Being Erica – s01 ep07 – Such a perfect day

So, Sam is not talking to Erica and she is snowed under with work and just really not having a great day. The writer whose book Erica pitched has not written any chapters, and Erica’s the one dealing with the fallout. So when Dr Tom appears, she wants none of it. But he gives her a break, and tells her to remember one perfect day, so she can relive it.

And she chooses a day when her parents were arguing and the 3 of them snuck out and headed to Toronto Island and had a great day. It’s also the last day the 3 of them were together before Leo died. I can’t wait until we get to that one.

So Erica is whisked back and convinces her siblings to head out and not deal with their parents, while filching money out of dad’s pocket. Heh.

Sadly, what’s meant to be a happy memory is basically ruined by 32 year old Erica, whose become more responsible and lost all those teenage inhibitions. Rather than laughing at Leo’s antics, she’s yelling at him to stop and grow up and act properly, and trying so hard to recreate the day as she remembers it, she ruins it. And well, I could have told her that would happen. That day was perfect because it was spontaneous, it just happened and they could be free and vent their anger in a semi-normal way. Erica manages to ruin Sam’s new shoes by throwing up on them, and throwing Leo into the arms of the local skank. Erica doesn’t understand what happened, she wanted the day to be perfect, but it can’t be, because it wasn’t perfect to begin with. It became perfect and that’s something she needs to understand, to simply be who she is, and let everything flow naturally in order to create a great day. She finally gets it right, starting a water fight with Sam in the fountain and relaxing. Leo does make out with the blonde skank, but then her boyfriend shows up and they start running away…until Erica, boldened, older Erica walks right up to him and slaps him and tells him off. Heh. Ok, that was cool.

They catch the evening ferry home, and the day is perfect, because they’re together and having fun. They get back home and have a proper talk about their parents.

And then Erica is back at work, and more relaxed. She goes to the home of the writer, only to find he’s overdosed (his book is basically about overcoming drug addiction) and rushes him off to hospital. There. She runs into Sam who if I remember is a doctor/dentist/? I can’t remember. They attempt to talk but Sam isn’t ready to forgive Erica yet…and Erica reminds her no matter what, Erica will be there for her.

That night, as Josh stays out late from work and Sam stays at home, she still doesn’t seem ready to unleash her fears regarding her new husband, but she’s not ready to let go of the fantasy just yet, I guess.

More please. More more more more more!

Being Erica – s01 ep06 – ‘Til Death’

Here comes the bride….yes, Sam’s getting married to the loser, Josh! Initially Erica is settled, having spent a wonderful time with Ryan (and where the hell is he from? He is so familiar…and so damn HOT), gets to the house for the wedding and is showing off her newfound confidence by keeping everything organised and maintained. Awww, she does it so well. Unfortunately, Josh is acting like a dick, and Erica is yet again asking herself why Sam would allow herself to be treated in this way. Sam does have cold feet and asks Erica to be honest…and Erica isn’t, she tells Sam not to worry. Josh manages to ruin her dress and Erica has had enough and can’t wait to go back and change one regret – the one time Josh and Sam broke up, Erica was the one who convinced them tog et back together. Now, she gets to go back and change that all. Which she does. She supports Sam and tells her she did the right thing. The next day, instead of Erica going over and convincing Josh to take her back, she supports Sam by going over with her to pick up her belongings. As they leave, the power goes out – of course, this is the massive power failure which took out the entire eastern coast of North America a few years back. Stuck in the building, Erica and Sam end up at a neighbour’s party, a very cute neighbour Sam keeps eyeing up. Josh shows up and after awhile snags Erica’s attention…where he reveals he never loved Sam, but was with her only in a bid to be close to the girl he truly wanted. And although they never explicitly say it, you can see it – all these years, Josh has secretly been wanting Erica and is with Sam only because that’s as close as he can get. And man, that one is a doozy. So, Erica gets zapped back to today and is truly shocked to see the wedding is still going ahead. Apparently a couple of days later Josh and Sam got back together – this should be an indicator to Erica it’s not her fault, it’s a path Sam has to take on her own, but Erica still blames herself…to the point she finds Sam and tells her everything. She tells her Josh doesn’t love her and she’s making a big mistake. Bad move. Waiting until this moment to tell your sister she’s making a mistake? When it’s practically too late? Sam is beyond furious, and tells Erica after the wedding she’s never speaking to her again. And I can understand. It’s not what you want to hear about your fiancé, particularly since secretly you’re harbouring those same fears yourself. And so we finish on a sour note, where it didn’t turn out right, and in fact it’s screwed up Erica’s life. But I think she needed it. She needed to be honest with her sister and let her know, even if it all turned to batshit. Because that’s more important than harbouring resentment and sitting back while your sister’s life falls to pieces. And hey, at least Erica gets to keep Ryan! Ooh, and did I mention Claire came back with Ethan? Ouch.

Being Erica – s01ep05 – Adultescence

Judith, now very pregnant, has asked Erica to organise the baby shower which she has done beautifully. They’re shopping for baby items with a lesbian couple who have 2 of their own, and are very, very smug about it in that way new parents are. Particularly the new breed of parents, all organic, natural, best brands, high-tech and functional. I hope I never end up that way. Ever. So Erica gets it into her head she’ll be asked to be godmother and becomes excited, realising what a huge responsibility this is but also very eager to take on the opportunity and prove how great she’ll be…and taking the advice of the lesbians (never a good idea) who say the godmother should treat the baby, Erica goes ahead and buys the cute green baby chair for Judith. Ethan helps her pull it together and tells her he’s going to Montreal to talk with Claire and find out what happened. And yes, the dreaded bells of doomsday are blowing in the wind, loud and clear. So, the party is in full swing, with a surprise appearance by Dr Tom who is not excited by Erica’s news of being a godmother, and for good reason. Sam, Erica’s sister is also there as her fiancé is on his buck’s night, and hopefully this isn’t her hen’s night because that would really suck. Although, kudos to Erica to being super-organised and having a baby shower and a hen’s night all at the same time! Considering all the effort Erica’s gone to, it appears Judith has actually asked the lesbians to be godmothers, because they already have a kid and can understand what Judith is going through. They also bought the other creepy, high-tech super duper baby chair. Erica is understandably angry and upset, because she doesn’t want to be crazy aunt Erica, she wants people to realise she can be responsible and grown-up. But everyone sees her as childish, erratic and crazy and fickle, I guess. Jenny, another good friend of theirs who is still single and loving it (and vaguely familiar…although I seem to watch a lot of shows filmed in Canada so maybe she’s popped up on a few before?) pretends to faint, causing Erica tod rive her home. Why she keeps up the façade until they reach her building I’m still not too sure about, unless it’s because she figured Erica would turn around and go back, seeing as she’s attempting to be all mature. But Jenny’s having none of it and drags her into a bar for some karaoke, where they do a crazy version of Girls just wanna have fun. And of course, this is the same bar where Josh is having his do, and although Erica meets his best man (gorgeous Ryan)…but Josh also sends a video of Erica singing to Sam, who gets caught out by Judith who is severely pissed off to see Erica walk out on the party she gave herself. And not looking good, my dear. And she’s decided screw Judith, screw the party, she doesn’t care anymore. If she’s going to have this reputation she may as well live up to it. So when Dr Tom appears to whisk Erica back to her bar mitzvah where it all started, she’s more than ready. This time, when things turned down a notch and people started leaving, Erica ran out on her own event. So I guess she wants to change reputation as being fickle… And yes, here we are for the first time with a younger Erica – a different actress! Thank god, because as much as I love Erin Karpluk, I think even she would struggle to pull of 12. So, Erica, in her wide-eyed innocence is ecstatic to be back in her 12 year old body and changing everything around. She tells the bully (who visits all the local bar mitzvah’s to say which ones are good or not…and kids think he’s the coolest? Kids are weird) exactly where he can take himself, and enjoys throwing herself into the kitsch world of bad 80’s music and dancing. And you know, I totally understand. And that age, we’re so burdened with needing to look cool to others that we forget to enjoy what we actually have, so Erica throws herself into all the dorkiness. When the band packs up and people start standing around looking bored, Erica gets the great idea of pulling her brother on stage to play and starts singing her own karaoke, totally throwing everything to the wind – and it’s just so cute! And so, Erica saves her own bar mitzvah and gets thrown back into today, makes plans with Ryan and heads back to face the music. She’s too late to rescue her own baby shower, but visits Judith the next day with a new present and they make up, but it’s not all good, as Erica starts to realise that maybe her own preconceptions of herself have allowed other people to see her in a different way, which are not true.

Being Erica -s01ep04 – The Secret of Now

Did I mention Erica got the job as an editor’s assistant at a non-fiction publishing house? No? Well, she did. And it’s a pleasant old guy who she seems to work with very well…except when Erica actually shows up, she finds out he’s been fired and a blonde praying mantis has gotten his job, based on brilliant sales of one book.

Erm. Ok, so we’re meant to believe this chicky gets one book published with an astounding success and they give her an editing position? Yeah, I don’t really believe that. Oh wait, she swooped it straight out from under the feet of the editor. Ok, now it kind of makes a little more sense. She’s evil. Blonde, with a chirpy voice, and evil.

So Erica is mistreated and abused, until finally the evil one goes as far as stealing Erica’s ideas to sell a new non-fiction book she initially had no belief in. But Erica is incapable of confronting her, something she attributes to her college days of poetry.

Now for some reason, every time we get a moment of frustration and anger from Erica to this point, we are bombarded with the opening beats of Britney Spear’s Baby, One More Time. Which was a bit odd as it didn’t seem extremely relevant? Oh boy, but it does throughout the episode!

So, Erica gets sent back to college to another confrontation with her irate professor, because she ran out of class once while reading her unique poem about snowflakes, which she worked ages on. And while I understand her point of view (she feels by walking out and not finishing her poem she never learnt to stand up for herself and confront people for her sake), I also see the professor’s point of view. Erica is so concerned with making this poem perfect, flowing beautifully and rhyming with succulent images in your head, she seems to lose the point of poetry, which is what the professor is trying to teach them. Emotion, expression, passion is what he’s looking for. He wants words, beliefs, ideas thrown out and challenged. I get him.

So, Erica gets up to read her poem, but this time the professor rips it up. Of course, she’s from the future so there’s now ay she can remember the words and panics, until she bursts out with the words of Baby One Mire Time…to the professor’s delight. He’s ecstatic to see real words, real emotion springing from Erica. Of course, she’s merely reciting the lyrics to a song no-one’s heard yet, which I find highly amusing.

As the new star pupil, he demands she reads it at the local poetry reading, and invites several elite professionals to the reading. Erica is ecstatic to have overtaken this all, but Dr Tom is unhappy as she went back with a specific purpose and hasn’t completed it yet and insists she continue what she set out to do. But she can’t remember the words….but Ethan does. Ethan, her best friend, her housemate, the man she’s crushing on in the future, remembers all the lyrics and quotes them back to her.

So, at the poetry reading, rather than reading the truly inspiration lyrics to a song about wife-bashing (oh come on, that’s what it’s about after all!), Erica reads her poem about snowflakes and whizzes back to the future.

Now, she manages to stand up for herself and is fired for it (as apparently she’s surprised to see the editor stealing the ideas of her assistant….as if that’s new!)…but outside, as the editor-in-chief asks for specific details on Erica’s original concept, evil blonde has no idea how to answer him (did she really get this far by backstabbing everyone and doing nothing herself?) and Erica steps in to save her, and has her job re-instated.

When she goes home in order to celebrate with Ethan, trouble brews…as he’s received the divorce papers from Claire. Uh oh…..no more time for romancing, now it’s time to simply be a friend. Which sucks, because they’re cute together and hang on- isn’t this where they were heading?

Supernatural – s04ep10 – Heaven & Hell

So, we jump right back where we were, except Ruby and Dean both get smacked around and Sammy gets the blessed fingers of sleep – something else him and Bobby now have in common. Anna manages to save the day with a spell which sends the pretty far, far away, only she has no idea how.

So we visit the magical safe room in Bobby’s again with a nonsensical moment of Ruby guarding Anna (I still find all this trust way too fishy, but Dean’s now on board with Ruby which…meh) and they bring the blind psychic back from the first episode, who still rocks, and she hypnotises Anna, apparently being a woman of many talents. And I still cry in my sleep over how they manage to bring Pamela back (even if she is awesome) and forget all about the awesome Missouri way back in Kansas. I want more Missouri. And more Ellen. On my show.

And we discover Anna is an angel. Yeah. I don’t know. She apparently fell to earth years ago (so we’re keeping this part of the lore? Does this mean in the future we’ll see Castiel fall for Dean? And yes, I do mean that in both senses!) although first she cut out her grace. Which…….just sounds awkward. Couldn’t she just…I don’t know, cut off her wings or something? Because a sticking point is the aspect of how she now wants to become an angel again, or doesn’t or something. I don’t know. I liked Anna in the first-parter, but here she just confuses me. She wanted to be human, and yet now she wants to be an angel again.; Although this may have something to do with how all the other angels and demons want to kill her. Ok, maybe getting powers back would be a good idea.

And now comes the yummy bit – where Dean gets his kit off in the backseat of the car and does the sexy with Anna. I love how the anvils drop like crazy. So Sam gets it on with a demon and Dean with an angel. Heh. It does make me giggle, but it also me makes me groan. Hello? Can we drop any more anvils about which side the boys are playing on and how they oppose each other? Still – any episode where Dean has no shirt on is going to have a very high rating from me, so good on you, show, for ensuring my superficiality remains intact.

While sleeping off the post-coital glow, Uriel visits Dean to remind him how he has him by the balls, in pretty much the same way the crossroads demon (and Lilith) had him before he died. Dean’s weak spot is Sammy, and if he doesn’t give them what they want, they’ll take Sammy instead. Ooh. Bribery. Me likey the bad demons. So Dean makes a deal to give them Anna in exchange for elaving Sam alone.

In the meantime, Ruby wanders off to find Alistair and make him a deal, at which point everyone had a eureka moment of finally! She reveals her true colours. She’s in for the demons, all along. Except of course, she wants to exchange Anna for sparing her and the boys. Which, fine. But maybe she is evil all along?

Of course this was all a trap to bring Alistair and Uriel (and the pretty, pretty Castiel) altogether in the one room and have a big hoedown- err showdown. I don’t remember much, except that Castiel goes to defend his beloved’s honour and then very nearly dies when Dean comes in to save him and they share the most awkward/sexy look with full on eye-fuckage. Gah. These two are so wanting each other. AND BAD.

In the meantime, Anna grabs her grace from Uriel, smashes it and kills all the demons. Except for Ruby, which was protected by something. Which, damn. Perfect opportunity to get rid of her! And then our angels go, with one last longing look from Castiel to Dean. I may have imagined that. No, it REALLY happened.

And then – to start the next round of ending Dean scenes (well, pick up where we left off really), where they stop by some pretty scenery and Dean admits he remembers everything from hell. He lasted for 30 years of being pulled apart, limb by limb, until finally he couldn’t do it anymore, got off the rack…and started torturing others. Because that’s the only way to stop the hell for yourself, by giving hell to others. So, for the remaining 10 years, Dean tortured other souls, and was good at it. They both have a cry, because really, there is absolutely nothing Sam can say to that. Nothing.

Damn. No wonder his all broken (again). Poor boy really can’t get a break, can he? Just when he started recovering last year, they break him up again into little pieces. (Luckily he has a sexy holy tax accountant to take care of him). That last scene was absolutely brilliant, one of the best of the show and damn heartbreaking. I cried. But overall, this episodes was a little hit and miss for me. I’m still struggling with all the godly anvils hanging around and there was too much Ruby for my liking. But now we know what hell was like…and we now know Dean likes his angels and Sam likes his demons in dead bodies. Ick.

Supernatural – s04ep09 – I know what you did last summer

It’s taken me quite some time to sit down and write this, because to this day I’m still torn emotionally about this 2-parter. I can’t jump 100% on board with this “God” arc this year, which surprises me since all along I kept saying they needed to have some angels or good warriors to balance out all the evil they have.

But I digress – with this episode we smash right into the myth-arc with a young girl, Anna, into a mental hospital who can hear angels. Some dark shadows come to kill her, only killing the nurse instead and she escapes.

Ruby finds Sam and Dean, telling them how all the demons are excited about Anna and want to get their hands on her. Who wouldn’t? She can hear the angels talking and would be a great weapon for the demons in this unbelievably weird battle between demons and angels. I can’t believe I just wrote that sentence!

Although Dean gets his bitch on again with regards to Ruby, thinking this might be a trap but he agrees to go with Sam on this little mission to find and rescue Anna.

He wants to understand why Sam is spending so much time with Ruby why he trusts her…and here start the flashbacks to the 4 months Sam spent without Ruby and oh boy, what a doozy.

I particularly love the moment with the crossroads demon when a drunk Sam calls her up and begs to take Dean’s place. This is what I’ve been missing from my show – I want to see the pure angst and torture he suffered! We saw Dean’s torture over his dad’s deal, but we didn’t see Sam’s. And I am loving this – particularly one little quote, where CRD says “no, we have him exactly where we want him”. It’s a no-deal then. And isn’t it funny how Sam remains the only Winchester not to have made a deal to save another family member’s life? Not that he didn’t try, but those demons definitely want to keep him above ground and Dean down below. Which does warm the cockles in my heart.

So we see Sam’s spiral as he tries to find ways to save his brother but no one will deal. He starts fighting demons again, and lo and behold, Ruby comes to his rescue, albeit in another form and starts trying to get him to work with her again and use his powers. Of course, he does actually tell her he can’t trust her while she’s possessing an innocent’s body…so Ruby makes her way to the hospital, finds a woman who’s died on the table, is legally dead, certificate and all and decides to possess that body. Which works in this context because ok, she’s no longer possessing a living, breathing body but once they exorcise her, man, how will that body look after decomposing all this time? Ick.

So Sam starts working with Ruby, focussing more on saving people than languishing in the depths of despair…and ends up in the squickiness of sleeping with Ruby. Which, ok I kind of figured Ruby always had a thing for Sam but Sammy boy, EW. You’re screwing a demon in a dead body. I don’t even know how many levels of wrong it is and I don’t want to think about it. I’ll just focus on your deliciously broad back and rippling muscles instead, because yum. Although you do look like you could crush Genevieve Cortese into itsy bitsy pieces with just 2 fingers. She’s tiny next to you (And you’re all man. Oh god, And I’m a Dean-girl! Beyow, can you imagine how well built this man is? YUM!)

So that’s the story of why Sam keeps Ruby around – because he saved her. He was falling to pieces and incapable of coping without Dean (And understandably. I mean besides the hotness factor of Dean, let’s face it, his last living family dies for him, that would be difficult to cope with) and on the highway to hell himself. Ruby pulled him out of it and helped him focus on the proper path, give him a reason to live. And I can understand his thinking, I can even understand why they want a goody demon around, but there’s just something about the whole situation that makes me think Kripke is playing all of us. I cannot see Ruby as doing this solely out of the goodness of her heart, I just can’t. I don’t know if it’s the cynical me speaking up, but I keep on thinking she’s got her own plan. Why else stick around with Sam?

And at least original Ruby had character, always playing her with a slight agenda, so you never were too sure where Ruby stood on the frontline. This girl, she just has no character. Metallicar has more emotion than she does. And metallicar is a prop.

Anyway, that’s the backstory. In the here and now, the boys manage to chase down Anna to a church where they find another demon trying to kill them, one Dean recognises from the pit below. It’s Alistair, who is actually fairly creepy.  So they have quite the tussle, and manage to get Anna out of the church with Ruby, but they aren’t as lucky as they end up diving through the stained-glass window. Wonder how many Hail Mary’s it will take to recover from the one? Plus, they also manage to lose the magical knife. *Sigh* First the gun (about 15 times) and now the knife? They really can’t keep their hands on these weapons, can they? (Or themselves)

Still our intrepid heroes manage to escape the Big bad Alistair, only now Sammy is freaking because he isn’t strong enough to exorcise him, and Dean is all twisted up inside with this little visitor from his trip downstairs.

They find Anna, surprisingly still alive in the hands of Ruby, even if Anna is really not pleased with being stuck with a demon, and then the gorgeous Castiel swoops in (along with Uriel, but let’s focus on the pretty, shall we?) Initially the boys are pleased to see the angels there…until they realise they’re not here to save Anna but to kill her………And end scene!

Well. What an episode. We’ve gone meta-heavy with the upstairs/downstairs, and although we get minor glimpses into Sam’s depths of despair, it’s not enough to appease me, meaning I’ll be spending weeks trawling the internet for good fanfiction as therapy instead. Still, we did get some of it actually, and while it isn’t an episode dedicated to Sam’s crying wrecked body throwing itself into danger to find a way to save his brother, it’s still pretty damn good (particularly since the crossroads demon is a man, which hmm, Sam wants a man now? Oh I get it – he wants his brother so we get a man. But hey, a girl can daydream).

Being Erica – s01 ep03 – Plenty of Fish

Ooh…the dreaded school reunion. And although it seems like Erica is one of the organisers, she puts her foot in it when an old frenemy of hers (ex-friend now enemy) appears and puts on that pitying voice about Erica still being single. And so Erica fakes a boyfriend, even though she’s still unemployed. She must have paid for that apartment outright, because I have no idea how she could afford to rent such a nice place. I believe it’s also this episode where her best friend, Judith, admits she’s pregnant, which will become more important down the line.

So, Erica asks Ethan to be her pretend boyfriend, and I know we’re all cringing at this storyline. Within minutes of entering, Erica runs into the photographer who wants a photo, and you can immediately see how awkward and uncomfortable she is around him. He turns out to also be one of the graduating class, and you can just tell there’s some bad blood, because this isn’t your regular encounter. She’s extremely uncomfortable. She tries to avoid him, but fails, even though Ethan makes a wonderful impression on everyone, even if he does pretend to be a doctor. Dr House, apparently, which amuses me. Does he not realise people in Canada watch American TV and might recognise those outrageous stories? Anyway.

So, then Erica runs into a hulking god of blonde, who turns out to have been one of those sensitive souls in high school, always reading poetry and keeping to himself. He’s now rich and still damn hot.

Erica does manage to ruin things, as per usual, but we find out why she’s having trouble…turns out photographer creep was her first sexual experience at the big end of school beach break…which he videotaped without her knowledge and then showed everyone. She’s been humiliated ever since, and I think we’re starting to understand her problem with men.

So, she goes back to make things right, and she ends up driving the car on the way to the beach, thus nearly killing all her friends. They’re all excited because she’d told them all how she’s going to sleep with hunky-dory creepy guy, whose name escapes me, but now Erica is telling them it isn’t going to happen.

While walking through the woods, she runs into cute, shy guy, because he watched her a lot and you can see how smitten she is with him and how pissed off she is with creepy guy’s behaviour. But she goes with him anyway to the beach and messes with him, telling him to strip and close his eyes, while she grabs his camera and films him, asking him how it feels and telling him to piss off.

She’s extremely satisfied with herself (although she has now effectively put back losing her virginity, which seems a little weird to me…when will her first time be then? Oh wait- the show cunningly thought of that already!) and walks back to the campfire where everyone is staring at her…because the ass is now spreading rumours and making up stupid diseases which he claims she has. Erica of course can’t believe it, but hello, you’re in high school surrounded by stupid people! Of course they do this type of shit in order to protect their own sanctity. He told everyone he was going to do you, and he didn’t so he has to come up with something else. Because maybe deep down he did have feelings for Erica, but because he’s such a dumb jock, he doesn’t know how to express himself properly? Yeah, I’m pulling at strings here, and I know it. And then in rides cute shy guy on a silver horse…well, he just walks in, shows creepy guy up for the idiot he is and then punches him, and they make a run for it and go out on the river, and have the dreamy first time Erica always wanted…and gets zoomed back into the future in the middle of it. Heh.

So she tells Ethan to bugger off and goes after dreamy guy to recapture that first flush of love. Of course, he’s no longer the dreamy poet he was, having grown up, discovered a love for trains and now works for the railways. Heh. Oh the sweet irony of reality, how you amuse me so.

As Ethan leaves, he passes creepy guy who tells him not to let go of a good thing once he has it. And there it is, the brief inkling of love? Lust? Ethan wants Erica! Awww..and they’d be so cute together too! Ooh show, how have you done this to me? I’m addicted!

Being Erica – s01ep02 – What I am is what I am

As we jump into our second episode, we see Erica trying to find a job, any job and she’s confronted with one of her arch-rivals from college, who’s now an editor at a large publishing firm, where Erica has applied to be her assistant. Of course, it doesn’t go well, so Erica ends up taking a job at her uncle’s wedding dress business. It’s really not the greatest place for her, and Erica is still reeling from the unexpected meeting with her old school friend. The one person she has very robust verbal debates with in class. Ethan, one of her closest friends from school also re-appears in her life, having recently broken up with his wife who he caught cheating on him. Ouch.

So, Erica gets sent back to uni, to do over another regret: when she was tapped to join a literary secret society but didn’t go through with it because she froze in the first round of verbal insults.

So she goes back to college, and my, she has aged well! Heh. So she gets tapped and goes along to the midnight meeting, and jumps right in with the verbal insults. Mind you, she now has an additional 10 years of pent-up frustration. She passes and is eager to see what she missed the first time around.

Which is where they have to bury someone in a coffin for 10 minutes. So all the plebs start burying another person, being told if they refuse or back down they will forfeit their place. Erica keeps digging, but her guy is screaming and having a panic attack and she backs down and helps him out, as does her frenemy. The boys come out laughing, having faked their panic attack.

However, this was a reverse test, to show who was willing to stand up for what they believe in over what they’re being told to think. The girls are the only 2 to pass.

They find out the secret society is behind the literary paper which heaps scorn on everyone who they believe is a fake or beneath them, to an extent. So while the other girl manages a decent article on one of the professors, Erica has a scoop: Ethan’s girlfriend Claire (and future wife and heartbreaker) is the college’s largest radical…but secretly is from one of the richest families in Canada, a past she is hiding in order to fit in with the radicals of the uni. Erica knows this from Ethan, but because she’s still bitter about what Claire will do to Ethan in the future, she decides to write the story for the paper, elevating her own status within the society. Of course, Ethan is furious with her, and she’s ruined Claire campaign to continue free education. She also then realises how snobbish and bastardised the secret society members are, and even though she’s well aware of how their connections could help her in the future, she tells them where they can shove it and goes off to help Claire protest.

And then comes back to the future, where even though she went back to change the steps she took in her life, she realises she intuitively knew what were the right steps for her, and she needs to learn to trust her own intuition. Which is a terrific lesson for anyone to learn, and so she tells her uncle she’s not taking that job because she needs to pursue her career and ends up with Ethan on the couch, just happy to have brought another part of her life together, even if it isn’t the way she thought. And I am absolutely loving this gorgeous little show about when the steps you take in life lead you and sometimes, they were for the best, even if you didn’t realise it at the time.

Dollhouse – s01ep02 – The Target

I sat down to watch the second episode with a few reservations, and I was relieved to see most of them fade away. The second episode is good; much better than the pilot and actually remained engaging. We got a little more backstory setting up a potential arc for the show while developing our characters and providing an explanation for several things.

It’s still not perfect; far from it in fact, but it seems to be heading in the direction.

So this time we start off 3 months earlier, where we learn Alpha is a former active who went rogue when he held onto a personality, and started killing actives, guards and Echo’s handler in the Dollhouse, even causing the dear doctor’s facial scars…and yet left Echo untouched. Oh boy. There’s something “special” about her, isn’t there?

This is also how Boyd becomes her new handler, and although he seems rather distrusting of the whole dollhouse experience, the “imprinting” trust moment brings out the warm and fuzzies. Basically, they imprint Echo with an undying trust for him, and he slowly starts to realise I guess just how much this person will depend on him.

Anyhow, the detective gets the photo of Caroline, which is her real name, which would mean the very first scene of the pilot was her signing up to join the dollhouse and really? She volunteered for this? Hmm. Intriguing. What did she screw up so badly she decided this would be a better option?

Anyhoo, her new engagement is to spend time with a very fit and active guy who wants someone who’ll keep up. They go whitewater rafting, rock-climbing and a bit of deer-hunting, and Echo, today called Jenny proves her worth. That is, until he tells her she’s got a 5 minute head start before he sets off to kill her. Ok, was not expecting this.

In the meantime, Boyd’s driver is killed by a pretend ranger, and Boyd gets manhandled into the van, but he manages to get the upper hand and finds out a little about what’s going on. He ties up the hitman and goes after Echo, whose doing a damn fine job of staying away from the hunter, until she finds the real ranger’s cabin and drinks the water, which he ended up lacing with hallucinogenics. SO now she also has to deal with seeing past versions of her real self and also fleeting images of Alpha’s massacre. You know, I’m actually liking where they’re going with this. It seems Echo’s mind is battling and trying to come up with her real memories, just not at the best moments.

As Boyd finds Echo eh gets shot with an arrow, and Echo flips the trust issue on him, goes after the hunter and kills him, pretty savagely. And also in a really hot way. Yum.

We get back to the dollhouse and find out the hunter was a fake, there’s absolutely nothing real about his file, and in fact he was hired by Alpha to try and take out Echo. Alpha in fact went and killed the guy tied up in the van by Boyd. Which just makes the show all the more curious and intriguing, and leaves me thinking that this is salvageable. Just get rid of the first episode, would you?

Being Human – episodes 1-3

1-

The long-awaited story begins about a werewolf, vampire and ghost living together in a house.  Yeah, sounds slightly ridiculous, doesn’t it? And yet it’s really good. The werewolf and vampire are old friends, attempting to hide their monster sides and appear normal (funnily enough, working at the local hospital, which doesn’t sound like a good idea for a vampire) and move into a flat occupied by the dead spirit of its former occupant.

They’ve changed the ghost, Annie, for the girl who played Sugar in Sugar Rush, and she plays the character with more sweetness and a soft, light-hearted touch, which is actually gravely needed as they’ve really undergone a darker tone for the series from what I remember. It’s part of why I like it so much, having been subjected to numerous light-hearted fluff sci-fi over the past 6 months.

So Annie is excited because other people start seeing her and she’s enjoying being part of the human race again, that is until her former fiancé, who happens to be the landlord, comes by and he can’t see her. Not only that, but he’s also seeing a friend of theirs, which throws Annie back into the spiral she’d been in before the boys moved in. She does bounce back, but only briefly, as she’s still pining for her lost chances in life. Her storyline seemingly sucks, because let’s face it, she’s dead. Although I am intrigued to see how her character will develop throughout this short season.

Mitchell, our resident vampire, has gone cold turkey after killing a colleague and ex-girlfriend of George’s (and we’re not going to delve into the meta behind George seemingly liking girls who are all over Mitchell, because I’m attempting to stay homo-free for at least one show this year), but struggles, and I mean really struggles, particularly when yet another sassy co-worker George fancies asks Mitchell out. He manages to resist, but the girl he vamped out is trying to prove to him he can’t change and to come back into the fold after walking away from them all, and kills the girl instead. Which does seem to severely suck for Mitchell. He really gets the short straw here as not only is he attempting to go cold turkey (and wouldn’t that kill him, not feeding? Hmm, show?) he’s being surrounded by constant reminders of blood, trying to ignore the coming apocalypse the vampires are plotting and harbouring guilt for the girl he vamped. Ouch. Sucks to be you, dude. Still, he manages to hold out in this episode.

And our dear George, our innocent werewolf, who seems to be spending half the episodes naked as he changes. He doesn’t get to safety in time, because they’ve taken away his barred hospital basement room and are re-decorating it, so he ends up changing in the house and causing absolute chaos. You can see how serious he is about trying to appear normal, but even I have to admit his constant moaning and paranoia about appearing as normal as possible is slightly tiresome, particularly up against Mitchell. It’s like George just doesn’t get the point it’s easier for him, as he only changes once a month, whereas Mitchell lives with his condition 24/7. I really hope at some stage they manage to change this, because his constant moaning about how difficult it is being normal and hiding what he really is, when he only changes once a month, is getting old fast. And only making him look weirder, which the show has done immensely well. No wonder the girls want Mitchell. Still, a decent start to an exciting new show which is proving BBC3 can make quirky and brilliant independent tv shows. But of course, this is where Torchwood started after all, isn’t it?

2-

With the first delving a little further into Mitchell’s predicament, it’s not George’s turn as he starts the episodes naked and in the forest yet again.

It’s not very often you get to write a sentence like that without it turning into porn, is there?

He’s stopped by a guy who helps, telling him he’s also a werewolf.

He follows George home and manages to sneak into the house under the pretence of Mitchell’s new idea of getting to know the neighbours. He’s really jumped into this whole “normal” thing and I must admit, I can see George’s point as well. Who invites all their neighbours around for biscuits and tea and gets them to share their stories? It’s a little strange. Or is that merely a reflection on the isolated society we live in today? Nice one, show.

So, the guy follows him home like a lost puppy and manages to slide into George’s under the premise of helping him control his werewolf manifestations each month. What started out as a couple of days on the couch ends up with him taking over the household and turning George into a, well, a mini-me to be honest. And it ain’t pretty.

Mitchell is still struggling with the little vamp, who ends up sending him a home video of her….well, having a porno moment and then killing the guy like the praying mantis she is. And yes, it kind of turns him on. The killing part, not the….well maybe the….you know, let’s leave it at it turning him on.

George gets close to this guy and uses his advice to try and get Nina, one of the resident nurses to go out with him, but it backfires majorly because she ain’t the type of girl who responds well to being treated like shit. George is also so far gone when the guy attacks Annie he defends him and starts throwing his weight around. Oh boy will that one backfire shortly.

But none of this matters because we find out this guy is the one who bit George in the first place. He lost his entire family and had a bit of a manic incident, realised he’d left a survivor and tracked George down in order to be close to someone again. George, in all his attempts to be normal, is sickened by the concept of being anywhere near the person who took normal away from him and so throws him out for good.

When he goes into the forest to change, he finds him hanging himself, and initially walks out and leaves him! Damn, that’s powerful! But it’s George and he can’t do it so he runs back in and saves him, and then they have a doggy fight as they start changing under the full moon, a fight George wins.

We end scene with the stranger waking up in the forest, naked and alone. Well, not alone because the tables have turned, George is dressed and throws him some clothes, and tells him to leave. Ooh, a nice bit of insight there into George’s tale. I want more.

3-

As we enter our third week we get more of a backstory on Annie as Mitchell slowly begins backsliding into …..I don’t really know what to call it. Vampdom? Evil?

Annie is in a pretty bad state, because the next day is what should have been her wedding day. Despondent, the boys take her out to a club to meet another ghost, who I’m guessing died in the 50’s or the 80’s (yeah, for some reason I can’t tell!) and has been hanging around for quite some time. He’s…a very different person, whose idea of fun is reading Nietzsche, hurling abuse at cops and dancing to weird-ass music.

But slowly, he falls in love with Annie as they discuss their purpose for hanging around. They’ve decided to go the “unresolved business” path, and Annie wants to discover her unresolved business so she can pass over.

In the meantime, the little vamp comes to Mitchell telling him she also wants to go cold turkey and needs his help so he start by letting her feed off of him which just looks grotty and ends up degenerating into a blood-sex romp, which I’m sure wouldn’t faze some of our craziest celebrities in the slightest. He tries helping her, even going as far as stealing blood from the hospital but it won’t do and she screams at him to let her feed. I don’t buy her sincerity here at all, and there’s a moment right near the end, where she leaves the hotel and is picked up by the others and her face changes momentarily. I think it’s all a plot to slowly bring him back into the fold, to prepare for the showdown/war/apocalypse/whatever they’re calling it these days. Why else would she not follow his advice but keep bullying him into feeding her or trying different methods or trying to push him to feed? I’m worried.

But I do love the genuine care he shows his room-mates, convincing Nina to go over and have dinner with George and later, once Annie reveals what she’s learnt, how he holds her…and I’m hoping I’m right in the blooming relationship between the vampire and the ghost. After all, he can’t kill her, can he? And she doesn’t have to worry about freaking him out. They had a sweet moment in the last episode where they discussed how he could touch her, and felt her kiss, and I hope they go somewhere with this!

Meanwhile, George is staying away from Nina but she does come over for dinner and invites herself up to his bedroom for a romp. As the heavy petting ensues he goes slightly ballistic and doggy and races off, panicked and unable to contain himself.

So the next night in the hospital, which happens to be the full moon, he’s off to hide in his hospital room when she stops him to discuss his little problem….but all the talk excites him too much and he jumps her and goes rather feral…which she loves. There’s a very adorable moment right afterwards where he collapses on her (after going doggy-style *snicker*) and grabs her scrubs in his mouth like a puppy would…before realising it’s nearly changing time and races off. It’s really rather cute.

And poor Annie. She realises how much she loves Owen, her fiancé, and decides to basically haunt him for awhile and be the proper wife. But on what was meant to be their wedding day, he’s off making out with his new girlfriend. Later on he comes to the house to fix the plumbing and digs out a pair of panties which causes Annie to flash back to her death, and realise Own had been browbeating her and ended up pushing her down the stairs and killing her. Ouch. To go from missing and loving the man you were going to marry to the realisation he murdered you is tough. So she still ahs no idea what her unresolved business is, but her ghost friend has, because he found love, love for Annie and walks through the door of bright light.

Hmm…..interesting. What next, I wonder? And when will we find out more about this upcoming doom?