Lost Girl Season 1 Episode 9: Fae Day
After last week’s “Vexed,” it is hard to come back down to
earth, especially for Bo. Last week her entire fae world was flipped upside
down and shaken like a snow globe. But here we are. At the clubhouse, Bo has
sword in hand and is working the pre-dawn calisthenics. What better way to shake off the dust, huh? Turns
out Bo has decided that the whole Lou Ann/Vex incident never happened. Oh yeah,
and she needs a break from “the fae and their shit.” Kenzi agrees, but since
Bo’s fae pals are blowing up her voice mail, she thinks Bo should at least make
an appearance at the Dal to get them off her back.
Cue the Fae and Their Shit
There’s a party going on at the Dal. Trick is all dressed
up, there are garlands on the bar and a happy harpist is plucking away in the
corner. Okay, “it’s not a party.” It’s La Shoshain: a spiritual fae holiday to
commemorate the Blood King and the rule of law, and oh yeah, it’s the one time of
the year light and dark fae can get up close and personal. Bow chicka wow wow. Trick is glad to finally
see Bo again, but still a bit concerned about her. She thanks him for his help,
but says what she really needs is a vacation. “Fae-cation,” quips Kenzi. I love
the fae flavor Kenzi adds to the episode. Trick’s not sure what he thinks about
Bo stepping away from the Fae, but he hopes that the Fae Day (thank you, Kenzi)
festival will help. His hopes are dashed, however, when the harpist banshee
wails and promptly runs for the hills. Banshees predict death and they don’t take
it back. Uh oh. “Someone in here is going to die, and soon.” Cue titles and
dramatic tension.
When we come back, jolly old Trick is gone. He is herding
the last of the revelers out of the Dal and he is not happy—he even snarks a
little at Bo. Only the noble families (5 fae and 5 human) can stay, but don’t
worry the first round is on the house. With the banshee to find, Trick calls in
his main lieutenant to handle the crisis. Dyson ambles in and for once doesn’t
dominate the entire room just with this presence. He is very subdued this
episode, mainly quiet, watching and waiting.
“Haven’t seen you in a while.” Dyson meets Bo softly. “I
needed some space.” As the episode progresses, we see all his walls are down.
He’s reaching out to Bo, subtly: watching in her in off moments, standing too
close, giving her “you’re the only thing in the room” smiles. After admitting
that he cared last episode, it seems like Dyson is accepting that he wants Bo
despite Trick’s objections and now is trying to figure out how to act around
her.
Trick hands Dyson information on how to find the harpist
banshee, so that he and Bo can make she tell them who is going to die. Dyson
tells Bo he can’t feed, use his gifts, or use violence on La Shoshain, so secular
Bo has to come and do it for him. Bo hasn’t forgotten the last time she asked
Dyson for a favor and he made her “ask nice,” although she does seem to be
conveniently forgetting that he saved her life sometime after that. “Ah, ask nicely. Say please.” Dyson doesn’t
give her the satisfaction though, “You don’t know who your family is. Maybe you
have noble blood. Maybe the banshee wailed for you.” “Close enough.” Bo agrees
to help. Kenzi declines to come in favor of eating everything in sight, and
Trick storms off. Before they leave, Dyson goes to check on Trick.
Down in Trick’s lair, Trick is bagging up clothes and linens
from an overnight guest: Lou Ann. She just left to go into hiding. Dyson is
perplexed that Trick would help the dark, but Trick tells Dyson that she was
the midwife at Bo’s birth. Apparently, Dyson doesn’t know that much after all,
these are all Trick’s secrets. Secrets that Dyson wants Trick to start sharing.
Now that he’s dropped the pretense of not caring about Bo, he wants to stop
lying to her as well. Trick fired back, “You chose to get emotionally
involved.” “Maybe you should too.” And then we get a name: Aoife. Dyson wants
to know what they will do if she comes. Trick says it’s not an “if” but a
“when,” and when she comes, “there will be a reckoning.”
Dyson and Bo are off to find the banshee and Bo is baiting
Dyson pretty consistently. “I thought you couldn’t use electricity on La Shoshain.”
He doesn’t bite down though. “Rules are specific: no powers, no fae-on-fae
violence, no feeding on humans. It’s all about sacrifice.” Bo thinks the Blood
King’s sacrifice sounds bloody, heavy, and nonspecific. She’s looking for Dyson
to tell her the story. “Bo, read a book.” Dyson’s not usually much with the
comic timing, mainly he’s here to look pretty and beat people up (because he is
just sooooo good at it), but he nails our Cosmo girl with that one. They get to
the agent’s office and the banshee harpist is hiding the agent’s closet, but a
poorly timed sneeze gives her away. Dyson
magically pulls out a blender and slice of meat to use to get the banshee to
talk—really those pants are pretty tight, where was he keeping that stuff?
While they force-feed the harpist a liver shake to make her
give them the name, Kenzi is making new friends back at the Dal. There’s
nothing like gambling and death to bring people together. Kenzi’s new friend is
teaching her a game that involves dice, Roman numerals, and wedding gifts that
not even lucky pigs can steal. They are cute together, he is uptight and Kenzi
is irreverent. “Joking about accounting fraud is like joking about a bomb on a
plane.” And on that note, Dyson and Bo return to announce the name of the
nobleman for whom the banshee wailed. Seann Cavanagh, aka, Kenzi’s new little
friend. Sad. Trick is more than sad, he is definitely upset about something,
he’s even snipping at Bo, but he gives her a book on La Shoshain to catch her
up and keep her from bugging him.
Kenzi suggests Seann make a bucket list. Item number one on
the list is to reconcile with his dark fae brother, Liam, who turned his back
on the light fae family more than 80 years ago. Where Seann attracts wealth and
does the books for various charities in town, Liam feeds on human greed and
runs stock market scams. Bo agrees to help, but Kenzi decides to stay with
Seann, leaving Bo backup-less. She turns to Dyson and flashes a bit of
cleavage. After a downing a shot, Dyson agrees, giving Bo an “I’d do anything
you ever asked of me” smile. No one can withstand a succubus in a v-neck
t-shirt and push-up bra. They find the brother, Liam, at the offices of his
latest toppling pyramid scheme. There are bags of shredded paper and a human
being dragged away by security as he yells that Liam ruined his life. Liam
doesn’t care. When Bo meets him, he’s slimy and not at all interested in
reconciliation. From his POV, it was all Seann’s fault and Bo doesn’t know the
whole story. So back to the Dal, she goes to get it.
At the Dal, Kenzi is watching Seann play darts as he has the
band play the same song over and over again. “When does the lame-o-go-round
stop. I wanna get off before I puke!” She implores Seann to think “big.” Big
for Seann is hitting on the nearest waitress. It doesn’t go well, but he takes
it with a smile. This guy is just too nice and resigned. I feel like I would be
a lot more bitter if I just found out I was going to die. Seann is obviously a
better “human” being than I am. Bo and Dyson return to get the whole story.
Liam was the screw-up younger brother, “parties, stealing, getting into
scraps.” Eighty years ago, Liam was given the responsibility for keeping the
books at the investment office. One weekend $30,000 went missing. Seann turned his
little brother in for stealing it. Liam rebelled by running off and joining the
dark fae. Seann just wants his brother to know he still loves him. Kenzi hopes
that maybe the banshee was wrong, but the odds don’t look good for Seann when a
giant chandelier falls from the ceiling and narrowly misses squashing the whole
lot.
After the quick brush with the chandelier, Kenzi decides
that Seann has some “gonzo” living to do and the Dal is not the place for that.
A Mercedes is the place for that. Okay, for the record you cannot hotwire that
car that easily, but it plays nicely on screen as Kenzi and Seann drive off to
temp fiery mangled death.
Bo and Dyson go to stake out Liam’s building to see if they
can get him to change his mind. Dyson sips from a silver flask. The drunker he
gets, the more pensive he becomes. By this time, he has almost worked up the
courage to say what he means. But don’t hold your breath, he never quite gets
there. “Bo—“ She interrupts saying she knows this isn’t his ideal La Shoshain. “Nowhere
else I’d rather be.” He replies out the window and Bo completely misses the
sincerity. He tries again, more explicit this time, “Bo, I want you to know. I
do what I can to protect you.” “I know. I trust you without a second thought.” Good
enough for wolf boy.
Kenzi and Seann have reached their next destination: his
father’s house, aka mansion. Being noble rocks. Dad is outside on a gorgeous
patio surrounded by hydrangeas, reading the paper, and drinking a very fun
looking blue liquor. He immediately asks Seann if they had an appointment and
you realize what kind of family Seann came from. That this sweetie of a guy has
a dad and brother like these two is either highly improbable or his mother was
a saint. Seann says that a banshee wailed for him and that he just wanted to
say goodbye. The dad asks him to get his affairs in order, and Seann sorta
tells him off saying he’s got some crazy living to get in before sundown. But
you get the impression that his affairs are already in order, because Seann is
nothing if not organized. Seann leaves, the dad tries some half-assed
explanation that his sons are too sensitive, and Kenzi takes up the fight. She
noticed the “important work” the dad thought was worth more than talking to his
soon-to-be-dead son. He’s betting on the fights. “Bobby Bell, he’s a long-shot
loser. He’s old and tired, and has no heart whatsoever.” Cross “telling off dad”
off the list and move on. Kenzi and Seann head back to the clubhouse.
Bo is reading Trick’s book about La Shoshain and giving
Dyson all the details that he already knows because a) he’s fae and b) he lived
through it. Liam comes out the building and goes to his car. Bo intercedes and
succubuses him to get him to tell her why he doesn’t want to see his brother.
Turns out Liam put out a hit on Seann for ruining his life. With this
revelation, enter goblin. They have no respect for human or fae laws, but they
do like inflicting pain, and they’ll work on La Shoshain. It’s like Chinese
takeout on Christmas. The goblin is pretty cool, it disappears and appears
randomly around the clubhouse busting through doors and seeming pretty
menacing. Seann is willing to give himself up to a gruesome death to protect
Kenzi, but she wants to fight. She gives the little nerd-nik a kiss for
courage, but it’s not needed because Bo and Dyson show up. The goblin catches
both unawares and takes Dyson out with a swift punch to his drunken throat. Bo
gets a couple of hits in before the goblin pulls out a sword and goes to beat
her with it. Dyson shoots him. I love that the mythology here allows firearms
and that apparently Dyson’s aim is pretty good. “I thought you weren’t allowed
to use violence today,” Bo wonders when she gets over to him. “Only to protect
a life.” The goblin gets up for a second and Dyson drops him with a fourth
bullet. Bo thinks this is all too complicated for words, but for Dyson, “it’s
pretty intuitive.” Awww.
Seems Liam was way out of line calling an unsanctioned hit
against the light on the most sacred of fae holidays, so Dyson tells Bo to play
it by the book and the Ash take care of the politics and the goblin corpse. But
who is going to take care of Seann? He’s run off. With Bo’s crossbow.
Seann catches up to Liam at his office and they spar about
collateral damage and following the rules and valuing people long enough for Bo
to get there in invoke Agallamh: special fae peace talks. Everybody keeps
looking at her like she’s crazy. “I read it in Trick’s book. I can get the
book!” Dyson steps in, “we know what it is.” Apparently nobody has invoked
Agallamh in forever. “Want to know why?” Dyson asks. “Probably not.” “Because
the person who calls for the talks forfeits her life if they fail.” Uh oh,
silly La Shoshain and sacrifice. “Really should’ve skipped to the end, huh?”
The Agallamh
Trick has hit a new level of mad. Not only is Bo probably
going to get herself killed, but she’s not respecting the traditions and values
of the fae. “It’s a distillation of everything the Blood King stood for!” “That’s
why I need your help to do it right.” Trick relents and they start the
ceremony, but not before we realize that Bo needs an executioner if the talks
fail (or sundown hits and Seann dies). Dyson steps forward and the music tells
us that this is a heavy emotional moment. The Agallamh opens and the brothers
proceed to argue about whether or not Liam took the money. “Dad gave the
combination of the safe to nobody but us!” Liam calls for closure, but Kenzi has
the big book of ritual and that street smart brain of hers. She asks Bo to
stall for time, she’s got a plan. Bo calls for a recess, “smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.”
Tension is high, might Dyson really kill our Bo? Trick stalks away, but Dyson
stops him, “You could save her,” he whispers. Trick goes to his lair and opens
up the roll of pens and knives that we last saw when Kenzi was sick and nosing
around. Trick looks serious and pained, but unsure. The Agallamh reconvenes and
Bo stalls for time. Kenzi returns in the nick of time with Papa Cavanagh. Kenzi
put two and two together pretty quickly. If neither of the brothers took the
money, the gambling dad probably did. He let Liam take the fall to save face in
front of his wife. He didn’t think that Liam would run off an join the dark.
Seann relents that he was mistaken to accuse his brother and offers the symbol
of the birthright to his younger brother as a sacrifice. Liam acknowledges it m,
promises to return the money he ripped off, and says if Papa Cavanagh will move
the mother’s grave to neutral ground he’ll call of the hit. The brothers reconcile.
Dyson and Trick look proud. Kenzi runs and gives Seann a big hug. The group
leaves the Dal happy to have beaten the banshee. Bo is cozy with the fae again.
And the brothers are, well, brothers. Until the human from Liam’s office rounds
the corner screaming about his money and shoots at Liam. Seann steps in the way
and is killed.
Wrapping It All Up
There is a sweet moment back at the clubhouse with Kenzi
missing her new friend. She has the game they were playing in front of her and
she rolls the dice. “Lucky pig wins everything but the wedding gifts.” Then she
breaks down in tears. Poor, Kenzi. You really feel for her. She tried to reach
out and connect with someone and now they are dead and she’s too hurt to
pretend to be blasé about this time. She is more fragile than she acts.
In Trick’s lair, Trick and Dyson are having a drink and
Dyson is trying to convince Trick that Bo is special and she can handle what he
needs to tell her. We also see that Dyson isn’t the only one who has become
emotionally connected to Bo. “Would you have killed her?” “Would you have used
your blood to save her?” “She’s strong.” “I’m not ready.” Dyson thinks she
could amount to something. Trick hopes not because those who rise to prominence
tends to bring a great deal of pain on themselves. Dyson offers one last toast,
“To the Blood King, and all you’ve sacrificed.” Secrets, secrets
Trickster. Given that Trick is lying to
the world about who he is, I feel like he’s playing a long game here that has
fate and the greater good all tied up in it, so if that mean he can’t tell Bo
everything she might want to know, so be it. Trick’s got more secrets than
start and end with Bo.
On another note, I can never figure out with this show
whether they were thinking about going down the “prophesied
savior/uniter/future ruler” route with Bo and then dropped it leaving behind
echoes of the old plan, or if it is more of a family mystery that will be
slowly unfolded as Bo discovers her roots and all these clues will again meet
up, just on a personal scale. But that is a question for another week.
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