We’re less than two weeks away from the January 14th (January 6th in Canada) debut of Lost Girl Season 3. Finally! It’s been months since we left the adventures of the succubus Bo and her not-so-Merry Band of Fae (even longer for you Canadian viewers). Here in the U.S., we had nearly a straight year of episodes as seasons 1 and 2 ran back to back starting in January. Now, trailers and episode titles are slowly making their way onto the Internet with each new one ratcheting up the levels of expectation. What better time for a series refresher to bring us all back to the angsty sometimes happy days of Hilton Hovel (drink!) and all our favorites (or favourites) in Faedom.
The Premise (also known as Episode 1):
Lost Girl follows the adventures of Bo who is a supernatural creature known as a succubus. Bo gains power by draining the sexual chi, or energy, of other people. A nifty side effect is her ability to heal (almost) any injury with a feed. She can also influence others into doing her bidding with one touch. Raised by humans, Bo has been ignorant of both her true heritage and the means by which to control her power for most of her life. At 18, she accidentally killed her high-school boyfriend while making love. Afraid and confused, Bo ran away and has lived alone ever since, surviving by her wits and bartending gigs. For ten years, she has bounced from city to city fleeing the occasional human kill when her succubus hunger gets too overwhelming to be denied.
Season 1 begins with Bo rescuing a young woman from getting roofie raped at a hotel bar. As this rescue ends with a dead guy in an elevator, Bo immediately makes plans to blow town again. But her rescue-ee is quite a bit more than meets the eye. Thief, grifter, survivor, Kenzi is fascinated by Bo and her power. Unlike Bo, Kenzi sees the many benefits to the super sexual prowess of the succubus, including financial. For Kenzi, hanging with Bo gives her security, a home, and very quickly, the big sister Kenzi has never had before.
Unbeknownst to Bo, she is in fact a member of the Fae, an evolutionary advanced race of mythological beings who live amongst and feed off humans. Every myth from every culture is somehow and in some way connected to the Fae. The fae are divided in two factions: light and dark, but both sides exhibit a flexible morality especially in relation to humans whom they as a rule, distain. One does not socialize with one’s food after all. For thousands of years there has stood an uneasy peace between the two sides, a peace threatened by Bo’s arrival on the scene. Her lack of allegiance puts their carefully structured world in peril and undermines the authority of the ruling elders.
The dead man in the elevator has not gone unnoticed. Fae homicide detectives Dyson (a wolf shifter) and Hale (a siren) track down Bo. As fae who hold a human occupation, their job is to smooth things over when the Fae world bleeds into its human counterpart. Dyson and Bo have an immediate attraction even though he is under orders to bring Bo before The Ash, leader of the Light Fae, front and center for examination.
No one believes Bo’s denials as to not knowing what she is or the provenance of her pedigree. The Ash is shocked to learn she escaped notice of the ruling Fae for so long and sends her off to be examined by the in-house human doctor to determine her “clan." Doctor Lauren concludes Bo’s succubus nature and all that entails. She also “professionally” cops a feel of her naked patient. Noticing the doctor’s obvious attraction to her, Bo wields her ways and seduces Doctor Lauren into helping her escape, but Dyson interrupts their escape and reluctantly returns Bo to the custody of The Ash.
The Morrigan, snarky leader of The Dark Fae faction, agrees with The Ash that Bo’s independence cannot be allowed to continue. She wants Bo killed immediately. Instead, they throw her into Fae Thunderdome where she fights a pair of underfae, those fae too disfigured to live above ground and mix with humans. Warned by Dyson what to expect, complete with a suggested battle plan, Bo gets a little more than she expected from the grumpy Fae detective when he offers his own sexual chi as power source. Bo gets her first heady power rush from feeding on Fae and, in another first, Dyson is able to stop her before she takes too much and kills him. Bo triumphs in Fae Thunderdome, but, having won her right to choose sides, to the consternation of all, Bo’s declines both. Exploiting the one loophole missed by the Fae leaders, she aligns herself instead with humans and, most demonstrably, Kenzi.
Returned to their lives with a cautionary warning from Dyson not to shake the Fae tree too hard, Bo and Kenzi decide to team up as private investigators and carry on into a full-season pickup as private investigators into Fae-related matters.
The Fallout:
Episode by episode throughout Season 1, Bo and Kenzi investigate a Fae of the Day case. Each one reveals more of the fae world and often an additional piece to the puzzle that is Bo. Other characters include Trick, the avuncular owner of the way station bar, The Dal Riata, where Light and Dark fae comingle without complication. Trick becomes the source of all Fae knowledge —a Trickopedia if you will—and the most generous extender of bar tabs ever. He develops a deep affection for Bo and Kenzi, but his feelings for Bo are clearly link to the secrets he keeps about her past—and his own involvement in it. It is later revealed that Trick is The Blood King, the ancient leader of the Light Fae whose ability to change the future through his blood ended the Great Fae War all those years ago and established the uneasy peace that exists to this day.
Bo’s relationship with Dyson quickly becomes sexual. Initially (and after a typical guy douche bag move hiccup on Dyson’s part), their overt excuse is for Bo’s healing and feeding needs, as Dyson’s loyalty to Trick keeps him from publically committing to Bo. But from their very start, there is a deep bond between them only overtly acknowledge later in the season as events drive them into an ever more loving relationship. By the end of Season 1, Bo and Dyson are an exclusive couple in love who trust one another implicitly, however difficult that situation might be to maintain. Bo’s relationship with the human Doctor Lauren also evolves sexually and emotionally. But they are ultimately undone by fae politics and the secrets the doctor harbors that irrevocably tie her and her actions in obedience to The Ash. After a scathing betrayal, Bo and Doctor Lauren end Season 1 with the rift between them tentatively bridged in the season finale.
As for Kenzi, she too finds her way through the Fae world as a “claimed” human. She and Dyson bond on their own, forming a brother/sister vibe that exists outside of their individual connection to Bo. Though never quite curbing her street ways, Kenzi manages to carve her own irrevocable place in Bo’s world often being the only person on whom Bo can wholeheartedly rely.
With each new aspect she learns, Bo becomes more and more disillusioned with the Fae world. Its ongoing distain for humans, whose only place is as a food source, chafes at the succubus who grew up in a human world. As she continues to buck Fae rules and defend humans, Bo struggles to hold on to her “humanity” as she grows in her knowledge and power, clinging to Kenzi as friend and confidante to help her be a better fae.
On the familial front, Bo meets her mother, Aoife, also a succubus. At first, unaware that Aoife is her mother, Bo is delighted to meet another succubus and learn more about her own power. But what should have been a natural friendship is undone by Aoife’s sociopathic nature. Choosing her friends and humanity over the indulgence of her succubus powers, Bo detaches from Aoife and cements her relationship to Dyson and Kenzi. This does not go over well with Aoife and she attacks what she sees as the main barrier between her and Bo—Dyson. She jumps him at the police station, draining nearly all of his chi, and Bo is just short of too late in the rescue. Using the one useful tool Aoife taught her, she brings Dyson back from death’s edge by feeding chi back into him. Having acknowledged the depth of his feelings for Bo to her and himself, Dyson had already decided to come clean to her on what little he knows about her past, including that Aoife is her mother, before Aoife attacked him. Determined not to allow anything to come between them again, he comes clean with Bo right away afterwards and takes her to Trick for further info dump. Trick reveals that hundreds of years ago, Aoife violated Fae law and murdered a dark fae. As The Blood King, he had to sacrifice her to Dark Fae justice in order to ensure the peace that ended the Great Fae War. Now Aoife wants vengeance, beginning with the Light Fae elders, including The Ash, all of whom she blows to kingdom come. And she wants her daughter to join her to join her in the anarchy and carnage.
Still conflicted about Dyson’s behavior in this situation, Bo still turns to him to power up to confront Aoife, but won’t allow him to confess his love openly. Determined not to allow Bo to face Aoife alone, Dyson invokes the aid of the powerful Norn (Freaking Norn!), an ancient Earth-based Fae who takes what you value most to give what you most desire. Dyson offers her his wolf in exchange for The Norn giving his power to Bo for her upcoming fight against Aoife. But the Norn is tricksy, and instead she claims the thing Dyson values most—his love for Bo—leaving him devastated and shattered.
In the midst of losing the fight with a full-out enraged Aoife, Bo feels Dyson’s power flow through her at the sticking point, and gains the boost she needs to take the upper hand and win. But Trick has also been working behind the scenes on Bo’s behalf. He violates his own convictions and fears and invokes his ancient power with his own blood to change Aoife and Bo’s fate. As they struggle atop a winding staircase, a change comes over Bo’s mother. Dragging Bo with her over the banister, at the last moment a visible change comes over Aoife. She entreats Bo to release her in order to save her daughter and willingly falls to her death…though her body is never recovered.
Season 1 ends leaving Bo with more questions about her family, a renewed confidence in her relationship with Dyson, an unshakeable bond with Kenzi and a questionable future with Doctor Lauren. Meanwhile Dyson, eviscerated by his wrenching loss, takes off for parts unknown to lick his wounds as Trick lies in his lair, unconscious and untended as he bleeds to death from his own sacrifice on Bo’s behalf.
Best Episode: Episode 8, Vexed. The original pilot for the show shot nearly a year before full production began on Season 1, this watershed episode hits on all levels, starting with the smoking hot, almost four minute cold open. Story wise, Bo makes great strides toward unraveling her past as she makes new discoveries about the circumstances of her birth. On the relationship front, Bo gets intimate with both her loves only to ultimately be deeply betrayed by one and reach a deeper level of emotional commitment with the other. Bo also runs face first into the ruthless nature of the Fae in her Fae of the Day case, a fae woman on death row framed for the murder of her human family who were actually killed by a powerful dark fae named Vex. A mesmer, Vex can compel anyone to do, well, anything—including murder. Fueled by inchoate rage, with almost no-one in her corner, Bo pursues Vex in a failed attempt at some actual justice. Funny, maddening, amoral, complex, and more than a little scary, Vex remains the show’s most delightful cast addition.
An Extended Season 2
If Season 1 was Bo discovering her true nature and finding her way through a Fae New World while falling for two very different people, Season 2 was awash with relationship angst from the get go with eventually so much juvenile shenanigans—old loves, coma loves, dark fae loves, love lost, love denied, love betrayed—designed to derail pretty much everyone, that Lost Girl actually took the Fae Fighters back to high school to be sure to drive the point home.
Dyson’s lost love permeates the entire season as he spirals ever downward. He first fruitlessly tries to replace Bo with old love (Perfect)Ciara. Eventually, he learns that as he is a wolf shifter who mates for life; when The Norn took his love for Bo she took all of his love, leaving him unable to form a romantic relationship with any other woman. When she learns this, (Perfect)Ciara dumps him and departs. The rest of the season leaves Dyson descending ever farther into grumpy, jackhole behavior as he tries to make sense out of his loveless fate.
With Dyson out of reach for the indeterminate future, Bo tries to cement something with Doctor Lauren, but the doc’s duplicity continues with the reveal of her sekrit sekrit girlfriend-in-a-coma and her continuing hot and cold responses toward Bo. When Doctor Lauren’s girlfriend Coma/NotComa Nadia awakes, Bo is left to watch another loved one in a relationship with another person.
Midway through this extended season, Bo attempts to move on from both her lost loves with a new Dark Fae lover, in this case, the charming rogue and Loki trickster Ryan. Bo hides her liaison with Ryan from her friends. But though he gives her no complications and the rare chance of no-strings-attached fun, Ryan’s lack of moral fortitude eventually proves too much for Bo’s better angels. Despite the ultimately unimportant and increasing unexciting relationship shenanigans, by seasons’ end, and thanks to Bo’s timely killing of NotComaButSuddenlyPossessedByBigBadNadia, Bo and Doctor Lauren are, inexplicitly, on the verge of a monogamous relationship. Meanwhile, thanks to Kenzi’s mad skillz with a chainsaw, Dyson regains his love from the hated Norn (Freaking Norn!)—thus reclaiming “the best of him” as Kenzi puts it—though he declines to overtly update Bo as to this key development before season’s end.
Kenzi has her own love story plot line with childhood crush Nate, but despite her love for him, in the end she chooses to stand by Bo as her bestie confronts the season’s Big Bad. Kenzi sends Nate away brokenhearted but alive. Kenzi too does not emerge unscathed from her wolf love-retrieving adventures, but emerges from The Norn’s Cabinet of Woe tainted by some mysterious ooze, the consequence of which has yet to be revealed.
Creeping around the edges of all this emo angst was the thinly developed and rushed delivery of the Great Fae Enemy, the Garuda. Season 2’s Big Bad was alluded to, forgotten, revived for a midseason climax, sidelined and delayed though mentioned every so often to remind viewers that there really is a Big Bad and this time we mean it!, and finally hurried forward for a rushed, inconsistent, plot-hole filled finale. Oh, and the phrase “The Champion” gets tossed around until it pretty much ceases to have any substantial meaning. Oy.
Overall, the 22-episode extended season dragged and disappointed, but did gift a few gems here and there that make it the show we love. We learned how the Light Fae chooses a new leader and the integral nature of their bond to the land. We got some emotional closure for Bo for her role in the death of her childhood sweetheart, some tasty back story on Dyson (Mmm, meaty!) and his former wolf pack, learned a little bit about Kenzi’s Russian family and what drove her to the street in the first place, discovered how Doctor Lauren became the property of The Ash in the first place, learned how and why Trick, in his Blood King guise, ended the Great Fae War and its additional personal cost, and finally got to dip our toes in the Dark Fae world via the always entertaining Vex and his nefarious queen, The Morrigan. As this included nearly-nekkid break dancing and self-combustion on command, fun was repeatedly had by all. Oh, and Trick is Bo’s grandfather. So there’s that.
But by far, the most intriguing reveal in Season 2 was the emergence of “Dark Bo.” Trick’s long-held fear has been that Bo would someday share Aoife’s fate, succumbing to the darker urges of her nature. As The Garuda repeatedly, if only occasionally, defeats their not-so-Merry Band of Fae, which by season’s end, includes Vex (to hilarious affect), it’s revealed that only through a blood bond with all of them can Bo unite them all in one purpose and have enough power to be The Champion and defeat The Garuda. But this level of power also opens her darker nature and all the dangers it entails. For Bo, this state is triggered when a loved one is in deathly peril and indeed, when push comes to shove and Bo has to use her Get Out of Jail Free card to save Trick instead of breaking the blood bond, Bo gets her full Galadriel on all “I will be queen and you will all bow before me!” In the final moments, it’s Kenzi to the rescue as she breaks the blood bond to release Bo from the dark thrall of her power …or did she?
Best episode: Episode 9, Original Skin. A much needed lighter episode that yet frames deep emotional reveals. An escaped fae psychopath invades The Dal and spikes the beer with Fae mojo that forces all who drink it, which is everyone except Trick, to body swap. By far the best pairing is the Dyson/Kenzi Kenzi/Dyson body switcheroo, which produces some of the funniest and most poignant moments of the series, as the precious bond between Kenzi and Bo can’t be broken even when they’re in other people’s bodies. Kenzi experiencing the length and power of Dyson’s wolf shifter body is a delight and Dyson dealing with being a tiny human female is all sorts of win. In the end, Bo and Kenzi again prove that they are strongest together no matter whose skin they might wear. Meanwhile, Dyson’s girlfriend PerfectCiara for the first time, and rather publically, confronts Dyson about Bo and Bo about Dyson as no one has seen fit to fill her in on the cause and effect of his bargain with The Norn and its consequences for them all.
My Wish List for Season 3
I am very excited about the Dark Bo plotline and all the possibilities that go along with that transition. I’d like to see more of Bo’s back story emerge as she deals with this side effect of her power. As The Morrigan herself might say, it’s past time for Miss Goody Two Fae to get off her hobby horse and enjoy her darkness. If this includes accidentally eating the good doctor’s face, I will just have to find a way to live with that tragedy. Somehow. Ultimately, I’m hoping this foray into the dark side of the succubus will reveal more info on her as-yet-absent father. I’ve long hoped to have it revealed that Vex is (somehow) Bo’s Dark Fae half brother, but if not that, then surely it’s time to meet her sire. Bo also went up against and humiliated The Morrigan at season’s end and you can bet your bippy that righteously inflamed woman is going to be back to collect.
If there’s one thing the Season 3 debut is sure to bring, it’s a monogamous relationship between Bo and Doctor Lauren. That has been all but promised, though cautiously caveated by the news that Bo struggles with it. My take is this: the sooner they make it all official, the sooner they’ll break up as this show has already demonstrated its adherence to the Joss Whedon School of Character Abuse where no one is allowed to be in a happy functioning relationship without heartache and often death, soon following. Or so I can only hope.
In the meantime, there’s a new recurring character this season, a “sexy new fae” named Tamsin who is to be Dyson’s new partner at the cop shop (where Hale gets to is anyone’s guess at this point). Advanced word is that she “shakes things up” for Bo, though I’m betting on her banging Dyson from the get go because this show is determined to make me suffer before it grants the inevitable (it’s got to be inevitable or we will have words, show!) romantic reunion of Bo and Dyson, affectionately known on these pages as Team Badass. We’ve slogged through all of S2, nine damn painful episodes longer than we should’ve had to, for Dyson to stop being a jackhole and get his love back. We’ve paid our dues. It’s time for some new sexy, sexy Team Badass reunion times—you know, after Bo gets her dark shit together. As for Tamsin, I actually would like to see her shake Bo up sexually. I’d like to see the doc deal with the reality of Bo’s needs from the other side of the triangle—and what’s it’s like to have Bo fill them with someone else when they’re a couple. Ultimately though, I have to wonder if Tamsin might be a missing half-sibling ready to upset Bo’s world. Almost, that would be more intriguing than any sexual high jinks.
As for Kenzi…One of the few enduring relationships outside of Kenzi and Bo’s rock solid sisterhood is the layered and complex brother/sister vibe Dyson and Kenzi have slowly built a pairing that proves its heft by its ability to exist outside either of their relationships with Bo. The insight gain of one another by the body swap only deepened that special, nonsexual bond. In a show that heaves with sexuality in every frame, it’s especially important to have something like the Dyson and Kenzi dynamic as an alternative. Kenzi’s determination to restore Dyson and Dyson’s special love for Kenzi was one of the few prizes of the uneven Season 2 that’s worth expanding. Also, there’s all kinds of fun to be had mining Kenzi’s Russian family connections…and let’s not forget that pesky favor yet owed to The Morrigan that is sure to come back and bite her in the ass. But above all, what I really want to know is what the hell did The Norn (Freaking Norn!) do to Kenzi? That old bat was much too pleased with herself for it not to be something horrendous. Will our Goth Girl finally turn fae? If so, with Bo embracing the crazy, will it be left to Dyson to help Kenzi transition? So much potential for good storytelling here!!
Provided Dark Bo in fact doesn’t eat Doctor Lauren’s face (boo!), I think it’s past time to see a little more into the doc’s past, revisit what her life has been with the fae and how that might change now. If Hale is, as I suspect, on the fast track to being the next Ash, does that mean Doctor Lauren is free? Or does Bo “claim” her along with Kenzi and what consequences will that have when (please when!) they break up? If she remains “unclaimed” what role might the doc have in the Fae world, a place she can’t inhabit alone?
And for fae’s freaking sake, where the hell is Hale?
As for Trick…oh Trick. So much to deal with after the Season 2 finale; so many pieces on the Blood King’s board have been shook up. Could we see the return of Aoife? Maybe some father/daughter flashbacks? How will Trick deal with his granddaughter following the same destructive path of his doomed daughter, especially when Bo’s downward spiral was spurred by her sacrifice on Trick’s behalf? What other critical secrets does the Blood King yet harbor?
I WANT TO KNOW IT ALL.
Ahem.
Fortunately, we will all certainly know— something—very soon indeed. For once, I actually look forward to January.
What’s your wish list for Season 3? Chime in below, but please remember to be respectful of other’s opinions and viewpoints when commenting or your comment will be deleted.
Recaps will resume for Season 3 in the New Year!!
Kiersten Hallie Krum writes smart, sharp & sexy romantic suspense. Find her snarking her way across social media as @kierstenkrum and on her web site and blog at www.kierstenkrum.com.
