Since it’s the holiday season, it’s only fitting that this episode of Lost Girl revolves around a holiday bash. In this case, it’s a Yule party. I’m sure most of us have attended a party like this one at some point, a bacchanalia if you will, and although things *may* have gotten a bit out of hand in our world, there was probably never a large tattooed Fae dude in a toga, a one-handed Mesmer in a corset, or a time loop causing us to repeat the same day over and over like in “Groundhog Fae.” Let’s revisit what happened in the episode, but I promise if you read this recap, you will not be caught in a time loop! Speaking of which …
Let’s Do the Time Loop
OK, for everyone who has been missing the Tamsin that we know and love, not to mention the Valkubus action we were teased with in Season 3, I’m guessing this episode sated you a bit!
Bo wakes up in the back seat of a car, and realizes her friends have left her behind while they’re partying it up at her place. She heads into the party, is accosted by a rather repulsive Fae dude that wants her to lick his sweat (eww) and a togaed Bruce comes to her rescue. Bo is eventually greeted by a kiss from Tamsin, and as Tamsin is about to let Bo know what’s going on, Bo wakes up in the back seat of the car again. Tamsin is also in the loop, and at one point when Tam plants one on Bo, the Succubus responds with, “Nothing,” as in nothing is happening with the loop, but Tamsin reads it as Bo not feeling anything in the kiss, to which she responds, “Speak for yourself.” Have we got a love quadrangle brewing here?
Bo notices that after some of the loops, people are going missing from the party, like Bruce, and just before another loop, she sees a chameleon-like guy snatch someone into a wall. She goes to Trick for answers and he is drunk as a skunk! During one loop, he tells her that he hasn’t helped Bo find The Wanderer because he’s terrified.
Back to Tamsin and Bo … Tam tries to explain her disappearance to Bo and says that she needed to “find herself.” Tamsin now remembers who she was in her last life and what she did to Bo. She later confesses that she’s the reason that The Wanderer found Bo. Tam Tam was a Valkyrie bounty hunter in a previous life. She was scared of the evil Wanderer and agreed to help him find Bo because Bo never should have existed. Bo is very forgiving and sees that Tamsin is really a good person, which to me shows that Bo still has some Light Fae in there somewhere.
The “Casanova of Clan Zamora” has Performance Anxiety
Despite PDAs that are making some of their friends uncomfortable, now that Kenzi and Hale are together, the Siren is having a bit of trouble performing. It seems that Hale, although a legend among the ladies, has never been with someone he cares about, and the pressure of wanting things to be perfect with Kenzi is taking a toll on his libido. The day resetting itself has been working him through the issues until Kenzi finds out, and although she’s temporarily mad at him, she eventually tells him she doesn’t need perfection – just him. D’awwwwww.
Krampus – The Fae World’s Willy Wonka
Just before Christmas this year, I was reading an article about the comeback of Krampus, the horned creature that punishes kids unlike his more giving counterpart, Saint Nick. In the Fae world of Lost Girl, Yule is a “sacred celebration of contrition” (as described by our Trick-opedia). It takes place on the hottest day of the year, and along with it comes Krampus, who snatches kids and takes them away in his sack. What Krampus actually ends up being is a Fae creature that takes those who are riddled with regret and fear, and turns them into candy! According to Hale, the time loop is trickery being caused by Krampus so that he can feed on that regret. (I’m guessing that Krampus is a fan of the “walk of shame.”) Hale thinks the loop is harmless, but there ends up being more to it.
The chameleon dude that’s been snatching people from the Yule party is feeding revellers into a candy machine, and next up is Tamsin, who has enough regret to keep the candy supply replenished for a while. When Bo confronts him, it’s revealed that Krampus is actually the older guy that we saw at the gas station and the party, and that the one who’s actually been abducting everyone is Jeffrey, his oompa loompa … er … son. After Tamsin admits what she did to Bo, she is released from the candy factory, along with Bruce and a few others. It seems that Bo is an everlasting gobstopper of sorts since she is full of repressed fears! And that’s when she’s forced to show her hand.
Admittance Is the First Step
Bo has been very cocky and bold lately, but this is one of the first times we’ve seen her show a bit of vulnerability since she’s been back with the gang. When Krampus is about to turn her into an all you can eat candy buffet, Bo admits what scares her the most: herself, what she is capable of, making the wrong choice, losing her friends and family, and of course, The Wanderer. Once she makes that confession, Krampus sets her free.
Wonder Twin Powers – Activated by Alcohol!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – there’s nothing I love more than Lauren and Dyson commiserating about Bo, especially when alcohol is involved. They’ve bonded, they understand each other, and while they are both still vying for Bo’s affections, I’d say it’s a friendly competition.
They have something that they are keeping from Bo … a box that contains something that we don’t see until the very end of the episode. They are wrapped up in a “should we / shouldn’t we” that ends up being mediated by none other than our self-mutilated Mesmer, Vex, who is referred to as Bo’s “pet” at one point. Interesting. While they don’t want to keep the contents of the box from Bo, they are scared of the power it may contain. Oh, and it was something that Bo sent it to herself while she was off in Locomotive-ville! Kenzi ends up finding the box and brings it to Bo at the end of the episode. Bo opens it, and it contains a bottle with something dark inside. What the heck could it be?
Fae-vourite Lines:
Vex: “Come now. Come to Team Vex, where ye shall be judged most worthy of Bo’s box.”
Dyson: “Drunken surgery. I’ll be the nurse.”
Trick: “You’re my granubus, my succudaughter”.
Kenzi: “Came to stuff my stocking with your yule log once again, stud?”
Random Thoughts:
- Did Bo’s car wash melt your ice cream, too?
- We finally have a bit of intel on The Wanderer courtesy of Tam – he’s evil, and not the kind of person you say no to. How much longer until we meet him?
- For the first time, a seed of doubt has been planted in my mind regarding The Wanderer. I always thought that he was most likely Bo’s dad. In this episode, Tam says The Wanderer would have done anything to “create his ideal mate.” Was that what he was doing with Bo on the train? And was her pledging fealty to the Dark Fae part of that plan?
- Quick, someone get on making a GIF of Lauren and Dyson as Wonder Twins Jayna and Zan …with Vex as simian sidekick, Gleek!
Photo Courtesy of Showcase
Lost Girl just keeps getting worse. Horse****.
This show has finally lost me this episode. I showed up for a series led and driven by women. I’m getting a show about a guy who can turn into a wolf and all the women who prop him up, plus filler.
The two big draws for this show were the interesting relationship between Kenzi and Bo, and the big thrilling romance between Bo and Lauren. They’ve buried both of those things this year, and the plotting and pacing have both taken a nosedive in the meantime too.
I’d been holding out for something better for eight episodes now, and it’s just not happening, the show clearly does not see the problem with throwing every woman in the cast under a bus to shore up their damp squib straight white male. I thought it was different, but it’s not. Rather than exploit its strengths, it’s just getting more desperate at trying to sell me its weakest link. Watching Lauren, of all people, who Dyson has treated with contempt and derision for four years, reduced to the role of cheerleader for that douchebag to try and inject some balance into the boring ass love triangle is the last straw. There is no equivalence there, and having characters tell me how I’m supposed to feel about him makes no difference – if Dyson was a female character, who was that boring and that poorly received, he’d have been cut loose long ago. What LG has done instead is blow the guts of a season trying to make him happen, AGAIN, rather than make use of its run to do something interesting with the rich characters all around them. It bent its whole premise around him, and in the process rendered its lead completely unlikeable and squandered the rest of the cast entirely as kindling for his benefit.
Lost Girl is a Canadian show not bound by the usual US tv tropes and storytelling language, it had a real chance to stand out, and flex some real personality. It blew it. It’s gone, it sacrificed all of that trying be just like everything else.
Wow. That above comment is so full of bull. Bo and Kenzi have had several awesome moments in this season, they are still best friends through thick and thin but they can’t be the only thing on the show when there is a story to be told. And the show has done a really good job of combining the ‘fae of the week’ format that it has established since day one with the over all mystery of who is Bo’s father, who is The Wanderer, and what happened to her on the train. If this was S2 or S3 they would just ignore the mystery for nearly half the season with barely a mention of it and then BAM shove it all in two episodes. This season they’ve been giving Bo hints and clues all season while finally give some fans what they have been clamoring for, which is backstory on the other characters. And yes, that includes Dyson, a character that has been beloved by many fans since the very first season. Surprise, the show isn’t “Doccubus”. It’s Lost Girl. It’s about Bo. And Bo has many relationships that should be explored. Bitching just because the one you want isn’t the main focus is lame. Finally Lauren is interesting because finally Lauren is something more than just Bo’s lover. I like that growth. And this episode was pretty much the writers telling the shippers they need to get over themselves.
Hello! First of all thank you for leaving a review so quickly, it’s always fun to see recaps. I’m glad that you found it fun – it seems others have as well. I think for me, I’m disappointed because what made Lost Girl interesting and rich were the depth and organic nature of the relationships. Back in season 2, everything was shown. There was very little ‘telling’ in the storyline.
This season, especially with relationships, everything is ‘told’. This episode, we are told that Lauren and Dyson are friends, but it would have been great to see an organic buildup throughout the season. It’s always implied that Bo and Kenzi are sisters, and in the first 2.5 seasons, their relationship was probably the best relationship on TV bar none – whether it be platonic or romantic. It was unique, heart felt, genuine, and you see these two women go through some tough times – together. They were always there for one another no matter what. They shared their grief, their pain, and their fears. This season, it’s become much more shallow. Kenzi poured her heart out to Bo in episode 4. And it was beautiful and well done. But Bo’s response was…inadequate. Bo has been feeling all of this pain and fear, and that is a moment I would have loved to see with Kenzi. It would have been amazing. It would have given depth to the show. And there are relationships that can be deepened. Where do Dyson and Kenzi stand after episode 1? Vex and Dyson? Or most interestingly to me – Lauren and Hale?
All of this has fallen on the wayside. I miss the depth of story, the exposition by looking at the evidence on screen, not have Vex or Kenzi or Bo or the Brazenwood donkey pop up and say, “So now this is what’s going on! Let’s roll with it”.
In addition, we are 8 episodes in to the season. All the stuff about Bo’s story could have been done in 2-3 episodes so that we could have had more wanderer and una mens resolution. We still have no clue what’s going on with Trick’s seed. We only have 5 episodes to go and we have yet to even meet 2 of the 3 big bads (unless the mysterious third is a member of the gang). What’s going on with Evony and Lauren’s lip condom? What’s going on with Trick? We have too many dropped plot lines (Helskor are pretty much a bust, so we wasted episode 7. The Una Mens don’t really care about the humans anymore. Apparently Crystal is hanging out with Lou Ann, Val, and Aife in a girl’s poker night.
So yeah, in the spirit of 4×08, this season has been wonderful at giving us lots of sweet sweet candy every episode. But you can only have so much candy before you start demanding meat and vegetables.
@Cirulian
Bo and Kenzi have been reduced to bickering over a guy and then telling me everything’s fine about their relationship before wandering apart into completely separate rooms again. They haven’t had anything of substance together, at all. Meanwhile, Andras is telling me that the fact that they aren’t talking about anything anymore is proof of how *close* they are.
Dyson already actually had a backstory before the whole entire other one that he somehow forgot and was completely WTF with his characterisation. He had more backstory than any other character, in fact, complete with hair extensions and terrible accents. So they didn’t need to shoehorn another one in, between all of his woman punching and scolding.
There are five episodes left in this year’s output of LG, and we could fit the actual arc plot progression we’ve had into a four minute recap. That’s not a joke – actually look at what we now know about The Wanderer, and that’s what it amounts to. Add another two minutes to sum up the Una Mens if you want to be generous.
Otherwise, we’ve been treading water all season, gradually discarding all of the stuff people actually enjoyed about the show. I’ve been on board since episode one, and I don’t recognise these characters or care about this heroine any more. I’m sad to have had so much wasted faith.
Yes to everything JD said. And, the lack of Bo / Kenzi friendship makes Bo seem like more of an asshat.
Just when I thought LG couldn’t get any worse. An obviously contrived plot to allow Bo and Tamsin to kiss, and a bromance between Lauren and Dyson? The kiss was gross not only because it was fanservice,it was also an insult to the audience’s intelligence. It was just as thinly veiled as that disgusting scene last week. And TPTB want us to accept a bromance between L and D when he disrespects her to no end. In terms of the rest of the episode, it was a script by a two hacks. Huge let down.
I partially agree with the comments. I think there have been a lot of changes this season, some of them have paid off, and others just haven’t worked.
Making Lauren more than just the third part of the Bo/Dyson/Lauren love triangle was one of the best changes this season. I have liked Lauren well enough from the pilot, but it wasn’t until this season that they gave her legs to stand on her own, and I applaud the writers for that.
I think that they’ve also been trying to give all the characters more screen time, to make it more of an ensemble show. Everyone has their favorite character/ship, and I think the writers maybe went a tad overboard on trying to include everyone.
They do a “fun” episode every season. (the body switch, brazenwood, ect.) and I think that the La Fae Epoque was the writers attempt at fun and quirky this season. It had lots of funny moments going on, like Kenzi as the bartender, and Vex’s hilarious facial hair/accent. Dyson really didn’t need the extra backstory. It could have been given to a different character instead. We are still missing lots of info on Trick, Tamsin, and hell, even Lauren (pipe bombing, congo stuff).
Some people have expressed their displeasure that Dyson seems to be so important this season, but I honestly think that’s just shippers being territorial. Dyson hasn’t really had much more screentime than last season or season 2. I know that the Bo/Lauren shippers abound, and by all means, they are a great ship. But so is Bo/Dyson, I know he’s been a prop after the whole Norn thing, but I think the writers are trying to make him a legit character again.
The main problem with bisexual characters, is that fans get territorial and annoyed if the male love interest comes close to overshadowing, or even being equal with the female love interest. I know that you don’t want Bo to be reduced to the “bisexuality is a phase until you meet the right man” trope, but BOTH Lauren and Dyson are legitimate love interests for Bo, and its been established that she loves them both.
I like that they’ve tried changing things to avoid stagnancy, but I can’t help but want my S1 or S2 happy sunshine gang back. Where Bo and Kenzi took cases cold, and used their fae resources while also navigating the crazy fae world. Though they could only keep that up for so long, because Bo and Kenzi have really learned too much about the fae to have that work again.
I know some people have hated the Bo/Kenzi thing this season, and that is due to them increasing screentime for all characters/ships/friendships. Something had to be cut, and they chose Bo/Kenzi. TBH, it would have worked better to cut the Una Mens stuff, as that seems very much like the dawning was last season (read: pointless). But, there’s still 4-5 episodes left, and I will give them the benefit of the doubt that the payoff of these storylines will be big.
I do agree with @Cirulian the show is about Bo- everyone else is secondary including “relationships”, all of them. This episode was a fun filled one, where the group could co-exist without Bo, and Bo needed to face her fears on her own- or with Tamsin’s help. I always like an episode when the original six are in it and bonus when the other characters are too. The Karmpus was really funny, wanka like but colourful and nutty. Bo still has a black hole of a memory, I love to get to know what the Fae went on in that train, and to think that Tamsin met with the Wanderer face to face. Bo was able to ask if he really was so dark, yep dark enough to choose his mate to make a powerful partner- Bo! This fan is in it for the entire RIDE! Bring on all the bumps and loops on this rollercoaster ride- I’m loven it so far. Please announce a season 5 soon! Pretty please! and I hope the writers write what they want, you’ve already given the fans “their” seasons- do your take on LostGirl and don’t listen to tweets!
Absolutely agreed with JD!! I’ve also been trying to keep watching but it’s getting harder and harder with all the new characters and “bosses” and “superiors” showing up all the time while Bo is now heading towards Tamsin!! Dyson and Lauren – NO COMMENTS! Dyson is an A**hole!! Kensit is no longer important and became quite annoying actually. Trick… who’s Trick?
The show’s got nothing of its original idea, pity!!