This was most definitely one of the better episodes this season so far. Sally's storyline finally developed some meat, we got some back story on Henry and Aidan, and Josh of course continued to angst.
Josh:
This episode Josh runs into Stu who has been stalking Josh's ex girlfriend Julia. He is shocked to Stu because he had hoped that Stu had gotten his door but it turns out that Stu had to many issues in life for this to happen, chief amongst them his unresolved love for Julia. At first Stu warns Josh away from Julia, telling him that even a friendship is going to be problematic between the two of them. Josh does a pretty good job maintaining a platonic distance until one night he and Julia head out drinking.
When Josh awakes hours later, he finds himself in bed with Julia and realizes that his good buddy Stu, stole his body in order to have sex with Julia. Josh's only concern at this point is that this is going to confuse the relationship between him and Julia and lead to a situation in which she ends up hurt. I don't understand for the life of me why alarm bells weren't ringing in his head. Julia consented to sex with Josh, she most certainly did not consent to having sex with Stu. For all his claims of love, Stu raped Julia and it is wrong. I am sick of the fact that the writers continue to ignore the issue of consent in these scenes.
Stu claims that he was too shy to approach Julia in life and admits actually following her from Ithica to Boston and so not only is he a sick rapist, he is a stalker. I think what bothered me the most about this scene is that there was a clear attempt on the part of the writers to make Stu sympathetic.
In end, Josh has no anger for Stu and goes back into the house where he initiates sexual contact with Julia, thus proving Stu right. Stu watches as they kiss before disappearing silently. Josh has probably justified this to himself by saying that he doesn't want to hurt Julia's feelings but considering what he did to Nora when they got close, this is clearly not a good idea.
Aidan:
Aidan returns to the house with a clearly skinned Henry in tow. When he knocks on the door, Josh comes downstairs, shocked that Sally didn't bother to check and see who is it the door. I think it's about time that Sally give both Josh and Aidan a bit of the cold treatment because the two of them have been so self involved they have paid virtually no attention to the issues that she is battling with. When Josh opens the door he finds Aidan and Henry waiting for an invite into the house. He is resistant to the idea because this means that his home is no longer a safe place.
Aidan takes Henry upstairs who begs to be staked because of the pain that he is in. Instead of conceding to his wishes, Aidan slips out and convinces two young girls to come back to the house. When they resist entering because the party that he promised them is clearly not happening, he uses his vampiric influences to force them to enter. This btw is yet another incident in which the agency of women is denied. Clearly no doesn't mean no, it means force me to do your bidding. Outside of the bedroom, Aidan influences them again to believe that Henry is the most beautiful man that they have ever seen.
In flashback scenes for the first time we get to see that Aidan and Henry met in mobile hospital unit in WWI. Aidan has been brought in because he is riddled with bullets, though he managed to kill a lot of the enemies in the process. The doctors immediately discard Aidan and tell Henry not to use any morphine to ease his pain when he is going to die shortly. Aidan tells Henry to remove the bullets from his body and bites down his bullet to stop his screams.
As Aidan heals, Henry reads books to him and they share a bit about their lives. Henry confesses to Aidan that he could never kill a living person. Slowly, Henry notices that Aidans wounds are healing and tries to call the attention of the doctors to this miracle but Aidan stops him. Henry is then further distracted when another wounded soldier arrives. One of the doctors throws a bloody rag on the floor and Aidan picks it up and wrings the blood out of it. What Aidan does not know is that someone is watching him. The witness is a French man and he yells desperate to get the attention of the others, to warn them that a vampire is in their midst. His screams become more aggressive and finally, Henry goes over to speak with him and learns why he is so upset. Henry believes that the man is clearly delusional, but he gets up and tries to attack Aidan with a stake. Henry jumps between Aidan and his would be murderer only to be stabbed himself. Aidan then slaughters everyone in camp and then turns Henry into a vampire. In the morning Henry awakes in the field and Aidan offers him a living human to feed. Clearly, this is a dark Aidan without any kind of respect for human life.
Back in the room, the two girls are becoming aware that something is terrible wrong. Once notices that her friend is bleeding and so she jumps off of the bed. When she realizes that she is also covered in blood, she begs to be let go and even promises not to tell anyone. Her friend gets up, and the two of them start to screaming, causing Aidan to break both of their necks. As he looks at their dead bodies, Henry jumps off the bed and begins to drink the blood of one of the girls saying, "five second rule."
In the morning out front of the house, they run into Josh who is surprised to discover that Henry is completely healed. After Henry walks away, Josh lets Aidan now how upset he is, but Aidan tries to deflect reminding him that he would have to do some pretty dark things to win his freedom. He claims that he is out now, but Josh is only interested in the fact that he has brought darkness into their home - the one place where he felt safe and normal.
Sally:
Sally's storyline is the most exciting part of this entire episode. Walter a ghost that Sally meet at the ghost version of AA, has inhabited the body of a small boy. Sally rips him out of the boys body on the orders of the reaper. Walter says that he just had a little slip, but Sally is not open to hearing excuses. She tells him that she is sorry but the reaper says, "reapers don't apologize. Come on Sally, think about how that reflects upon me." When Walter asserts that he can control it, the reapers lists the people that he recently invaded. Sally attempts to reap him but has difficulty following through and so the reaper finishes the job for her.
When she returns home, Boner is waiting for her in the kitchen and he wants to know where Stevie is. She is shocked to see Boner because last week, the reaper told her that Stevie had shredded him. She becomes more upset when she learns that the only person Stevie shredded was Dylan, and that was only to protect her. Sally tells Boner that a ghost reaper told her about Stevie and when he asks if he is still after Stevie, Sally says, "not anymore."
Sally then goes to the hospital to see Zoe and Nick about the reaper but both of them have no idea what she is talking about. Nick suggests that Zoe check out the ghost group that she runs once a week. Zoe says that this is a good idea and promises to meet Nick at home, which is when Sally discovers that Nick has decided that he no longer needs the support of the group.
When Sally arrives at the group, the reaper has beaten her there and reaped all of the ghosts in the room. She is excited because this means that he has met his quota for the week. Sally yells, "but they were trying to get better." This confuses Zoe, who clearly only sees Sally in the room. Sally tries to apologize but Zoe says, "stop it Sally, this is all your fault." In frustration, Sally tells the reaper that she is done with him and that she is never going to be like him. The reaper responds, "It's cute when you act like you have a choice. The only path you take is the one I choose for you," and then he disappears. Sally tries once again to approach Zoe but she says, "you stay the hell away from me."
Back at the house, Sally is trying to make a circle out of salt to stop the reaper but the package falls out of her hands. Nick appears and tells her that Zoe told him what happened at the group, and that she is sick and needs help. Sally tells him that she didn't do anything and that it was all the fault of the reaper. Nick tells her that there is no reaper. The reaper appears and Sally tries to warn him, but Nick insists that there is no one there. In desperation, Sally screams he didn't do anything, but the reaper says, "he thinks he can date a human and then flaunt it in our face." Sally begs more, screaming that she is not going to be like him and the reaper responds, "don't you get it Sally? I am you."
The reapers face then shifts to Sally's. In flashes Sally remembers a ghost from season one telling her that the longer a ghost circles the drain it goes a little crazy. Then Sally flashes to last week's confrontation with Stevie who denies that he is unbalanced, and reminds her that she is the one who passed up her door. Sally then has visions of herself doing all of the reaping that she had blamed on the reaper.
When Aidan and Josh enter the room they find her attacking Nick. When they beg her to stop, she tells them Sally isn't here anymore and that he had to go because they don't belong here. Josh tries to tell her that she doesn't get to decide this, but Sally responds, "someone has to tell them that they don't belong here anymore." Aidan tries again, "Sally you belong here with us," but Sally is not listening and begins whipping things around the house knock Aidan and Josh off their feet. Aidan is forced to dispel Sally with the poker from the fireplace.
When Sally awakes, she is circled in salt, near the place that she died. Sally asks what's going on and Aidan says that they're not sure yet. When Sally asks to be free, Josh says, "of course", but before he can act, Aidan stops him. Sally screams in an alternate voice, "let me out of here," and the camera fades to black.
Okay, I like the fact that they are developing Sally's storyline, but I have to say that I am tired of the media myth of the violent, murdering neurologically atypical person. The problem with this stereotype is that far more often than not, the person who is neurologically atypical, is more likely to hurt themselves than others. It's more than understandable that Sally could have a break after everything that she went through, but the fact that the writers took it to that point, is clearly ableist. The violent so-called "crazy" person is the most pervasive image of neurologically atypical people in the media.
