This episode is all
about Mohammed and Sam - with flashes of their back story. Including with
Mohammed first meeting Sam, being more than a little concerned by how good Sam
is at beating vampires to death.
But later he sees Sam
apparently about to commit suicide - he runs to intervene to help and Sam gasps
that he’s deaf and is unable to communicate with anyone - until Mohammed uses
sign language, taught by his deaf grandmother. Sam has someone he can
communicate - a friend
And lo this trainwreck began
In the present Sam
has kidnapped Mohammed fully intending to bite him and turn him into his
vampire minion - but Mohammed quickly tells Sam that Vanessa bit him which
means he’s now totally inedible and will turn Sam human again
Sam is very very very
against this - utterly opposing the idea that he will ever be human. He is
clear that he will always be “him”. It’s clear that Sam’s whole identity is now
very very heavily invested in his vampireness.
Mohammed is still
dying so Sam drags out one of his human food stock - Cara - and orders her to
help Mohammed. This takes some very brutal medicine with lots of debriding
flesh and general awfulness. It does give Cara and Mohammed time to bond with
Cara noting how little the apocalypse has brought Mohammed down (apparently?)
and her determination to escape - even if that means pouring water onto the
floorboards until they rot. She’s tenacious. Together they plan to bring down
Sam
While Sam is outside
listening to Mohammed scream but also having his own flashback of the abuse he
suffered from his dad when he was a child - including the attack that deafened
him. He has now captured his dad as a blood source and to torture him - finally
beating him to death.
When he goes back
inside Cara and Mohammed make their move. And it fails - Cara ends up being
throttled by Sam while Mohammed begs him to spare her. Sam does… and Mohammed
is convinced this shows Sam is good underneath it all (uh… serial killer?) and
is quickly proven wrong by Sam then hunting Cara down - because he’s a serial
killer
He ties her up and
plans to bite her (since he still can’t bite Mohammed), making it clear to
Mohammed that this is him. Evil evil evil, super evil.
Mohammed appeals to
Sam that Sam owes him from saving him from committing suicide when they first
met - only to have Sam turn it round. Sam wasn’t committing suicide - he was
luring Mohammed in; he planned on Mohammed being his next victim and it was
only Mohammed’s sign language that changed his mind. He adds that Mohammed knew
he was a murder - which Mohammed completely denies (though I have a sneaking
feeling that Sam may be correct)... Sam still insists Mohammed was a friend
But Mohammed denies -
he was just using Sam (which again kind of suggests Mohammed was looking the
other way). Sam hits back that of course he was - this is what Mohammed does,
use people. It’s what he did with Vanessa…
So Mohammed lashes
out at Sam’s sorest of sore spots - he has no friends, no-one loves him and
no-one ever will. Which predictably leads to Sam biting Cara
And then Mohammed
stabbing Cara so she doesn’t turn. Sam tries to take this as a chance to say
Mohammed is a murderer too just like him - and Mohammed can’t live with this
any more. He stabs himself, repeatedly
Sam despairs and,
despite the risk, he bites Mohammed. Sam doesn’t turn human but Mohammed
doesn’t seem to turn
Sam despairs and in
an odd ritual he cuts off his own finger - as he hangs himself. I’m not sure
how hanging affects a vampire
At which point
Mohammed rises from the dead as a vampire. Looks like Vanessa biting humans
doesn’t make them immune - she has to turn vampires human.
Ok… so that was
that…. And?
I mean don’t get me
wrong this episode would have been excellent (with some hefty provisos) last
season when Sam and Mohammed were still relevant. But now we have a shadowy
government organisation and the whole van Helsing history and this elder… Sam
and Mohammed feel awfully tangential to the main plot.
And while examining
Sam’s back story is interesting as is his relationship with Mohammed, how it
developed and whether Mohammed was in denial or not and how Sam had always been
dangerous… at the same time the whole conflation of abuse, disability and being
a serial killer is all kinds of troublesome. Yes I understand there are
correlations - but when depictions of disabled people, abused people et al are
not well handled in the media; serial killer is a depiction which needs
handling with care.
