Review: Being Human (USA) "Partial Eclipse of the Heart"

Non Spoiler Review:

Josh struggles with the potential cure (involving killing his maker) and revealing the truth to Julia as their relationship continues to grow. Aidan, on the run with Suren, attempts to secure a safe refuge for them both. Sally struggles to make peace with Zoe. It all goes crazy when an unexpected plot device phenomenon appears out of left field.

As boring as I found Josh and Julia's drama, it was actually the stronger part of this particular episode, but it fell victim to yet another outrageous paranormal fix the writers bring out of their bag of tricks. That derailed it all for me, and diminished a potentially powerful ending that could have made this one of the stronger episodes this season.

Spoilers Now!

Henry's arrival is all a ploy, as he's there to rescue Aidan and kills the attackers. He suggests they run away together and leave behind Suren. But Aidan refuses because he's in looooove, then wounds Henry so it looks like he put up a good fight (and will be welcomed back in among the vampires. Because Mother is young and niave enough that she's probably never encountered that particular ruse before). He hopes he doesn't have to wait another eighty years to see him again. We feel the same way, as he's more interesting than most of the cast.

Julia and Josh are pretty much back together, but he warns her he has some issues to work out first, but she's okay with that, and he even passes the test of meeting up again with her former maid of honor, who really resented Josh for abandoning her. It all looks like things will end just awesome for Josh and Julia.

Sally manages to track down Zoe, who no longer cares about taking care of the babies and protecting them from ghosts. Being a medium is a curse and kept her alone all her life (which is very true given Sally basically torments her for half the episode until she talks to her).

Josh spies on Ray, debating if he can kill him, but sees he has a wife and son. Ray catches him creeping, so Josh apologizes for leaving things the way he did. Ray is very happy to see him again, and told him one day he'd come looking for him and gives him a big hug. He got his wife and kid back through telling the secret, and advises Josh to tell his girl the truth too.

Suren is tired of hiding at the hotel, but Aidan just needs her to be patient a little while longer as he goes to the Dutch for protection. He reminds the ginger vampire guy that Aidan brought justice for Haggeman, not Mother. Ginger V, ever the coward, is reluctant to hide them, but suggests Aidan bring food for the rest of the Dutch, as they will be up soon, and it will be a good overture.

Sally succeeds in making peace with Zoe, but in the park the two are privy to an unexpected eclipse, and the old man that Sally shredded abruptly appears dazed and confused. In one of the more ridiculous moments of exposition, Zoe muses the eclipse confuses the planes of paranormal existence (it's all a moon/sun kind of thing). If she shredded the old man in the park, then the others will be appearing back at her house. Sally heads there immediately, finding a very frightened Nick—and Danny.

Nick explains that shredding him sent him to some kind of limbo—everything ended but just for a moment. He still knew he existed but in another place. Zoe arrives to console him, while a shaken Danny tells Sally the place she sent him is so bad.

Josh is about to tell Julia about his secret when the eclipse prompts a change, so he goes running out of the restaurant. Julia tries to chase after him but he comes to a dead end in an alley. He has no choice but to show his fangy face to her. She backs away...and gets hit by a car. But he can't do anything as everyone is taking photos of him, so he runs off.

Aidan returns to the hotel to find Suren gone. She's returned to the hotel, and Mother, telling her she was right and she belongs there. Was there ever any doubt?

The eclipse ends and the ghosts fade away. Zoe feels she's okay now. Josh reverts back to normal and runs back to the accident scene to find Julia (a little worse for the wear) but she's in shock. He admits he's a werewolf. He comes clean but she confesses it's too late—because her body is on a stretcher, and he's been talking to her ghost. And her door shows up, so Josh explains what it is. They say their good-byes and she walks through

The Verdict:

Aidan and Suren's on-the-run plot doesn't hold much interest for me. She's still too new a character to feel any sense of bond between them (aside from what the writers try to hammer home to us through flashbacks). Maybe this could have worked a few seasons down the road, but I detect a stronger bond between Henry and Aidan than I do with Suren, yet he readily tosses him aside for her.

Another character, Zoe, hasn't endeared herself to me either, so we get Sally trying to make amends for all the damage she's done—by hounding her. That says so much about Sally. Has she really learned anything from her reaper period? And why is Zoe so important, anyway? Couldn't a tenacious ghost who wanted reincarnation just go to another hospital—anywhere?

Josh and Julia were actually kind of cute, so that means death awaits. Sure enough, it provided one of the best shocks of the episode, and I admit I was even taken in by the fake out that she was still alive. But all of this was kicked in the pants by the awful deux ex machina—the eclipse. Because these things just happen out of the blue with no one knowing they're coming. And Zoe's casual explanation of how they affect the supernatural side of things was laughable. All it did was give both of them an opportunity to say good-bye to the shredded—which are apparently going back to this horrible limbo? It's unclear just what was happening to them on their second fade out.

It's been such a dull and directionless season, I'm going to be happy when it's over. The series swings between the episodic and serialized. It needs to decide what it's going to do, and stop the continued time jumps between full moons.