Review: Being Human (USA) "I Want You Back (From the Dead)"

Non Spoiler Review:

Wow. This was a seriously dark episode, and for that alone it's the most powerful of the season (so far). The whole Bernie mess from last week explodes, creating the worst possible situation for Aidan yet (thanks to further Rebecca interference). It's hard to see how things can get worse for our favorite messed up vampire.

The secondary stories are actually quite decent, as well, including an epiphany for Sally after she meets a ghost she used to know in life. Josh is struggling with the idea of maintaining a relationship and his secret, prompting some rash decisions with Nora.

First, Sally. I'm pleased with what came out this week and I'm hoping it's the final push to make her a full member of the monster trinity. The writers have been very successful making Josh and Nora a couple we can root for. Of course, both were overshadowed by the terrible events with Aidan and Rebecca. It was one of those episodes that make you wonder if they're going to go there, and they do.

One other plus was the good balance of light humour here and there among the weighty stuff. No slapstick craziness at all. This is one I need to rewatch.

Spoilers Now!

Now that Aidan is pegged as a potential pervert, he avoids Bernie at all costs, including when he's getting bullied, and just walks away home. Sally chides him for not helping, but Aidan watches from the window and says Cindy would be after him with torches and pitchforks if he goes near him. And then Bernie is hit by a car trying to get away from the bullies.

Aidan rushes out, and with a frantic Cindy, gets a room for him at the hospital, but Bernie is in bad shape. Cindy later thanks him for his help as she sits by her son's bed. Aidan goes into a storage room and has a meltdown.

Hanging out in the haunted ward, Sally finds a familiar name on the wall—Nick—trying to get in touch with his dead parents. Sally goes to the beach where he hangs out and finds him there. She knew Nick back in college, but he's obviously been dead awhile too. They catch up on life, but he doesn't seem to want to stay and hang out for some reason, and head's off...leaving wet footprints behind. He's all she can talk about later when she chills with Josh. In fact, she wonders about the possibility of pursuing a relationship with him. 

Josh isn't much for advising about relationships given he's having second thoughts about his own and is worried about his werewolf issues. He tells Nora they should slow things down a bit. But she doesn't take the idea of no sex and seeing him less very well at all, and soon she's flirting with the doctors again.

Aidan pays a visit to the blood bar to lose himself in his sorrows. But when he gets a little rough with the clientele, it's Rebecca who throws him outside. He's feeling a tad guilty about Bernie, and Rebecca suggests he turn him. But he can't, which makes having that ability to save him all the worse.

Sally and Nick hang out again, and he's had quite a fulfilling unlife since he died. He's used his ghost powers to do lots of stuff like eavesdrop and learn languages and listen to college lectures. Then he starts to cough and has to run out. She goes out and tries to find him, following his wet footprints and finding him trapped in a bubble of water before abruptly disappearing. 

He comes to see her later at the beach to do some explaining. It's his big secret—he drowned. His leg was caught in an anchor rope, and everyday since he's relived it. He calls it his echo. But it's only five minutes of his day, and he has the rest of his time to his self, so he's just gotten used to it. He does confess to always having a crush on her, and Sally wishes she knew that back in the day, because it would have certainly changed things for her (and him). She can feel his kiss, though. And they vanish together in a cloud of energy, or as Josh calls it, their sex cloud.

So Bernie's dead, and Aidan is at the memorial when Cindy has a meltdown. It's a pretty tragic sight. Later, Aidan is sitting in the park brooding in his sunglasses when Rebecca comes over, telling him life doesn't have to be that miserable. And then Bernie comes running up, because Rebecca fixed him (!)

Aidan is so not impressed with that, but Rebecca assures him they can raise him on hospital blood. She did it for Aidan and they can be undead parents together. But while they're arguing, Bernie's disappeared. They just catch him as he's about to bite a little girl. But he assures him he won't hurt anyone because he's more a super-hero now. Aidan has to go to work, so he gets Rebecca to take care of him.

With Sally spending time with Nick at home, she suggests he try his drowning there instead of running off all the time to see if it helps. But he can't, and ends up disappearing again.

Aidan returns home to the neighbourhood and finds a crime scene on his street, with both bullying boys dead and their throats ripped open. Bishop is there, of course. He's very not impressed that they created a little vampire. He doesn't want to hear any regrets either, but Aidan fires back that he was the one who started it by turning Rebecca. This is why we don't turn kids! Bishop says angrily.

Aidan comes clean with Josh about Rebecca, Bernie and the boys. Everything! Josh takes that even worse than Bishop did. Aidan's behaving like a blood-sucking crack addict caught red-handed. They are best friends, Josh admits, but he thinks it's best that Aidan leaves.

Rebecca is not doing well as a vampire mom as Bernie doesn't want to eat his hospital blood. At their motel, Aidan tries to calm things down. Bernie wants to see his mother, but that can't happen, and Rebecca is yelling that Aidan needs to quit his job and leave for someplace with less people. Aidan calms Bernie down and takes him for a drive.

Sally is still trying to help Nick with his echo, thinking it's linked to something. That's when she begins to realize that she's doing the same thing with him as she did with Danny—rearranging her life to be with him. He assures her she doesn't have to fix him. But things are perfect for him, not for her. And that's her echo—she disappears into everyone else's problems. Death doesn't leave a lot of room for change, he muses.

Josh tells Nora there's something in his life, something private about him, that needs to stay that way. He doesn't know how else to deal with it. Nora doesn't want to be the tortured co-dependant girl and Josh doesn't want that for her either. But he doesn't want to be without her. Aw. She says she's seen bad things before, and shows a very scarred stomach (that Josh has somehow missed?). She admits to making some bad choices, too. 

Aidan takes Bernie into the woods to kill a deer. And he promises to teach him a way to do it so it doesn't hurt it. Aidan goes off to lead the deer around to him, and as Bernie watches the deer in silence, Aidan appears behind him and stakes him (!)

Aidan sits at home waiting for Josh. He admits he took care of the situation. Josh agrees he had to, and leaves him alone while Aidan sobs. All very sad.

Bishop thanks Marcus for taking care of those boys—almost as good as if Bernie had done it himself. But they're Aidan's only family and he shouldn't think about starting his own. Evil!

The Verdict:
Being Human left a lot of stuff to ponder this week. But it did address the age old question of why you don't make child vampires. Perhaps the whole descent into bad vampire parents was a bit quick, but it worked. And interesting that Aidan had no problem being around all that blood when Bernie was lying on the pavement.

I'm torn on the ending with Marcus killing the kids. On one hand it was more chilling that Bernie would have done that to his bullies, but after thinking on it, it makes Aidan's execution even more horrifying given Bernie had been truthful with him all along. Again, Bishop is pulling the strings. One wonders if Rebecca will be punished for her role in everything.

At last Sally's story brought her to the conclusion that she loses herself in her relationships. It might have worked a little better had Nick actually been kind of appealing, but all his secrecy added a creepiness factor to him that made it seem like he was hiding something nasty.

It's telling how much of an outsider to the boys' friendship Sally remains, given she doesn't warrant inclusion in Aidan's confessional to Josh. By the end it seemed Josh gave Aidan too much of a free pass after initially wanting him to leave. It's not like everything is solved, and he still has a normal girlfriend to think about with a vampire spinning out of control as his roommate.

Josh has already been on the receiving end of vampire reciprocation, so bringing Nora into that is the last thing he'll want to do. Plus, he's strong enough now he's not going to let Aidan continue to set the agenda. And with Sally slowly getting her bearings and learning her weaknesses, she won't either. Will the season end on Aidan's final push to the dark side? It's not like Josh will be able to hide his condition from Nora for very long either (especially if she's infected). The season ending promises to be very dark.