Monday, February 22, 2010

My Review of Being Human's 2x07: "Damage"

Written by Toby Whithouse
Directed by Charles Martin

Nina: “George, you turned me into a werewolf. Taking the moral high ground about anything feels kind of ridiculous.”

And she’s back! Of course Nina’s two episode absence would be amended by her much needed inclusion in the season’s penultimate episode and it’s probably the best episode we’ve had with her since the season premiere. It’s also fair that her return would put George into something of a tailspin.

His anger over her abandoning him certainly seeped out in the kitchen when she told that she was aware of him dating another person. That was always going to be a sore point between because Nina was able to tell that George wasn’t being honest with Sam about his true identity.

To be fair, unlike George, Nina could take the moral high ground here and she did it without being a bitch about it as well. Her motives weren’t to cause George any more pain but to help and finally that meant George and Annie coming into proximity with Kemp at long last. George wasn’t best pleased with this little meeting.

I understood where George’s cynicism came from when it came to Kemp as well. He didn’t know the guy and he did point out to Nina that there wasn’t a cure for being a werewolf, something which Nina didn’t want to believe because of the decompression chamber that Kemp had been keeping her in during the full moon.

Also Kemp did set himself up as a bit of a religious fanatic by telling George that he was possessed by Satan. It’s a good job this guy never got into sales with his lousy way of trying to entice a sceptic like George to come with him. Then there was also the notion of faith and science.

George didn’t seem to believe either really. He didn’t believe that prayers would change him and he certainly didn’t buy into the scientific aspect until Kemp went into further detail. Then there was the exchange of words he had with Nina – all of which serving as an excellent prelude into his relationship with Sam decimating big time.

I’ve liked Sam in the last three episodes because Lucy Gaskell is a likeable actress but I haven’t gotten into her and George’s relationship and that’s been deliberate. George bulldozed her into living with him and then by proposing to him that their relationship was always going to come to a messy ending.

Having the ending be a result of George getting his times wrong and starting to change into the wolf during a parent-teacher meeting sealed their fate. Molly obviously caught enough to realise that George wasn’t particularly human but Sam rationed his erratic behaviour down to anger problems.

George has been something of a frustration all season but here he made the right decision by ending things with Sam. He even tried to do it as cleanly as possible but ending that relationship came when he realised that he couldn’t be normal and that unfortunately meant heading to Kemp and Lucy along with Annie and Nina.

Annie’s need to go to Kemp was a continuation from her encounter with Alan from the previous episode. She now wanted to let go and cross over and there’s a fantastic scene where Kemp and a daft medium are trying to exorcism her spirit with no luck at all. The pure boredom on Annie’s face was a riot.

But the thing I found extremely odd was that if she didn’t mind enlisting Kemp to help her leave the world permanently, why did she suddenly become so reticent when George wanted to see him? And then there was that scene where Mitchell tried it on with Annie as well. I almost hated Mitchell for that.

Mitchell had the darkest storyline of the entire episode (and far more scarier than George’s struggling with the wolf in this one). I never thought that he was going to be a casualty with Lloyd’s little bomb but I was quite surprised with how unaffected I was by Ivan’s death. I mean, he was a good character but not developed enough.

The same rule of thumb I’d also apply to Daisy as well. She’s been gone for ages and now she was back purely to seek vengeance on Ivan’s killers and aid Mitchell into flying off the handle as well. After all, it was her who quickly realised that it wasn’t the police who bombed the funeral home. It’s interesting stuff but more should’ve been done with Daisy this season.

Mitchell’s realisation that Lucy was responsible didn’t have that much of an impact when it came from Quinn but it sure as hell had one when the snarky priest George visited told Mitchell that Lucy was Jaggart. Suddenly even Mitchell was beginning to get worried and this was after some of the scariest shit he went through.

We’ve seen plenty of Mitchell’s dark side this season to keep us going a while but here we had him killing Quinn with relish and slaughtering an entire tube station as well. It’s a good thing for Lucy that Mitchell didn’t get his hands on her in this one or he would’ve ripped her to pieces. I can’t imagine that next week will bode well for either her or Kemp though.

As for sleeping with Daisy, of course he would’ve. Daisy had slightly better chemistry with Mitchell than she did with George but Mitchell is seriously going to regret the last couple of days with her soon enough. During the last few scenes, I even thought he was going to try and attack George as well.

Also in “Damage”

Flashback scene this week was Daisy and Ivan meeting for the first time in London 1941 during the Blitz. Pearl was mentioned as well.

Ivan: “And is Pearl your jewel?”
Daisy: “She cries a lot. I don’t understand her.”

Mitchell and Daisy’s little tube slaughter was done slightly better in the Buffy episode, “Crush” by Drusilla.

Sam: “You’re making me nervous now, George. I’m waiting for the other boot to drop.”

Nina (to George): “I saw your cage, what a great idea. I can’t believe you didn’t think of it before.”

I know they weren’t serious but I’m surprised that Mitchell didn’t know Lucy’s surname until after the priest had blurted it out. I usually tend to find them out beforehand.

Kemp (to Lucy, re George): “I’m sure he was devastated. No doubt the vampire seduced him too.”

George: “Does it work?”
Kemp: “You would be the first.”
George: “Right, so it’s less like an exorcism and more like vivisection.”

Who was the medium guy that Kemp brought to the house? Was he the same man we saw in the first episode of the season?

Kemp: “Annie, do you still want to do this? If you’ve changed your mind, we can go.”
Annie: “Yes, I want to.”
Medium: “She said yes. Jesus, she’s powerful.”

Mitchell (to George): “Whatever you are when you leave that place, stay out of the cities. The cities won’t be safe for much longer.”

Chronology: Because of the length of time that Ivan and Daisy were actually together, it’s 2010.

As penultimate episodes go, this one was certainly dark but slightly lacking the bite of the one we had last season. That being said, even with the minimal trailer, the finale does look exciting and we do have a third year to look forward to.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

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