Guys? GUYS. They did it RIGHT.
Legend of the Seeker 2.20, Eternity: Wherein they do something that could so easily have been done wrong COMPLETELY RIGHT. Oh, people, I love this show. How can it be cancelled?
To be more precise, look at what they gave us:
1. Cara is now officially canonically bi. There's not just that power-play kiss from 2.01, there's not just the innuendo and the subtext, there is actual text.
2. Cara and Dahlia didn't just get it on after Cara was broken again. I'd been worried about that, worried about the potential skeevy implication that Only Evil Girls Are Lesbians. But there was absolutely no implication of that; none whatsoever. And it was all accomplished so elegantly and easily, with that one encounter on the road before Dahlia's duplicity came to light.
3. And then there's their backstory. This isn't random; Cara genuinely cares for Dahlia, certainly not any less than she cared about Leo. And Dahlia loves Cara; she genuinely thinks she's doing the right thing for her.
4. The entire torture part of the plot? Not sexualised; we didn't get anything remotely like the Denna/Richard seductiveness. On the contrary; Dahlia is gentle (well, for a Mord'Sith) when she's being seductive; when she's rebuffed, no more gentleness, but no more seduction either.
5. In short: DID IT COMPLETELY RIGHT OMG. ♥
To be more precise, look at what they gave us:
1. Cara is now officially canonically bi. There's not just that power-play kiss from 2.01, there's not just the innuendo and the subtext, there is actual text.
2. Cara and Dahlia didn't just get it on after Cara was broken again. I'd been worried about that, worried about the potential skeevy implication that Only Evil Girls Are Lesbians. But there was absolutely no implication of that; none whatsoever. And it was all accomplished so elegantly and easily, with that one encounter on the road before Dahlia's duplicity came to light.
3. And then there's their backstory. This isn't random; Cara genuinely cares for Dahlia, certainly not any less than she cared about Leo. And Dahlia loves Cara; she genuinely thinks she's doing the right thing for her.
4. The entire torture part of the plot? Not sexualised; we didn't get anything remotely like the Denna/Richard seductiveness. On the contrary; Dahlia is gentle (well, for a Mord'Sith) when she's being seductive; when she's rebuffed, no more gentleness, but no more seduction either.
5. In short: DID IT COMPLETELY RIGHT OMG. ♥