Being Human 3.05
Before I start babbling about the episode, help me out, flist, where could I know Nicola Walker from, who played Wendy the social worker? Because I'm sure I've seen and heard her before. The voice especially rang a bell, but I can't place it, and that frustrates me to no end because I feel I should know.
ETA: and
altariel came through! It's Ruth! Ruth from Spooks! I can't believe my memory withheld this bit from me!
By itself, the episode was awesome; it also could be either where things start to go terribly wrong - not on a Watsonian level, on a Doylist level, if the scriptwriters take the easy way out - or this could indeed be the strongest season of the show, no contest. My moment of "oh no, Toby Whitehouse, you don't" where I was afraid they'd take the wrong way was when Herrick did the whole "let's keep this between ourselves" speech to Nina. However, then Nina walked out, threw up and made her phonecall, which reassured me again somewhat that the show won't devolve a great storyline into a repeat of Nina being deluded by the series antagonist into cooperating (i.e. the Kemp thing from last season on repeat) and Mitchell justified simply by virtue of said antagonist being worse. Because what she didn't wasn't "keeping this between ourselves", it was, no pun intended, a very human choice. Not with an obvious drawback to the supernatural community (so to speak), i.e. if the police arrests Mitchell, they'll figure out he's not normal beyond being a murderer sooner or later. But as an immediate reaction to Mitchell's recent killing score and Mitchell's general nature (more about that later)? I'd see that as the lesser vice, too, if I were Nina in this particular situation.
Now from the beginning. I had my doubts, to put it mildly, at last season's cliffhanger with Herrick returned, not least because I couldn't see the point and thought the character (undoubtedly a good antagonist in s1) was played out. This season's emphasis on parent(s)/child themes somewhat swayed me before, and the episode now made me completely change my mind. Not just because of Herrick as a perverse father figure - formerly just to Mitchell, now in this episode to Nina and George as well - but also because the resurrection instead of just being a cheap ploy to bring back a popular villain actually ties in another seasonal theme, Mitchell's way of handling the prophecy of his death. To wit, increasing paranoia, even more selfishness, and the question of what/whom he won't be willing to sacrifice to stay alive. Mind you, I do suspect there will be redemption at the end - the more obsessed Mitchell is with staying alive at all costs, the bigger the emotional effect if he does give up his (unlife) for good for his friends - but it really affirms to me that death is the only logical end of Mitchell's storyline, and it can't and shouldn't be dragged out beyond this season.
Herrick was also worth bringing back not only for another very good performance by the actor (am I ever glad they ditched the pilot Herrick!), who sells both the befuddled harmlessness and the increasing malice, first in the scene with Cara and later with Annie, but for what he brings out in all the regular characters. Nina by now is one of my favourite tv characters in any show, full stop. From the moment she responded to George's panic attack at the discovery of Herrick at the hospital to staging an impromptu abduction onwards I knew this would be another great episode for her. Also one that brings to the fore what's been simmering for a while, that Nina really does not have the same ties to Mitchell George and Annie do (and why should she?) and thus sees him quite differently, long before the killer album discovery. Now you could say the entire "is staking an amnesiac Herrick murder?" argument is devalued by the later increasing indications Herrick is bluffing until the final scene, but I don't think so, not with the way it plays out and combined with both George's and Nina's words and actions, not to mention the fact that Mitchell's agreement not to stake Herrick isn't, as he lets George assume, him choosing George's friendship over his own instincts, but him wanting to stay alive and needing Herrick to tell him how vampire resurrection works. Yes, Mitchell is right about Herrick being dangerous (not to mention of course a mass murderer). (Which is exactly true for Mitchell himself.) But Nina is also right about George initially agreeing to what would have been murder, and her words push George to stop doing what he has been doing for a good while, as he himself acknowledges: looking the other way when it comes to Mitchell. Russell Tovey is absolutely fantastic in the George and Mitchell scene that ensues.
In her own confrontation with Mitchell Nina tells him there is something wrong with him that has nothing to do with being a vampire. We haven't seen enough of human, pre-vampire Mitchell to know whether or not that was true then, but I think it is now, or rather: Mitchell is still around as a vampire instead of being dead because several of his character traits really work with that, the selfishness (and self-pity) of couse, but also the capacity for cruelty. In the episode we see several instances of characters using verbal cruelty towards other characters, and every time both the use and the aftermath is very telling. Mitchell does it towards Annie (very noticed by both Annie and Nina), Nina in order to save the day does it to Wendy the social worker (it works, but she's aware of the manipulativeness and cruelty of it and doesn't excuse these by the necessity; it's no coincidence she has her confrontation with Mitchell immediately after; also, Annie's ghostly attempt to comfort Wendy says a lot about Annie, more in a second). Herrick does it towards Cara (and it's really very well written and played, because on a surface level it works if you assume that Herrick is indeed amnesiac but the reaction is so specific humiliating for Cara - "why, then you are nothing" - that it really is a big hint to both the audience and Annie that amnesiac or not, he knows exactly what he's doing there, and of course it rids him from a tool he no longer needs by driving Cara to stake herself. Herrick tries it again later with Annie, and this brings me to the fact this is the best episode for Annie we've had for a while.
The script's paralleling between Annie and Wendy the social worker (babbling, eager to please, emotionally vulnerable), and even more Annie and Cara ("I have a demon lover!") is rather pointed, and the good thing is, Annie does see the parallels, and she draws consequences from them. Providing tissue for Wendy is the least of it. More importantly, having seen Cara deluded about Herrick the same way Annie was about Owen and partly still is about Mitchell, and having observed Herrick casually destroying Cara with a few words, Herrick's attempt to play on her insecurities results instead in her seeing through him, and in her confronting Mitchell. (That she still ends up comforting Mitchell is frustrating but ic, and Rome wasn't build on a day.) "What's the use of being nice?" Herrick asks. Well, it allowed Annie to see Wendy and Cara as people, and thus made her recognize Herrick and the threat he poses in a way that had nothing to do with Mitchell's first stake-him (because of what Herrick symbolizes to him) and then must-question (because of what he then realizes Herrick could give him) reactions that were both about himself.
Herrick was of course the first person George deliberately killed as a werewolf, in a chain of events that also included Nina becoming a werewolf, i.e. he's either directly or indirectly responsible for George and Nina as they are now. So the fact that George and Nina, much like the ended up mentoring/sort of adopting teenage vampire Adam for a while, now end up starting to relate to Herrick as an uncle/fatherly figure (again, for a short while; I don't think this will be extended for longer than the next episode or so, if that) is just awesomely twisted. Like many a great villain, Herrick doesn't have to lie in order to get to people. What he tells George about George's potential to be a great father is true; he's also not lying to Nina about what Mitchell did (btw, trust Herrick to immediately draw the right conclusion from finding the album), or that the others see Mitchell with rosy glasses. (It's when he tries the "between ourselves" he overdoes it, which is why I was so relieved Nina stormed out and called the police instead.)
Trivia: Herrick's ability to not react to George's star of David anymore presumably is either increased post-resurrection strength (Mitchell might be right when saying coming back from the doubly dead would have that effect), due to Herrick not yet having drunk blood since his resurrection (if that's true, the show will probably go for the irony of Herrick being defeated after a point where, having assumed he's won, he gorges himself on blood again), or simply will power.
Mitchell calling George "dog" irresistably reminded me of Snape calling Lily "mudblood". In both cases, no, it doesn't negate the friendship they feel, but it's highly revelatory that they do, and in Mitchell's case taken together with his attempt to set McNair up last episode confirms my guess that he never stopped seeing werewolves the way other vampires do, it always takes extra effort for him not to fall back into that bias.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/656817.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
ETA: and
altariel came through! It's Ruth! Ruth from Spooks! I can't believe my memory withheld this bit from me!
By itself, the episode was awesome; it also could be either where things start to go terribly wrong - not on a Watsonian level, on a Doylist level, if the scriptwriters take the easy way out - or this could indeed be the strongest season of the show, no contest. My moment of "oh no, Toby Whitehouse, you don't" where I was afraid they'd take the wrong way was when Herrick did the whole "let's keep this between ourselves" speech to Nina. However, then Nina walked out, threw up and made her phonecall, which reassured me again somewhat that the show won't devolve a great storyline into a repeat of Nina being deluded by the series antagonist into cooperating (i.e. the Kemp thing from last season on repeat) and Mitchell justified simply by virtue of said antagonist being worse. Because what she didn't wasn't "keeping this between ourselves", it was, no pun intended, a very human choice. Not with an obvious drawback to the supernatural community (so to speak), i.e. if the police arrests Mitchell, they'll figure out he's not normal beyond being a murderer sooner or later. But as an immediate reaction to Mitchell's recent killing score and Mitchell's general nature (more about that later)? I'd see that as the lesser vice, too, if I were Nina in this particular situation.
Now from the beginning. I had my doubts, to put it mildly, at last season's cliffhanger with Herrick returned, not least because I couldn't see the point and thought the character (undoubtedly a good antagonist in s1) was played out. This season's emphasis on parent(s)/child themes somewhat swayed me before, and the episode now made me completely change my mind. Not just because of Herrick as a perverse father figure - formerly just to Mitchell, now in this episode to Nina and George as well - but also because the resurrection instead of just being a cheap ploy to bring back a popular villain actually ties in another seasonal theme, Mitchell's way of handling the prophecy of his death. To wit, increasing paranoia, even more selfishness, and the question of what/whom he won't be willing to sacrifice to stay alive. Mind you, I do suspect there will be redemption at the end - the more obsessed Mitchell is with staying alive at all costs, the bigger the emotional effect if he does give up his (unlife) for good for his friends - but it really affirms to me that death is the only logical end of Mitchell's storyline, and it can't and shouldn't be dragged out beyond this season.
Herrick was also worth bringing back not only for another very good performance by the actor (am I ever glad they ditched the pilot Herrick!), who sells both the befuddled harmlessness and the increasing malice, first in the scene with Cara and later with Annie, but for what he brings out in all the regular characters. Nina by now is one of my favourite tv characters in any show, full stop. From the moment she responded to George's panic attack at the discovery of Herrick at the hospital to staging an impromptu abduction onwards I knew this would be another great episode for her. Also one that brings to the fore what's been simmering for a while, that Nina really does not have the same ties to Mitchell George and Annie do (and why should she?) and thus sees him quite differently, long before the killer album discovery. Now you could say the entire "is staking an amnesiac Herrick murder?" argument is devalued by the later increasing indications Herrick is bluffing until the final scene, but I don't think so, not with the way it plays out and combined with both George's and Nina's words and actions, not to mention the fact that Mitchell's agreement not to stake Herrick isn't, as he lets George assume, him choosing George's friendship over his own instincts, but him wanting to stay alive and needing Herrick to tell him how vampire resurrection works. Yes, Mitchell is right about Herrick being dangerous (not to mention of course a mass murderer). (Which is exactly true for Mitchell himself.) But Nina is also right about George initially agreeing to what would have been murder, and her words push George to stop doing what he has been doing for a good while, as he himself acknowledges: looking the other way when it comes to Mitchell. Russell Tovey is absolutely fantastic in the George and Mitchell scene that ensues.
In her own confrontation with Mitchell Nina tells him there is something wrong with him that has nothing to do with being a vampire. We haven't seen enough of human, pre-vampire Mitchell to know whether or not that was true then, but I think it is now, or rather: Mitchell is still around as a vampire instead of being dead because several of his character traits really work with that, the selfishness (and self-pity) of couse, but also the capacity for cruelty. In the episode we see several instances of characters using verbal cruelty towards other characters, and every time both the use and the aftermath is very telling. Mitchell does it towards Annie (very noticed by both Annie and Nina), Nina in order to save the day does it to Wendy the social worker (it works, but she's aware of the manipulativeness and cruelty of it and doesn't excuse these by the necessity; it's no coincidence she has her confrontation with Mitchell immediately after; also, Annie's ghostly attempt to comfort Wendy says a lot about Annie, more in a second). Herrick does it towards Cara (and it's really very well written and played, because on a surface level it works if you assume that Herrick is indeed amnesiac but the reaction is so specific humiliating for Cara - "why, then you are nothing" - that it really is a big hint to both the audience and Annie that amnesiac or not, he knows exactly what he's doing there, and of course it rids him from a tool he no longer needs by driving Cara to stake herself. Herrick tries it again later with Annie, and this brings me to the fact this is the best episode for Annie we've had for a while.
The script's paralleling between Annie and Wendy the social worker (babbling, eager to please, emotionally vulnerable), and even more Annie and Cara ("I have a demon lover!") is rather pointed, and the good thing is, Annie does see the parallels, and she draws consequences from them. Providing tissue for Wendy is the least of it. More importantly, having seen Cara deluded about Herrick the same way Annie was about Owen and partly still is about Mitchell, and having observed Herrick casually destroying Cara with a few words, Herrick's attempt to play on her insecurities results instead in her seeing through him, and in her confronting Mitchell. (That she still ends up comforting Mitchell is frustrating but ic, and Rome wasn't build on a day.) "What's the use of being nice?" Herrick asks. Well, it allowed Annie to see Wendy and Cara as people, and thus made her recognize Herrick and the threat he poses in a way that had nothing to do with Mitchell's first stake-him (because of what Herrick symbolizes to him) and then must-question (because of what he then realizes Herrick could give him) reactions that were both about himself.
Herrick was of course the first person George deliberately killed as a werewolf, in a chain of events that also included Nina becoming a werewolf, i.e. he's either directly or indirectly responsible for George and Nina as they are now. So the fact that George and Nina, much like the ended up mentoring/sort of adopting teenage vampire Adam for a while, now end up starting to relate to Herrick as an uncle/fatherly figure (again, for a short while; I don't think this will be extended for longer than the next episode or so, if that) is just awesomely twisted. Like many a great villain, Herrick doesn't have to lie in order to get to people. What he tells George about George's potential to be a great father is true; he's also not lying to Nina about what Mitchell did (btw, trust Herrick to immediately draw the right conclusion from finding the album), or that the others see Mitchell with rosy glasses. (It's when he tries the "between ourselves" he overdoes it, which is why I was so relieved Nina stormed out and called the police instead.)
Trivia: Herrick's ability to not react to George's star of David anymore presumably is either increased post-resurrection strength (Mitchell might be right when saying coming back from the doubly dead would have that effect), due to Herrick not yet having drunk blood since his resurrection (if that's true, the show will probably go for the irony of Herrick being defeated after a point where, having assumed he's won, he gorges himself on blood again), or simply will power.
Mitchell calling George "dog" irresistably reminded me of Snape calling Lily "mudblood". In both cases, no, it doesn't negate the friendship they feel, but it's highly revelatory that they do, and in Mitchell's case taken together with his attempt to set McNair up last episode confirms my guess that he never stopped seeing werewolves the way other vampires do, it always takes extra effort for him not to fall back into that bias.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/656817.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.