Being Human (USA) season 3 episode 3 review: The Teens They Are A Changin

This review contains spoilers.

3.1 The Teens they are a Changin

It’s a testament to the… shall we say “alternate morality” that exists inside this show that I found this week’s episode to be actually kind of adorable despite the many, many things that make me question my personal definition of “adorable.” 

First, there’s Josh and Nora. Nora survived her encounter with the twins’ dad and makes it home unscathed. There’s an adorable reunion and just that would be enough to satisfy my adorable quotient for the week, but then Josh gets a patient, Erin, who was recently scratched by a wolf. Josh decides he should tell her about what’s about to happen to her at the next moon, but Nora argues that knowing will only give her time to dread it, like Nora had to after Josh scratched her. She changes her mind, however, when they realize that Erin has been shuffled from foster home to foster home for the last two years and her social worker isn’t exactly being kind about it. Nora refuses to let the social worker take Erin out of the hospital and convinces Josh to take her home with them so they can guide her through her first turn. There’s some brilliant character development here, where Nora draws parallels between her own abusive past and Erin’s living situation, and because like most of us, Josh finds it impossible to say no to Nora, he agrees. As you can imagine, adorably awkward werewolf family time ensues, at least until Josh breaks out the video of himself changing into a wolf as proof to Erin that the supernatural world is real. Finally convinced, Erin allows Nora to talk her through her first turn, only to try to attack Josh’s car once her wolf comes out.

And here’s where I seriously question my definition of “adorable” because Nora’s wolf gets Erin’s to back down and after a tense stand off, the two wolves nuzzle each other. It shouldn’t be cute, but it really, really is. All I can think about is how Nora was pregnant and lost the baby due to the full moon; I imagine that if she’d been able to carry the pregnancy to term, her wolf would relate to the baby’s wolf a lot like how she relates to Erin here. And then I start wondering if Nora wants to be a mother and if that’s why she wants Erin around, both as a human and as a wolf, and again: my sense of what is adorable has been forever skewed by this show and it’s odd macabre morality. (Although it must be said: last week Josh decided to propose to Nora but never got to and now they’ve pseudo-adopted a werewolf teenager… things are moving fast!) 

Not so adorable, however, is Aidan’s quest to find food for himself and Henry. He asks Josh to screen out any patients at the hospital who haven’t had the flu and give Aidan their address. Naturally, Josh refuses (and here’s that screwed up morality again: part of me thinks he should, as long as Aidan agrees to a “catch and release” system). But fear not, for Henry shows up to berate Josh for not caring about Aidan any more now that he’s human again. Turns out, guilt works pretty well on Josh, and he turns over the info of a flu-free patient to Aidan with a warning to not make him regret it. But before they can feed, Aidan realizes that Henry has come down with the sickness that killed the other vampires. There’s a really great moment where Henry is tearing into Aidan about how he thinks he’s doing things the right way and yet everyone who loves Aidan dies. I’m not a huge fan of Henry and I won’t be sad if the sickness does take him, but I’m a complete sucker for Aidan facing the flip side of his choice and that moment was really well done. 

Sally’s storyline, meanwhile, teeters between cute, heartbreaking, and seriously screwed up. After stress-eating Josh out of house and home, she decides to find out if Trent’s ghost is hanging around. Naturally, he’s pretty ticked off after finding out that she’s the reason he died, so she offers to help him find his door. Turns out, the reason he’s still around is that when he was busy making out with Sally, he should’ve been home with his fiancé. Sally convinces a funeral home employee, Max, to help her with getting the fiancé alone, and spills the beans about Trent’s affair. Only it turns out that she’d been cheating on Trent for a year and doesn’t feel so bad about it anymore. Trent, on the other hand, is pretty devastated, and tells Sally to leave him alone. All is not lost, however, because Sally and Max have a rather cute moment as he escorts her out and compliments her on her ability to cheer up mourners. 

The seriously screwed up part arrives when Trent finally gets his door… only to step through and find the witch waiting. He asks if he’s doomed to work in a soup kitchen forever and she shreds his ghost with a butcher knife, leaving only a pile of ashes on the floor. Which she then eats. Something comes over her and it can not be good, especially not after the first episode of the season ended with her making friends with Ray’s corpse. 

Anyone have any theories about what she’s up to? I have no idea but it can’t be anything good. (The episode, on the other hand, was great. And adorable. I hope Erin sticks around and the three of them form an awkward werewolf family even though I know it’ll have to end in tragedy because this show doesn’t let anyone be happy for long. What can I say, the heart wants what the heart wants.)

Read Kaci’s review of the previous episode, (Dead) Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, here.

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