Greetings SciFi/Fantasy Fans!
Spoiler Alert: The following is a complete recap/review of Being Human, Episode 111 (Going Dutch). If you have not yet seen this episode and prefer to watch it without spoilers, stop reading now and check your local listings for opportunities to watch the episode. Right now only episodes 1-3 are posted at Syfy.com, with a promise of more full episodes to be available there starting on April 5. Episodes 1-3 can either be viewed as they aired, or “enhanced” with commentary by the cast and producers.
Being Human returns on Syfy Monday evening at 9 PM EST / PST. Here is a sneak peek at the next episode!
Going Dutch:
In this week’s episode of Being Human the drama was ratcheted up even further. Just when you think you know what is going to happen, they throw you a little curve ball!
“The only constant in life is change. People as a species are in a constant state of metamorphosis. Just when we get comfortable swimming in the sea, we end up on land. The moment we become accustomed to crawling, we stand on two legs. Our instinct is to resist change, to fear it. So we wrap a pretty word like ‘evolution’ around it and hope that it will make the pill easier to swallow. The thing is, change doesn’t care if you love it or you hate it. Change is indifferent, intractable. And it will not be denied.”
The opening scene for this episode finds Bishop (Mark Pellegrino), Aiden (Sam Witwer) and Marcus (Vincent Leclerc) accompanying the Dutch elders to the Boston nest where they are shown the curtained cubicles with lovely volunteer donors.
The elders are having some trouble with the changes that have taken place during their recent 50-year rest, including the idea of merely feeding from donors without killing and having to avoid their favorite feeding ground because it is now a popular tourist spot. They end up herding all of the donors into a single cubicle and ripping them all to pieces in a feeding frenzy.
Bishop looks relaxed, even serene, through all this, content to be together with Marcus and Aiden on what he says is their last day. He reveals that someone has betrayed his plans to the elders which, he knows, will mean their certain death.
At work at the hospital, Josh (Sam Huntington) encounters Nora (Kristen Hager) in the hallway. She is still very upset with him, even more so because he disappeared for a couple of days and she had something very important to discuss with him—she is pregnant. Of course, being Josh, he says exactly the wrong thing, questioning whether the baby is his. Nora is deeply offended and Josh fails utterly in gaining her forgiveness.
Aiden returns to the mortuary to find the still-depressed Rebecca (Sarah Allen) questioning Aiden’s decision to return to Bishop. She thinks Aiden is deluding himself into believing that his presence might make a positive difference in Bishop’s megalomaniacal plans.
Meanwhile, Sally (Meaghan Rath) is relaxing at the house, reading a magazine, when who should appear but Danny (Gianpaolo Venuta) and Bridget (Angela Galuppo). Apparently, Danny left a message saying he would be coming over with an exterminator but the woman comes across more like a realtor, asking questions about the number of rooms in the house and talking about being able to feel its “energy.” But this lady is neither exterminator nor realtor, she is there to perform an exorcism. Danny is determined to get rid of Sally once and for all.
Back at the nest, a conversation between Hegeman (Terry Kinney) and Marcus ends any questions we might have had about the identity of Bishop’s traitor. Marcus seems to think that he has made a deal with the elders, his information and cooperation in exchange for Bishop’s death and control of Boston. But Hegeman is more interested in putting things back the way he wants them, which does not necessarily include killing Bishop. There will be a meeting later to determine what will happen next.
With Aiden standing by, Hegeman meets with Bishop. He is concerned about news that Bishop has been creating a larger number of offspring than is permitted, and that Bishop is setting things in motion to go public as a vampire. Bishop argues that vampires are either the “master race” or cowards but Hegeman is firm. He orders Bishop to destroy two-thirds of his children and insists that Bishop will go back to Pennsylvania with the elders, to lie under the earth for at least 50 years. The unstated consequence of Bishop’s refusal to accede to Hegeman’s demands would be Bishop’s certain destruction. Aiden tries to convince Bishop to take the deal, without success.
At the hospital, Josh must have been really tired because he manages to fall asleep in a busy corridor. He has a terrible nightmare about Nora giving birth to a baby werewolf.
At the house, the exorcism ritual has begun. At first, Sally thinks the whole idea of an exorcism is ridiculous, but soon finds that the practitioner, Alanna (Ellen David), knows what she is doing. Sally is prevented from leaving the house and soon seems to be experiencing some kind of painful transformation. Then, suddenly, she is gone.
Josh is surprised and happy to see Aiden back at work. Josh tells Aiden about Nora and the baby and, to Josh’s great surprise, Aiden thinks this is a good thing. Putting aside the possibility of a bouncing baby werewolf, Josh has the chance for something resembling a real life, which was what they were trying for when he and Aiden moved into that house.
As Rebecca folds dinner napkins in preparation for the evening’s festivities, Marcus comes in. His resentment of Aiden goes all the way back to the day he was made a vampire. It turns out that Marcus was not Bishop’s first choice. Bishop was after Marcus’s brother, but the brother slit his own throat rather than become a monster so Bishop took Marcus as a substitute. Soon thereafter, though, Bishop found and made Aiden. Marcus tries to establish rapport with Rebecca but makes the mistake of revealing his part in the death of her “child.”
The exorcism has moved through the house, room by room, until they reach the last bedroom. Sally looks like her life energy is being slowly drained away. She has a deathly pallor and can barely speak or move. Bridget suddenly worries about what will happen to Sally’s ghost when the exorcism is complete and wants to stop the ritual, but Danny insists that it continue.
Dinnertime has finally arrived, Bishop, Aiden and elders seated around the table. “Dinner” is a very pregnant woman (twins, no less), laid out across the length of the table, swollen belly bared. Bishop is ready to get things started but Aiden steps in with a proposition, trying to save Bishop and willing to sacrifice himself in exchange. Marcus tries to take advantage of the situation by suggesting he share control of Boston. Surprisingly, Bishop is not grateful for Aiden’s support but announces his surrender and offers up a toast, encouraging the elders to dig in. He takes a bite and suddenly Hegeman and the others start to look sick.
Bishop is even sneakier that anyone realized. Apparently juniper works as a slow-acting toxin in vampires, and all of the girls (remember the volunteers that the elders devoured on their first night at the nest?) had been ingesting it. Bishop was right to count on the elders’ greed. He had encouraged them to drink from the girls, but their feeding frenzy caused them to be filled with juniper-tainted blood. With the elders sitting helpless, Bishop moves methodically around the table destroying them all, one by one. Aiden grabs Hegeman and carries him out of there, but Marcus follows and attacks Aiden. Just as Aiden is about to be staked, Rebecca appears behind Marcus and stakes him instead, turning him to dust.
At the house, Sally’s ghost is barely hanging on but Danny says one too many selfish things and Sally loses her temper completely. She flies across the room and into Alanna, sharing her memories of the night she died. In Alanna’s body, Sally speaks to Danny and, being Danny, his reaction is to try and choke her to death. When he throws her back against the wall, she comes out of the exorcist’s body again. Alana and Bridget both know the real Danny now.
Danny tries to get the exorcist to finish the ritual but she can’t get out of there fast enough. She throws Danny’s money back in his face and tells him that he deserves whatever Sally does to him. Bridget has had enough of him too. On her way out the door, she apologizes to Sally.
Josh finds Nora at the hospital and sits down to have a serious conversation with her. They are able to clear the air, Josh telling her that he has deep genetic problems that he thought would prevent him from getting anyone pregnant. They agree that they are both unsure about this pregnancy but they have time to think about it.
Aiden and Rebecca have managed to get Hegeman out safely, and he is starting to recover from the effects of the juniper. Aiden begs him to tell the others about Bishop’s plans, to stop him before he can start something that can only lead to mass killings. Hegeman’s parting words were a warning that Aiden should prepare for what is coming.
Now Rebecca has something to say to Aiden. She warns Aiden to be careful. Bishop’s handling of the elders makes it clear that whatever he is about to do will be well-planned. And then she hands him a stake and asks him to kill her. Her last words before she turns to dust in his arms are “thank you.”
So the theme of change set out in the opening voiceover has certainly come to pass for everyone. It leaves me a little unsettled, like change often does, wondering what will come next and anxious for something familiar to anchor to.
Sally’s position seems strengthened, although she, herself, looks damaged. Will this experience help her toward her door? Will the damage she suffered continue to show, or will she come back to herself as the ghost she was? Will Danny try some other way to get back at her (or get rid of her)?
Josh’s issues with Nora and her pregnancy were the inevitable consequence of his giving into his desire for her, and for the normalcy of a relationship. I am a little surprised that he pursued that relationship, having so recently given up on the idea of being with his family because of the danger he would pose to them. But maybe he just couldn’t help it. Nora being present in his day-to-day life at work made her too immediate a temptation, particularly as his wolfishness became prominent near the full moon. I wonder how the writers will choose to handle her pregnancy, whether they will wade out into the dangerous waters of abortion, have her carry the baby to term, or (probably the simplest solution) either give her a false-positive pregnancy test or a miscarriage.
Aiden may be experiencing the most profound change of all. He has just come to realize the scope of Bishop’s plans and was so horrified by them that he turned on his own maker (which, as we all know, is a very big deal for a vampire). After so recently being compelled to destroy a child he cared for deeply, now he has had to destroy Rebecca whom he also loved and for whom he felt a terrible responsibility. Aiden is probably the most alone he has ever been in his long life. With Josh and Sally both so enmeshed in their own drama, will they be the anchor Aiden will need to get through this time of upheaval?
* * * * * * * * * *
As always thank you for reading and visiting WormholeRiders News Agency. Please feel free to share this news article by clicking one of the social media icons below. 
You may also leave a comment here, or feel free to visit me on Twitter by clicking my avatar or text links below.
Thank you.
very nice article. I love “being human”. Thought this to be the best episode to date.
Very nice article and review Ginger!