Being Human (USA) season 2 episode 5 review: Addicted To Love

This review contains spoilers.

2.5 Addicted To Love

This week’s episode of Being Human should’ve been subtitled “A Trip to the Department of Back Story” but that’s really not a good thing. As I stated last week, this show has been forgetting lately that its central premise is about Josh, Aidan, and Sally and all relationship permutations there of. Instead, we’re treated to back story about Suren, Sally’s possession storyline becoming so rape-like that it had to be called out in the text, and yet another new character in the form of Nora’s ex.

We spend most of the episode flashing back to learn what happened at the hotel eighty years ago, resulting in Suren being locked up. The drama of it all is fairly tedious as we watch Aidan’s progeny Henry repeatedly cheat on Suren until she discovers his infidelity and feeds off his most recent trick in front of hundreds of guests. In order to prevent word about vampires getting out, Mother orders the doors to be locked and all humans inside killed. She then ‘grounds’ Suren, and I’m sure this was supposed to be a clever pun, but by that point I was so annoyed with her character that it didn’t even make me chuckle.

What’s even more troubling about this is that I’m a fan of Dichen Lachman’s work. I have seen her do incredible things with very little text to work with. Her character on Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, Sierra, was one of the better parts of that show. But I honestly don’t feel like she’s doing a good job here as Suren. Let’s not pretend that this show is dripping with Emmy-calibre actors (despite my particular love of Sam Huntington’s entire IMDB profile), but even by this show’s standard, she is failing.

In between all of this, we’re treated to scene after scene of Suren and Aidan writhing in a blood-soaked bed until Mother shows up and sends them off to find Bishop’s orphans. Bishop’s old office is devoid of orphans, but it does contain Aidan’s offspring, Henry, and Aidan lies to Suren to cover up Henry’s presence.

Meanwhile, over in werewolf land, Nora’s ex shows up at the hospital and sends Josh into a disgusting fit.

First he yells at Nora in a way that reeks of victim-blaming, as though it’s her fault for not creating a huge, screaming scene in the hospital the second she saw him. And then he lets Connor talk him into tracking the ex down and beating him up because the ex ‘marked’ Nora when he abused her and she “is Josh’s.” It’s more than a little disgusting and the less said about it, the better.

Nora, meanwhile, confesses to Brynn that she’s been counting down to the full moon, eagerly anticipating it, and has been coming to watch her ex without ever going inside to talk to him. Brynn pushes Nora towards being more like her and Connor, promoting embracing the wolf. It works, and Nora turns with both twins that night to “run free.” They use their freedom to eat her ex, and we’re treated to a shot of the three of them waking up all curled together in some kind of incestuous werewolf blood orgy.

Sally’s storyline is somehow just as disgusting as the hot mess the werewolves have going. Still possessing the woman from last episode (who we learn is named Janet), she is using Janet’s body to have sex with a hot doctor from the hospital. Josh, in one of his only good moments in this episode, calls this out for what it is – taking control of another person’s body and using it for sex. Sally completely misses the point by retorting that Janet would be having sex with Dr. Forest anyway.

Things do, however, get interesting when Sally gets stuck in Janet’s body and is unable to get out until the black figure from her dream shows up and throws Janet against a wall. The force is enough to knock Sally out of the body, but Janet remembers bits and pieces from her possession and comes to the house trying to figure out what has happened to her.

Sally goes to  her later on to try to apologize for what she did, but finds Janet obsessively drawing the dark figure over and over again before she finally gives it a name: Reaper. What, exactly, a Reaper is in this universe isn’t defined, but at least now we have a name to call it.

But in all honesty, that’s about the only good thing I have to say about this episode. Everything about it was either boring (Suren), offensive (Sally not realizing that what she was doing to Janet was rape), or flat-out disgusting (Josh’s treatment of Nora and her subsequent bloody werewolf threesome).

I really miss the show as it was last season. Even aside from the complaints I have that are specific to this episode, I barely feel like these people are friends anymore. Considering that the show’s most basic conceit is that it is about three friends helping each other feel more human, that’s a huge sign that it’s failing on all fronts.

Read our review of the last episode, here.

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