BEING HUMAN Is Sometimes About Being Lonely

Episode 304: “I’m So Lonesome I Could Die”

[Photos: Phillipe Bosse/Syfy]

At the end of last week, Henry leaves Aidan to die alone. We never actually see Henry die. We assume, but this is a show about the supernatural, so I wonder if we’ll see Henry again. I must admit, I never grew attached to him. He never showed the appropriate amount of respect or decorum to Aidan, Suren or Mother, nor did I feel he was a particularly layered character. To each his own, right?

This week begins with a 3 AM kegger. Josh and Nora take passive exception to the party, given that Nora has to be at work at 6 AM, but Sally understands that Aidan needs to process grief over his dead vamp son. She jumps into Aidan’s arms and joins him on the living room dance floor, where both bust a goofy move. It’s little moments like these that elevate this show from good to great.

The next morning, Josh tells Aidan he intends to marry Nora. Aidan recommends he ask Nora’s father for permission, so later Josh basically insists on attending Nora’s family dinner that evening. Erin gets dragged along, as well. There, we meet Nora’s brother R.J., her father, and her mother. Nora’s dad isn’t much of a talker, and says nothing upon introductions. Instead, he shoots eye daggers at his wife because she’s standing in front of the TV. Sheesh.

R.J. flirts with Erin a little; Nora’s mom pouts about Will and how hard it’s been for Will’s mother since Will’s death. Discomfited, Nora and Josh exit the kitchen, and Nora warns that they shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, especially ones that we killed. I happen to think that’s a very sound principle. The conversation somehow turns into a not particularly surprising confession that Nora killed Brynn in self-defense while she was away. Nora appears overwhelmed with guilt; was it really self-defense? But Josh brings up a valid point: Nora never judged him for murdering Ray, so he’s not going to judge her for her two kills. If only all couples were so understanding.

Josh catches Nora’s dad out on the front porch, where he’s having a smoke. Josh says some very nice things about Nora, and asks Mr. Sargeant’s permission to marry Nora. Mr. Sargeant then says perhaps the un-classiest thing I’ve ever heard come out of a man’s mouth (and I’ve heard some doozies): take a look at her mother and decide if you still want to do that. You don’t talk crap about your wife and daughter; it’s not right.

Earlier, Sally had gotten advice from street-smart Erin to get a new identity and leave Boston. Sally, who had always been straight and narrow before her demise, suddenly realizes she has options available. She accompanies Aidan to a bar to ask what’s involved with acquiring a new identity. Aidan says that getting a social security number from a dead baby was usually involved, and just when that conversation gets creepy dark, the jukebox churns out some swing that Sally had picked for her old friend. Another awesome dance scene here, but at the end of the dance, it becomes clear that Aidan’s attention is actually riveted on a drunk biker at the bar.

While downing shots, Sally mentions Josh’s and her concern that Aidan isn’t taking the unclean blood threat as seriously as he should. Aidan does his scoff-and-get-away-with-it-because-my-face-is-so-pretty move, so Sally lets it go. While she’s in the ladies room, the drunk, burly biker dude leaves the bar. Aidan takes after him. Ditched and slightly bewildered, Sally also leaves, but then finds said biker crawling and injured out on the street. She borrows a phone from a couple to call 9-1-1, when it hit me: Sally has no identity, so she doesn’t even have a phone. And I’m also very irritated with Aidan that he let Sally walk home by herself. It’s neither chivalrous nor safe.

Back home, Sally challenges Aidan again on his random sampling of victims, and he shuts the front door on her. Rude. But Sally gets him: she sneaks up on Aidan while he’s asleep, somehow manages to crawl on top of him, and positions a stake over his chest. She challenges him again on his overdeveloped Thanatos; Aidan reveals he’s given up. In his mind, there’s no way to obtain safe blood, his way of life has killed everyone he loves, and he’s alone.

Sally’s hurt by the implication, but Aidan’s right: Nora and Josh will likely need their own place soon, and Sally had considered leaving. Sally protests: she doesn’t know her plan, but she knows she needs to become a person again. She also calls him a douchebag, and they laugh a little as they sit next to each other in Aidan’s bed. Lots of touching between these two lately. Will they go the When Aidan Met Sally path?

Lots more little things rounded out the episode. R.J. shows up at the house and reveals Josh planned to propose. Nora runs to the store, and while she’s gone, R.J. makes out with Erin. Josh walks in on it, kicks R.J. out, R.J. hits him, and Josh hits back. Nora comes home to the tussle, and Erin has the audacity to say that she and R.J. were just talking when Josh came in and hit him. You ungrateful little b-…bad person. Nora kicks R.J. out, and Erin splits. Good, I thought Josh was right to be skeptical of her, and I’m not sorry to see her go. Nora uses the situation to warn Josh off from big changes in their life.

Aidan finally gets back to work at the hospital, which is nice, because we haven’t spent as much time there as in previous seasons. During a quiet tour, Aidan stumbles onto a room where a teenage boy lives with bubble boy disease. Aidan’s tour guide mentions the boy’s never been sick, and the wheels in Aidan’s head turn quickly as he considers the possibility of an untainted food source.

Sally goes to Howell & Holt to find a death certificate for an infant, but Max (cutest funeral director ever) busts her. Sally explains that she’s hiding from her past and needs a new identity to start living again, for money, for security. Max won’t help her with the identity, but offers her a job at the funeral home to be paid in cash. Not sure how that’s legal, but Sally’s not picky. Who can blame her? She has short-term needs, and Max can help her take care of them. Ahem.

Next week it looks like things heat up a little between Sally and Max, bubble boy and Aidan, and Nora and Josh and Liam. Ugh, Liam. See you guys soon after!

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