Sorry that this review is getting out so late! I had a crazy busy week last week, and now there is a new episode tonight! Last week’s episode was written by Chris Dingess, who also wrote “Wouldn’t It Be Nice (If We Were Human)” earlier this season. It was directed by Jeremiah Chechik, who also wrote last week’s episode “I See Your True Colors…and That’s Why I Hate You.”
After getting the final snub from Danny and Brig, Sally now sees Aidan and Josh as the only two people left in her “life”. Essentially, this means that she starts whining to get them to take her to the bar. Also, she decides to follow then to work. Aidan takes her to the old “haunted” wing of the hospital that is no longer in use, where Sally meets all kinds of ghosts that are very trapped—they seem lost in time. Josh struggles with his feelings for Nora and contemplates the possibility that maybe she is better off with the doctor who is interested in her. Aidan saves ten year old neighbor, Bernie, from some bullies, and Bernie tries to make Aidan a kind of father figure, as it is just him and his mother.
I have to admit, I wasn’t particularly fond of this episode. It had some interesting points, some good lines and some creative casting, but overall, not one of my favorites…that being said, on to the analysis…
The Aidan storyline: I actually found little redeeming about the Aidan storyline this time. We had already established that Aidan was a father, and that he identified himself as such…in other words, he liked being a father. We can see how he acts pretty fatherly toward Sally, and even sometimes toward Josh. This episode shows how much Aidan misses being a father. Specifically, he indulges himself a little by becoming friends with the neighborhood kid, Bernie. I didn’t have much of a problem with that. I especially liked how hesitant Aidan was to enter into this friendship, and how weird it could potentially look. How out of place does it look to have a guy with pasty skin and a black leather jacket, with his hands in his jeans kicking around the soccer ball with a ten year old? Aidan knew this…maybe he should have asked mom to come along with them? My main problem was that I didn’t quite understand why Rebecca needed to show up at the park. We already knew that Rebecca is a highly distracting force for Aidan. I thought we hammered that concept to death in the last couple episodes with the whole Emily scenario. She was beaten badly by Marcus outside the bar. Aidan was inside the bar with Rebecca when he was supposed to be watching out for her. It seemed like the only thing that this scene in the park with Rebecca accomplished was showing Rebecca that Aidan had been a father at some point. She didn’t have access to Aidan’s memories, or his conversation with Josh to know about Aidan’s pre-vampire family. I honestly don’t care what Rebecca knows or doesn’t know. Regardless of whether she knows or doesn’t know she is being used by Bishop and Marcus, she has a manipulative influence over Aidan. He needs to stay as far away from her as possible.
I was half expecting for Aidan to turn toward the kid and have him be gone, as if again, Rebecca was able to distract him while Marcus and company hurt people around Aidan. The episode didn’t go there. I also expected that DVD to wind up in Bernie’s hands…and that did happen. Bernie’s mom was understandably ticked off about finding what even appeared to just be standard porn with her son.
Side comment on the Cindy/Bernie scenario—first off, creative casting job using Cindy Sampson as neighbor, Cindy, Bernie’s mom. Again, we see Sampson portraying a single mom raising a son. In case you don’t watch Supernatural, Sampson plays recurring character Lisa Braeden, a single mom who Dean knew as “gumby girl” back about a decade ago. She was first introduced in the third season episode “The Kids Are Alright”. She shows up again in season three’s “Dream a Little Dream” as Dean’s dream of what a family life could be and again in the end of Season five, both “99 Problems”, and “Swan Song”. She is ultimately the woman who Dean lives with for a year after Sam falls into Hell.
I question though just how helpful Aidan really was to Bernie. Bernie didn’t stick up for himself, and had commented on how he usually was able to “get away” but forgot his keys to get in the house this time. I don’t think there was another way for Aidan to be helpful in the initial confrontation with the bullies. Bernie wasn’t standing up for himself. Aidan doesn’t teach Bernie anything about standing up for himself, either. He actually seems to promote Bernie just staying away from the boys. This boy is so not the Ben character we love on Supernatural, who pointedly told Dean that “only bitches” have grown ups stand up for them, and that he “is not a bitch”. Of course Aidan is not Dean, either. No matter that both Dean and Aidan have serious cases of self loathing, Dean is not a monster, and is a role model I know I would love for any future child of mine. Aidan, well, not so much. Since the episode title is “Children Shouldn’t Play with Undead Things”, it seems that the purpose behind this meeting of Bernie and his mom is that no good really can come out of their befriending Aidan. He is a monster, and he cannot possibly be a good role model for Bernie, even if he does have good intentions. Aidan wouldn’t teach Bernie an appropriate way to handle bullies because he really can’t teach anything beneficial to a living child.
This I find very interesting, considering that he does a pretty good job getting Sally to learn lessons. He very effectively proves his point as far as Sally is concerned, and I particularly liked the line where Aidan tells Sally that she may not be like those ghosts in the hospital now, but eventually, she will be like they are—“searching for the pieces of a puzzle that doesn’t even exist anymore.”
While Aidan reluctantly attempts to form this friendship with Bernie, Josh attempts to distance himself from Nora. He is jealous when he sees her at the bar with the doctor, but doesn’t approach them. We find out that really that has to do with him feeling that she is better off with the doctor. He shouldn’t subject her to this horrible affliction that he has. Nora had what is probably my favorite line so far of the season, when she tells Josh she likes to watch him squirm—“It is as though you are an artist and awkward is your medium.” I am a little wigged out that she is giving him a second chance after the way he took off after sex. I know why he left, but she doesn’t. What she heard sounds like a typical guy excuse to me…It took me a long time and many re-watches of Buffy to realize that Angel’s role was that of the abusive boyfriend. I kept making excuses for his behavior. Maybe I just do not love Josh enough to be able to accept the excuses for why he is treating Nora the way that he is treating her.
We finally got to witness the “full wolf” in this episode! The one thing that put me off a little was the metamorphosis beforehand. There really wasn’t one. Previously, when Josh has been about to change, they would morph him in some way, showing rippling, adding in a little bit of a snout, etc. Provided, they haven’t done it in full light, like this was, but the lack of change buildup made the change seem too long before we got to the wolf. I half expected Josh to realize he wasn’t going to change that night after all and that his calendar was off one day, or something to that effect. I understand that having Sam show Josh’s angst over the change was vital to getting Sally to understand what he was going through. She completely didn’t get it before. I just wonder if adding in some digital enhancements would have made the complete scene a little more realistic…or having Josh ask Aidan to shut off the lights before leaving…Of course then we wouldn’t have seen naked Sam in the kitchen...
Sally redeemed herself a bit by the end of this episode, but for the most part, she once again, like I commented on last time, had been falling into that self pity party and acting very much like the other ghosts we had met. Here she meets other ghosts, clearly out of time from when they were actually alive, still searching for answers to questions that no longer have a place. I was quite unimpressed with Sally when she was talking over Nora. How can she not expect Josh to look insane? She wanted to help Josh at the bar by finding out more about Nora, and then broke the glass to end the “after work drink” before it could become a “date”, but then she pulled that. By the end of the episode, Sally apologized for not understanding how difficult being a werewolf is for Josh. She realized that she was consumed by her own issues and not seeing other people’s problems. That was a nice moment…let’s see if it lasts!
Emily didn’t come up, but there was a little piece that showed the potential friendship concerns developing between Josh and Aidan. Josh was not happy that Aidan kept the Rebecca snuff DVD after he promised he would get rid of it. I could understand Josh’s frustration over this. Aidan was the one that wanted to find the “safe haven” where they could find some semblance of humanity. Now he is the one trying to keep hold of objects reminding him of how he is like a monster.
So this episode showed our monster stars all attempting to avoid their monsterness and once again seeing just how different they are than humans. Please let me know your ideas about the episode, and if you have any positive points (or negative ones) you want to debate!
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