark Fae, hence the original quest to get Vex, but the whole thing gets bogged down in petty, pointless storytelling. Bo is just as annoyed as the audience when she finds out what a waste of time it was. There was also a huge effort made to up the fanservice, with not one but two scantily-clad seduction sequences. But they’re both planted smack in the middle of a comically-stupid storyline and then played for laughs, so whatever sexiness the episode was trying to drum up disappears immediately.
That said, it was nice to see the Vex and the Morrigan again, especially so late in the game. The actors clearly have a ball with such wicked characters, and one of the few intrusions of the story arc were getting to find out how the Dark Fae are reacting to the thread of destruction. It’s just a shame that it had to be in such a lame duck of a storyline — but at least one of the pair will likely be appearing in the season finale, so fingers are crossed for the Dark Fae’s chance to really shine before year’s end.
Meanwhile, Kenzi has a subplot where tries to help Dyson become whole again in preparation for the big fight. The presence of Kenzi lessens the whiplash as this story jumps from funny to seriousness, and it also delivers hands-down the best moment of the episode, if not the best Kenzi moment of all time. It’s the only part of the episode that contributes something worthwhile, and on top of that, Kenzi winds up physically embodying the theme Bo haphazardly tries to verbalise later in the episode. “Lost Girl” finally manages to justify Bo’s big speech from the pilot episodes about why the humans have their stuff together better than the Fae.
Let’s look on the bright side: the finale’s got nowhere to go but up, right? Because this episode was a scattered mess. It blew off the show’s main arc in favour of something that’s narratively, not to mention literally, worthless. It couldn’t settle on a tone and that makes it tough for the audience to settle too. The previous episode built momentum towards the finale, but now, one would be forgiven for curling up and hoping the season finale to be over and done with.
Score: 6 out of 10
