If you saw the preview for this week’s episode, you know that Sally is looking pretty rough. Josh said she looked like The Grudge, but I think she looks more Ring-like. Of course, I don’t watch horror movies, so what do I know? Either way, she looks scary. Yikes. Also in the episode, Aidan reunites with an old flame. Surely I can’t be the only one wanting to know the story behind the “Celine” tattoo on his chest?
The following contains spoilers for this episode of Syfy’s Being Human and parts of series one and three of the BBC original.
Sally gets voice-over duty this week. She tells how she and her dad used to go to the harbor before a big storm and watch the clouds. There’s an eerie stillness before the sky cracks open and you can feel the storm gathering. As she speaks, we see scenes of the blood den, the funeral home and Bishop’s desk. Everything is in disarray and there are piles of dust everywhere, presumably the remains of dozens of vampires. Aidan and Josh are stuffing stakes into backpacks and Josh retells yesterday’s adventure of a stake falling out of his jacket in front of a room full of nurses and he had to try to convince them he had taken up whittling. Suddenly, Sally appears looking like some revenant straight out of a horror movie. Her eyes are completely opaque, her skin riddled with large dark cracks and veins and she doesn’t speak, just glides toward the window. Josh evidently watches a lot of horror movies: “If we videotaped Sally right now and showed somebody, they’d be dead in three days.” Aidan says she’s weak from the exorcism, “It’s only been a few days. She needs time to heal. She’ll be back.” “As what?” Josh asks. They both leave for work and Josh suggests Sally take a “me day” and maybe use some skin cream.
In the hospital stairwell, Josh says he’s sorry for what happened to Rebecca, but if the Dutch are as bad ass as Aidan says, maybe Bishop’s skipped town. Aidan says he hasn’t left Boston, he’s just gone to ground. Josh comes up with many options: Bishop is at “Knott’s Scary Farm” or he’s building a new, greener vampire lair. Josh wonders if Bishop really wants to kill Aidan, why are they at work instead of hiding out at home where he can’t cross the threshold? They’re in the basement at the hospital and an older handyman is wheeling a trash bin full of wood scraps. As he gets close to the two, a broken piece of wood about the shape of a stake falls from the overloaded bin and clatters to the floor. Without thinking, Aidan grabs the man, throws him against the wall and would have staked him had Josh not stopped him. The man’s just had ten years’ life scared out of him and Josh apologizes profusely and promises him he’s taking Aidan back to the psych ward immediately.
Aidan tells Josh that the only way to beat a vampire who is older, faster and stronger than you is to assume that everyone you meet is one of them or their minions. Aidan sees a woman he recognizes in the hospital courtyard and Josh tells him, “Please don’t tell me you’re going to stake the cougar now.” Aidan tells Josh to go on ahead and he watches her. He’s conflicted – he would talk to her, but he doesn’t know how to approach her after all these years.
Flash back to a time when he had shaggy 70s hair and she was a young woman. He shows her the fresh tattoo on his chest, her name: Celine. It’s already healed and she asks if it’s his blood that makes him heal so fast, meaning she knows what he is. She asks if it will stay, he says, “Forever…literally.” She muses that she’ll be in the ground and he’ll still have her name tattooed on his chest. They begin to get hot and heavy and she trusts him to stop without killing her.
Nora and Josh are in the break room. People are noticing Nora’s pregnant and it surprises her. She even thinks she’s starting to show already, but that’s impossible. She says she can deal with the pregnancy, but not Josh melting down and the pregnancy. She says if he wants out, now is the time to tell her but he takes her hand and reassures her that he’s here for her. He asks her if she’s keeping it and she doesn’t know, but she’s not having an abortion today. Josh is glad, because he’s working this afternoon. Nora says her hCG levels are off the charts which could indicate multiple fetuses or birth defects. She has an ultrasound this afternoon and wants Josh to come.
Danny is at home trying to shave around the scratch marks Sally gave him and cursing her. He’s using a “pretentious, old school” straight razor and HorrorSally is watching him. She stands in front of him and hisses, “What if you cut yourself?” He feels her presence and is unnerved, but he goes back to shaving. Sally somehow takes control of his hand and makes him slice his neck. Blood drips into the sink and he cries out, holding the cut to staunch the blood flow. “That’s what it feels like,” she seethes, “to die!” She turns to the mirror and is instantly restored to her former appearance. But there’s a glint of something sinister in her eyes as she says “Groovy.”
Sally's haunting gets physical. Credit: tvfanatic.com
Celine is sitting in a hospital room looking at a scrapbook. Aidan sneaks in and speaks French, having tried for two hours to think how to reintroduce himself without giving her a heart attack. She can’t believe her eyes and must touch him to prove he’s real. She says she thought he might have been a ghost or a deathbed visitation. He’s taken aback and she says she should have found a better way to say it. She has recurrent lung cancer that’s metastasized. She’s there for palliative care, not chemo. She hasn’t even told her daughter, who lives in Boston and thinks she’s being treated again.
Another flashback to their time together. Aidan pulls a stake out from under the mattress and gives it to her to protect herself from him in case he tries to go to far. She refuses, he bites her and she enjoys it. Then there’s a knock on the door, very insistent. It’s Bishop, looking like mid-70s David Soul. He hears Celine in the background and says he’s thirsty after the long trip, gleefully rubbing his hands. He tries to step inside but he can’t cross the threshold and Aidan won’t invite him in. They go for a walk in the show, both in tight pants and leather jackets, looking like Starsky and Hutch. Aidan is irritated that Bishop tracked him down. It’s been five years since they saw each other and we learn that they’re currently in Montreal. Aidan says Celine is his business. “Oh yeah? Like Jane was my business?” demands Bishop. It was twenty years ago, but he remembers it like it was yesterday, so that places the flashback in 1975. Bishop warns him one day he’s going to wake up in a pool of blood after killing Celine, but Aidan will hear none of it and walks away.
Josh is mopping up something when he sees Danny in the ER being tended to. Sally pops up behind him and says “I could have decapitated him,” which spooks Josh. He’s elated she’s back. No more ZombieSally! “I think it was slitting Danny’s throat open that did it. Brought me back.” And she’s smirking as she says it. Josh can’t believe his ears. She was so weak after the exorcism she thought she would blow away. Then she saw Danny being smug and shaving and she wanted to kill him. “If I had just cut a little deeper, if I had had more control…” He stops her and gets some strange looks for talking to himself as he mops. “You think this is a joke? I’m finally figuring this out. I cut Danny open, and then I was back. A hundred percent. It felt so good. One shove while he’s waiting for the T, one swerve while he’s driving…” Josh shouts, “No! Why is everyone so kill happy?” Then Sally vanishes and he turns around to see people staring at the crazy orderly.
Back in 1975, Celine is getting dressed when Aidan comes back from talking to Bishop. He tells her they need to leave Montreal and not tell her family because it’s safer for them. She wants him to turn her so Bishop won’t come after her, but Aidan says he doesn’t want that life for her. She doesn’t want to follow him around to God-knows-where until he trades her in for a younger model. He wants her to stay put in the house while he’s gone, but he will be back to get her and she can yell at him some more on the train. She doesn’t want him to tell her what to do. He almost tells her Bishop can’t get her while she’s in the house, but he just tells her he will be back and not to go anywhere.
In the hospital, Aidan is engrossed in his own thoughts as Josh comes up and blurts out the furthest extreme of Nora’s high hCG: “So, it’s official. Nora’s gonna have a litter of were-babies.” They head up the stairs with Josh ranting all the way. Aidan says werewolves are made, not born. By now, Josh is on a roll and just rambling about monsters and how he wants to kill himself because he’s ruined Nora’s life. Aidan tells him he needs to hold onto the good he has with Nora and they can work out the rest when it comes. Josh starts to tell Aidan about the developments with Sally when the gal from the cafeteria passes them on the stairs. Aidan flashes back to Bishop flirting with her and springs into action just in time so he doesn’t take a direct attack from Jenny, who’s now a vampire sent to kill him. Josh panics and Aidan tells him to stake her, which he does. He’s traumatized and spattered with blood.
Danny calls and is leaving a message on the answering machine saying he’s going to be out of town for a few days. Sally is angrily pleased that she’s managed to chase him away, but then Danny opens the door. He was calling from right outside the house and wanted to make sure no one was home. He also wanted to establish an alibi. He remembers that the medium told him that the other way to get rid of her was to burn the house down so he’s brought a can of gasoline. He begins splashing it on the couch and the curtains and all over. Sally screams, but he can’t hear her. He lights the puddle near the door and the whole place goes up in a flash. She shouts that if the house is going to burn down, he’s going to stay and burn with it and they’ll go together. He opens the door to leave but she slams it shut again. He tries to go out through the kitchen but she pushes a burning bookshelf in his way. Josh and Aidan make it home and get in through the flames and Sally tells them Danny’s trying to kill her again. Danny runs for the door between them but Aidan grabs him by the lapels and throws him against the wall. “You know how long I’ve wanted to do that?” Aidan crows as he looms over Danny. Josh grabs the fire extinguisher and tries valiantly to put out the blazing room. Surprisingly, one man and his fire extinguisher is enough! Josh asks if Sally is okay and Danny asks if he can see her. Josh takes a stand. “We can see her because we’re like her.” Danny doesn’t understand, so Aidan kneels down over him, takes off his glasses and bares his fangs. He slaps Danny around a couple of times then grabs his head and prepares to bite but Josh yells no. Sally says he deserves it. Josh tells her if Danny is killed he’ll be there, haunting her. Danny, truly frightened and cowering promises he’ll never come back, but Aidan says he’s lying. Danny begs for his life, saying he’ll give them the house. Josh is still trying to convince Sally not to let Aidan execute Danny. He tells her she’s the only one there who hasn’t killed and she would never get over it. He gets through. Sally tells Danny, “No one deserves to die more than you do. And nobody deserves to kill you more than I do. But I’m not like you.” Whether it’s his emotional state, her forcefulness or a combination of the two, Danny begins to see Sally. “You didn’t just get saved,” she tells him. “What you’re gonna get…you’re gonna pray and cry and wish you were dead.”
The fire department and the police have arrived. The firemen are hauling out fire-damaged furniture and dumping it off the steps. The police are questioning Danny as he’s sitting on a stretcher by the ambulance. He has a thousand-yard stare as he confesses to arson. Sally says “Tell them why you’re really here.” He looks in her direction, so obviously he can still see and/or hear her. He finally confesses to killing Sally, but he won’t mention her name. Then he tells the police officer that she’s haunting him and that she and his renters will kill him if he doesn’t turn himself in. She says, “It’s okay son, you’re safe with us. We’ll get it all sorted out down at the station.” A uniformed officer leads him away and places him in the back of a squad car.
Josh and Aidan are sitting in the cafeteria discussing the day’s events. Josh wonders if Sally will be okay, then wonders if Danny will be okay and if they should send him something. Aidan gives him the “you have got to be joking” look and Josh says of course he isn’t serious. But he does think they need to talk to Sally about her taste in men and surely there must be some “nice, dead dudes” out there. Aidan says she doesn’t need dating advice from them and Josh wonders if it’s because they’re sitting there waiting to find out if he impregnated his girlfriend with a “mutated wolf baby”. Naturally, this is when Nora shows up. Aidan excuses himself so Josh and Nora can talk.
Aidan goes to Celine and says he’s finally ready to turn her. He tries to sell her on never getting sick again or dying, the vitality twenty times better than her best day. She says he could have asked earlier. He says she’s had the chance to have a life and a family, which she wouldn’t have had had he turned her at twenty. She says she wanted to see who her daughter marries and watch her children grow, but she doesn’t want to watch them and her daughter grow old and die. She says she had her time and had fun when she could. Aidan is sad, but respects her decision. Then he asks where she was when he came back for her.
A shockingly bad wig-and-leather-jacket combo, even for the 70s. Credit: movies.tvguide.com
Another flashback. Celine is on a table unconscious with Bishop stroking her face. She’s stripped down to her underwear, too. She slowly wakes and wonders where she is. Bishop reminds her he caught her as she was coming out of the apartment. With fear in her voice, she asks if he turned her. He says they just talked…mostly, but there is blood on her neck. She asks after Aidan and Bishop assures her she won’t have to turn her life upside down for him. She sees bite marks on her neck and arms and grabs a knife that’s nearby. Of course, she’s not fast enough or strong enough to attack Bishop and he pins her to the wall to gloat about her insignificance. He says Aidan will forget her as the little French what’s-her-name who left when the going got tough. She says she’ll find him and tell him but Bishop threatens to kill her family if she seeks Aidan out. She offers herself, but Bishop prefers the psychological torture of keeping her alive. In the present, we see that torment is still in force. She just tells Aidan that she was young and headstrong. She’s afraid that if Bishop is still around he could still come after her family.
Nora’s getting her ultrasound. Her hormone levels are abnormal because she’s at 14 weeks, not 7 weeks. The doctor gives them a print out of the scan and leaves them to discuss. They both know she’s got to be wrong, but there’s no denying that she’s pregnant, “with a tiny, huge-headed alien.”
At home that night, Aidan makes martinis to celebrate their “future couch” and the fact that Sally is finally free. They talk about the future. Josh wants to go back to med school part time so he can better provide for the baby. They toast and suddenly they notice there’s a Door in the living room. Josh walks around it and Sally muses it’s not what she thought it would look like. She feels like she’s not mentally prepared but Aidan tells her she’s earned it. She stares at the Door and says she wishes she could take them both. Josh shrugs and says we all go eventually. “See ya in 60 years, give or take.” She asks Aidan if he knows what’s on the other side. He tells her to send them pictures. Sally reaches for the Doorknob and there’s this huge sound of shattering glass and Bishop launches himself through the window at speed and plunges a stake into Aidan’s gut. Bishop is smoking and his skin is blistering because he violated the threshold of the house. His job done, he jumps up and runs out through the window. Despite not hitting him in the heart, Aidan is still bleeding out on the floor as Josh holds his hand and calls his name, while Sally just looks on, stunned.
I’ll be honest here – had I not seen the original BBC Being Human, I might have given this episode four stars. I try to watch the Syfy series and enjoy it on its own merits, but sometimes it’s just impossible not to let my love of the original cloud my judgment. I just can’t describe my disappointment at how Danny got (or didn’t get, in my opinion) his comeuppance. He didn’t seem tortured at all like Owen did in the original. And Sally didn’t really own her vengeance. She was going to let Aidan execute him for her. Mostly, I was irritated and disappointed that there was no equivalent of Annie’s big speech for Sally. Sally watched and was passive as someone was about to do her dirty work. When she did take action and caused Danny to cut himself shaving, she reveled in the vengeance, even, dare I say it, wallowed in it. I could see how easy it would be for her to slip into being a vengeful spirit and that’s a one way ticket to being caught in a loop. She might not end up in the Hall of Ghosts like the others, but it wouldn’t make any difference – she’d be trapped all the same.
Not much to say about Josh and Aidan’s stories this time around, they’re pretty much copies of their British counterparts’ story lines from series three and series one respectively. Thankfully, the cafeteria lady vampire didn’t stick around long like Cara did. I imagine she probably would have had a thick Southy accent like Cara had a thick Bristolian accent which, Justin Lee Collins notwithstanding, generally annoys the hell out of me. But that’s a rant for another time. And what’s up with Josh and Nora’s baby growing like crazy? I can understand George and Nina’s, they’re both werewolves and conceived as werewolves, but Nora’s still human and Josh was human when it happened, even though it happened the night of the full moon.
I was really enjoying things when they were different and I think I got a little spoiled there for a few weeks and it just seems like rehashing now that we’re firmly back on plot. I’m guessing it will surprise no fans of the original series what’s going to happen next week. The preview shows Celine offering herself to Aidan and Josh going hunting, so we’re right on schedule for the end of the season. I really hope they throw some surprises in there too or I will be sorely disappointed two weeks in a row.
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WereGeek
WereGeek is reading 5-7 books at any given time, none of them very fast. These can range from alternative universe fiction to historical non-fiction and from theoretical physics to Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader. You can argue with her all you want, but Dirk Benedict will always be her Starbuck. Her ringtone is the theme from Airwolf and she believes that there's nothing that can't be improved by the judicious application of werewolves. Or bacon. Or werewolves with bacon. She can be contacted at werewolf17 @ gmail.com and followed on Twitter @weregeek.
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