Courtesy of Showcase
Bo (Anna Silk) is hot on the trail of the Wanderer, but – as evidenced by the events of ‘Destiny’s Child’ – there’s a lot at stake than simply discovering why Bo went Dark.
Let’s bitch it out…For an episode that doesn’t really seem to cover much ground, I’m a bit awestruck at how much we’ve learned in a single week. For the better part of the fourth season we’ve been under the assumption that what happened to Bo between S3 and the start of S4 was really all about Bo. That may still prove to be the case, but it’s now clear that there’s also a legacy to these events that involves a few more players than we originally anticipated.
It seems that the Wanderer – or Rainer (Kyle Schmid) – mythos began long ago on the battlefield when Trick (Rick Howland) was still the power-mad Blood King. Seeing an opportunity to bargain with Tamsin (Rachel Skarsten) for the soul of his vanquished enemy, Trick promises he’ll allow Tamsin to save her own soul and live on in exchange for allowing Trick to vanquish Rainer to his interdimensional train prison. Apparently such a deal will allow Trick to ensure that Rainer will never return to hurt Trick or his kin.
Obviously that plan didn’t quite work out: instead Tamsin ended up working for Rainer to deliver Bo to him, and the pair now have some kind of romantic destiny. Thankfully for us Lost Girl didn’t cast a complete ogre for the role, opting instead to go with a total beefcake to play the role of villain/welder (kudos on this choice). I say thankfully because the likelihood is that we will see this guy nekkid, after all this show is the main challenger to True Blood for displaying naughty bits.
Back to the narrative, however, there’s clearly something amiss in the way that our girl is acting. How is she so nonchalant about having her life hijacked in service to this guy because that is not the Bo we know and love? Let’s be honest: the Spidey sense is automatically activated when someone is introduced as having a longstanding beef to pick with one of our main characters. The moment of truth may well prove to be when Rainer and Bo appear to use succubus powers on each other; we don’t know what Rainer is or what he wants, but if he also has the power of persuasion, that may explain why Bo is suddenly so down with choosing the Dark (Side Note: I know that if I discovered that the only reason I made a no-take-backs life-changing decision was to ensure I would track down some guy on a runaway train, I would be pissed).
At this point it’s still not entirely clear what Trick did to ensure Rainer became the Wanderer (we know that these events were bad enough to make himself forget them). We also don’t know the deets of Tamsin’s life extension deal, so hopefully next week there will plenty more information. For now we just know that Bo is gaga-eyes over her new beau, leaving everyone else wondering “what the shizz”?
Courtesy of Showcase
Other Observations:
- While I enjoy the comedic delivery of the lines “I was not expecting that”, the majority of the detour to get aboard the train feels superfluous. Aside from meeting the Leviathan, a lot of the middle sections feels like filler. That said, I did enjoy how inept the fighters were when Bo got her mojo on and began to fight back: could they have hit more of those gravesites if they had tried?!
- The visual design of the Chinese Box that Kenzi (Ksenia Solo) and Tamsin play with to get access to Trick’s blood is a nifty visual design. Hands up: anyone else expect Kenzi to get severely injured or poisoned?
- Let’s talk about Tamsin’s proclamation after she Valkyrie’s-out when she and Kenzi write in the book. Is Tamsin referring to Rainer’s life (the one she was meant to reap all those years ago) or is she foreshadowing the life the Leviathan claims will end shortly? Or are they the same? Major confusion!
- Not a great episode for Lauren (Zoie Palmer) or Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried) though I’m really enjoying how they continue to build a mutually respectful, competitive relationship with each other. Of course now that the triangle may become a square, all bets are off as to what happens next. Hell, even the Leviathan, who specializes in riddles, couldn’t figure out who Bo is meant to pick!
- Have we seen Dao-Ming (Jadyn Wong) before? The scenes when she tortures Trick to remember the past are pretty effective (I love how a bloody nose in TV-land is synonymous with extreme exertion and/or brain damage) although Howland seemed to struggle to distinguish his Blood King persona from his angry Trick persona.
- The flashback scenes with a mildly disheveled Tamsin and a tights-wearing Trick were not Lost Girl‘s best. They remind me of the early Angel flashback episodes when the show’s daily catering budget was bigger than the wig budget. The economic seams showed a little bit here.
- Finally, if you want some insight on the development of the episode, here’s a chat from The Loop with showrunner Emily Andras.
Best Lines:
- Lauren (when Dyson says he’s not sure he could choose between them): “I could.”
- Tamsin (when Kenzi insists there’s only one thing to do to Trick): “Take a dump in his bed?” It’s helpful that the writers continue to remind us that Tamsin is still primarily a child trapped in an adult’s body
Your turn: what do you think of the Bo/Rainer “relationship”? Were you expecting worse for Kenzi? Did you enjoy the antics of the Wanderer’s sons? Should the show refrain from historical flashbacks unless they discover a pot full of gold to pay for them? Sound off below
Lost Girl airs Sundays at 10pm EST on Showcase