Lost Girl recap – 1×13: ‘Blood Lines’

We’re up to the first season finale on everyone’s favourite succubus show. The battle lines are drawn as mother Aoife – aka Saskia (Inga Cadranel) – puts Bo (Anna Silk) right in the middle of her plan to initiate an all out-Fae war. It’s kinda like Alias, but with superpowers!

Let’s bitch it out…

Now that it’s season finale time the story is too epic for a case of the week format. The show completely abandons any pretense that it’s a procedural in favour of an explosive (human and narrative) episode.

One of the big reveals in the episode is that we learn a boatload of Fae exposition. It all begins as we learn the backstory of Saskia: she is really Aoife, a member of Trick’s (Rick Howland) clan from centuries ago. As King he brokered a peace amongst the warring Light and Dark Fae clans and when Aoife led a splinter group that killed a Dark Fae, he gave her up for execution to keep the peace. Aoife elaborates later that she was kept imprisoned using a magical amulet by the Dark Fae King, who tortured her for centuries. Things that we don’t learn? Whether this sadist is Bo’s father or how Aoife escaped. Stow those questions away for a rainy day as I’m sure to the show will come back to both.

In fact all we really learn about Aoife’s new plans is that she wants Bo by her side and she’s terrible with mother-related jokes. This show has never been one to shy away from tongue in cheek humour, but by the end of the forty-two minutes I wanted to drop writer and creator Michelle Lovretta from a staircase for committing “punny” crimes against humanity. When did Aoife go from a serious, seductress threat to a cartoonish villain who makes spanking and running in the house jokes? Blech.

This dumbing down of the threat is, to me, the weakest part of a truly interesting episode. Think about the cliffhangers we get: The Ash (Cle Bennett) threatens Trick and then gets toaster-strudel-ed in a suicide bombing by a himbo member of Aoife’s male model army*. We learn more about Trick’s role as Blood Sage when he uses his powers to alter Aoife so that she sacrifices herself instead of killing Bo. To do so, however, has unforeseen consequences and at episode’s end we see him slumped (possibly dead) in his chair at The Dal.

*Sure we could call them thralls, but Bo’s zingers are too delicious to resist. Why is Bo so funny and Aoife so annoying?

And then there’s Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried). After Bo learns that he’s been lying to her about Aoife – he knew before he ever knew Bo – our little succubus feels betrayed. The result: she refuses to allow him to help her fight because she no longer “trusts him” (Side Note: Though she’s not above a healing booty call –  this is a girl with the right kind of priorities!). In desperation he visits The Norn (Kate Trotter), a crone who looks suspiciously like a haggard housewife who just happens to have a giant tree growing in her living room. This brief sequence is without a doubt the most visually compelling part of the episode and once again demonstrates the efficacy of the show’s genre roots. Lost Girl‘s fantasy status enables it to include dynamic visuals and characters such as this and it just works.

The Norn allows Dyson to buy a favour with a sacrifice: what he wants most for what he holds most dearest. And so The Norn gives Bo Dyson’s strength so that she can defeat Aoife, but it comes at the cost of his love for Bo. From here on out, he will have all the memories of their relationship, but none of his former passion.

In essence the whole episode is about the unintended consequences of getting what you ask for. Bo has been seeking her mom for the entire season, but when she finds her, the woman is crazy and wants to take over the world. Lauren (Zoie Palmer) has been trying to explain herself to Bo since her deceit in ‘Vexed’ and finally gets her to agree to a talk, but it takes the near-death of The Ash to bring them together. Dyson finally tells Bo the truth, but it drives her away and now he has no love left for her. Ironically Bo thinks that they can now “start fresh” because there are no lies between them. And Trick becomes the biggest martyr of them all: first he sacrificed Aiofe to broker the peace, and now we find out that he’s sacrificed his position – and possibly his life – to protect Bo.

If I’m being honest, however, the episode works better in theory than application. Aoife becomes too much of a threat too soon, and the bombing of the Light High Elders feels sudden and unrealistic (The Ash even questions how the Thrall gets in). Perhaps it is Aoife’s punny attitude, too, but overall she just doesn’t come across as a legitimate threat. In addition to this, Bo’s flip-flop on Dyson at various points throughout the episode feels like manufactured conflict, and so does her conflicted desire to save Aiofe when she hangs above the broken stairwell. The entire final battle sequence lacks the grandeur that we’ve come to expect from villains on the show. Compare this to the showdown Bo had in the pilot when she had to prove herself to The Morrigan and The Ash in the double duel to the death. This fight simply isn’t epic enough.

If anything ‘Blood Lines’ suffers from being too ambitious and trying to pack too much into a single episode, though it does set up the second season quite nicely.

Other Observations:

• The show’s parallels to Buffy continue! The sudden bombing of High Elders bears a striking resemblance to the random destruction of the Watcher’s Council in 7×09 ‘Never Leave Me’. Meanwhile, Dyson’s unintended reaction to his mystical agreement with The Norn is reminiscent of Spike’s surprising soul-infusing in 6×22 ‘Grave’
• So do all succubi have natural fighting abilities? Both Aoife and Bo seem pretty adept at using any old weapon lying around the house. Not that I’ll complain too much since I love me some girl fights.
• As much as I thought that Bo’s mistrust of Dyson was forced, I certainly did like her proclamation that he and Trick no longer get to tell her what to do and that she doesn’t need his help. It would have been even better if that had of been true, but alas, she does need his help to win. Le sigh.
• Did everyone count the smoochies? Dyson gets the full body treatment, while Lauren and Kenzi (Ksenia Solo) both get a lip lock with Bo. Finale fever = love for everyone
• Interestingly the friendships Kenzi has cultivated with Hale (K.C. Collins) and Trick both come into play, albeit in different ways. With Hale, there’s more of a romantic spark (maybe?) in addition to a hilariously long and inappropriately timed handshake. On the flip side, Kenzi bullies Trick into helping Bo using his Blood Mage utensils, but only after Kenzi calls him a coward and walks out on him.

Best Lines of the night:

• Kenzi (referring to Aoife’s execution): “They may need to go back to executioner’s school because they totally did not kill her”
• Kenzi (wondering how succubi fight): “Slow motion pillow fights? Crotch lasers?”
•  Bo (replying to Aoife’s desire to make penance for her misdeeds): “Yeah, cookies ought to do it”
• Dyson (acknowledging Aoife was at Bo’s apartment): “Unfortunately I know her scent”. Kenzi (in reply): “Dude…gross”
• Bo (responding to Aoife’s suggestion that she has big plans for Bo): “Is the part when you tell me to go to college?”
• Bo (on starting a war to end the Fae divide): “You, me and our himbo army? We’ll just hunt down the Fae as they flee from us and our male models?”
• Kenzi (when Bo suggests a test run to see if the amulet works): “Did you make up this whole thing just to make out with me?”
• Kenzi (after the amulet prevents Bo from draining her chi): “Ohhh…you just got succu-busted!”

So that is it for season one! I’d say something about the long wait and how we’ll speculate all spring/summer, but since Syfy is great they’re literally continuing with the second season next week. So we’ll only have a few days to consider where our group go from here. What do you think will happen: will Bo hook up with Lauren since her passionate affair with Dyson is dunzo? Is Trick dead? Will Kenzi and Hale move beyond handshakes? And where has Aoife gone since she’s clearly not dead? Sound off below!

Lost Girl airs Mondays at 10pm EST on Syfy. The second season premiere is next Monday, April 16