Saturday, June 26, 2010

Being Human - S01E04

Until now, the focus of the series has been how werewolf George (Russell Tovey), vampire Mitchell (Aidan Turner), and ghost Annie (Lenora Crichlow) can live a life were they are as close to human as possible, but this episode reminded up that being human isn't so very far from being a monster.

Last week, we learnt that Owen (Gregg Chillin) had killed Annie, pushing her down the stairs because he was an abusive bastard with a temper. So far, she had always come across as the most human of the roommates, the only factor of difference being that she is dead. Her anger at her discovery manifested itself into poltergeistism, and, unable to control it, she's about as dangerous as Mitchell and George can be. Not to worry, by the end of the episode, a ritual burning of the possessions which reminded her of her former relationship not only helped calm her but have also resulted in normal people being able to see her clearly again. Confident and powerful, Annie now has the power of reminding her monster boyfriend what really bumps in the night.

George, meanwhile, obsessed continually over his relationship with Nina (Sinead Keenan). Was he wearing the right shirt? Would she prefer the wolf to him? Wasn't she safer without him? He tried to break it off, to protect her, but neither he nor she was completely able to give up on the other. In the end, while George was still not able to share his secret, Nina showed him her stomach. It was covered in scars which looked to be tissue repair after burning. Apparently humans did that to her, so how much worse could a werewolf who genuinely cared about her be?

Finally, Mitchell was living an almost perfectly human life, not even reacting to the sight of blood anymore, but one mistake destroyed it. Granted, people interacting with children ought to be a lot more careful, and if they are hiding pornographic videos in their collection, they should make sure none of those are lent to children, but in the end it was still a mistake.
The entire street turned against the household, accusing them of being pedophiles and refusing to serve them in the local shops. They threw garbage on the doorstep and smashed windows with bricks. Refusing to listen to reason or explanations, the mass turned into a mob, as eager to destroy as the mobs in monster movies.
In the end, it worked out - the death of the child forced the mother to finally listen to what her son had been telling him. But the child was still dead, and Mitchell found himself again embittered towards men.

Fighting one's true nature is never easy, but seeing constant reasons that make the fight seem pointless...well, that's even more complicated. Mitchell has relapsed, again, and Annie is just as set against humans...well, at least one particular human, as he is. With two episodes of season 1 remaining, what will the consequences be?

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