Last night's Being Human was the saddest episode ever to kick a were-puppy. Get out the clove smokes, kids — things just got emo. But thankfully, for a show campaigning for the award of "most emotionally exhaustive series on TV," we still enjoyed it. It was definitely a step up from last week.
No supernatural creature was safe from the emotionally manipulative swelling music and climactic reveals in this episode. Fortunately for Josh and Sally, their story lines worked crushingly well. So let's go ahead and get Aidan's drama over and done with.
Chins picked up right where he left off: in the middle of a Vampire Street Gang fight led by his Vampire Son, Henry the Lion Haired. But in a twist of Vampire Fatherly love, Henry helped Aidan slay the black-eyed brutes. Only to be shooed away by his Vampire Pop. You see, Aidan is in love with his Vampire Princess. And together, they're going Kerouac on everyone's ass. Too bad for The Chin the Vampire Princess and her lovely sweater can not go five hours without killing someone for their fluids. So Suren leaves Aidan. It's... sad? We haven't really seen Suren emote, other than making bedroom eyes at Adian, so unfortunately the big gesture was lost on us. Even after the "You don't know how long I've loved you" dinner scene reveal from last week. It was too little, too vampire. Oh well, at least this storyline is done with. Or so we hope.
Now, on to bigger and even sadder plot points. Zoe returned this episode — hooray! This character is great and we're incredibly happy she is back doing something other than being sucked inside Sally's evil white contacts. Sally's on damage control for all the "shredding" her alternate personality, Keanu Reeves-lite, has been up to. First Sally apologizes to Zoe for shredding her boyfriend Nick. It doesn't go well, and Sally is forced to pull out a few adorable Patrick Swayze Ghost tricks. And just when all is about to be forgiven, there's a very convenient eclipse. Boom, bang — all the ghosts Sally shredded return. Which means Zoe gets to see her scarfed boytoy Nick again.
Where do ghosts go when they're shredded? "Limbo," a place where they lose their bodies and minds. How bad is limbo? Bad. So bad that the show tries to make you feel for Sally's murderous ex (whom she also shredded and appears to tell everyone that he deserves this torture). It's the worst — much like him.
Sally ghost swooshes to be with Nick, with Zoe following close behind. Since Sally arrives first, this allows Nick to spill the beans about the horrors of limbo to Sally. But when Zoe appears, he puts on a brave ghost face and tells her he's finally at peace. It's incredibly sad. And this horrible secret that Sally now has to keep will no doubt haunt her spirit. It was all fairly reminiscent of that Buffy episode when Buffy tells Spike she was in Heaven (not as emotionally gutting, but still terrible). As the eclipse ends, so does Nick's time on Earth. It's heartbreaking to watch him smile and greet his doom, saving face for the lovely Zoe. But at least now we know how to get him back.
Meanwhile the eclipse has a different power over Josh. After winning back his ex fiance's best friend (in a wonderful scene handled with grace and maturity by this new red-head character), Josh starts to turn. After he's finally convinced himself to be honest with his ex-fiance about his supernatural secret, all that emotional work goes promptly to hell as he grows fangs and fur in front of his lady.
The terrified Julia flees, right into a goram car. We gasped — quite audibly — while watching. To make matters worse, after the eclipse passes and Josh returns to human form, he sheepishly greets his battered lady on the curb. Josh tells her he's a wolf, but it's too late. Because he's talking to Julia's ghost. She's dead.
Now Josh has ruined the life of yet another person he loved. Even though Julia quickly gets her door (seemingly offering her character some sort of closure) Josh must be ruined forever. How he will get over this? We have no idea. But for a show that insists on using soap opera tactics to elicit horror from its audience, this worked. We were shocked, scared, sad and totalled. And we didn't even know her that well! Perhaps it was the surprise. Either way, we were sad to see her go after spending the day doing the things normal people do when they're painstakingly trying to pick up the pieces from their life. Now it's shattered, smashed by a truck. We can't wait to see what will happen to Cowlicks now. Poor puppy — but great job delivering.