Category Archives: Guest Blogger Series
Guest Blogger Series: “Episode 410: Making Waves” by Mahlers5th and Valksy
Enjoy Mahlers5th and Valksy‘s analysis of episode 4.10.
When you end with an ending like 409 and [Bo]
shows up with some hunky guy and says,
“He’s my destiny,” I think everyone expects
something when they come back for the next episode.
I know it drives fans crazy, but I love upending
those expectations. You wanna stick around to
see what’s happening here.
Emily Andras
Executive Producer, Lost Girl
[Interview with Emily Gagne, 01/19/2014]
We all want things we can’t have. Being a decent
human being is accepting that.
John Fowles, The Collector (1963)
Valksy
As I watched a beaming Bo at the end of episode 409, seemingly enthralled by the glowing golden handprint on her body, introducing Rainer to the others as her “destiny,” I was reminded of the old serialized episodes of Doctor Who that I watched as a child. I learned then that cliffhangers, apparent perils, and shock revelations were rarely genuine. They were intended to hook the viewer’s attention and manipulate us into coming back for more and needed be taken with the proverbial grain of crystallized sea salt. With that in mind, I found myself reserving judgment about the relationship between Bo and Rainer and regarding their scenes more dispassionately as simply the next step in an intricate, plot-in-progress.
Guest Blogger Series: “Episode 409: Destiny’s Child” by Mahlers5th and Valksy
This week, enjoy Mahlers5th and Valksy‘s analysis of episode 4.09.
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience
in which you really stop to look fear in the face…You must do the
thing you think you cannot do.
[Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living]
I’m just a little bit caught in the middle
Life is a maze and love is a riddle
I don’t know where to go
Can’t do it alone, I’ve tried
And I don’t know why.
[Lenka, “The Show”]
Valksy
In the second scene of episode 409, Bo makes an emphatic declaration that surely must have been sweet music to the ears of many viewers: “Don’t you see what is happening to me?! Not knowing is driving me crazy! This has to end now.” Questions of what happened when she was with the Wanderer — Who and what is he? To what degree has he influenced her behavior since her escape? Is she lost forever? — have been driving many of us to the edge of frustration too. Here, finally, the Bo we once knew and loved seems to have resurfaced. She has rediscovered her voice and her agency, reasserted her position of leadership, and resolved to “get to the bottom of this once and for all,” come what may. Although the “Groundhog Fae” episode was (mercifully?) not referenced in the preamble to episode 409, is seems likely that Bo’s new energy and determination stem from having found the courage to articulate and accept her worst fears during her personal Yuletide reckoning with Krampus.
Guest Blogger Series: “Episode 408: Groundhog Fae” by Mahlers5th and Valksy
Happy New Year, everyone! Mahlers5th and Valksy are back this week with their analysis of episode 4.08. Enjoy!
I’m scared of making the wrong choice…of losing my friends and 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!
[Bo to Krampus, episode 408]
Go to the places that scare you.
[Buddhist saying]
Mahlers5th
“You know what?” Bo declares about half way through the zany frat party that is episode 408, ” Everyone here is having fun. I’m calling a time out on being Dark, the hell shoes, the whole thing…”
With that, she puts aside for a moment the continuing mission to seek out the Truth about herself and joins in with the feasting, arm-wrestling, ale-chugging, exhibitionistic sex-romp that has been unfolding — over and over and over again — in her apartment. And who can blame her? It has been a long confusing season for our beleaguered hero. Life was hard enough when she didn’t know who or what she was. It has become harder still since being kidnapped, robbed of her memories, and informed she is not unaligned but Dark. Someone keeps moving the goalposts on Bo.
Guest Blogger Series: “Episode 406: “Of All the Gin Joints” or “I think this is the Beginning of a Beautiful…Something”” by Mahlers5th and Valksy
Once again, an analysis of the latest episode (4.06) by Mahlers5th and Valksy. Enjoy!
It’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by
[“As Time Goes By,” Casablanca]
Mahlers5th
Last week, I placed “Turn to Stone” among my top three favorite Lost Girl episodes. You can make that top four now, because “Of All the Gin Joints” just displaced “Vexed” as #2 on my list. There was so much to love about this episode, starting with “alternate universe” Lauren sassing, seducing, double-crossing and generally dancing circles around the Morrigan — all without the benefit of Succubus powers. Kenzi and Hale kiss — for realsies. Poor hapless Dyson, following two steps behind the story line, still thinks he can be Bo’s hero and “fix” everything, but is later reduced to begging Bo to just look at him during sex, only to be slapped down (“Don’t tell me what to do,” snarls this “other” Bo). So why did the episode leave me feeling a little uneasy?
In the A-plot – or was it the B-plot to Lauren’s A-plot? Hard to tell anymore — Bo tries to rescue Ianka, a Russian opera star (“Liza Faenelli” – gotta love this show!) from light Bamber and dark Marcus who both lay claim to her and are prepared to go to war to possess her. Let’s leave aside for the moment the clear parallels here to our own would-be-unaligned Succubus’ plight and thirst for freedom. Let’s put off for now discussion of the fact that Bo and Ianka met on the Wanderer’s train and struck a bargain – Ianka’s freedom in return for Bo’s memories of being on the train — because after all, Bo asks reasonably enough, “Can you really know yourself without memory? Can you really know what you want?”
Guest Blogger Series: “Episode 405: Let the Dark Times Roll” by Mahlers5th and Valksy
Mahlers5th and Valksy are back once again with their analysis of 4.05. Hope everyone enjoy!
“The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency.” – Aldous Huxley
Mahlers5th:
We decided to mix it up this week and go with a conversational Q&A format, with me in the role of interviewer.
I thought “Let the Dark Times Roll” was Lost Girl at its very best. I’d rank it third on my list of personal favorites, right behind “It’s a Fae, Fae, Fae, Fae World” and “Vexed.” I know you loved it, too, Valksy. What made this episode so damn good? Please don’t mention Dyson’s absence. Oh well, if you must…
Valksy:
Since the Morrigan first made an elegant, laconic and deliciously wicked impact in episode 101, I have been waiting eagerly for a trip into the world of the Dark Fae. This episode delivered that longed for journey – with a side serving of the kind of salty language, sharp dialogue, grand guignol violence (that recognizes an adult audience), and wild humor, that made the show seem so bright and revolutionary from the very start.
Dreamscape motifs and mutable realities have been a daring and controversial choice, but I continue to welcome and applaud the ambitious departure from the safe haven of monster of the week episodes. I believe it a courageous gamble to make one story the focus of a full season, rather than attach it as a coda, and loved how this episode picked up exactly where the one before left off. Last week’s bewildering “time passes” gap did make me feel like I was missing something. I want every moment of this story and this episode was clearly one middle chapter in something that is of a much grander scale.
Guest Blogger Series: “Episode 404: Turn to Stone” by Mahlers5th and Valksy
This week, we have Mahlers5th and Valksy‘s contrasting opinions of 4.04. Enjoy the read!
| Let’s take a better look beyond a story book And learn our souls are all we own before we turn to stone. [“Turn to Stone,” Ingrid Michaelson] |
Be serious and keep watch; The Evil One, who is against you, Goes about like a lion Seeking whom he may devour. [1 Peter 5:8, Basic English Bible] |
Valksy
I gave a great deal of thought to even writing commentary on this episode. There is very little that I can say that would not be savage. The realization struck me loud and clear – if this was the first episode of Lost Girl that I had ever seen, it would also most assuredly be the last. I saw nothing of virtue or value in a show full of manifestly unlikeable women and one male who seemed to be the all-knowing, all-conquering paragon hero. This is not the show I signed up for. The women in the show have all lost their moral compass and I am at a loss to understand why this was done. As I have said so many times – Lost Girl was important because women still need champions – a concept that I fear this episode has damaged significantly.
Mahlers5th
I think this is a first for us, Valksy — I couldn’t disagree with you more! We’ll get into some of the whys and wherefores as we go along, but to call our female leads “manifestly unlikeable” and Dyson “all-knowing” and “all-conquering”? I suspect quite a few Lost Girl fans may read your opening paragraph and wonder if you were watching the same show, because for many, this was the episode that resurrected their faith and renewed their investment in a series that seemed to have lost its way.
