Recap: Lost Girl S4, E8 Groundhog Fae

People are crazy and times are strange.
– Bob Dylan

In “Groundhog Fae,” episode 8 of Lost Girl, Bo kisses Tamsin about 50 times while Kenzi kisses Hale about 500 times. Lauren, Dyson and Vex become besties on Bo’s bed while discussing Bo’s box. It’s the Lost Girl Christmas show!

In the Lost Girl universe, it’s summer time. We’ll get to what that has to do with Christmas later. In the meantime, we begin with objectified boobs at the car wash/gas station.

Lauren lusts after this marvel of nature as melting ice cream runs in a wet slide down her hand. No need to be subtle on Lost Girl, just put it all out there. At least until Hale shows up to snap his fingers and bring everyone out of their Bo induced carwash hallucination.

Seems washing cars is therapy for Bo since she’s failed in her attempts to find the hell shoes. It’s Fae Yule night when Krampus comes to “slide down your chimney on the hottest night of the year,” according to Lauren (Zoie Palmer). Bo (Anna Silk) says that sounds like her kind of elf. Boy, is she wrong there.

Bo took a piece of candy when she paid for the gas, ate it, and now she’s so sleepy she’s letting Hale (K.C. Collins) drive. Bo climbs in the back seat and Lauren and Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried) shove it out to see who gets to sit in back with her. Lauren wins. Oddly, Lauren and Dyson are acting friendly toward each other.

In the gas station, a creepy fellow and his short assistant dump a dude who made the mistake of eating a piece of their candy into an abyss that somehow opens under the hood of a car.

Trick (Rick Howland) reads about the legend of Krampus to Kenzi (Ksenia Solo) who has had enough of the Stephanie Meyer literature and changes the subject to decorating for Yule. Trick continues that Yule is a celebration of contrition. We are going to have contrition aplenty tonight.

Dyson and Lauren come into the clubhouse, compliment Kenzi on her decorations. She only wants to know where Hale is.

Hale comes in with a Krampus sack, wearing horns. Kenzi is most welcoming, so much so that Lauren and Dyson have to issue throat clearing reminders about their presence. Bo doesn’t come in with everyone else. Where is she? They don’t notice her absence and drink a toast to Bo to show that “she is not alone.”

Bo wakes up in the car when the radio comes on. She’s no longer dressed in her wet car washing outfit. She has on a dress and boots and doesn’t know why everyone abandoned her in the car. Bo goes into the clubhouse. She passes by a couple kissing in what passes for an entryway, sees Bruce (Rob Archer) chugging beer with a woman as muscular as he is, and is approached by Choga (Darryl Hinds), who is one of those frog fae whose sweat gives you super powers. He offers Bo a lick.

Bruce interrupts his drinking to push Choga away and say hello to Bo.

Happy Yule, Bruce tells her.

In Bo’s bedroom, Lauren and Dyson discuss a box which came addressed to the dark archives in care of Bo and covered in Bo’s handwriting. Lauren opened it. They argue about whether or not to give the box to Bo. Bo discovers them and complains that they left her alone in the car, feeding her growing abandonment issues. They hide the box.

Vex (Paul Amos) comes in, wearing Bo’s corset. Bo yells for Kenzi and leaves. Lauren thinks she, Dyson and Vex are going to need more booze. They are downing shots as quickly as they can.

Kenzi and Hale make out in Kenzi’s bedroom. Kenzi breaks away because her Kenzi-senses are tingling. Hale makes an attempt at a brilliant 100% guaranteed foreplay remark which falls flat with Kenzi. He says, “Ignore that. I’ll do better next time.”

Downstairs, Bo talks to Krampus (R.D. Reid), only she doesn’t know he’s Krampus yet. She’s complaining about being abandoned in the car, calls Lauren and Dyson the new wonder twins. She says, “Okay, maybe I’m running out of excuses not to get back on that train. Why am I telling you this?”

Krampus puts on Groucho Marx glasses and says, “Sometimes we only have to see what’s staring us in the face.”

Tamsin enters, neatly ducks a ball just as it flies past her head, tells Bo, “I’m so sorry,” and kisses her. Bo wants to know what that was for. Tamsin says, “Doesn’t matter, you’re not going to remember in about 3 seconds.”

Bo is back in the car, waking up to the sound of the radio. She jumps out, goes back inside to pass by the kissing couple, see the beer chugging, get offered a lick of frog sweat, thanks Bruce for pushing the guy away. This time when Bruce walks off dissonant music plays when he passes by a particular wall which seems to magically contain the little guy from the gas station. It’s Jeffrey (Ken Hall) and he’s Krampus, Jr.

Bo sees Tamsin and says, “Yo, Valkyrie lips, what was that?” Tamsin is surprised Bo remembers that’s she’s been through this before.

Tamsin gives Bo the Bill Murray version of what’s about to happen as she points to various recurring events around the room. Tamsin’s been on repeat even longer than Bo, telling people they’re stuck in some sort of quantum paradox, but no one believes her.

“Then you and I kissed,” Tamsin says. They shrug. Since Bo remembers it’s groundhog day fae, they try kissing again. Nothing happens. Bo says, “Nada.” Tamsin reveals her longing for the succubus, and says, “Speak for yourself.”

A couple of episodes back, Tamsin announced that the way Bo makes her feel is what love feels like.  She always had the hots for Bo, but she’s being nice about it since her rebirth. In her previous life, she had the hots for Bo but covered it over with snark and anger. I’m wondering if the feelings Tamsin is developing (or acknowledging honestly) this season will make her a powerful ally for Bo in whatever eventually happens in the meeting with The Wanderer and the conflict between light and dark that is developing in Bo.

Rinse and repeat. This round in the time loop, Bruce is missing, Bo punches the frog sweat guy, and decides to have some fun of her own.

Fun for Bo includes betting on Tamsin’s chugging ability and arm wrestling Bruce’s buff drinking partner. Bo wins. Of course.

Fun also includes more kissing with Tamsin, because who’s going to even remember? Plus, Tamsin really gets into it.

Lauren and Dyson decide to drink to decide whether or not to tell Bo about the box.

Lauren should get to decide because she loves Bo. Down a drink. No, Dyson should get to decide because he sacrificed his love to save Bo. Down a drink. Lauren admits Bo wants the truth. Drink. Dyson thinks Bo can handle herself and her destiny. Drink. Vex thinks they should present their cases to him. Then Vex will decide who is most worthy of Bo’s box.

Bo wakes up in the car again as time restarts itself. She and Tamsin sit by the fire for a heart to heart talk this time around. I can’t help noticing once again that Kenzi is off in a kissing loop and Lauren and Dyson are drinking with each other in Bo’s bedroom. None of them are there for Bo. Tamsin is. Tamsin is not only there, she gives Bo vulnerable, longing looks. Tamsin says, “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

Bo is distracted by Krampus, Jr. pulling another person into the magic wall with him. Party goers are disappearing into the wall at an alarming rate.

BAM, Bo’s back in the car and time restarts. Bo asks Tamsin to tell her everything she did on the way to the party. Seems she stopped at a gas station to buy a pack of gum. They decide to look for Trick to get the Yule story info.

Dyson tells Vex and Lauren about the first time he met Bo and how he gave her the chi injection she needed to save herself.

He figures that makes him responsible for her being here, so he should get to choose what to do with her box. You have to admire actors who can say shit like that with a straight face.

Lauren, who is well and truly drunk, says, “When I first met Bo she didn’t know her hole from an ass in the ground.” Lauren curbed Bo’s murderous hunger, plus she loves her and that should give her extra votes. She thinks they should throw the box in the fire.

Dyson says why are we fighting? Lauren smiles at him. He wants to hug it out with the doctor.

Dyson says later that he hasn’t hated her for a long time. She says, “You’re the only one who gets my predicament, Wolfie. And, you make me laugh.” Smiling and hugging and chemistry between Lauren and Dyson. It’s happening whether you want it or not.

Lauren is going to reattach Vex’s hand. Right now. Drunk surgery.

Bo and Tamsin find Trick sleeping in the bathtub. He’s drunk and useless. He does think Tamsin’s pretty, so maybe he’s not completely brain dead.

BAM. Back to the car.

Kenzi and Hale make out in her bedroom. He continues to search for a remark that will turn her on, not drive her away mad, but he’s not doing well at it. Three or four more time restarts and he reads to her from a book of poetry. Success. She likes it.

Kenzi gets out her “first time with a Fae box from Bo” to reveal a selection of condoms. Hale gets a sudden case of performance anxiety and checks his watch.

The 9th time Bo and Tamsin wake up Trick from his bathtub bed, Bo asks him why he hasn’t told her about The Wanderer. He says, “Because I’m terrified.”

Restart time. Bo and Tamsin try talking to Hale and discover that he knows about the time loop. He says, “Oh, Krampus got  you, too?”

Seems Krampus plays tricks on people every year during Yule. Hale thinks it’s harmless. Bo says, we just saw some guy get sucked into the wallpaper. Hale says Krampus feeds on regret.

Bo goes downstairs to confront Jeffrey, AKA Krampus, Jr., at the wall. Tamsin gets sucked into the wall. Hale says Krampus is just a kindly prankster who whisks naughty children to candy land. He says they should go back to where they first met up with him to find him.

Things are back to normal time, which Hale says means Krampus has found someone with enough regret to tide him over. Bo leaves for the gas station. Hale gives her a big knife.

Kenzi is in her bedroom, her feelings hurt because she discovered that Hale was practicing his wooing in the time loop. She says, “How many times did we?” He says, “Not once.” He says he just wanted to make it perfect because he cares about her.

She forgives him; they make up.

Bo jumps into the abyss at the gas station. She discovers a conveyor belt where people go in one end and candy comes out the other. Tamsin is strapped on the conveyor belt. Tamsin says, “I’ve been naughty. Now I’ll be candy.” Bruce wanders by, sad because he has to wait to be candy.

Bo says, “Listen up, brainwashed Betty,” and gives Tamsin a lecture about not having regrets. Tamsin says, “If they make me into a lollipop, I want you to have the first lick.” Bo sticks the big knife in the works and gets Tamsin off the soylent green candy machine.

Jeffrey shows up and Bo yells at him about how he’s ruining Christmas. He says the Valkyrie is his, and sure enough she seems stuck to the floor. Tamsin confesses she’s the reason The Wanderer found Bo.

A quick flashback to a previous life, in which Tamsin hunts Fae fugitives. The Wanderer comes to her with eyes of pure evil. He wants her to find a woman that Tamsin doesn’t think could exist: her eyes both brown and blue, virtuous yet lustful, neither dark nor light – yet both.

Tamsin can’t stand that she helped that monster find Bo. She’d rather be candy than what she is. Bo says, “None of that matters. I forgive you.”

Jeffrey comes back and says, “Admit you ate that candy.” Bo finally gets the connection between everything that’s happened and eating the piece of candy from the gas station.

Seems Jeffrey wants a sacrifice. He likes Tamsin’s regrets. Papa Krampus turns everyone loose except Bo. He likes her darkness. There’s enough darkness in her to make candies for centuries. She’s full of guilt and denial and the kind of complexity that makes great candy.

He straps her to the conveyor belt. She can’t be free unless she faces her truth and confronts her fears.

She says, “Yes, I’m scared. I’m scared of making the wrong choice. Of losing my friends and my family again. I’m terrified of what I’ll become. I’m terrified of what I’m capable of. I’m terrified of The Wanderer and what he’ll make me.”

With that, Krampus frees her. She lands next to Tamsin still saying, “I’m scared.” Tamsin says, “I’ve got you,” and hugs her.

Bo wakes up in the car one last time, with Tamsin looking at her.

Bo asks Tamsin about the evil thing that got her, The Wanderer. Could he be Bo’s father?

Tamsin says, “That thing would do anything to claim its ideal mate. Even if it meant creating her himself.” Mate. She used the word mate. The plot line for The Wanderer is driving me crazy!

Kenzi pops in, asks how Bo is. Tamsin calls Kenzi mom. Kenzi says Lauren’s gone off to sew Vex’s hand back on. It’s past midnight and light and dark can’t be at the same Yule party so Tamsin leaves, Kenzi goes back inside and Bo stays with the car. Kenzi says, Oh, yeah, I found this box on your bed where Dyson passed out.

Bo opens the box and sees a glass container of something dark.

Personal Thoughts

• Hello to Groundhog Day. Hello to Soylent Green. Hello to Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. There were references to Keebler elves and Stephanie Meyer and other pop culture trivia in this episode. It’s as if we don’t know how to tell a story without pop culture to ground us and give us fodder for jokes.
• Here’s the Krampus folklore as opposed to the St. Nicholas folklore.
• Now that they finally built a set for Kenzi’s bedroom, we get to see it in every episode! We also have a set for a garage in this episode. Bo had to have somewhere to wake up whenever the time loop reset. The clubhouse is growing.
• I’m happy to see Lauren interacting with Evony, with Dyson, with Vex. Zoie Palmer was really limited in what she could do when she only had an occasional scene with Bo. More Lauren is always a good thing. Plus, Lauren is funny when she’s not busy being in love with Bo.
• It was nice to have the grown up Tamsin present and prominent in this episode. Almost makes up for her being missing so much in the previous episodes.
• Here’s a little present from Rachel Skarsten
  

  Behind the scenes #LostGirl pic.twitter.com/B9U03OWgnY

  — Rachel Skarsten (@RachieSkarsten) December 30, 2013