Being Human 3.04
Feb. 14th, 2011 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakYou know, I'm really glad I kept watching the show after all. Unless the next episodes completely screw it up, this might be my favourite season so far.
This was both a really good werewolf story and a good story in terms of metaphor. For our regulars and for the guest star. Nina and George trying to find out whether there are precedents for a werewolf pregnancy makes complete sense. Conversely, McNair trying to avoid them at first because he actually got his son via infection and not the natural way made sense for him as well, and I loved how the show kept McNair three dimensional, which was important regarding the ongoing Mitchell storyline as well. What he did - adopting the son of parents he killed while a wolf, and whom he made into a werewolf as well - was on one level completely screwed up, and on another pretty much the only thing he could do in the situation. (Handing over a newly werewolf-ized baby to the police is hardly an option.) Lying about it to Tom is again both wrong and yet completely understandable. Plus as mentioned it works both as a werewolf story and as a metaphor for that old trope, a child raised by a parent who either abducted him/her or even killed the original parents. The solution the episode finds - revealing the truth and ending on a reconciliatory note, but also with McNair willing to let Tom go if Tom wants that - worked emotionally for me.
I continue to love the way the show uses Nina's professional skills in its stories. In this case the way she spots the scars on Tom's back, draws the right conclusions and takes him to the hospital for a complete check-up to be sure without alerting him to this being what she's doing. Which she does both because she needs to know for her own sake - because of the possible (or not) precedent for her pregnancy - and because she wants to know.
George and Nina, as a couple: still going strong. The cub remark was adorable, and I love how they're facing the pregnancy situation together, but I also liked the moments that showed their differences, like Nina's dispassionate description of the Annie and Mitchell situation and of Mitchell as a mass murderer and George's indignant protest. George is a bit more wise to what Mitchell is than Annie, but he made the conscious decision to push it away at the end of last season. I do wonder whether it won't be Annie after all but either George or Nina who'll find that scrapbook of doom that works as Chekhov's gun right now.
Speaking of which, with most people I find plot devices like this one annoying because who keeps evidence that can incriminate him and is of no possible use? But with Mitchell, I find it entirely ic because he's both masochistic enough to keep it around for self-punishment instead of burning it and cowardly enough not to draw the ultimate conclusion, i.e. confess to Annie (and George, and Nina). Plus, you know, there's probably a part of his subconscious which wants to be found out.
Annie listing her romantic track record certainly adds to explaining her self worth issues (and behaviour in romantic relationships); the show continues to play fair - knock on wood - by not romantisizing this or the inherent co-dependency of her and Mitchell's hang-ups. The scene where the threesome with their bar pick-up goes from comic to really sinister and dangerous was very well done, and you know, for all her tendency to be wilfully blind Annie picked up immediately on what Mitchell was about to do, did not let him go through with this and saved the girl's life. She showed similar quickmindedness in the big fight scene near the end when she realized that once the other vampires were done for the only safe place for Mitchell would be the cage. Note that the show allows Annie a degree of selfishness, too; once she's worked through the shock and visceral reminder of Mitchell's vampire nature, the first thing that occupies her is that this means they can't be a "normal" couple with a sexual relationship. Mitchell, of course, immediately romantizes this by using the term "more pure". Otoh given that yes, he self-admittedly uses sex as a weapon a lot of the time and tends to conflate blood lust with it, you can see why it would make the relationship with Annie better for him. (Still makes her into the current saviour figure, which is doomed.)
Mitchell's immediate decision to solve his McNair problem by basically handing him over to Richard and what's-her-name plus random vampires for a "dogfight" probably was the most ruthless and vicious thing we've seen him do since the train massacre. (Not that he wants McNair dead but that he comes up with this particular death.)Yes, there was self preservation involved - while he didn't know McNair was planning on staking him for sure, he had seen that stake collection and the article - but it also highlighted Mitchell sharing the general vampire attitude towards werewolves to a far, far greater level than he's willing to admit. (When they're not George and now also Nina, whom he has reason to care about.) It's also a display of Mitchell's tendency to not think through consequences, because while he couldn't know George and Nina would be at the place he had sent the other vampires to, did he really assume Richard would honour his request re: Tom? Seriously?
Of course, Mitchell's scheme backfires immediately, as instead of McNair George, Nina and Tom are caught and he has to rely on McNair to save them, but again, the show plays fair by not letting Mitchell and McNair be buddy-buddy because of this at the end of the episode, and even more importantly, letting McNair differentiate between a personal truce (i.e. the mutual life savings even out things between him and Mitchell) and Mitchell's general karmic debts, which are not about him but about all the crap Mitchell pulled througout his (un)life. Which is yet another reason why the three-dimensionality is important; McNair isn't free of guilt himself, or free of keeping secrets and lying, but that makes him more, not less qualified for such authorial pronouncements. To a degree, he's been there (note that he speaks of Tom as his salvation in similar terms to how Mitchell spoke about Lucy last season and Annie in this one), and his own guilt has caught up with him within the episode itself. If he's not into self-pity, he certainly isn't misty-eyed about Mitchell, either.
Lastly: best use of the birds-and-bees-thing since Claire Bennett said to her adopted parents "you're not giving me the talk again, are you?" in season 1 of Heroes. BTW, I am relieved the episode didn't do a silly triangle thing with Tom, Nina and George while acknowledging that a young adolescent werewolf would be at least intrigued by the only female of the species he's met so far.
ETA: I think I'll get myself a Nina icon, and/or a George/Nina icon. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
This was both a really good werewolf story and a good story in terms of metaphor. For our regulars and for the guest star. Nina and George trying to find out whether there are precedents for a werewolf pregnancy makes complete sense. Conversely, McNair trying to avoid them at first because he actually got his son via infection and not the natural way made sense for him as well, and I loved how the show kept McNair three dimensional, which was important regarding the ongoing Mitchell storyline as well. What he did - adopting the son of parents he killed while a wolf, and whom he made into a werewolf as well - was on one level completely screwed up, and on another pretty much the only thing he could do in the situation. (Handing over a newly werewolf-ized baby to the police is hardly an option.) Lying about it to Tom is again both wrong and yet completely understandable. Plus as mentioned it works both as a werewolf story and as a metaphor for that old trope, a child raised by a parent who either abducted him/her or even killed the original parents. The solution the episode finds - revealing the truth and ending on a reconciliatory note, but also with McNair willing to let Tom go if Tom wants that - worked emotionally for me.
I continue to love the way the show uses Nina's professional skills in its stories. In this case the way she spots the scars on Tom's back, draws the right conclusions and takes him to the hospital for a complete check-up to be sure without alerting him to this being what she's doing. Which she does both because she needs to know for her own sake - because of the possible (or not) precedent for her pregnancy - and because she wants to know.
George and Nina, as a couple: still going strong. The cub remark was adorable, and I love how they're facing the pregnancy situation together, but I also liked the moments that showed their differences, like Nina's dispassionate description of the Annie and Mitchell situation and of Mitchell as a mass murderer and George's indignant protest. George is a bit more wise to what Mitchell is than Annie, but he made the conscious decision to push it away at the end of last season. I do wonder whether it won't be Annie after all but either George or Nina who'll find that scrapbook of doom that works as Chekhov's gun right now.
Speaking of which, with most people I find plot devices like this one annoying because who keeps evidence that can incriminate him and is of no possible use? But with Mitchell, I find it entirely ic because he's both masochistic enough to keep it around for self-punishment instead of burning it and cowardly enough not to draw the ultimate conclusion, i.e. confess to Annie (and George, and Nina). Plus, you know, there's probably a part of his subconscious which wants to be found out.
Annie listing her romantic track record certainly adds to explaining her self worth issues (and behaviour in romantic relationships); the show continues to play fair - knock on wood - by not romantisizing this or the inherent co-dependency of her and Mitchell's hang-ups. The scene where the threesome with their bar pick-up goes from comic to really sinister and dangerous was very well done, and you know, for all her tendency to be wilfully blind Annie picked up immediately on what Mitchell was about to do, did not let him go through with this and saved the girl's life. She showed similar quickmindedness in the big fight scene near the end when she realized that once the other vampires were done for the only safe place for Mitchell would be the cage. Note that the show allows Annie a degree of selfishness, too; once she's worked through the shock and visceral reminder of Mitchell's vampire nature, the first thing that occupies her is that this means they can't be a "normal" couple with a sexual relationship. Mitchell, of course, immediately romantizes this by using the term "more pure". Otoh given that yes, he self-admittedly uses sex as a weapon a lot of the time and tends to conflate blood lust with it, you can see why it would make the relationship with Annie better for him. (Still makes her into the current saviour figure, which is doomed.)
Mitchell's immediate decision to solve his McNair problem by basically handing him over to Richard and what's-her-name plus random vampires for a "dogfight" probably was the most ruthless and vicious thing we've seen him do since the train massacre. (Not that he wants McNair dead but that he comes up with this particular death.)Yes, there was self preservation involved - while he didn't know McNair was planning on staking him for sure, he had seen that stake collection and the article - but it also highlighted Mitchell sharing the general vampire attitude towards werewolves to a far, far greater level than he's willing to admit. (When they're not George and now also Nina, whom he has reason to care about.) It's also a display of Mitchell's tendency to not think through consequences, because while he couldn't know George and Nina would be at the place he had sent the other vampires to, did he really assume Richard would honour his request re: Tom? Seriously?
Of course, Mitchell's scheme backfires immediately, as instead of McNair George, Nina and Tom are caught and he has to rely on McNair to save them, but again, the show plays fair by not letting Mitchell and McNair be buddy-buddy because of this at the end of the episode, and even more importantly, letting McNair differentiate between a personal truce (i.e. the mutual life savings even out things between him and Mitchell) and Mitchell's general karmic debts, which are not about him but about all the crap Mitchell pulled througout his (un)life. Which is yet another reason why the three-dimensionality is important; McNair isn't free of guilt himself, or free of keeping secrets and lying, but that makes him more, not less qualified for such authorial pronouncements. To a degree, he's been there (note that he speaks of Tom as his salvation in similar terms to how Mitchell spoke about Lucy last season and Annie in this one), and his own guilt has caught up with him within the episode itself. If he's not into self-pity, he certainly isn't misty-eyed about Mitchell, either.
Lastly: best use of the birds-and-bees-thing since Claire Bennett said to her adopted parents "you're not giving me the talk again, are you?" in season 1 of Heroes. BTW, I am relieved the episode didn't do a silly triangle thing with Tom, Nina and George while acknowledging that a young adolescent werewolf would be at least intrigued by the only female of the species he's met so far.
ETA: I think I'll get myself a Nina icon, and/or a George/Nina icon. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
