Lost Girl 5×16 review: ‘Rise’

The time has come for Lost Girl‘s series finale and the answer to the question: did Bo (Anna Silk) really kill her friends last week?

Let’s bitch it out…

The answer to the question posed above is, of course, no. As most of us suspected last week, Bo left the fire-repelling horseshoe in the clubhouse to protect her friends, who then manage to get to safety. Bo also passes along a key to Tamsin (Rachel Skarsten) that allows her to escape from Jack’s (Eric Roberts) prison, which proves that she is the still the same “buns hon” that Kenzi (Ksenia Solo) knows and loves. Or at least she is until Jack breaks her spirit. He reminds her of all of the times her friends abandoned her or her romantic entanglements didn’t work out, encouraging her to submit to her Pyrippus/Dark Queen persona. Once he has her under his sway, Bo proceeds to chi-suck the entire city and then her friends.

In a classic finale move, the death of her friends is halted when she remembers their love and pulls back from the dark side. This enables the series to dig into the vaults and pull out some choice clips from the five season run, including more than a few sexy bits (hello memorable back stroke from the pilot). The remainder of the episode is essentially dedicated to one last fight: Bo faces down Jack while the others protect Tamsin from the possessed elders who are after her newborn baby. Bo realizes that what distinguishes her from her father is her love of family and she uses that to turn Jack’s power against him. It’s a mildly predictable turn (after all, this series has always been about “found family” and their love for one another), but seeing Bo reunite with her friends, send her father back to Tartarus and restore the dead folks’ chi* is still enjoyable.

*Reviving everyone also conveniently avoids the “Bo is a mass murderer” story line that would have soured the whole finale.

Tamsin’s death in childbirth, teased all season and forecast by Jack, comes with a happy ending: she “rises” to heaven and leaves Bo a sister. Still not sure I buy the whole “send the child away with Kenzi” bit, even if it does bring the series full circle by mirroring Bo’s origin story. The coda kinda/sorta tries to provide a satisfying send-off: the child, Dagney (Olivia Scriven), is all grown up (in accelerated fashion, naturally) and brought to the Dhal moments before murdering her girlfriend. It’s here that Lost Girl stumbles. By assigning Dagney responsibility for defending the world against Jack, there is symmetry to Bo’s arc over the course of Lost Girl, but there’s no closure. Sure it is fun to see the writers assign new roles to Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried), who has become the new trick as the Dhal’s bartender, and Mark (Luke Bilyk), who has become a police officer like his father. Even the new “dominion” that everyone lives in that assures that no Fae will ever need to choose between Light & Dark is a nice tip to the series’ pervasive background conflict. Still, there’s something mildly unsatisfying about the fact that we spent the entire season building up to the showdown between Bo and her father and it basically amounts to nothing more than a detente, something that is simply passed on to a character we literally meet in the last minute of the series.

As season finales go, this one is easily the best of Lost Girl‘s mixed bag, but as a series finale, it would have been nice to give Bo a complete happy ending – no concessions or fine print.

Other Observations:

• At least Bo ends up with a romantic prospect, though I find it uncomfortable that girlfriend Lauren (Zoie Palmer) agrees to take another shot at romance because she knows Dyson will take care of Bo when Lauren dies. Yes, I realize that’s not exactly what they agreed to, but Lauren’s conversation with Dyson infers that she’s grown comfortable with the idea of him inheriting Bo. It’s a strange resolution to the love triangle that dominated the series’ early seasons.
• Naturally Vex (Paul Amos) owns a motorized van that houses all of his fetishes, including (what else?!) an unhealthy fixation with teacups. A little more of Vex’s crazy would have been nice in these final episodes.
• I can only imagine how silly the actors must have felt acting out the scene where Bo sucks her friends chi atop the caravan. The special effects look good, but that must have been an amusingly bizarre day on set. 🙂
• As expected both Vex and Mark survive the battle so that they can hook up. The conclusion is doubly disappointing: having Marc admit he has feelings for Vex comes out of nowhere (he’s literally never been interested in men) and the hand clasping is surprisingly chaste for a series that has memorably pushed the sexual boundaries of television. Thumbs down for this one.
• Between the caravan and the girl standing atop a building in a beautiful dress about to bring about the end of the world, this finale was giving me a lot of Buffy S5 flashbacks. Over the years I’ve tried to refrain from comparing the two series because readers seemed annoyed, but at its best Lost Girl felt like a nice spiritual successor of the Chosen series.
• Finally, thanks for reading and commenting over the last 5+ years. Lost Girl is the longest running series that we’ve covered on the blog so the end is doubly bitter sweet.

Best Lines:

• Mark (when the group compares the blue chi-suck to the air at a Grateful Dead concert): “Who is Jerry Garcia?”
• Kenzi (after the horseshoe protects them from the police’s bullets): “I am so marrying this thing when we’re done!”
• Dyson (when Tamsin calls Bo evil): “Not helping!”
• Kenzi (witnessing the final battle between Bo and Jack): “OK it just got Sailor Moon out there.”
• Bo (defeating her father and speaking the classic line from the series opening): “I will live the life I choose.”

Your turn: what did you think of the series finale? Are you happy with the big climactic battle between father and daughter? OK with Tamsin’s exit? Happy Bo didn’t end up a mass murderer? Dissatisfied that Bo doesn’t just get to live happily ever after raising Victoria? Sound off below!

Lost Girl has finished airing its final season on Showcase in Canada. S5B has yet to debut in the US.

*An earlier version of this version incorrectly suggested Tamsin’s daughter was called Victoria. Thanks to Little Bad Wolf for the correction!