Contributor: John Keegan
Written by Nancy Won
Directed by Adam Kane
With the new status quo more or less established in the season premiere, it was time for the writers to start exploring the ramifications of those changes. And sure enough, that’s exactly what they accomplish in this episode. Each character gets a solid plot thread that introduces some of the major challenges they will be facing as the latest season arc evolves.
One of the great things about “Being Human” is the relatively tight continuity. Very little is ever wasted. After the ugly confrontation with Connor and Brynn last season, who would have expected their father to come calling, looking for vengeance? That’s not good news, especially since Connor’s head is mounted on a vampire den wall, and Brynn is trapped in a woefully underwhelming NBC show.
Nora is in Daddy’s crosshairs, because she was the last one to be identified as being in Brynn’s company. It’s simply not fair to tease the audience with visions of Nora’s “slutty punk phase”, and then have her potentially wounded and in terrible danger. OK, it may be a bit more traumatic for Josh, who is ready and willing to ask Nora to marry him, but I’m sure I’m not the only one that dreads the possibility of Nora’s departure.
Meanwhile, Aidan is getting a bit hungry, and the nature of the vampire-killing virus is given more explanation as a result. It would appear that while a flu pandemic did little or no lasting damage to the human population, it had a profound effect on the vampire community. Humans infected by the virus are now inedible, and there’s apparently no way to figure out if someone has been infected or not. It’s something of a reverse zombie apocalypse, from the vampire point of view.
Enter Henry, his problematic “son”, and his apparent human partner Emma, who is virus-free and once a willing donor for good measure. Unfortunately, as one might suspect, the low food supply means that keeping the unspoiled stock safely contained and unexposed is an all-too-logical measure. Emma is constantly compelled to remain indoors, but she’s aware of her situation more than enough to cause serious psychological damage.
Aidan sets her free, because he’s fairly good about having morals at this stage of the game. I wonder how long that’s going to last. He’s already in trouble, and while there may be other vampires around, they have either been fighting to maintain their resources for the past year, or even more desperate. How long before those morals start to degrade?
The best part of the episode, though, had to be Sally’s return to human flesh, and her enthusiastic desire to indulge in a few of those activities she’s been missing for a while. Granted, she was doing a lot of activities while possessing folks in the second season, but this is her restored body, and that’s a big difference! It’s really nice to have Sally running around in different clothes and different looks. Meaghan Rath is a gorgeous woman, and I think the wardrobe department was thrilled to give her more options.
I’m expecting her casual breaking of the ground rules of resurrection to come back to haunt her in more ways than one. Causing the death of anyone she knew before she died, if she has contact with them, is a relatively benign side effect. Perhaps not for the victims, understandably, but it’s the kind of rule that shouldn’t be that hard to follow, if it takes more than a casual encounter to lead to someone’s demise.
But why assume that this is the only problem? We saw the effect on Trent, but what about Sally herself? It’s hard to imagine that the restriction was just to prevent a few people dying, since the spell itself involved using the heart of someone you killed. I also can’t imagine that Sally will stay alive any longer than it takes for the writers to explore her dealing with the inverse of her previous condition.
Once again, the writers have set the stage for plot directions that stick very closely to the stated theme of the show, and thus continue to blaze a new and better path than the British original managed in its later runs.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Score: 8/10
