Review: Being Human (USA) "When I Think About You I Shred Myself"

Non Spoiler Review:

Aidan descends into his old ways as he dotes on his wounded protege. Josh and Julia continue to reforge their friendship as someone (else) from Josh' past makes an appearance. Sally's reaper troubles catch up with her.

Nothing really outrageous happened to require a lot of detailed criticism. At this point it was just boring. Josh and Julia do nothing for the greater plot and are so uninteresting to watch given we have no history with her aside from what Josh reveals. And with past weeks, this episode is sporadic in what it picks up from previous plot threads. Sally's big twist at the end might have mattered had I given a hoot for this character anymore.

Spoilers Now!

Aidan brings skinned Henry home, much to Josh's annoyance, while Reaper is taking Sally out to learn the ropes of shredding. Josh suddenly runs into Stu at the hospital (the guy who went camping with him and died when Josh was turned). Stu heard through the ghostly rumour mill that Josh is a werewolf.

Henry isn't getting better (and looks quite a sorry state). Aidan goes out to get food. Flashback to France, 1918—Henry is an army doctor when Aidan is brought in with a gunshot wound. After he removes the bullet he finds his wounds are healing on their own. Aidan is caught feeding on some bloody rags by a rather superstitious soldier who recognizes him as a vampire and tries to warn Henry. Aidan ultimately freaks out in the tent and kills everyone, wounding Henry in the process. He makes him a vampire and they're BFFs after that.

Sally is shocked when Boner shows up at her house (which is horrifying given she was told Stevie shredded him by the Reaper). Apparently the only one Stevie shredded was Dillon to protect her. She doesn't reveal that Stevie's gone, but goes to see Nick and Zoe to get some otherworldly consultation. It's all news to Zoe about this reaper guy and she can't provide any help.

Aidan glamors a couple of girls to bring back to feed Henry. Henry gets a little out of control and starts freaking out the girls, so Aidan breaks both their necks (!) and Henry finishes them off. But that makes him all better again.

After making amends and hanging out so much now, Josh and Julia hook up (but it's Stu who's possessed Josh!). Josh wakes up to a headache and Stu confessing to what he did. Stu loves Julia, and that's why he was at the hospital, not to see Josh at all. Yes, it's all kind of rapey. Julia, is of course, quite happy to be back cuddling with Josh.

When Sally goes back to the ghost group, the room is trashed by the Reaper. He apparently shredded them all, and Zoe is in shock and tells her it's all her fault.

Henry meets Josh again, who kind of understands why he looks so much better (plus moving men are removing a big box that undoubtedly contain bodies). Aidan is promising it won't happen again.

Nick comes to see Sally with news they're going to get her help so she doesn't do it again. There is no reaper. It's Tyler Durden her! There's a series of flashbacks where we see it's been Sally all along shredding people. Though the fact that Sally is both an unlikable creature and a mass murderer somehow doesn't carry as much shock value as they likely intended.

Josh and Aidan walk in as she shreds Nick and tells them (in crazy demon voice) Sally isn't there anymore. Then she goes all poltergeisty. Aidan grabs the iron poker and stabs her, causing her to vanish. She then wakes up on the floor where she died, surrounded in a ring of salt to imprison her, as Josh and Aidan contemplate what to do (I vote shred!).

The Verdict:

Aidan and Henry's backstory came off as a bit mundane, with nothing really interesting in there at all. If this is all going to come around to Aidan realizing Josh is his best friend after all, and really has his back, it's a bit too late for that if I were Josh.

Aidan's appeal has diminished considerably. I really don't care about his fall back into his old ways, because that stuff is actually forgivable and he can be redeemed. But the whole reason for him being in that house appears to be based completely on his own selfish motivations—for Josh to save him. He's done nothing recently to show he's actually reciprocating. Never mind that the whole point of Josh's life is to get a semblance of normalcy, and Aidan is flagrantly abusing that by killing victims in the house.

Interesting that the episode ends with Josh and Aidan actually having to deal with Sally—finally. I can't really hold out any hope that they might be ditching Sally and getting a new ghost. I'm sure it will all work out fine and maybe even mommy Rena will come back to bring her daughter back to reality.

On another note, I've been catching up on the final season of the UK version. Watching one episode this week in conjunction with this one, I was struck with how that show conveys their three characters. Having recast pretty much everyone except for one, a simple two minute scene of the three actors sitting on the couch watching an antique show conveyed so much depth to their new friendship—more than the two whole seasons of the American version has ever done.