Remember how last week’s episode introduced Josh’s unsavory werewolf mentor Ray and his accent of indeterminate origin and seemed to promise that he’d be sticking around for another week? What we couldn’t have guessed at the time was that, in his first appearance in tonight’s “The End Of The World As We Knew It,” Ray would be wearing an inappropriately tiny bathrobe and what appeared to be Ugg boots. Not a promising start, I think we can all agree, but in several other important ways, “End Of The World” was a step in the right direction.
As the episode opens, our supernatural housemates are experiencing what Aidan accurately describes as an Amityville Horror plumbing situation. Aidan suspects Sally is subconsciously poltergeisting the place, a diagnosis that proves correct when landlord Danny calls in a plumber to check out the situation. Although he’s not able to determine the cause of the backups, said plumber does discover a ring in the pipes leading from the upstairs bathroom sink—Sally’s engagement ring, in fact. This discovery leads to a recovered memory that probably didn’t come as much of a surprise to most viewers, even those of us who haven’t seen the original British series: Not only is Danny something of a dick, he’s also a murderer—or at least a manslaughter-er. Yes, Sally didn’t fall down the stairs; she was pushed.
While this may not be the most shocking revelation, it is a welcome one, insomuch as it gives Sally more to do than mope around the house making the toilets overflow. Indeed, she’s the only one of our three leads who fully embraces her supernatural status this week, as she pays a visit to Danny’s new place and just poltergeists the shit out of it. It will be interesting to see exactly how much more vengeance she’ll choose to pursue, as it doesn’t look like this storyline is finished just yet.
Sally’s not the only one privy to new information about her origin story. Out at Ray’s woodsy cabin, a guilt-ridden Josh, still upset about his rampage at the vampire nest the night before, learns that his were-mentor is also his maker. It was Ray who attacked Josh and his friend while they were backpacking in Maine two years earlier—news that doesn’t exactly make Josh more receptive to Ray’s plan of joining forces and forming a whole wolf pack of the similarly afflicted to run with. There follows a fight scene that’s not actually much of a fight or much of a scene, but since the end result is that Josh sends Ray packing, I’m not going to complain too much.
Ray’s overheated rhetoric about werewolves being the next logical step in evolution finds its parallel at the hospital where, contrary to Aidan’s wishes, Bishop is still in the recruitment business. His flock there includes the parish priest, who has turned an aging, terminal patient with a healthy bank account in order to help fund various vampire activities. Bishop’s master plan entails assembling an army of the wealthy and influential, in order to stage a True Blood-style coming out party for his people. Aidan isn’t on board, and as a show of bad faith, he performs a little impromptu dentistry on the priest. As it turns out, those fangs don’t just grow back if you lose them.
I would have preferred maybe half as much jibber-jabber about whether or not the housemates’ paranormal turns are manifestations of the natural order of the universe or afflictions to be resisted, but overall, “End Of The World” was a solid hour of Being Human, with promising developments for all three major characters. It was good to see both Sally and Josh asserting themselves a bit (Aidan has never seemed to have much trouble in this regard), a trend that will hopefully continue in the weeks to come.
Stray observations:
- So Josh is still flirting (a bit more successfully this week) with Dr. Blondie. But as soon as the priest mentioned that it was a female doctor who turned him, I started to think this relationship might not be destined for the altar.
- Speaking of the priest, I guess we can add churches and crucifixes to sunlight on the list of things I thought were bad for vampires but apparently aren’t. It looks like wooden stakes are still bad news, though. No word yet on garlic.
- And speaking of the priest again, I liked the bit where he pondered about Jesus rising from the dead and the possibility that he may have been one of them. If nothing else, Vampire Jesus could make for one hell of a Being Human Christmas special.