Lost Girl review – 3×01: ‘Caged Fae’

Lost Girl is back, beyotches! After a spectacularly disappointing end to S2 (and a third place finish as Worst show of 2012), what does S3 of our favourite succubus bring?

Let’s bitch it out…

Apparently S3 brings the camp.

Like A WHOLE lot of camp!

Like a motherlovin’ dumptruck of it!

Pick your poison (where do I even begin?):

• Bo (Anna Silk) in the sexiest, least appropriate prison jumpsuit evah (zippers down to here and boobs o’clock out to here)
• Oh wait, Bo in some kind of molly maid outfit, scrubbing a floor on all floors with a toothbrush
• The Warden looking like a Ke$ha obsessed drag queen
• The Warden turning out to be a transvestite posing as a female Warden
• Kenzi (Ksenia Solo) in a slutty monster truck/white trash outfit lezzing it up with Bo
• Vex (Paul Amox) in a Village People leather cop outfit, batting eyes at Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried) and Hale (K.C. Collins)
• Trick (Rick Howland) talking about getting it on with flapper girls like a gangster (what is he – the Dos Equis guy?)

I mean, I can handle some crazy stuff and I LOVE me some grindhouse, women-in-prison films, but what the hell was that???

Tonally this episode is a hot mess. One moment we are asked to believe that Bo is in the gravest of dangers and Hale, as the new Ash, needs to pull her out. But in the opening scenes we’re vamping it up with Amazon prison guards (guardettes?) in pumps, pervily watching Bo ‘decontaminate’ in the showers. It’s like whiplash!

Let’s get this straight (or – in the vein of this episode – not): whenever the show embraces its women-in-prison tropes (lesbian Warden, pervy guards, girl-on-girl fighting and making out, provocative water canon), it works. But there’s absolutely no danger in it and there’s a surprisingly non-lesbian friendly twist in the rape and babymaking reveal (the prison’s true purpose). It’s clear that Lost Girl is trying to be cheeky and really embrace its queer audience, but it simultaneously smacks of both pandering and subverting the queer perspective with the ending. Mixed feeling, peeps

I also had some issues with the opening/closing scenes.

The whole “bad girl Bo on the run” bit didn’t work for me, at all. I don’t mind an in medias res beginning, but this feel really over-the-top and false to me. It was obvious that this was a scheme and Anna Silk’s normally level acting was forced (aside from the line “I’m Bo and I’ll be back, bitches” which was delicious).

At the same time, as soon as Bo enters the prison and it’s clear that this is the case-of-the-week and nothing more, it feels like a cop-out since we’ve been teased with promos that the show will investigate her dark side. Cut to the end of the episode and the show does go there, but in a very disappointing, tacked-on kind of way. So Bo questions Trick about her dad and then randomly attacks some guy in the alleyway and sucks him dry? I appreciate that it’s a tease and there will be more to come, but in terms of its effectively, it felt silly and poorly thought out. Why open with an entire episode in which it is proven again and again that Bo remains the same, and then end with the hint that she isn’t? Why not just embrace the change in character, tone down the opening and actually have Bo off the rails? As much as I enjoyed the silly camp, this dark ending was more of what I wanted from the entire episode, which watered down the previous 40 minutes.

I hope the show dedicates more to this storyline than a throw-away bit every now and again before reintroducing it in time for the season finale. Go for it, Lost Girl – go. for. it!

Other Observations:

• The dramatically different tones also make it difficult to truly appreciate the genuine character beats, including the lovely Doccubus action (Doctor/Succubus if you need reminding). Problematically this not only feels overshadowed by the campier stuff, but I’d be lying if I said I thought the Bo/Lauren (Zoie Palmer) relationship would last. Especially…
• …since Dyson has his wolf-love back. Clearly the triangle in back in full effect (I’m suffering from Awkward. flashbacks from this summer). Anyone care to take bets on how long Doccubus lasts before it’s tossed to the side in favour of the traditional Bo-Dyson pairing?
• Also, what should we make of the circumstances when we see “bad Bo”? In both cases she attacks men, not women. I’ll be interested to see if this female-heavy, lesbian-influenced episode is the precursor to gendered responses from Bo as she goes down the rabbit hole
• Kudos to the show for finally giving K.C. Collins something to do as Hale. Hopefully he lasts longer that the two previous Ashes (it’s a dangerous job!)
• Finally, everyone catch the hints of developments to come? Kenzi’s brief shout out to her rash (courtesy of The Norn) and Vex’s digs about becoming Dyson’s partner. Clearly Kenzi’s gonna have to come clean, while the part of partner will shortly be filled by Tamsin (new castmember Rachel Skarsten)

Best Lines:

• Bo (to roommate Sylvie): “So you’re Jean Valjean?” Sylvie (Tommie-Amber Pirie): “I’m Sylvie. We just met?”
• Kenzi: “My best friend is tits deep in enemy territory.”
• Warden (when Bo kisses her trying to drain her chi): “Without that succubus heat, it’s just wet…like you”
• Kenzi (to Hale): “Abort! Abort! Operation chained hooch is officially over. Baby you better sign or seal or spit to do whatever you need to do to end this thing now.” How many baby related words can they get into a single sentence?!

Lost Girl airs Sundays at 9pm EST on Showcase (Canada) and one and a half weeks later on Fridays at 9pm EST on Syfy