Being Human - Episode 1.07 - I See Your True Colors...and That's Why I Hate You - Review

If memory serves, there are to be 13 episodes this season…which means we have passed the half way mark. With this review, I want to do a bit of an assessment of what I think of the season and where it is heading!

This episode was written by showrunners Jeremy Carver and Anna Fricke. The director, Jeremiah Chechik, has many directing credits to his name with such shows as Gossip Girl, Burn Notice, Chuck, and Leverage just to name a few. He will direct another episode of Being Human this season, “Children Shouldn’t Play With Undead Things.”

When the show ended last week, Aidan had just found out from Sally that Josh had brought Emily to the Hospital. From the blood on the sill, Aidan knew she was hurt. This week’s episode begins with Aidan walking into the Emergency Room waiting area. Josh tells him about Emily’s wounds and asks where he was. We see Bishop is the officer that was sent to investigate, and Josh tells Aidan that it was some guy whose name he doesn’t quite remember, but after Josh gives a few names it may be, Aidan is able to figure out it was Marcus. After talking to Bishop, Aidan tells Josh to take his sister and leave Boston while he irons out the problem that was actually created back when Ray and Josh went fang bashing in the alley. At Emily’s request, Josh agrees to go see his parents for the first time in two years. His reception is quite different than anticipated. Meanwhile, Sally, worried about Bridget and wanting some revenge on Danny, tries again to get Bridget to understand what happened to her. Unfortunately, the results of her actions, like Josh’s, do not have the same results that were anticipated…

And on to the analysis…

I have to admit I really liked the dynamic in this episode. There was some serious angst, like when we find out with an absolute degree of certainty that yes, Danny is a soulless jerk. There was also some side splitting craziness, like dinner with Josh’s family and Aidan. The thing that I did not initially notice, but upon rewatch was a bit put out by, was that it seemed like again we had Josh and Aidan having one story, and then Sally having another. Of course it wouldn’t make sense to have them all wrapped up in the same problem, especially since Sally really doesn’t have any connections with the vampire or werewolf issues, but maybe it would be better if I explain my concern while talking about Sally…

What about Sally? I guess that after the first episode or so, I got to start liking her, and I really liked her last episode, but this one not so much. Here, it was easy to see how she fits into the category of ghosts doomed to roam the Earth for apparently all eternity because they cannot let go of this “mortal coil”. This episode she reminded me of Tony, before he found his door, and Lindsay, who wasn’t even looking for a door. I was ok with Sally wanting to help Bridget, and reaching out to her. I understand that things can get jumbled in the communication process. The truth is though that as much of a jerk as Danny was, he didn’t intentionally kill her, and she has been inaccurately representing the events. To be completely honest, Danny shoved her, which was not alright, but we get the idea that he has done it before and she made excuses for it. She did fall down the stairs, but he didn’t even push her. What he DID do was cover up the manner in which she died. Is that a lot of information for Sally to try to slip through the veil and explain to Brig? Probably, but still, giving Brig a blanket statement like “He killed me” isn’t going to make what happened leap to mind. When we see something like that written, we think that person was sliced and diced into bits like Drew Barrymore’s famous death scene in the beginning of Scream. We don’t think of an argument where someone in the heat of the moment got shoved, loses her balance, and falls down the stairs. I’m just saying. Obviously Danny had no right to grab her and push her at all, and since he already has started the grabbing thing with Brig, it is safe to say that until now, Sally didn’t see that she was allowing herself to be victimized. This actually seems to be what she is the most mad about. She of course can’t get any kind of satisfaction regarding that anger, because she is dead and cannot change the way she was in the relationship and the fact that she made excuses for the way he treated her. Unfortunately, her friend Brig seems to suffer from the same lack of vision, and is doomed to fall into a similar situation with Danny.

Because of the way Sally phrased her message to Brig, however, I think it was begging for Brig to take Danny’s side. Danny was very convincing as the traumatized ex lover overwrought with grief. He really sells to Brig the idea that he was overcome with jealousy and fear that Sally didn’t need him, and just was a little too forceful. He knew just what to say. To me, it seemed that Sally should have known better than to use this approach. Maybe her fear that a part of her wanted Brig to be treated the way she was treated by Danny so that someone would know what she went through is well founded after all.

The thing that actually aggravated me was when Aidan tried to open up to Sally and she immediately started in on her problems. She did this to Josh previously. Josh called her on it, but Aidan did not. He attempted to help her as best he could. To me this scene on the stoop showed just how self centered Sally can be. Like the two ghosts she met that had been trapped as ghosts for years, she has that singularity of purpose. If Sally is going to continue with this self centered personality, I wonder how all three of them can really bond as a group. It seems like Josh and Aidan are trying to help each other, and Sally spends her time wining about her issues.

I guess that then the question I have is whether this episode was one of the truest accountings of her actual personality—not the personality and life she wanted everyone to think she had when she was alive. Up until now, the image she had created for herself was that in life she was working on her Master’s degree and getting ready to get married. In the beginning she seemed to have the ideal life. Then we find out about how Danny killed her. In this episode we find out that she had abandoned dreams to essentially play housewife. That is the picture Danny painted of her and although pretty much everything he says should be considered highly suspect, she does not deny it. She actually said that she was that way because it was what he wanted of her. Clearly Sally’s life was not the ideal she was leading everyone to believe. Please pardon my rant on Sally, it isn’t that I dislike her character so much as I think that she has a long way to go and I am hoping that her personality doesn’t weigh down the show. Last episode I got the impression that she would be more aloof and provide more of a counter with the heavy angst of the Josh and Aidan storylines. This does not seem to be the case, however, as the more information we find out about her, the more self centered and broody she seems to become…

Since this episode seems to be about familial facades, now would be an appropriate time to go into Josh’s family. Up to this point, we had met Josh’s sister only. We knew that he had been engaged, preparing for med school, was Jewish, and from Ithaca. In this episode we got to meet Josh’s parents. Josh is absolutely baffled that his parent’s reaction to his arrival back in Ithaca is so calm. Apparently Emily gave Mom and Dad Josh’s journal, so it would seem that Mom and Dad are more afraid that Josh is not only psychotic, but possibly dangerous. The thing that weirded me out was why didn’t they try to get him inpatient…unless they are one of those families that cares a great deal about appearances. Then they may not want the scandal of a child in a mental institution. This may actually be the case considering Dad’s comment about how people that are “ok” don’t run out on their family and their fiancée and blow off school. It also appears they were afraid that maybe Josh, like his sister, decided he was homosexual, and that Aidan was his boyfriend. Another note about the dinner scene—the comedic timing of that scene and the bathroom scenes with Sam2 were great. I thoroughly enjoyed them all.

This episode wasn’t a heavy Aidan episode. He was integral to the story, but what I mean is that not a lot was revealed about him and his conversations with Bishop were brief. We did find out that garlic makes vampires all “vampy”, and the bath in chamomile and practically any other tea Josh could find was funny. We learn that in life Aidan had a wife and child. The way he was speaking to Josh about why he needed to drop away from his family I got the feeling that Aidan was talking about himself. He indicated that one day in a moment of weakness you will kill them all. I’m thinking there is a strong likelihood that is what happened to Aidan’s family. I liked the whole protective mode Aidan was in all episode, whether it was listening to Sally go on about herself, or trying to save Josh from himself and from a very pissed off Marcus.

And speaking of Marcus…the truth about how he feels about Aidan was plainly seen in this episode, if the subtleties weren’t caught before. Marcus enjoys taking Aidan down a couple pegs. He definitely lives in the shadow of Aidan, even though Aidan really tests Bishop in every possible way. And what was that end piece? Marcus went to some Amish style area into a barn that seemed to have these humanoid sized cocoons. Some type of uber vamps? Is this part of Bishop’s plan, or is Marcus concocting something on the side?

My two cents on the show so far? I have been enjoying it. Considering the strong humor in this episode, I have hope that the angst/humor offset will continue to grow. Admittedly, I do tend to prefer shows that have a more "monster of the week" format and aren't so heavy in the mythology right at the jump, but the personalities do keep me coming back each week! Let me know if you have any insights into this episode or this season!

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