‘Being Human’ 4.07 Episode Recap and Review: Gallows Humor

This week’s episode of Being Human picks up shortly after last week’s credits rolled. Kenny has come to clean up Aidan’s mistake. He’s super understanding about it, but Aidan’s just shy of inconsolable. He turns down Kenny’s offer of a slow come-down from the blood high in favor of getting help from Suzanna. Surely going to his slightly-more-than-fanatical ex will turn out swimmingly for him.

Sally’s planning on summoning Donna to help her get Robbie back into his body and all not-dead again. Aidan is surprisingly on-board with this, as are Josh and Nora. Sally heads over to the fictional version of Costco and manages to pull Donna back through her deathspot. Donna’s not thrilled about having to relive her death yet again (which is evidently a side effect of the whole deathspot thing), but she’s willing to talk to Sally.

Donna gets a little more concerned when she finds out that Sally’s been time-travelling, a fact she learns by virtue of getting hauled along with her for the trip. Sally and Donna witness her hanging and resurrection by a band of creepy witches (who remind me strongly of the gang responsible for Lil’ Smokie. Coincidence? Probably not). Donna tells Sally that it’s possible to resurrect a spirit without the whole zombie side effect, but that another soul has to be sacrificed to make it happen. Legit sacrificed, as cease to exist with no hope of the afterlife. Sally says that she can’t do that, not even for Robbie. In the face of Sally actually gaining some common sense, Donna volunteers to be her ghostly sacrifice. She says that she’s “lived” too long and done too much to deserve anything on the other side.

Sally and Robbie have a good heart to heart about what Sally saw on her trips to 2009, as well as what Robbie should do with his life once he gets it back. She heads downstairs to get prepped for the non-zombie resurrection spell. Donna comes to find her a bit later with the news: Robbie’s gone. Not just kind of run away, but seriously gone. He said that he wanted to “end the cycle.” Donna has Sally take her back to her deathspot and seal it behind her, locking Donna out of our plane for good. She asks Sally to promise to stop using their magic and warns her that the time-traveling has its own problems. The tether bringing Sally back to 2014 will eventually snap, leaving her trapped in the past forever.  They hug it out in a ghostly way and Sally says her last goodbye to Donna.

Meanwhile, Aidan isn’t having the best time with Suzanna. She figures out immediately that he’s taken a life and tricks him into drinking tainted blood that forces him to purge everything from his system. She then chains him to the bathroom sink in order to “dry him out” the hard way. (It’s all very Vampire Diaries, really. If I had a dollar for every time they’ve locked someone up to get them off vervain or unbagged blood…). She forces Aidan to name all of his victims as a kind of aversion therapy, but it isn’t working well. Finally, she uncuffs Aidan and confesses the one name on her list: Isaac. He goes a little mad with grief and almost stakes her himself before they both break down.

Back at the house, Josh and Nora have been stuck babysitting Robbie while Aidan is getting clean and Sally is getting Donna. They’re having their own very intense drama while trying to keep Robbie under control and away from any random doors that might potentially pop up. Once Robbie heads off for parts unknown, Josh is relegated back to the couch while Nora goes to her still super-depressed bed upstairs. Josh eventually comes up to join her, saying that he can’t sleep. It’s a lovely, sad, tender moment at first, filled with gentle “but we shouldn’t” kisses. Josh starts getting more aggressive and doesn’t listen when Nora firmly tells him to stop. They end up struggling briefly before Nora pulls out a silver knife and Josh comes back to himself, horrified at what he almost did. Nora packs a bag and leaves the house, saying that she’s too scared of Josh to stay.

With that left hanging, Sally is now dealing with the effects of sealing Donna’s deathspot: a trip back to 2010 and a lot of watching herself and her obsession with oral hygiene. GhostSally mentions four years, but I’m still not sure if that’s speculation of how long she’s afraid of being stuck there or if that’s how long she’s actually been watching this happen. Regardless, GhostSally gets a shock when PastSally finally finishes brushing her teeth and takes off the blanket she’s wrapped in. PastSally is wearing some very familiar clothes. This trip has taken GhostSally back to the very night that she died. GhostSally watches in horror as PastSally knocks her engagement ring down the drain just as Danny comes up the stairs.

Oh, y’all. This one hit me in all the feels. There were so many amazing moments and fantastically-acted scenes in this episode, and I’m not just saying that because I’m all full of “Don’t take my Being Human away!” Every character’s story drew on some really deep emotions. I loved them all, but let me just hit the highlights.

First off, Nora leaving. It freaked me right out when Josh stopped taking “No, honey” for an answer. I will forever love Syfy for not going as far as Buffy the Vampire Slayer did with their Buffy/Spike moment, but still maintaining the urgent sense of the wrongness of that moment. I’m pretty sure that this is finally Josh’s “darkest before the dawn” moment in this arc. (Yes, I know that they’re going to prove me wrong any episode now. Leave me my dreams.) Now it’s time to see how Josh and Nora start on the path of getting Josh back to a place where Nora can heal and forgive.

I love Aidan with all my loves, and the music-only moment of Suzanna’s revelation was absolutely amazing, but his storyline this episode seemed a pretty distant third to everything else that was going on. That said, massive props to both Sam Witwer and Katharine Isabelle for the acting in that scene. (Sidenote: Katharine Isabelle is my new favorite name.)

In mine own humble opinion, though, the story that really knocked it out of the park this episode was Sally and Donna. I love the transformation we’ve seen in Donna. From straight-up evil ghost-eater to a mentor figure for Sally. It’s such a huge heel-face turn, but all of it felt earned. Getting her full backstory before her “final” resolution was a brilliant cap, and I feel like I’m truly going to miss the character. Sally’s completely on her own with the magic now, and she has a solid understanding of its inherent dangers. Well, for the most part. I’ll hold off on that last bit until we see how she handles seeing the events that led to her own death.

Being Human, I’m going to miss you so hard! No auld lang syne just yet, though. We still have six episodes to go!

 

Best Quotes:

Sally: “Last time we saw each other you seemed moderately vengeful…”

Donna: “That is the first sensible thing you have said since I ate you.”

 

Things to Ponder:

  • If Sally changes something about the night she died, will she still die? What happens to Sally the Ghost? What about all of the people that Sally the Ghost shredded? What about the rest of the housemates?
  • Clarify something for me: did Robbie get his door off screen, or has he decided to go wandering? If the former, what was his “unfinished business”? If the latter, didn’t it take Sally most of the first season to figure out how to leave the house?
  • Okay, I read Aidan’s “blog” on Syfy. I guess if he spells it “Suzanna” I will grudgingly follow suit. Grudgingly.

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