It's been a month since Sally missed her door, Aiden killed Bishop, and Josh scratched Nora. With the gap in power, Aidan is forced to step in and try to control the vampires that Bishop left behind. He is trying to get the vampires to go clean, but they are finding the hunger difficult to fight. Sally is having difficulty with simple tasks like holding a pencil, and Josh is trying to move on and re-apply for medical school. In the interim, we have learned that Nora had a miscarriage. I was disappointed with this choice. Miscarriage is far too often how writers deal with an unwanted pregnancy, rather than have the character make the decision to have an abortion. In the real world, miscarriages just don't happen because a woman decides that she does not want the child. As a plot device miscarriage has become a clean easy tool for dealing with an unwanted pregnancy because it does not assert a position one way or another on the reproductive rights debate, even as it removes agency from female characters.
We learn that an ancient vampire known only as Mother is coming to town to deal with the void that Bishop's death has created. Nora has moved into the house and she encourages Sally to get out explore the world. When she finds a paper about Sally's highschool reunion, Nora encourages her to attend. When Nora is finally left alone in the kitchen, she examines the scars on her arm from where Josh scratched her. Clearly she is terrified of what she will become, but she has still not shared what happened with anyone.
At the hospital, Tommy attacks a patient rather than waiting for Aidan to give him a bag of blood. We learn that the arrival of Mother will mean a culling - the death of the vampires Bishop made without permission to protect the other families. This leaves Aidan to clean up the mess, after Josh bows out, because there are too many things he is trying to accomplish to get involved in vampire politics.
When Sally shows up at her reunion she meets Stevie, a ghost that killed himself at the age of 16. She is excited to see him, and quickly announces that she will steal his thunder this year, until Stevie tells her that Diana Alcott died from malaria. It seems that Diana was the most popular girl in their class. When Diana shows up at the reunion, we learn that she has no memory of Stevie of Sally.
When Aidan arrives at the hotel to meet Mother, he sees Hegemen waiting for him. Hegemen believes that Mother is in town to offer Aidan Boston, and that it is his duty to accept the responsibility without any question, because this is the traditional way. Hegemen recommends culling, but when asked by Mother, Aidan recommends mercy, in the belief that these vampires are being painted in the same brush that they painted Bishop with. Mother simply brushes aside Aidan's opinion, and announces that her daughter will lead Boston. This causes some reservation from the council, and Hegemen questions her fitness to lead, and implies that she is not stable. Mother promises that if her daughter succeeds, that she will grant Aidan true release from all of this and to ignore his heresy (by this assume she means Aidan's desire to go clean)
At the hospital, Nora has a lunch of raw meat, and is about to eat, until a nurse stops to ask if the raw diet is her secret to staying skinny. It seems that just like Josh, she has begun to have cravings. Outside of the hospital, Nora starts pushing Josh to find out more about being a werewolf, but he is extremely resistant to talking about it. When she tells him that she just wants to know him, he says, "you do, you knew the version of me that I wanted you to know."
Back at the school, in conversation with Stevie, we learn that if someone commits sucide, that they don't get a door and are forced to wander the earth. I suppose this is the writers version of purgatory. Stevie even encourages Sally to dream, with the idea being that it will kill time, and at least in her dreams things will turn out better.
Alone with Mother, Hegemon tries to reassure her that everything will be alright, and that she is not responsible for her daughters short comings. Mother responds, "don't you know, it's always the mothers fault." I thought that this was an interesting play on words, and aptly describes how problems with a child are always blamed on mothers, though it takes a mother and father to produce a child. Mother has determined that her plan must succeed, and that the only way to make this happen is to eliminate Josh. Mother hands Hegemon a weapon and bullets specifically designed to kill werewolves.
Back at the apartment, Tommy is waiting for Aidan and he is forced to tell him that the decision has been made to cull. He tells him that this best decision he can make is to leave and protect himself. To me that sounds like sage advice but Tommy guilts Aidan by telling him that Bishop loved him and believed he would be there for him no matter what. Once inside Aidan tells Josh that Mother asked him to help lead mother. Aidan believes that in order to be free that he will have to do this and that he is going to have to become something that Josh would not recognize. Aidan says that he is going to be dependent on Josh to remind him when the change happens, why they started to try and live as humans in the first place.
At the school, Stevie tries to make up for lost time by chatting up Diana, but she simply moves to the music and ignores him. Finally, when Sally can take it no longer, she confronts Diana saying that she made the cafeteria a living hell and that she was mean, cold and shallow. When Diana acknowledges the truth of Sally's position, she says that her death finally freed her from a lifetime of sucking in her stomach, and that she was always jealous of girls like Sally. Great, the highschool mean girl makes amends and sure enough her door shows up. It is left to Stevie to guide her to the door, because Diana has no idea of what its appearance means.
At the hotel, Aidan is escorting Mother out when Tommy, and two other vampires make an appearance. Tommy wants to argue his case but Aidan tells him that now is not the time. Tommy pulls out a stake and tells Aidan to join them so that they can all be free. After staking Tommy the other two vampires attack and Aidan looks over his shoulder and tells Mother to leave. Mother simply waits until the two vampires get the best of Aidan and then she slits their throat with her nails. I have to say that this was extremely bad ass. What in the world would make Aidan or Tommy and the rest of the vampires believe that they stood a chance against a vampire that old? It further delights me that Aidan went into man saving mode, only to discover that it was him that would need saving.
Nora drives Josh out into the woods so that he can change. She tells him that she wants to be there for him. He gets out of the car and instructs her to go as far away as possible, but she simply sit and waits. At the house, Sally returns to find that she is alone, and so she decides to lie down and attempt to sleep. In her dream, Sally sees a door, and so she decides to open it. At first, all she sees is a bright light, but suddenly the vision goes dark, and a creature seems to be headed towards her. She calls out for Aidan and Josh, but they are not home and so in desperation she tries to close the door. Sally awakens as the some kind of dark mist creature leaps through her.
As Josh begins his change, Aidan is in a cemetery digging up Mother's little girl. When Nora hears Josh scream, she is initially thankful believing that she has escaped the curse, but then she starts to scream as her body begins to change. She calls out for Josh, who heads off to find her. As he is running naked through the forest, he is shot by Hegemon. Josh attempts to crawl away in the throes of pain from the change, when the screen goes black and we hear one more shot.
