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The Vampire Diaries Season Four, Episode 14: Down the Rabbit Hole

Damon is tied to a tree by Vaughn, (one of the hunters) who admits that he has been spying on the residents of Mystic Falls.  It seems that when Jeremy completed his tattoo, the tattoo's of all of the hunters were completed and now Vaughn is looking for some answers.

Rebekah and Stefan are on the beach with Elena, who is on the phone with Caroline.  Elena tells Caroline that Shane has managed to sneak Jeremy and Bonnie away and that Damon is missing.  Judging from the tracks on the beach, which indicate a struggle, Elena assumes that Damon has been abducted. Elena wants Caroline to get the hunters sword from Klaus but Rebekah believes that Klaus will not hand it over because he is terrified at the prospect of being human and does not want others to have a moment's worth of happiness. Stefan suggests that Caroline hunt down the sword on her own, because Klaus is still trapped in Elena's house.

Jeremy, Shane and Bonnie are making their way to the well that Shane mentioned last week. Their guide says that he is done and demands to be paid, so Shane hands over the tombstone.  Bonnie is surprised that this was the only purpose for the tombstone but Shane says that it is more valuable than the hope diamond in witch circles.

Back in Mystic Falls, Caroline and Tyler return with the hunters sword. Tyler points out the handle and Caroline says that it's a cryptex.  When both men look surprised, Caroline says, "I've seen the Da Vinci code."  Caroline believes that with the images Elena sent, they can figure out the code.  Klaus suggests that they use the internet to find an Aramaic to English dictionary to decipher the code.  This of course is a problem because Aramaic is a dead language. Klaus informs them that even with the best dictionary in the world that it could take days or even weeks to do the translation. Then, crafty crafty Klaus speaks in Aramaic.

Back on the beach, Elena is whining to Stefan, about how everyone is putting their life at risk because she cannot handle being a vampire.  Stefan corrects her and says that everyone is there because they want to be. Elena asks why Stefan didn't tell her that he wanted the cure for himself.  Stefan replies that he has seen every side of vampirism there is: the power, misery, the guilt and that in the long run, the good parts kind of suck too. Elena understands why he wants to take the cure but she still doesn't understand why he didn't share his desire to be human with her.  Stefan tells her that it has nothing to do with her.  Even though he wanted a human life with her, being human himself is something he wanted long before he met her.  They agree that they are now friends, as Rebekah looks on.

Vaughn is marching Damon through the forest to the well.  Vaughn's plan is to kill Silas and end the mission of the brotherhood of the five. It seems that Vaughn plans to leverage Damon to get Bonnie to open the tomb. Damon informs Vaughn that he has picked the wrong person for this plan but that Bonnie will open the crypt for him, because they don't care what happens to Silas. Damon asks to be cut in on the action.

Using the internet, Caroline has translated all of the symbols on the tattoo but it does not make sense. Back in the forest, Vaughn tells Damon that because Silas is immortal that they have to cram the cure down his throat. Klaus once again starts speaking Aramaic and then calls Caroline over, so that he can decipher the tattoo. Damon asks about sharing the cure, but Vaughn reveals that there is only one dose.

At the well, Bonnie has fallen and sliced open her hand.  Jeremy helps her back up and puts on a makeshift bandage.  Shane has already lowered himself into the well, so Jeremy takes the opportunity to question what's going to happen when Bonnie casts the spell.  Bonnie tells Jeremy to trust her and that she won't let Shane raise Silas. Jeremy tells her not to do anything stupid and reminds Bonnie that if her expression gets out of control, Shane is the only one who can help her.  Bonnie assures Jeremy that she is fine and that she can take care of herself.  The camera focuses on Bonnie's blood dripping into the well and landing on Silas's tomb.

Caroline calls and says that they have deciphered the map and are emailing directions to them now.  Klaus takes the phone and tells them that it was him. Rebekah asks why Klaus is helping but Klaus suggests that he wants her to finally know happiness but says no more fooling and no more games. Klaus adds, "I hope you get to live and die as you wish. There is one more thing Rebekah. There is only one dose of the cure, you need to find it and take it first." As soon as Klaus says this, Caroline and Tyler quickly end the phone call.

Damon is still being led through the forest and Damon says that he doesn't care about the cure and points out that if he wasn't a vampire, he wouldn't be able to do nine of things he is going to do to Vaughn when he gets free.  They walk for a moment and then Damon admits that his friends want the cure and that he gets upset when he cannot provide for his loved ones. Damon then asks how it is that Jeremy got saved the other day but Vaughn claims to know nothing about it.  They then come across the body of the man who Shane gave the tombstone to.

Jeremy, Bonnie and Shane are now all at the bottom of the well. Shane quickly locates the spot they are looking for.  Stefan, Rebekah and Elena are walking through the woods and Elena asks what Caroline had to say.  Rebekah quickly answers nothing. When they come across a huge gorge, Rebekah suggests that they jump across it since they are all vampires.  Elena does not believe it's a good idea and suggests that the map be left behind in case they don't make it. Stefan instructs Elena to go first and promises to be right behind her.  Elena jumps and as Stefan is about to jump, Rebekah stops him and says, "there's something you need to know about the cure."

In the well, Bonnie places her hand on Jeremy's chest and Shane encourages her to focus and breathe. Bonnie closes her eyes and Jeremy's tattoos start to disappear. In the forest, Vaughn notes that his tattoos are disappearing as well, which signals that Bonnie has begun the spell.

Stefan asks if Rebekah is sure that Klaus is telling the truth about there being only one dose of the cure.  Rebekah tells him that there is still hope for one of them but she wants to know if Stefan would give the cure to Elena.  When Stefan shakes his head yes, Rebekah says, "I'm sorry that it couldn't work out the way we all wanted it to," before breaking Stefan's neck.

In the well, Jeremy's tattoos are gone and the crypt is open.  Shane asks for help because his leg is broken but Bonnie tells him that he "had best stay off it," before continuing on with Jeremy. Damon and Vaughn arrive at the well and he releases Damon from the vervain ropes. Damon says that he is going to kill Vaughn and give the cure to the girl he loves, as Vaughn points a weapon on him. Rebekah appears in the middle of their standoff.

Beauty and the Beast Season 1 Episode 13: Trust No One

 

Alex is having trouble sleeping through nightmares and it’s not helped when Catherine calls her with cryptic instructions. She comes downstairs to Catherine in her car who shows she knows what Alex has used her credit card for. Alex gasps that Catherine is following her but Catherine says that if she can find Alex, so can Muirfield. She tells Alex to move to a different hotel and gives her a chunk of cash – no more cards. She gives Alex a burner phone, good for 3 days then she needs to replace it. Alex can’t understand why Catherine is championing Vincent knowing what he is.

Time for normal life with Heather talking about Valentine’s day and finding love. Which segues not at all neatly to Catherine going to the roof and talking to Vincent, who wants to do something with Catherine that night. On Valentine’s Day. After he promised to give her space. This is pretty much the very opposite of giving someone space. Catherine is adamant – she fell for him and he dropped her for Alex. He pulls out his excuse of “it wasn’t Alex, it was the fantasy she represented” like that’s better.

Speaking of Alex, she’s meeting with a journalist friend of hers! Because undercover is a concept that escapes her. She wants to tell him everything but he can’t publish a word or people will die (then why tell him?!) She tells him about Vincent and Muirfield. Please join me in a collective face palming.

Back to the warehouse where Vincent laments with JT who is, to everyone’s surprise, on Team Catherine and thinks it’s understandable she doesn’t trust him. He also points out that knowing Vincent will always help save her life isn’t the same as knowing he isn’t going to go off with another girl. His solution? Valentine’s day wooing.

Move to Joe and Tess in bed together. Wait, what? This is actually happening? And these 2 bit characters are getting screen time? SHOCK! And the mood is ruined by Joe’s wife, Marie, flying back early from her business trip. Oh… Tess has a guilt moment, she’s not this person, she keeps thinking of Joe’s family. Joe counters that he and Marie haven’t had a real marriage in years and while he’ll look after his son he’s not giving up his life for appearance’s sake. (Divorce court – it’s that way.)

At work, it seems Heather, as event co-ordinator for a company, is planning an event for Joe. This means she briefly talks about work with Catherine (very briefly) before we meet Darius, Joe’s brother and sparks fly and he invites her to dinner. Catherine has received some red roses from a “secret” admirer and Tess commences to grill her about him. Catherine gives the roses to Tess, much to the dismay of Vincent who is romantically stalking Catherine

And they have a new case – an apparent suicide with possible signs of a struggle. They go, find the man dead in the bathtub with a bullet wound in the head – but there is damage in his flat. And it’s the journalist Alex was talking to. Realising he’s a journalist known for his exposes, Tess and Catherine figure he may have been killed to silence him – which is further backed up by his lap top being missing. But they do find his phone – complete with Alex’s name in it and a voicemail which Catherine quickly deletes.

Meanwhile Evan is with his date/Muirfield spy Claire who is distracted by the sudden clean up – and her cover story is starting to fray in places. Which Evan is noticing. She goes off alone to her contact, telling him that Evan notices when she’s so distracted and he tells her that Keller took out an entire team hunting him (the ones with guns who attacked him in a forest during the night with no night vision, you’ll recall. Whatever else Muirfield is good at, tactics isn’t their strong point). He tells Claire that she needs to use Alex to get to Keller then get rid of her – and they’ve already taken out her journalist contact.

Moonset (Legacy of Moonset #1) By Scott Tracey

 

The Moonset were a coven that tried to change witch society. Through a series co terrorist attacks they took out most of their challengers, killed any witch or coven that could stand against them. They built a cult of followers.

But they didn’t win. Slowly but surely they were pushed back until, to everyone’s surprise, they surrendered and were executed. Leaving behind their 5 children – protected by a curse that prevented them from being harmed or separated, the witch government was left with the Moonset’s children to raise

Which is where we come in, following Justin, Malcolm, Jenna, Cole and Bailey, the children of the hated Moonset, moved from place to place and held by witch guardians who can barely hide their disdain for the troublesome teens. Until the latest move to a town where it all began – a town with a warlock lurking in the shadows, demanding the Moonset children.

Are the teens there as bait? Or as collateral damage and quiet removal?

Look at that synopsis and drool, folks. A secret magical society with some excellent world building on the nature and workings of magic, hints of far more to come. A coven gone to the dark side and executed, their children bonding together both through unknown magic and desperate self-preservation in a society that is determined to hold them responsible for their parents’ crimes. Their close bonds, their anger, their trust issues and their desire for acceptance all at war, overlaid with a dark plot to try and draw them into the same dark side their parents embraced. But then, a new thread to the mystery – maybe their parents were not so simple as was previously suggested…

Seriously, how could you not write an awesome story with this as its seed? It’s a wonderfully imaginative gift, there’s so much there, there’s essences of originality, compelling hooks for a whole story and so many wonderful things to explore. How could this book not be awesome?

No, really… how could you not write an excellent book with this?

That isn’t a rhetorical question. Because I’m at a loss how such a wonderful world, setting and idea could produce this rather dull book. It’s like seeing someone take a wonderful block of gold veined marble and making door stops with it.

Primarily, this is because of the writing. It’s very overwritten, very over descriptive and metaphors and similes have been crammed in like commuters in a London Tube at rush hour. And even less smoothly than that one. If you cut out the excess verbiage this book could have been half as long and much faster moving; we don’t need everything described in such vivid and exhaustive detail – it doesn’t set the scene, it distracts from it and focuses on irrelevant minutia. Like the travelling, we’re treated to several paragraphs of Justin wondering whether they’re in New York state – yes, you are, now move on! And not only do we have a lot of “tell” rather than “show” but sometimes the tell is used to try and overwhelm the show. Like Justin muses how he’s disturbed at how many of their days end with bandages and bleach (i.e. they get hurt a lot) and we see this by… it never happening again the whole book. Or happening again before this incident either. In fact, since before this they were just moved around while Jenna got them expelled, I fail to see why it was a major factor before.

Sometimes the writing even destroys the mood – like describing a Wraith in wonderfully creepy terms and then having him have a voice that hisses like a deflating tire. Really? Because I was with your cinder crackling, bone crunching, sibilant wraith, only now he’s deflating like some kind of spooky Michelin man. Less is more sometimes. Or there’s similes that are just so over the top that the scene is ruined by my mad cackling, example:

Cut the wraith down like it was the first born son, and this was a plague.

There’s no way the author wrote that line with a straight face.

The book is also hopelessly focused on one character – Justin. No-one else is explored with any great depth, no relationships are truly developed and explained or shown. Everything is from Justin’s viewpoint and most of that contains a lot of telling, a lot of monologuing and a lot of angst. It doesn’t help that’s he’s more than a little self-absorbed. He thinks of his siblings – but only in the shallowest ways and usually in terms of protecting them or, more often, preventing them getting in trouble. He doesn’t have any kind of friendship with them or even any kind of relationship – they’re burdens to control and irritations to endure.

Supernatural Season 8, Episode 14: Trial and Error

Kevin is now living on a boat and he has a life that consists of getting up, studying the tablet, going to bed, getting up, studying the tablet, going to bed. Sounds like law school, only I drank far far far more coffee. Until finally he looked at his notes and almost elated gasps *holy crap* (I felt the same way finishing jurisprudence), then his nose starts bleeding and he faints (yup, definitely jurisprudence).

At the Winchester Cave, Dean is setting up his room (including with a picture of his mother) and we have one of those awesomely subtle Supernatural moments when Dean says he has never had his own room. And it’s clean and not a motel – and did Sam just drop a wrapper on the floor? Oh you did not!  And he goes and cooks. In a real kitchen –they have a real kitchen and Dean can actually cook (even Dean remarks that he’s “nesting”). Domestic bliss is interrupted by Kevin’s call for help.

They arrive at his boat – guns drawn – and find Kevin being sick in the bathroom. The question him on his lifestyle and in an earthshattering moment Dean says “I’m going to feel dirty for saying this, but you might want a salad.” But he has found out how to close the gates of hell – a spell in Enochian to be said after the three trials are completed.

Trials? Yes there are three major tests that you have to undertake, like the trials of Hercules. The first of which is to kill a hellhound and bathe in its blood. Dean’s all for that – to close the gates of hell there’s no limit to the ickiness he’ll endure (I like this – he’s been tortured in Hell, he’s not going to draw the line at grossness) they just have to find someone who made a deal with the crossroads demon and kill the hound that turns up to collect. Easy – well, Dean says easy, Sam not so sure.

While Dean is out shopping (and being awed by the tomato variety out there), Sam talks to Kevin about how he’s living. Kevin is driving himself – almost to death – because he hates his life, hates being isolated, hates the fact demons are hunting him and he wants it to be over. Sam understands but fighting evil is a marathon not a sprint. But when Dean returns he gives Kevin headache pills and pep pills and advice not to OD. Sam protests but Dean points out they’re “at the 1 yard line” so it’s time to play through the pain (also a wonderful comment on how the two work – Dean has always fought to the edge of self-destruction).

They find their potential deal maker – a family of poor famers, the Cassitys, who struck oil on their land, against all geological knowledge. They head there and find the ranch manager and GASP SHOCK she’s a woman! And she’s working on fixing a tractor! I’m kind of depressed that it seems we’re supposed to be surprised by this. Sam and Dean are hired as farm workers and given a room – much to Dean’s sadness (he misses his room). A quick assessment of the situation finds the ranch manager, Ellie, having little motive, Carl husband of one of the Cassitys is just too nice leaving Alice Cassity who has already established herself as a piece of work.

Sam and Dean resolve to follow her for a while (since she’s unlikely to confess if confronted) and that night there is eerie spooky howling that worries the horses – Alice goes to calm them down, watched by Sam and Dean. And while she’s gone, a hellhound chews on Carl.

The police arrive and everyone is very shocked. The police tries to blame wolves but Ellie won’t have it. She reveals that the whole family is flying in. Sam tries to offer support for Alice Cassity in the stable but she’s find – which she finds confusing because she loved Carl, so why would she feel fine? At least she thinks she loved him, she never used to, he had a crush on her and she made fun of him. But then Valentines Day 2003 (oooh look 10 years ago) she suddenly fell in love with him.

Sam smells a deal and goes to tell Dean, nixing his plan of summoning a crossroads demon and then threatening it until it delivers a hellhound (a suicidal plan). Since Carl sold his soul for Alice, someone else sold their soul for the oil.

The family arrives and Ellie introduces them: Noah, 71 year old patriarch and his 20 year old underwear model wife. Alice the oldest daughter; Cindy, a country music singer whose career is crashing due to her drinking; and Margie the youngest, lives in Paris. Cut to the night with Sam serving table and Dean manning the grill (Ellie “I do like a man who can handle his meat.” I am stealing that line).

At the dinner table Alice is silent, Margie comforting and Cindy taking pot shots at her father for his young wife. The banter gets more and more cutting and culminates in “get cancer and die, old man” “you first sweetie.” Awww, family. They reminisce about the last time they had a family dinner together – and it was back before they made their money when a charming English salesman came to visit. Crowley. At this point sensible people pick a new crossroads demon and run, run for the hills.

Sam tells Dean but they think Crowley’s probably just sending his hellhound to collect since collecting souls is below the king of hell’s paygrade. But Kevin has some good news – you can see hellhounds through an object scorched with holy fire – like holy oil – so a scorched pair of glasses. While Dean arranges that, Sam sees Noah and Margie going off wolf hunting in the middle of the night (baaad idea) and quickly joins them when he sees he can’t talk them out of it. And Dean’s night is even more ruined by Ellie approaching Dean with a very simple pick up line “want to come to my room and have sex” which he has to refuse. And she won’t go for a raincheck either.

On the wolf hunt, the group easily get split up – until it’s just Noah and Sam – and Margie being attacked by a hellhound. Sam runs in and shoots the invisible critter but Margie is already dead.

Time for a family meeting where Dean explains about demons, Crowley and hellhounds. Naturally there’s lots of not believing but Dean demands to know who signed on the dotted line. No-one will admit it so they seal them in with goofer dust and Dean stares down the patriarch and makes him sit down. They handcuff them so that the hallucinations the hellhound causes won’t make them hurt themselves.

Dean wants to go looking for the hound – and Sam needs to stay and watch them. Sam doesn’t understand until Dean says he’s keeping him safe. Every time they’ve set up a big confrontation – Lucifer, Roman, etc one of them dies (they come back! Eventually). Dean’s setting it up so it won’t be Sam. Sam asks why Dean should be the one to die, Dean says Sam has the brains and he has hope – he sees a light at the end of the tunnel which Dean doesn’t (it’s out on the table, Dean’s self-destructive lack of hope). Sam can have a life, can become a Men of Letters, can find a wife and kids and grandkids –but Dean doesn’t think he can. This is Dean’s happy ending – Sam having a happy ending.

Sam listens to the family snapping at each other (I love how completely lacking in illusions they are. Cindy accuses Noah he sold his soul to get a young wife “she likes money and I’m rich!” he accuses her over her singing career and she responds with “auto-tune!”) and Alice reveals Margie thought them being rich would make the family happy; so she was the one who made the oil deal.

Sam sees hellhounds through the glasses (nifty) and Alice makes a break for it. He runs after her and drags her back then follows the Hound.

And Dean finds Ellie, in her room, drinking and dancing to “I touch myself”. Dean warns her there’s something evil out there and to lock down – but she already knows. It’s coming for her. When Crowley arrived she made a deal with him to cure her mother’s Parkinson’s disease. She doesn’t regret the choice – but Crowley didn’t tell her about the 10 year ticking clock, only that, when she died, she wasn’t going to heaven. Dean is surprised she didn’t run – but where would she run to? All she wanted was one last meal, some good music and… well, Dean said no. The hellhound howls and she begins to hallucinate – he makes a circle of goofer dust and tells her to stay inside.

Dean goes out and confronts the hellhound but it quickly knocks him down, gashes him and he drops both glasses and his knife. He’s about to be eaten when Sam intervenes and shoots the hound, twice. The hound leaps for Sam and he cuts its throat – bathing himself in the hounds blood. He did the first trial, not Dean

Ellie thinks Dean, with his injuries, should go to a hospital but he’s had worse (I love how Sam confirmed that).  They plan to make Ellie a hex bag so she can run and hide from Crowley – until they close the gates of hell and her soul is safe. Dean tries to use the spell for the first trial, but it doesn’t work. He decides they need to track another hellhound for him to kill (hey wouldn’t be a bad idea anyway, redundancy and all), but Sam refuses. Sam says it’s a suicide mission for Dean but not for Sam because he intends to live. And Dean has reasons to live – friends, family, his own room. Sam sees light at the end of the tunnel and he wishes Dean could too –but he’ll take him to it. He praises Dean as being far more than an ignorant grunt and the best hunter around.

Dean gives Sam the spell and he says it. After some fancy glowy stuff, it’s done.

Dean and his room. Dean being houseproud of his room. Dean being even giddy about the memory foam mattress and it not being a motel. His being able to cook and having a hidden skill at it. Him being interested in shopping after his previous disinterest. That, right there, does more character building and has more information about Dean’s childhood and lack of home than any amount of lamenting and angst filled monologues.

And whoa did we rip the lid off Dean’s issues this episode. Dean no longer seeing hope of any kind, his only happy ending is Sam having a happy ending. I don’t think we’ve ever had such an overt label of the damage hunting has done to Dean. We haven’t had this for a while and I love it.

I don’t know why they had Crowley not tell them about the 10 year deal – he always has before and he even made a big thing in a previous episode about crossroad demons having to be “ethical” and keep their bargains – if people can’t trust their deals they become worthless.

Problematic Motherhood on 'The Walking Dead'

Motherhood means life, so in some ways it is not surprising that a show where the dead rise and walk the earth, contains problematic treatment of motherhood. Despite all of the running, hiding and struggle to survive, motherhood has actually featured quite largely on The Walking Dead, the problem is that each instance in which motherhood has been an issue, it reveals not only the strong gender roles that The Walking Dead has enforced since the very first season, but an idealized form of motherhood.

The first mother we were introduced to was Lori.  She escaped the city with Carl and Shane (thank Gods he’s dead).  Lori’s main motivation was keeping Carl safe, when she wasn’t engaged in subsistence labour. It is Lori who sat down with Carl and forced him to continue his studies. It is Lori who tried hard to establish discipline and order in his life. Lori’s only real identity for the bulk of her appearance on the show was to nurture. The one time in which she chose to reject this limitation because of the impact that it would have on her life, she was shamed. If a woman can’t choose to have an abortion during a zombie apocalypse when food, and shelter are scarce, then when can she?  Her life essentially meant nothing if she was not fulfilling her role as a mother.  When she went to Hershel with her fears, she was given the “there there” treatment and sent on her way.  Even in the best of situations, labour can mean death but for a woman who had serious issues with her first pregnancy and now faced labour without any modern medical intervention, it was an absolute surety. In the end, Lori paid for her motherhood with her life.

Lori’s death did not however convince Rick to take on the nurturing role for his family. This duty was instead passed to Beth. Before taking on a role as primary caregiver to the newborn, Beth’s greatest claim to fame was lying down in her bed and giving up. Yes, in this day and age, The Walking Dead actually had a young woman take to her bed. With a child to care for, Beth is suddenly reinvigorated and taking an active interest in life again, she has even gone as far as to talk about how she always wanted to be a wife and mother. These are certainly admirable goals but the fact that she didn’t have other aspirations as well, speaks loudly about the role that women are expected to take on The Walking Dead. As young as Beth is, she is already being constructed as a mother type figure with no other discernible traits. Even Carl, who is several years younger than her is walking around with a gun and entrusted with protecting the prison. Though Judith is his sister, Carl’s involvement in her daily life is minimal at best. The only other caregiver we have seen look after Judith is Carol, despite the fact that Beth chose to claim Darryl as the reason for Judith’s survival and Rick chose to thank him for his contribution.  The efforts of both Beth and Carol have gone unrecognized.

The Watchtower (Black Swan Rising #2) by Lee Carroll

When we last left Garret and Will, Will had stolen the box in the hope of traveling to the summer country in order to become human again.  In The Watchtower, Garret follows Will's trail, determined to join him on his journey. The Watchtower shifts POV between Garret and Will for a large part of the story and we see the romance between Will and Marguerite.   It is essentially the story of Will's attempt to become human and Garret's bid to help him.

Part of the problem with this story is that in Black Swan Rising, we were told what happened between Will and Marguerite, making this entire plot anti-climactic.  It wasn't helped by the fact that there is absolutely nothing compelling about young Will.  He is the typical emo, overwrought, angst ridden, male love interest. I also found myself skipping the poetry.  It was just over the top and irritating.  For this to have worked, Carroll either should not have given us so much of Will's back story in the first book, or written his character differently.  It was however slightly amusing to at least have Will acknowledge that his past self was ridiculous, just as young Will was ripping his shirt and screaming poetry into the night.

What kept this story moving was Garret's attempt to follow Will.  Unfortunately, it essentially moved from speaking with faerie A, then to faerie B, then faerie C etc,. Garret didn't really investigate, she simply was passively moved along.  I do like protagonists that aren't necessarily running around kicking ass and taking names but at the same time, reading as Garret passively moved from place to place and allowed everyone else to take an active role really wasn't that interesting. It is worth noting that Carroll once again spent a lot of time doing research because the the faeries were varied and true to the lore surrounding them.  Someone who is interested in faeries will find this part of the story very interesting.

Dark Angel Season 2, Episode 11: The Berrisford Agenda

 

Start in Jam Pony with the whole gang – haven’t seen most of these in a while – and it seems 2 of the women who work there are having a fight because Alec was dating both of them – both Original Cindy and Max express their opinions on that one. Original Cindy speaks to the women about who they should really be mad at and Alec flees the scene.

He tags along with Max to her run but when they arrive he has a flashback – he’s been there before on a mission from Manticore. He throws the package over the wall and leaves, not talking to Max.

The whole drama makes Max late to picking up Logan and going to a dinner party – hosted by Joshua (helped by Original Cindy). Max is nervous and tries to coach Logan on not staring or being confused by Joshua but he’s confident he can handle it. Until they arrive and Logan’s thrown by Joshua and his macaroni cheese dinner party (Original Cindy is there to help and poke Logan as necessary). And the 5^th seat is for Alec. Max keeps poking Alec about the two women he dated at the same time and Logan tries to get her to back off – Original Cindy puts in a “men and dogs, no difference” when Joshua agrees with Logan.

Leaving the dinner table, Alec goes downstairs and finds a piano, triggering another flashback of him going undercover to investigate and then murder one of Manticore’s subcontractors. He sits and plays the piano – rather well (would an X5 do it any other way?) much to the surprise of Cindy and Logan and the dismissal of Max. As he plays he has another flashback to learning how to play at Manticore, where he became a master in just 2 days – preparing for his first deep cover mission. He killed a piano teacher and took his place and identity to teach Rachel Berrisford, the target, Robert Berrisford’s daughter. He gets lost in the memories holding Rachel’s necklace until Joshua puts a hand on his shoulder, he snaps out of it and grabs Joshua by the neck. Alec apologises, Max demands to know what the hell that was, but Joshua hands him the necklace and asks if he’s ok.

Alec goes home alone and gets a phone call – no-one talking, just piano music. He goes back to the house stealthily and we have more memories, of Alec being invited to dinner by the daughter, his Manticore handlers asking him if he thinks she likes him (a question he doesn’t, initially, understand). He goes to the dinner and they sneak out to swim in their underwear instead – she says she’s been throwing herself at him and didn’t think he liked her. They kiss and he says he likes her, a lot. Back to the present and Alec sees a female silhouette through the window.

Next day Normal demands Max get a signature for the package Alec through in since he called in sick. Inside she notices a painting with the necklace Alec was holding at the dinner party. Alec is holding that same necklace and remembering – copying Robert Berrisford’s files, kissing Rachel and her telling him she loved him, causing his hands to shake. He walks into the bathroom, disturbed and hallucinates Rachel behind him and smashes the mirror.

Max goes to visit Joshua and finds him painting a picture of Alec – an interpretation anyway. Max warns Joshua that Alec can’t be trusted, Joshua says Alec can’t out smart anyone but Alec because he doesn’t know himself; he’s a complicated person. He points to his picture – lots of pretty colours, tricks and treats on the outside, but inside darkness and confusion. Max asks what about and Joshua says, simply, “Manticore.”

At Crash Original Cindy notices how anguished and mopey (and throws in 2no wonder the straight women fall for the tortured types” because she’s Cindy :P). Max tries to check on Alec but she’s not very good at the lovey dovey stuff and he’s not opening up. She offers to help but he says she doesn’t understand, she can’t because she wasn’t there – she and her brothers and sisters ran away, they missed so much of the training and the brain washing and after they left and as they got older Manticore got a whole lot worse. “But you did what you had to do and tried to forget and if you couldn’t forget they had ways of making you not care.”

Ultraviolet Season 1, Episode 4: Mea Culpa

 At a Catholic school, a priest questions a school child, Gary, who forged a note to get himself out of the prayers, claiming to be allergic to the incense and the smoke. The priest asked what changed but the boy just demands to be left alone, that he doesn’t want to be forced. The priest touches him and the boy draws a knife and stabs him before running out of the school.

Angela has her own little family drama with her own daughter and receives a letter; some test samples she’s sent off for Father Harman have come back as “consistent with a non-hodgkins lymphoma” which I think, by her reaction, means cancer. She goes to work to tell him but he’s already left for the mortuary to see the priest who was stabbed.

The boy has left the school and removed the obvious identifying elements of his school uniform and tries to wash the blood off his hands – he squints painfully in the sunlight.

At the mortuary Angela doesn’t understand why it would be a case for them – until Harman shows that the priest had multiple stab wounds and the 12 year old boy who did it had no history of violence. Angela still doesn’t see how they can assume “code 5” involvement, but Harman says the boy was considering the priesthood.

Vaughan and Mike question the other kids and during the questioning Vaughan opens the blinds, several students flinch away from the sunlight. Vaughan is all “this is vampires” but Mike, whose being a cop, doesn’t think it takes vampirism to make a kid an evil little bastard. Vaughan raises the sunlight sensitivity, Mike points out that that’s a diagnosis for meningitis. Angela takes issue and assures him that no-one’s leaping to conclusions so make sure he doesn’t (which makes no sense – he isn’t leaping to conclusions. He’s stopping them from doing so).

In the park, the boy, Gary, is found by a man who brings him home (for nefarious purposes it’s heavily implied). His dog starts barking furiously the minute Gary enters. The dog gets more and more aggressive before attacking Gary. The man dumps Gary at a hospital before running out, going home and dumping his pornography in a black bin bag – it’s hard to tell what it is but I’m presuming paedophilic. He burns it.

At Gary’s mother’s home Vaughan and Mike question her while searching the flat. She says she was relieved that Gary had dropped out of the religious activities, saying it was his father’s idea in the first place. He’d never been violent but was showing sunlight aversion. She says the only social activity he had was choir practice

At the school, Angela examines one of his classmates and finds him not light sensitive (not to electric light anyway) but he panics and is almost in pain when asked to open a Bible. She has the whole school closed and the students sequestered as a ”public health issue” and Mike is furious about the extreme draconian power she uses with so little evidence. She does take some of his complaints to heart and she takes spinal fluid samples. She also does UV light testing on their necks and finds nothing

Mike, meanwhile, is looking at other potential options and questions the football coach about whether the dead Father Downey was a paedophile. The coach says no but Mike searches the priest’s house and finds a computer disk (soooo dated!) and finds some compromising images (which, naturally, they don’t show) of Gary.

He takes the pictures to Father Harman who decides that, since there’s no evidence of Father Downey downloading the pictures, there’s nothing to connect them to him other than them turning up in his house. Which is a pretty huge exception to the idea of “nothing”.  Mike is angry that they won’t turn this other to the police, instead deciding to keep the evidence quiet and deciding to investigate themselves (in episode 1 they already confirmed that they’re not very good at investigating). Mike’s extremely irritated by this, especially since all of these potentially abused children are being forcibly separated from their parents. Angela finally concedes that’s not a good idea since it will draw the media. But Gary still has to stay and Harman is far more concerned by Downey’s reputation than the potential harm to any children (they got that realistic at least!)

They follow up on where Gary was attacked – there was no blood in the park and no-one noticed a dog attack. Vaughan asks if they’re chasing paedophiles or dogs – and Mike says both – and they decide to cf to find paedophiles with dogs.

Angela questions Gary about Father Downey and why he makes Gary sick. When Father Harman enters Gary starts to panic and ask him to go away, Harman ignores him and continues to aggressively question him until even Angela draws the line.

Angela is torn at the idea of vampire infection with no penetration, no feeding which normally infects humans and makes them pliable. They speculate it’s a new form of biowarfare to make the masses more pliant. And it’s time for Angela to give Harman his diagnosis. He takes it calmly, better than her, and they discuss treatment and chances while she dodges giving anything concrete or pessimistic. Meanwhile, Angela’s daughter is giving her the cold shoulder because Angela’s refusal to let her out at night is severely restricting her.

Vaughan and Mike go to interview the paedophile, Colin, with his dog. Colin dodges round all the questioning but Vaughan isn’t having it and grabs him by the neck. The dog reacts and Vaughan kicks it and sends it whimpering out the room. Vaughan tells them they’re not cops and don’t have to play by the rules and starts hitting Colin to make him co-operate. Mike looks away, silently. Colin doesn’t recognise Father Downey but does say he gave his pictures to a man that his dog also barked at  - though the dog was much more scared and he had a “skin allergy” that prevented him going out during the day.

Revolution Sneak Peak!

Revolution will be back with us on the 25th March

Nightingale's Lament (Nightside Series #3) by Simon R Green

 John Taylor has a new case – to rescue the Nightingale. A singer whose voice is so incredible she may be the next big thing in the Nightside where the incredible is the norm. A singer whose sad songs can literally cause people to kill themselves in grief – a fact that only adds to her popularity, not detract from it.

And a singer who may be being held against her will. At least, that’s what her father thinks.

Which sets John Taylor on track to speak to and free the Nightingale – but the Cavendishes, her handlers, managers or owners, guard their prize jealously and have the vast power and influence to ensure that even John Taylor can’t just walk in the front door and make demands. A chain of investigation follows, tracking down what the Cavendishes have done in the past, and discovering exactly what they have done to the Nightingale.

To complicate things, John has upset the powers that be. A necessary act of revenge against the murderer of an old and valued friend has caused a large section of the Nightside to lose all power. The Authorities are not amused and wish to speak to John about it – and they’re quite insistant.

I am rapidly becoming unstuck trying to review these books. It’s difficult because I don’t have a lot of praiseworthy things to say about them. But I love them.

Which is a ridiculous contradiction, but it’s true.

The story is good – very well paced, well written, extremely exciting  and with very well done action scenes. There are no twists though, no surprises that can’t be guessed well ahead of time. It’s somewhat predictable, we know how it’s going to end, we know who the bad guys are, we even know their super super secret that was very obvious from the very beginning.

Yet, it was good. It was predictable, I knew exactly how it was going to end – and it was still immense fun. Sometimes the journey doesn’t have to be surprising to be a fun one. It can still be exciting, still be fun of excellent fight scenes, still have some wonderful and enthralling settings and developments to keep you turning the pages. Even without twists and surprises, the story was compelling and enthralling. Even with the dramatic villain monologues – repeated dramatic villain monologues! In fact, it says a lot about the writing that it can make so many of these tropes that you shouldn’t ever do in writing work. Hard boiled film-noir-ish internal monologues allowing the protagonist to info dump? Yes we have lots of that – and it’s excellent and it works and I love it. Over the top villainous exposition “since I’m going to kill you anyway let me explain all my nefarious schemes!?” yes it’s there, lots of it – and it’s excellent and it works and I love it.

The protagonist, John Taylor, is pretty hollow. He’s a power fantasy – super charged, stare-‘em-down, show everyone who’s boss, power fantasy. And he’s a really good one. It’s hard not to have a little fun with him staring down major powers, with everyone flinching at his name, with him avenging his friends no matter the cost and with him kicking an ogre in the balls. It’s fun, mindless, power fantasy fun. But fun nevertheless. Sometimes some simple mindless fun is exactly what the doctor ordered. I honestly can’t point to any real defining characteristic of John than this – he’s got a nebulous history, he has this whole hard-boiled-film-noir-stereotype thing and vast amounts of power and hardassery over the classic heart of gold. He’s a walking stereotype, he’s a cliché writ large – but I really like him.

It’s all a classic example of how there are no rules to writing if you can do it right. If you’ve got good writing, you can make even the cheesiest clichés work.

Ultimately, what really makes this work is the world. This glorious, amazing, incredibly diverse world. The sheer imagination that has gone into creating this vast cast of the weird, wonderful and terrifying is stunning. The Nightside contains everything imaginable and it’s [portrayed so perfectly with that. Everything is weird, there are not only examples of every creature from every mythology and story you can think of, but also creatures and beings that go way beyond that but by mere existence expand the world even further.

But it’s not just an excellently portrayed world of vast and imaginative possibilities that I really really love, it’s also incredibly creepy. Sometimes overtly with some really well done writing that describes a setting or creature that gives you chills. I can’t praise the writing enough here, it’s ability to truly give a sense of the powers of the Nightside but also that constant creepiness. There is nothing fluffy or nice or safe here. And with just a line of dialogue – just Mr. and Mrs. Cavendish talking to each other, that creepy is really really clear. The book is just supremely atmospheric and, with such a fantastic setting, I’ve never known a book give me such a strong sense of time and place. Even the prologue where John Taylor investigates the power plant gives such a strong sense of time and place – it doesn’t matter what the consequences are, it doesn’t matter how damaging it is, he can’t leave his friends like this and he can’t allow himself to be used and betrayed in this fashion.

Being Human (US) Season 3, Episode 5: Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Mouth

 

Liam, the king pedigree werewolf guy, is hunting the remnants of the vampires with a werewolf sidekick as an opener. Ominous.

And Sally’s eating breakfast with immense glee and playing and gossiping with Sam and Nora about her new job. Until Aidan comes in from his night shift in the hospital, tired (Sally is amused that the creature of the night has trouble being nocturnal) and hungry, which Nora asks about and he flees the question.

Aidan goes to bed and has a dream about a willing donor, free of disease who he then kills because he can’t control his hunger. What you expected Aidan to dream of flowers and fluffy kittens when there’s angst fodder around? Returning to sleep brings a dream of the girls he and Henry killed for food. He’s having a fully cycle of guiltmares.

Nora and Josh discuss and worry over the missing Erin Teen Wolf and Nora is concerned about Aidan being a ticking time bomb with his hunger. Later, at work they’re joined by Pedigree Liam! He’s still checking up on his children and wants to know why they wrote big cheque to Josh and he explains about his research that didn’t go anywhere. Which leads them to explain why Josh isn’t a werewolf anymore and Nora explains it was to save her life, which Pedigree Liam accepts since you have to “put your children first”. Uckies, don’t make calling Nora Josh’s child a thing, please don’t. Thankfully Josh challenges that and points out she’s his girlfriend, not his child.

Sally, meanwhile is at her job and facing the horrible things a mortician has to see – dead guy genitals! And then a more serious problem – she can see the ghost of the dead man and the ghost notices. Poor cute, awkward boss man                Max thinks he’s done something wrong and tantamount to harassment by talking about massages as Sally flees the room.

The ghost catches up with her to tell her that his sons are fighting over his will, but he’s written a new one – and Sally hits him with a  tire iron telling him “I’m sorry, this isn’t the ghost whisperer” and he disappears in a puff of smoke. Ooookay, harsh there Sally.

Later she stays back at the funeral home to clean up and she invites Max out on a not!date so she won’t be the third wheel with Zoe and Nick, which he’s cutely gleeful about. Then she runs into the ghost of Max’s mother (and nearly drives her off with an iron frying pan – apparently iron is the key to ghost disruption, which fits some legends).  Max’s mother is worried about her son and his many relationship failures and wants Sally to be careful with him.

The evening is super awkward because while Max and Sally want to congratulate Zoe and Nick on their upcoming trip to India (and Max is dorky cute), Max’s mother is there putting a Debbie downer on everything (heard by everyone in the room BUT Max) and saying some really racist and xenophobic crap about India, which causes Sally to angrily inform her that she’s Indian, which is a somewhat random non-sequiter in the conversation from Max’s point of view. Sally gets yup and leaves the room, doing the eye-slide to get Max’s mother to come with her and receive her marching orders.

Zoe commiserates with Zoe having Max’s mum around but she isn’t impressed that Sally is dispersing ghosts – especially after what she went through when she died and the help she had from people. Including Zoe herself. But Sally doesn’t think she can help them – because every time she’s used any power she has hurt people.

The evening ends and Sally, to Max’s surprise, hugs him. But when she tries to kiss him when they seem to have a moment, he turns and flees, saying goodnight. The next day at work is very awkward but Max tells her he was kicking himself all the way home and asks for a second chance – which Sally agrees to. She leans towards him. He doesn’t move. She leans more. He doesn’t move. She actually says “Max I’m leaning in here” and then he kisses her. Which escalates

Switch them getting dressed afterwards. And Max freaking out because they did it in the viewing room in the funeral home and that’s so unprofessional. And how can he offer tissues for grieving loved ones looking at their bereaved when he’s going to be looking at the couch and thinking of “naked naughty Sally”. Sally starts out amused, but draws the line at “Naughty Sally” and isn’t happy when he takes his clothes and leaves.

Which is when Linda, Max’s mother comes in to slut shame Sally, literally. It seems Linda has been doing her best to keep Max single ever since she died (saying he’s a virgin) and attacking all the other “sluts” he tried to date and accusing Sally of “throwing it” at him. Sally responds that maybe next time she will throw it at him, she’ll “sling it”.

She goes to see Max polishing the car and tells him she quits. She mentions being assaulted with Max awkwardly protests at it being unprofessional but mutual and she tells him she was curious, now her curiosity is satisfied she’s leaving. She buttons his shirt where he missed a button – and leaves.

Seem out of character? Well as Sally wakes up she is informed of all this by Linda – who possessed Sally. Sally complains about this to Zoe who is quick to point out the karmic justice of it (since Sally used to love possession). But sally also points out how hard it is for Max to have his mother around sabotaging him – and Zoe gives her a Tibetan amulet that blocks possession.

Now so protected, it’s time for a return, a ring of salt – and an exorcism. But she stops when Linda collapses crying saying she just wants Max to be happy. Sally kneels next to her and points out that Max isn’t happy. He’s lonely.

Aidan, meanwhile is hallucinating (again) or possibly being haunted by the ghosts of the two women he and Henry killed. There to help him torture himself for all the harm he’s done. Which is when there’s a knock on the door – it’s Kat, the woman Nora is subletting too and the ghosts little inserts are already making it difficult for Aidan to hold a conversation – and tempting him to drink her blood.

At work he talks to Kenny in his sealed room (the kid who has a damaged immune system and, of course, his living in a sealed room means he can’t have caught the flu) and the ghost girls in lingerie (because they died in their underwear, this is all they ever wear. And blood) are back. They point out he has an empty blood vial in his pocket that he must have put there. He almost leaves – but at the last minute takes blood from him. But the next day another nurse comes to take his blood and he complains about the “double dipping”. The nurse points out there’s no record of blood having been taken.

Warm Bodies

If you have seen any of the trailers for Warm Bodies, you know exactly what you’re getting in for. In fact, here’s a trailer now:

That's pretty much it right there, the whole story. There are no spoilers, the trailer pretty much tells you everything that happened and how it ends.

It’s a romantic comedy with a zombie! And corny as that sounds, it works. Not that it’s not corny, but it’s corny in a very fun, cheesy way. It is silly, it’s happily silly, it’s funnily silly. And the acting passes it off really well – I’m impressed particularly by Nicholas Hault managing to be rigid and monotone and still carrying lots of emotional expression (this contrasts the film very well with Twilight, with which it’s often compared, where the actors are rigid and monotone for no good reason and fail to express any emotion).

The plot is cute, in a clichéd kind of way. It’s a new concept, zombies in love, but don’t think the new concept makes the story original. Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, their love is so precious that it saves the entire world. It’s not original, but as far as clichéd love stories go, it’s one of the better told, better acted and better presented one. It’s also quite nice to see a dystopian that’s so up beat, so much fun and actually has a happily ever after (not a “oh we just survived, but legitimate hope and going forwards).

It’s also funny, sometimes hilariously so. R’s internal monologue was immensely fun and often made me cackle. It really worked.

As a concept and a fun film, it did work. I didn’t mind watching it, I probably wouldn’t see it out, but then, I don’t see out romcoms anyway.

Grimm Sneak Peak!

Grimm will be back with us on the 8th March!

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

R is a zombie – and he’s called R because it’s the one fragment of his name he has managed to remember. He and his fellow zombies follow the parodies of the living, aping human life but never really getting the reality of it. In between raiding the living to find food and, above all, brains – brains that contain the precious memories of the living that reignite what it means to be alive in the zombies. He lives in the airport, in his plane with his collection of human memorabilia and 50s records trying to reignite his humanity.

On one such raid he eat the brain of a man called Perry – and his brain lit up. He saw Perry’s girlfriend, Julie, and was driven to protect her rather than eat her. He brought her home to his plane and slowly they come to know each other. But, more, R sees more and more of Perry’s life and Perry’s memories, reliving his hopes and dreams – and his descent. The longer he and Julie spend together, the more R begins to wake up, the more he can remember and talk and think. The more alive he feels

And this vitality is spreading – but the Bonies, the most rotten and reduced of the zombies, are ready to fight back

This is a book that’s surrounded by some truly confusing marketing. When I picked it up, I was told by all and sundry that it was another Twilight. I cringed, expecting a vapid, personality-less heroine and a creepy, stalking hero who was supposed to be romantic.

This book is nothing like Twilight

I watched the trailers for the Warm Bodies film and expected a comedy, something funny and light and clever and amusing.

This book is not a comedy, nor is it light.

This book is surprisingly deep, amazingly solid and full of extremely powerful food for thought.

This is a dystopia, but unlike many dystopias, this is not decades after the end of the world, nor is it mere weeks. The remains of humanity aren’t in a desperate second by second battle for survival, nor have they built much in the way of a new society. Humanity is surviving. Day by day, in their secure centres, surviving with little or no real hope for an actual future. Everything is about survival, killing the zombies and surviving. Anything else is a distraction, it’s grim, it’s hard and General Grigio doesn’t accept any deviation from that, not even from his own daughter.

Then there’s the zombies, feeding on human brains for some spark of human emotion, trying to recapture some sense of what they were, unable to even pull up their own names, their own identities. They’re trapped in bodies that find so many tasks and even basic communication difficult, but also find even caring to be beyond them. Lead by the Bonies, rotted down zombies that are the very essence of stagnation and inevitability.

It’s a powerful book that asks what life actually is and what it means. What is the point of life if everything is reduced to survival, is it even living if you’re just living to survive rather than surviving to live and are you even living if you don’t have any hope for the future, any desires or any wishes. It asks what living actually means and what actually matters.

We see this really well portrayed several ways – with Julie’s difficulty with the stifling and repressive and empty life they live in the stadium. We see it with R’s slow growth from his near-mindless zombie state. And we see it really well through the eyes of Perry’s memories, as he grew colder and harder, as he lost his hope, as he began seeking death and how, ultimately, he became a dead man walking – as much a zombie as R was before he began to reclaim the spark of life.

Lost Girl Season Three, Episode Five: Faes Wide Shut

Lauren and Bo are sitting in a bar and they are scoping out people for Bo to feed on.  Lauren says that Bo is an irresistible sex machine and that she wishes she could keep up with her. When Trick asks what they are up to Lauren explains that the shots she developed to deal with Bo's hunger are no longer working, so they are searching for a booty call. This makes Trick very uncomfortable and he quickly excuses himself.  Lauren then assures Bo that this is what she wants and that though dating a succubus is not without it's challenges, the secret to any relationship is trust, understanding and compromise. Bo tells Lauren that she is being so mature about this and asks again if she is sure.  Lauren says that that is fine as long as Bo follows the one rule - no wolf. A woman enters the bar who catches both Lauren and Bo's attention and Bo announces "game on," before kissing Lauren and walking away.

Graham is having a drink and picks up a key but then quickly drops it.  A woman enters the room and comments that he is back early.  He tells her that she looks nice and she says that she is trying something different. Suddenly Graham grabs his chest and says that there is something he has tell her. Graham then dissolves into a puddle of goo, splattering her as he disappears.

Bo is having sex with the woman that she picked up at the bar and takes the time to feed, as downstairs, Lauren is working on a new shot for her and Kenzi is on her laptop. Kenzi asks if this is going to take long  (read: the sex upstairs) and Lauren replies that science takes time and that once Bo reaches fulfillment that she will compare her blood sample to a baseline. Kenzi bursts upstairs and says that she found a case for them. Kenzi tells Bo that humans are liquifying in front of their loved ones. When Bo says that she is in the middle of something, Kenzi replies, "you're right, knocking bits is way more important than saving lives," and leaves the room.

Bo comes downstairs and Kenzi says that she has been online looking for people who need their help.  Kenzi tells Bo about a woman whose husband turned into green goo and didn't call the police, because before she could call for help, people showed up, scooped up the goo, took his suitcase and his phone. They told her that they would be in touch after their investigation. Bo says she doesn't think she would be much good right now, so Kenzi asks if she no longer cares about their time together.  Kenzi adds that she thought this was something they could do together. Bo promises that they will look into this and collect some evidence.  Bo rushes upstairs to finish off, as Lauren calls out that she left a cup in the bathroom for a sample when she is done.

Kenzi and Lauren sit down with the wife, who says that the spark wasn't there in the bedroom.  She adds that she was trying to spice things up, but Graham kept pulling away and now he's a puddle.  Kenzi says they're from paranormal hot investigators.  A woman named Dehlia shows up looking for Graham and it turns out that she is Graham's lover.  The woman says that he wasn't cheating and accuses his wife of killing him.  The two women start to fight and Bo enters the room and uses her powers to calm them down.

The mistress says that she and Graham had been together for six months. Bo asks if they got into anything unusual and the mistress replies that there was a cool club that they liked to go to before Graham ran off last night.

Kenzi and Bo head to the club.  As they walk through, Bo comments on the hot people. When she gets a phone call, it turns out that it's Lauren, who says that there were secretions inside Graham which rapidly broke down his body.  Lauren says that she is going to work on an antidote because Graham might have infected his wife and his lover.  Bo continues to be distracted and tells Lauren that the sexual energy in the club goes to eleven.  Lauren tells her to have fun and hangs up the phone.

Bo is approached by a man who tells her that Roman requests her presence, so Bo and Kenzi agree to separate.

Dyson and Tamsin are checking out a crime scene and discover a dead woman.  Dyson sniffs and says that she is fae and had been dumped in the last couple of hours.  They decide to take her to Lauren. When Dyson moves her hair, it seems that this is the woman Bo was with a few hours ago.  Dyson sniffs again and says that he smells Bo on the woman.

Bo is taken to see the Roman God Bacchus. He tells her to enjoy his hospitality and then uses his powers on her.  Bo sits on the bed next to Roman and says that she heard he is the guy to see about sex. Bo leans in and asks for privacy.   Bo then asks what the craziest thing he has ever done in bed and Roman replies, "sleep."

Dyson brings the body to Lauren and asks what killed her. Lauren asks where she was found and if there was any struggle on the scene.  Tamsin asks if the cause of death is an allergic reaction to a succubus.  Lauren says blunt force trauma and adds that she will do a full autopsy. Tamsin asks if the victim's face rings any bells and Lauren lies and says no and that she does not appreciate being treated like a criminal.  When they leave, Lauren picks up her phone and texts Bo.  Since Kenzi has Bo's phone she sees the message but decides to delete it.

Upstairs, Bo is still in bed with Roman and she asks which fae are getting intimate with humans. Roman replies that he doesn't keep track of this sort of thing and that people expect anonymity in a place like this.  Bo accuses Roman of lying and says that a bad bad boy sent someone to clean up a bad bad mess. Bo adds that something is causing humans to go all gooey. Roman hops out of bed and tells Bo that her cheap succubus tricks aren't doing anything for him. Bo grabs her things and tells Roman that he knows how to show a girl a good time before leaving.  Roman instructs his helper to pay a visit to the home of the dead human and to cut Bo's throat if she returns to the club.