Picking up where last week’s ‘Being Human’ left off, ‘Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?’ touches upon control, knowing one’s self and dealing with the unexpected. Though only two episodes in, the underlying themes of season two are on display and will be a catalyst for the character arcs for our quartet of Aidan, Josh, Sally, and now Nora.
Wounded from the rifle bullet, wounded Josh glances up at Heggeman, his would be murderer before a white wolf saves his life by tearing Heggeman’s throat out. Burn scars on its stomach confirm Josh’s rescuer as Nora and, before Josh can say anything more than her name, he transforms himself.
Still floating above the couch, Sally is still tripping out from her dream experience. Charged for the ability and unsettled by the guest that showed up she calls for Aidan or Josh, someone to share her new revelation to but is alone in her excitement/fear.
After unearthing Suren, Mother’s daughter, from her prison six feet under, Aidan guides the emaciated vampire to a room where she feeds off a dozen donors to regain her strength and vitality. Blood drunk and returned to form, she is more than happy to see Aidan. His admission of no longer feeding on the living is greeted with cacophonous laughter before he leaves the room.
Waking up in a pile of leaves from her first night as a werewolf, Nora is shell shocked from her fears over the last month are now a reality. She waits on Josh’s steps and, when they enter his house, she sees and hears Sally for the first time. They aren’t able to get into Nora’s condition too much as the ‘lost boys’ Stevie, Dylan and Boner – fellow ghosts Sally invited over and who have nothing better to do than play sophomoric games – distract them from conversing about the new situation. She tells Josh about the dream and nervously blurts out to Aidan Nora’s new status as a werewolf.
When Josh and Aidan have some time away from Nora and the ghosts, they share the latest goings on, with Josh confiding in Aidan just what happened to Heggeman. Though the werewolf was in charge and saved his life, Josh doesn’t want Nora to know about what she’s done. His guilt at turning her is already threatening to overwhelm him, Nora hating herself would only add to that already insurmountable weight. When she comes down from her shower, Nora leaves, citing the need to get ready for work despite the faraway look and despondence in her every move.
After the discussion with Josh, Aidan returns to Suren. Aidan begins strategizing with Suren on what they need to do in order to start her successful reign over Boston. As they walk around the hotel lobby, flashbacks of Suren, Aidan and a host of others at a party from the 20’s is shown. As they discuss the future, fragments of the past, including dead bodies and a blood crazed Suren link the two vampires in their present relationship. Aidan wants nothing else than to distance himself from his brutal past but being in the presence of Suren, someone whose hold over Aidan has yet to be determined, whether he admits it or not, will prove more than a bit tricky, especially if he wants to be granted his release from the vampire world.
When Josh sees Nora at the hospital, she is more than a bit out of it, dazed and confused. When Jesse, another MIT med student reminds Josh of a cocktail party for the students, Josh initially balks at the idea until Jesse convinces him otherwise. Believing it could be a way for them to move on with their lives, Josh convinces Nora to accompany him. Against her own feelings, she acquiesces though the events of the last day is too much and she gets drunk. She airs all her grief in front of Jesse and his date, including the miscarriage that, while hinted at in last episode, is confirmed for the first time. The shared grief between her and Josh are on display when they have some one on one time. Nora can’t get a grip on how they can move on like nothing’s happened. He admits they can’t; something huge has happened and while they are still the same people, they can deal with it. Just like a baby, this new addition to their relationship changes things but not what they feel.
Still freaked about the dream, Sally talks to Stevie about what she saw though she’s still no closer to discovering what the dark force she encountered is or what it wants. Bored of life in the house, Dylan suggests they go “raging”. In this case, it’s hijacking someone else’s body. Dylan, Boner, and Sally all take over a party goer with Stevie abstaining. Despite his warnings on the potential dark path taking a body puts one on, Sally still participates. She’s on sensation overload, partying as if she never will get the chance again. Also caught up in the sensation is Dylan who tries to take things a bit further with Sally, namely some of the more physically intimate activities. Sally balks at the idea though Dylan isn’t having it. Before things get too out of hand Stevie pulls the two ghosts from their hosts. When Dylan attacks Stevie, the younger ghost permanently disapporates the other to both his and Sally’s horror. It makes you lose control, he cries before disappearing and leaving Sally alone.
Before returning to the hotel, Aidan runs into a potential resident at the hospital. Though their interaction is brief, an instant attraction is formed though Aidan has to leave after Suren calls him. She’s invited a Boston police officer to the hotel, who doesn’t hide her attraction for Aidan. When he balks at turning her, Suren reminds him she could have some resources put towards investigating Heggeman’s disappearance. Despite the temptation and his nature demanding he take her, Aidan holds it together long enough to kick the cop out before his nature takes over. His excuse to Suren is that his control is gone, he can’t do it anymore. She is more than disappointed with him, admitting she used to worship his calculating and ruthless nature, something he doesn’t want to become. It begs the question just how bad was Aidan in the day? We’ve seen flashes here and there but no real clue as to how brutal he was.
When Aidan returns a bit later, Suren has turned the cop. Aidan admits that he hadn’t turned anyone since he’d last seen her on account of what that person had done to her. It’s another clue into the puzzle of Aidan’s past life and while I do appreciate the slow build over the last year, a payoff has to come soon. Tired of the pressure, Aidan accepts working for her but refuses to become what he once was. Suren’s smile and comment of him almost sounding like the old Aidan is enough of a hint to know she will make it part of her mission to steer him back to the deadly creature she once knew.
During some much needed girl talk and Sally recovering from her ‘raging’, she says “I think it’s better to know what you’re capable of. Then you understand what you’re dealing with.” Though apropos for “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?”, the line is a perfect summation of season two’s journey of our four main characters. Josh and Nora will be dealing with her new condition while Sally’s newfound powers and where they will lead her also will be on the line. But Aidan’s potential to lose himself to the monster he once was is the biggest thing to watch. When he leaves the bar with Julia, the woman he’d met earlier at the hospital, the agony of uncertainty is written on his face. Though he is the most aware of what his dark side holds, he’s also the most susceptible and likely of the quartet to fall back to his baser instincts, something he knows. Will his friends be able to keep him grounded as they have their own concerns? The biggest question this season will be whether Aidan can maintain his path toward redemption or fall by the wayside towards a darker, more dangerous Aidan bottled up for so long.
Miss last week’s episode? Check out our recap of ‘Being Human: Turn This Mother Out’.
