Lost Girl continues to confound our expectations in “Of all the Gin Joints” by using opera to restore bits of Bo’s lost memory and by putting Lauren in the middle of a plot we don’t yet understand.
Episode 6 begins with a woman (Lara Jean Chorostaki) singing an aria to an audience of one. She wears a white dress covered with feathers. After her song ends, she tries to run away. A man stops her in her tracks with a whistle that does to people what Hale’s siren song does – it brings her to her knees in submission. It also makes me hold my ears at home while reaching for the volume control. She recovers enough to continue running.
At a certain familiar gin joint, Bo (Anna Silk) and Kenzi (Ksenia Solo) conduct parallel disconnected monologues. Kenzi’s is about reading a note from Tamsin about how she has to go somewhere. (Again with the missing cast members in season 4.) Bo’s monologue is about witness signatures on dark contracts and really knowing yourself. When they finish their unrelated speeches, the say how glad they are to have each other to talk to again.
In walks the opera singer, who collapses at their feet. Yeah, of all the gin joints in all the towns in the world, she stumbled into this one. They get her into a booth. When the singer sees Bo she says, “You,” and mutters a whole string of excited Russian, which Kenzi translates to I found you and I came just like you told me to. Bo claims never to have seen her before.
Trick (Rick Howland) installs the singer in his lair and brings her things to help her get better. Bo wants to talk to her but Trick says she needs to rest and heal. Ianka is an alchemist, a rare descendant of bird people.
Trick says, “The alchemist’s song evokes powerful memories.”
Bo wants to know what kind of memories since she’s been looking for a few of those lately. Trick says some of the memories can take life.
Disco music, packing boxes, Lauren’s apartment: a happy Lauren (Zoie Palmer) moves her hips to the beat as she fills boxes. The door is wide open as usual. In walks Evony (Emmanuelle Vaugier) bearing pizza and beer. Pizza and beer have an effect on Dr. Lewis, as I recall.
Evony wants to help her move – wants Lauren to party while packing with Dark Belch beer from Evony’s own microbrewery – wants Lauren to call her Evony. In a shout out to Words with Friends fans, Evony calls the pizza za and plops it down on a cardboard box labeled “mini electron microscope.” For some reason, I find this cardboard box to the coolest thing in Lauren’s whole apartment.
Evony slides a box out of her way and Lauren tells her to be careful. It holds her entire Star Trek DVD collection and her Khan collectible action figures. I think this makes Lauren super cool in her special nerdy way, but Evony thinks she has something even cooler. She hands Lauren some old journals.
Bo finds Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried) in the Dal. He informs her that Lauren has gone with the dark. Bo says, guess what – me, too. She says her hand was forced by The Wanderer or Raynor or whoever the bastard is. Dyson wants to fix it. Bo wants sex. Dyson says it’s forbidden between dark and light.
That argument stops Bo for not even a millesecond. She drags Dyson to a back room and starts tearing off his clothes. Trick finds them and says, “What’s wrong with you. Get your brains out of each others pants.” Bo is unconvinced that giving up her quickie is a good idea until she hears that Ianka’s awake.
From Ianka, Bo learns that Ianka sang for her when they met before. Bo made Ianka promise to find her.
She sings. It takes Bo back to running in the woods in the white nightgown, to the train, but the memory is vague. Bo wants her to sing more, but Ianka says they had a deal. She’d sing and Bo would help her get her freedom.
Ianka says she needs to sing her special aria for an audience to feed, but she’s only been allowed to sing for a powerful dude called Bamber. Ianka says Bo knew she would not remember their deal, and that she should look in the handle of her knife.
Bo finds a paper in her knife. It says, “Ianka, you will sing for me and I will bring you freedom.” Bo recognizes her own handwriting on the note.
From upstairs, a loud guy yells for Ianka. He says he owns her. Bo goes upstairs and makes a “nobody owns her” speech about Ianka. Bamber (Alex Karzis) says she’s been in his family for centuries. He’s wearing a beaded and embroidered outfit that would make Liberace jealous of his wardrobe.
Bo mentions the Emancipation Proclamation. He mentions the GPS in Ianka’s necklace. Bo says that the famous aria needs to be sung. She appeals to his ego and convinces him he’s generous enough to make this happen.
Lauren learns the journals are by famous scientists. You know, Einstein, Curie – like that. Evony implies that they were Fae and says she has a whole vault full of them and tosses a few more into Lauren’s lap.
Lauren reads aloud from one, an entry about experimenting with tuberculosis on humans. She immediately thinks it was a dark Fae doctor writing the journal, but Evony tells her the doctor was human. They have an ethical discussion about scientific research. Weird.
Evony wants Lauren to feel free. Lauren says if she agrees to work with the dark Fae, it will have to be on her own terms. Evony says, “Fine. Scout’s honor.” Golly, I believe her, don’t you?
Trick and Kenzi talk at the Dal. Trick wants her to leave because an alchemist’s song can hurt humans. Hale (K.C. Collins) walks in and Kenzi goes all twitterpated. She smooths her hair and looks at Hale with expectation.
Hale walks right past Kenzi and hugs Ianka. Ianka squeals and hugs Hale like an old friend.
As everyone gathers to hear the famous aria, Kenzi – who might be a tad jealous – catalogs to Bo all of Ianka’s failings and says singer means whore in Russian. Well, not really. Bo, who isn’t really paying attention to Kenzi in this conversation either, says Ianka is the key to her finding Raynor.
Ianka sings and Bo remembers more about the train. She remembers finding a crown with the name Isabeau inscribed on the inside. She remembers being angry at seeing the crown.
A tall bald guy, Marcus, (Colin Lawrence) enters and stops the song. (Gee, he looks a lot like Kit Porter’s son.) Marcus says the singer is wired to explode. He’s got a gizmo in his hand that will detonate the necklace.
Marcus and Bamber are ready to start a war over possession of the alchemist.
Trick tells them to cool it because unrest will bring the Una Mens. Ianka gets taken to Trick’s lair once again, to heal and rest. Bo wants to take a closer look at the crystals in her necklace. Trick tells her that liquid volcanic argon can freeze the crystals so they won’t explore.
Bo sends Kenzi off to the volcanic liquid argon store. I’m not making this shit up, people.
Evony and Lauren are laughing, flirtatious. Lauren starts a Doctor’s Log Star Date journal entry about being on the couch with Evony. She’s letting her inner Trekkie out in front of Evony. It feels intimate and more open than she’s been with anyone lately. Lauren notices that the beer they are drinking is 25% alcohol. Oops. She’s tipsy.
Kenzi, who’s come in through the ever-open door, sees their behavior and asks the alternate reality Lauren to go get the real Lauren for her.
Ianka likes seeing Hale’s face. He likes seeing hers. They smile, hug, kiss. Bo happens to see the kissing. Oh oh.
Lauren reaches into her cabinet for a canister of liquid volcanic argon. What, you don’t keep a few vials in your pantry?
Lauren explains that Evony (Evony? says Kenzi) is helping her find a new place. Kenzi sniffs the beer bottle and says, “Hmm, this doesn’t smell like Kool Aid.” Lauren gives her a serious I’m-not-really-drinking-the-kool-aid look and asks how Bo is. Kenzi says, “She misses you. We all do.”
Lauren clicks into scientist mode and realizes something about the clear quartz Kenzi mentioned.
In Trick’s basement, Marcus is planning to take Ianka and go. Bo confronts him, but leaves when he threatens to blow up the crystals with his gizmo. (Not that gizmo. The gizmo in his hand. Oh, never mind.)
Upstairs. Dyson has made a receiver, which they use to listen to a conversation between Marcus and Ianka. They all hit the floor because they think he pressed the detonator. Nothing goes boom.
Kenzi arrives to tell them that the detonator didn’t detonate anything because of the transparency of the necklace, which of course, she learned from Dr. Lauren.
How is Lauren, asks Bo. Kenzi says, “Good, in a general alone sense.” Such a liar. Kenzi asks where Hale is. Bo says he’s around probably. Such a liar. Their conversations may be disconnected, but they still protect each other in matters of the heart.
Marcus and Ianka are gone. Bo finds out where using her succubus charms on Bamber, who claims Marcus is a radical bent on hatred.
Dyson does something that makes Bo say, “I love the sight of you.” This makes her realize that Ianka and Marcus are in love. She thinks Ianka and Marcus are going to use songs to kill all the bambers.
Kenzi says, “Hale’s gone and I haven’t even told him that I . . .”
Bo and Kenzi arrive to tell Ianka not to sing. She denies the song will be a death note. Instead it will tell her and Marcus’ families about their love.
Marcus lets the pretty girl in the feathered dress down by telling her some things are bigger than love. He blows his horrible whistle thing to make her sing a death song, but Hale shows up and sirens Marcus. Marcus aims his big gun at Hale. Bo gets between Hale and the gun. Marcus aims his big gun at Bo. Ianka gets between Bo and the gun. Marcus aims his big gun at Ianka. They’re lined up like soul train.
Marcus makes the mistake of calling Ianka a bitch and she sings a death knell that kills him. Take that, buster. The song hurts Kenzi and Hale, but not Bo for some reason. Hale picks up the suffering Kenzi and carries her off.
The song weakens Ianka so much she collapses. Bo holds her and promises her freedom. Ianka will die to be free. She says stories of the unaligned succubus made her believe she could be free. Bo says I’m not unaligned any more. Ianka says, “Your heart is what you want it to be.”
Ianka puts something in Bo’s hand, says, “For you. As you wished,” and dies in Bo’s lap.
On a bench, Kenzi is moaning about the pain in her ears. Hale sits beside her. “You’re finally here.”
Hale’s remark must make sense to Kenzi. She says I’ve always been here and kisses Hale. It’s a sweet, tender kiss, unlike Bo’s kissing of late. The exact opposite of Bo, in fact. Bo’s been all wham bam thank you wolfie for a while. Hale and Kenzi cuddle on the bench. Hale’s ears are bleeding, but he doesn’t let Kenzi know it.
In her bedroom, Bo opens the thing Ianka gave her. It glows and creates music that takes her back to the train. She sits in front of a mirror. A light colored hand print appears at her throat, makes Bo stand up and say, “No. I can’t do this.” Bo puts the lid back on the thing. Dyson comes into the room, sees Bo looking upset. He says, “Bo.” She just looks at him. She’s confused, stunned.
Evony gives Lauren the key to the dark science facility and the key to Lauren’s new condo. Lauren says, “I’ll never trust you.”
I wouldn’t respect you if you did, answers Evony. She tells Lauren, “This was fun.”
Lauren kisses Evony. Yes, she really does.
Evony says, “This could be the beginning of a beautiful . . . something.” She doesn’t say friendship as the nods in this episode to Casablanca would require. She comments that she knows Lauren has really gone dark because she can taste it.
The second Evony leaves, Lauren digs out a mirror and some tweezers. She pulls a layer of something off her lip and puts it in a petri dish. A little sample of Evony in a petri dish – what’s Lauren going to do with that? She looks very satisfied with her sample. She raises her beer bottle and toasts, “To it beginning.”
Bo deals with her problems the only ways she knows how. With sex. Rough and impersonal sex.
Dyson keeps telling her to look at him but she won’t. She keeps her eyes firmly closed. Finally she clamps a hand over his mouth to shut him up so she can get on with it. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
They pull apart. “It’s okay.” Dyson says, “No one owns you.”
She’s afraid she’ll become like Marcus, bitter and choking on thoughts of revenge. She says she doesn’t even know the other Bo. The Bo who spent a month on a train hatching a plan and who joined the dark, willingly.
She kneels in front of the mirror. We see a hand print at her throat.
He marked me! Who, asks Dyson. The Wanderer. Raynor. He might be my father.
Three of The Una Mens appear in the room, complaining that the codex of laws have been broken. By Dyson. He responds with wolf growls.
The Una Mens can growl, too. The episode ends with snarling.
Personal Thoughts
- Lauren is up to something, but I’m afraid to predict what it might be. There’s no predicting season 4 of Lost Girl. No predicting.
- Bo’s Fae Alzheimers is is causing havoc. And dragging on. And on.
- Kenzi and Hale are acting like they’re a thing now. That’s actually sweet and charming and hopelessly romantic.
- Inappropriate as it was, devious as it was, I really enjoyed the light-hearted exchanges, near flirting, and laughter between Lauren and Evony.
- The Bo and Dyson sex scenes this season have been strictly sex with no feelings – something Bo boasted about to Lauren earlier, but now are reality. She seems to be using him without regard for his feelings, and he’s letting it happen!
- Speaking of sex, since Bo learned 3+ seasons ago that she was Fae and a succubus, her sexual nature has been the one thing about her identity that she was able to comprehend and master. But now even that part of her is turning hellish and torturous. Our Bo is in deep trouble.
- Bo was supposed to be babysitting Vex but he’s nowhere around. Where’s Tamsin, what’s up with Bruce, and will we ever find out what happened to Crystal? What happened to Bo on the train? Will Bo ever be the Bo we love again? Who is Bo’s father? Did Bo and Lauren break up while they were frantically kissing in the last episode and not tell us? The never ending tension in every single story line is killing me. Can’t we resolve at least one of them?
- If they were going to make references to Casablanca, couldn’t they have found a reason to include “As Time Goes By” in the soundtrack as well?