Lost Girl review – 4×13: ‘Dark Horse’

Courtesy of Showcase

After one of its most confusing (and least successful) episodes of the season (series?) last week, Lost Girl rebounds with a decent season finale that thinks it shakes things up more than it actually does.

Let’s bitch it out…I’m tentatively willing to go on the record and suggest that ‘Dark Horse’ is a mostly solid final episode for the season. Compared to last year’s clusterf*ck of a nonsense finale, this is practically a masterpiece, but it still suffers because it has to clean up after all of the crap that went wrong this season.

First off: Kenzi’s (Ksenia Solo) dead. Well…at least she is at the end of the episode (does anyone actually think for a minute that she won’t get rescued from Valhalla next season? Don’t fret). All of the sudden Hale’s death a few episodes back feels a little more earned. Without Hale’s murder there’s no way that Kenzi would have so willingly walked into the portal and sacrificed herself to save the world. Not only did his passing make her realize how valuable love is, she’s far more open to giving everything up in the not-so-secret hopes of seeing her lost love on the other side.

With that said, it seems to me now more than ever that bringing back Massimo (Tim Rozon) was a HUGE mistake. I feel like the writers thought that he’s a charismatic and funny character who would be capable of selling all of this Una Mens seed shite. But guess what? They were really, really wrong. As the last three episodes have proven, making Massimo a snivelling mama’s boy for Evony (Emannuelle Vaugier) and having him become a major antagonist simply doesn’t gel. His final confrontation with Bo (Anna Silk) wherein he nearly fatally sucks his own mother’s chi, feels like it should be much more dramatic, but all I felt when she finally stabs him is relief that we would never see him again.

Unfortunately this underwhelming feeling – a lack of epic awesomeness – also applies to the major battle. We all know that Lost Girl operates on a Showcase budget and the vast majority of the time I’m more than happy to go along with things. It can just be a little harder to ignore because the finales typically highlight the apocalyptic nature of the current conflict and the ambition of the showrunners routinely outweighs their capacity to deliver on the screen. Usually that’s tolerable (S1 felt like five people running around a castle, but it was still enjoyable).

Unfortunately that’s not the case here because ‘Dark Horse’ features a seriously poorly staged battle. I mean those dead soldiers look like they’re just walking by and yet we’re meant to accept that Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried), Tamsin (Rachel Skarsten) and Trick (Rick Howland) are on the verge of being overwhelmed when Kenzi saves the day. Plus, if Teen Wolf has taught me anything, it’s that egregious use of slo-mo is never a good thing unless the desired result is campiness. So for these reasons the ending of this episode doesn’t really deliver for me.

Thankfully there’s a heavy emotional impact seeing Kenzi finally realize her destiny and make the ultimate sacrifice to save the lives of her friends. (Side Note: This has nothing to do with the fact that Ksenia Solo is the beating heart of this show…)

Courtesy of Showcase

Other Observations:

• I know that we’re meant to feel something for Tamsin, but I just can’t muster it. The happiness Bo reads in her chi clearly stems for her horizontal mambo session with Dyson, but – as expected – Dyson obviously pledges fealty (and eternal love) to Bo so it’s all sad faces for Tamsin. Here’s the thing: clearly there’s been chemistry between the two since Tamsin came on the show, but the actual love affair was introduced far too quickly for me to make any kind of emotional investment. I love Tam-Tam, but this show has a love triangle that’s set in stone and nothing has ever suggested that’ll change (including everything that happens in this episode!)
• Biggest shock of the episode: Evony is still human. I thought without a doubt that Lauren’s “magic snatch” spell would prove to be temporary.
• Holy pun overload! This episode sure did feature all sorts of corny, cheesy, awesome one-liners. Very enjoyable.
• Oh yeah Rainer (Kyle Schmid) died. Umm…who cares? Good riddance to this plotline because no one was buying that relationship.
• Both Kenzi and Bo mention that there’s a greater adversary coming but with the portal closed, who are they referring to? Did I just completely miss some major plot point?
• Finally, I’ve held off for nearly 900 words but I have to raise a criticism of ‘Dark Horse’ that bothered me the entire time I watched: this finale is essentially the S5 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer! I’m not even talking about mild similarities, either. In ‘The Gift’ Buffy saves her friends (and the world) by sacrificing her body/life to close a magical portal. There’s even a final shot of a freaking inspirational gravestone message at the end of the episode! I’ve made the comparison between the shows a number of times, but I’ve also always wanted to let Lost Girl stand on its own. Such obvious copying sure does make it tough, though.

Best Lines:

• Kenzi (when Evony describes sexing with Lauren): “Eww graphic and disturbing”
• Evony (when Kenzi  asks if Vex is her son): “As if I’d let him wear those too old for goth clothes if he was”
• Bo: “Ready for a threesome?” Dyson: “And you say I need new material?”
• Zoie Palmer’s Lauren (telling Bo she’ll be out of her cuffs in minutes): “I learned a lot from Kenzi’s shadow training. It’s not all panty removal tricks”

How did you feel about the season finale? Did Kenzi’s sacrifice redeem Hale’s death a little? Were you surprised that Evony is still human? Did you find both battles a touch underwhelming? Anyone else think of Buffy? Sound off below

Lost Girl has finished airing its fourth season. At this time Showcase has yet to pick it up for a fifth season (seems inevitable, though).