Every season has a turning point where the relationship between characters is irrevocably altered (at least for that story arc). All season the trio of Aidan, Josh, and Sally have been dealing with their own problems of falling into the darkness of their respective conditions. The repercussions from Monday night’s “The Ties That Bind” will be felt throughout the rest of the season and, maybe even further than that.
When it comes down to it, Sally’s voice over iterates, there are two type of people; predator and prey. It comes as a surprise when Aidan, the show’s apex predator, has taken the role of prey. Trekking through the woods he runs into Hadley, Heggeman’s right hand man. “They’re coming,” he tells the other vampire who, after being told the numbers gets out of dodge. It doesn’t take long before we find out the four are werewolves. Aidan identifies Nora the second before she pounces. Moments later, a naked and bloodied Josh and Nora awake with a horrified Josh asking “What did we do?”
24 hours earlier…
Things are getting weird in the gang’s house. Josh gets a whore-ish message in the mirror after a shower while Aidan turns around to some modern art with kitchen wares as the material. Naturally, they look to Sally as the cause, directly or indirectly. It’s not too alarming for the crew but both Aidan and Josh request Sally to “fix it”, whatever it may be.
During his rounds at the hospital, Aidan’s approached by Hadley, who’s questioning Heggeman’s death. The right hand man of the former Dutch leader, Hadley’s no fool and with both Mother and Suren also silent, he knows his leader is dead. He tells Aidan in no uncertain terms that he’s not leaving Boston until he gets answers. On the other side of things, Josh runs into a spaced out Nora in the hospital café. We find that she’s been out of contact for more than two weeks. Josh is a bit upset that she contacted the twins, but she denies it. Still, he’s hurt she didn’t come to him and when Nora comments on Josh’s judgmental disposition, he explodes. For the first time, Josh shows heart and not the usual apology-laden guilt he’s known for. While Nora’s need to get away is understandable , it affected more than just her. It hurt the one person that would do anything for her and, as she finds out later, has done more than anything.
Josh’s change doesn’t last long. After sharing with Aidan the thought of using an EKG to monitor the electrical changes in the body during a transformation, he once again admits to the guilt he still feels for turning Nora. When Aidan questions him about Cecilia and the police investigation, Josh uses the ‘may or may not have’ response over going to Cecilia and giving her the twins. Aidan is furious. He brings up his earlier pleas when he asked Josh to bring him back from the darkness; the werewolf’s actions may only push Aidan deeper into the life of blood and violence. He questions Josh’s friendship, remarking the selfishness of Josh’s actions were not befitting of a friend.
Alone in the house, Sally has to deal with the poltergeist factor creeping up ten notches. She challenges the ghost and is mortified when Danny’s voice responds. With nowhere else to turn, she visits Aidan in the hospital and asks for his help. After giving him the cliff notes version of her interactions with the reaper, they find out that Danny was killed in prison, thus his ghost is most likely the cause of the disturbances. With his friend in distress, Aidan volunteers to help Sally get rid of her murderous ex.
The giddy twins run into Nora outside the hospital and tell her about how much they missed her. She’s upset with them for lying to Josh as she never spoke with them on her sojourn. Connor again shows his disdain for Josh but when the two explain to her their belief that Aidan sent Cecilia to kill them, Nora confronts Josh about it. In one of the most cowardice actions to date, Josh never denies Nora’s assumption of Aidan’s involvement, confirming it more than not. It’s beyond selfish, putting his best friend in such a light. His holier than thou attitude returns as well when he tries to guilt Nora into staying with him, calling her messed up, a monster for what she did to Will. The scene between the two is reminder of Josh’s single-minded prejudice against the beast and his inability to accept that he’s not just human, but a monster as well. Tired of his preachy-ness, Nora storms off, headed for the cabin in the woods to turn with the twins.
Aidan gets a call from Connor who has a beaten Cecilia tied up. He gives the vampire an ultimatum; show up in the woods or Cecilia dies. There’s no doubt as to what Aidan’s choice will be, and neither is the fact that he will not sell out Josh for his involvement in the out of control fiasco.
With Aidan caught up in werewolf games, Sally taunts Danny until he shows up. They face off but the fight is disappointingly short when the reaper destroys Danny’s ghost and offers Sally his true face. He explains to her his purpose; to dispose of those that may disrupt the balance of the life/death cycle. Her missing her door upset that balance, despite her reasons for doing it. He acknowledges her special case and Reaper’s fascination with Sally is definitely on display. Nevertheless, he tells her in no uncertain terms what he has to do.
Figuring it’s his best chance to do the two birds/one stone deal, Aidan goes to Hadley for help, promising him Heggeman’s killer. Things get a bit more interesting when Josh and Nora there, the former telling his girlfriend he loves her more than anything and will do anything to be with her, even stomach the sight of the twins. The two lovers are surprised when Aidan shows up and the twins are delighted to tell their fellow werewolves about the foxhunt about to occur with Aidan as the special guest. Josh confesses his part in everything but it’s not enough for the twins to back off and Aidan uses his head start to search for Cecilia, who’s tied up somewhere in the woods. He hears the screams of the four werewolves as they change. When he pulls out his one weapon, a silver knife, a memory of Josh giving it to him is used. He makes it to Cecilia, slashing Nora when she leaps at him before cutting Cecilia down. Unfortunately they left her with a bullet-less gun, which doesn’t bode well. Surrounded by four snarling beasts, Aidan has no choice but to leave Cecilia at the mercy of the werewolves, he runs off to get bullets, trying to ignore the agonized screams of Cecilia being torn apart.
A fascinated Reaper is waiting for Sally at her grave. They have a special moment together, with Sally spilling her faults and doubting his claims on her being special. He likes her, likes what she represents but it won’t stop him from doing his job. He tells her to make arrangements before disappearing, leaving Sally scared and alone.
Things flashback to the beginning scene with Josh and Nora awakening in the field. Their memories are hazy from the previous night though she remembers Josh trying to save her. He tells her it’s all he wants to do. Their problems become bigger than it first appeared when Nora confesses just how much in love she is with her wolf. She left because she felt no remorse over mauling her ex. Despite his questionable actions on implicating the twins in Heggeman’s murder, a part of her is proud of him; for that one moment, Josh embraced his darker side, that wolf side. She’s completely immersed in her beast side. Nora sums their differences up in a simple line. “You want to be human,” she tells a bewildered Josh, “and I don’t think I do.” She loves him and wants him by her side but it’s something Josh can’t accept. He tells her as much when he walks away, stating he wants to forget the previous night ever happened.
Back at the cabin, a stoked Brynn and Connor are talking to the morose couple when Aidan comes around the corner. Without so much as a word, he kills Connor. Pointing the gun at Brynn, he warns her to get out of town before carrying Connor’s body (now transformed into a wolf) away. He meets Hadley, giving him the werewolf’s body. He wants nothing more to do with him and tells the Dutch to leave.
At the house, Sally practices her goodbyes but when the boys come home, anything she was going to say disappears. They go upstairs, both having hard nights and she watches them, huddled in a corner before whispering “goodbye” to her two best friends.
One of the better episodes of ‘Being Human’, “The Ties That Bind” turns everyone’s relationship upside down. On the surface, I thought Josh framing the twins for Heggeman’s murder would be the roadblock in his relationship between Nora but in a twisted way, that would bring them closer. Nora’s embracing her inner wolf, the one thing Josh hates above all others, is the force pushing the two lovers away. Josh and Aidan will have to deal with the aftermath of their own issues while Sally must prepare for the cessation of her existence. They’ve come to a crossroads, the point that can make or break the solid foundations they’ve built between one another over the last season and a half. And we can only guess whether those ties that bind Aidan, Josh, Sally, and Nora will be strong enough to keep them together or snap under the pressure.
If you missed the previous episode be sure to read our ‘Being Human: Mama Said There’d Be Decades Like This’ recap.
