Lost Girl recap – 2×06: ‘It’s Better To Burn Out Than Fae Away’

After last week’s uber-disappointing outing, I went into Lost Girl with some trepidation. Then I remembered it’s the notorious sixth episode for which a great deal of digital ink  has been written on a particular intimate encounter between a certain doctor and a certain succubus. Would a sexy encounter with Bo (Anna Silk) and Lauren (Zoie Palmer) make things better? Read on to find out.

Let’s bitch it out…It’s been a long road for our Doccubus (doctor + succubus) pair: Bo and Lauren shared exactly one nekkid encounter in season one (that would be 1×08’s ‘Vexed’) and it wasn’t a highlight for me. I’d been Team Lauren for a while at that point and the fact that the hook-up in question occured at the behest of The Ash left a sour taste in my mouth. After Lauren’s deceit was revealed, I declared myself off Team Lauren (which amusingly led to a bunch of fans criticizing me), but I was always “on” for a legitimate depiction. I simply wasn’t interested in the show playing games with the relationship and ‘Vexed’ made me feel played.

If we’re being honest, I’ve felt for the majority of its time on the air that Lost Girl has been hesitant to fully explore Lauren as a realistic partner for Bo. The show spent the entire first season throwing its weight behind Bo/Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried), the hot but milquetoast wolf detective, and Lauren was more of a consolation prize if things with Dyson didn’t work out.

And now we’ve reached a point in the show that it’s clear things with Big D and Bo are over (for now). And things with Lauren are heating up and the character is getting more screen time than ever. And so…Doccubus action! Yay!

Except…’It’s Better To Burn Out Than Fae Away’ is basically a repeat of ‘Vexed’. A desperate situation (Bo running headfirst into a suicide mission in ‘Vexed’, Lauren hiding out from The Ash now) leads to the aforementioned sexy time and then at episode’s end we get the kicker: Lauren has lied to Bo about the nature of their relationship. In ‘Vexed’ it’s that she was on orders, and in ‘It’s Better to Burn Out…” it’s that Lauren has a girlfriend named Nadia, who’s apparently hidden away in Lady Gaga’s frozen egg cage.

At this point, I feel as though the show is purposely trying to drive me into expletive laden recap territory, because seriously WTF? I’d heard a lot about this episode in Lost Girl communities and I mistakenly assumed that it was because the show was ready to begin exploring this relationship for real. But once again, it seems as though the show is willing to explore a same-sex coupling only when it comes loaded with complications. Was there a major secret when Bo and Dyson were dating? Some might argue that Dyson’s knowledge of Saskia was the problem, but let’s not forget how quickly that was passed over  between the season one finale ‘Blood Lines’ (Bo is angry and doesn’t want his help) to the season two premiere (Bo is desperate for comfort and a randy wolf shagging).

So what to make of this latest development with Lauren? Well, frankly, I’m with Kenzi (Ksenia Solo): let’s give the doctor a chance to explain herself. I’m sure that the final scene in which Lauren pets the egg and talks about how Bo is taking care of her is meant to humanize her considering she once again “sexed & lied”, but in reality this just feels like the show desperately trying to spin an extended arc out of her situation (ie: her “experiment”). In truth I’m unsure if I would be more pissed if they had of let things go further before pulling the rug out from under Bo, so in a way at least it’s just this one encounter. With that said, I can’t deny that this feels like the show has issues with the Doccubus pairing that it never had when Bo and Dyson were routinely hooking up. (Side Note: If you think I’m reaching with this, consider why it was important for Bo to ask K.C. Collins’ Hale how Dyson’s relationship with Ciara is going? Answer: Because the show wants us to know that Bo is still in love with Dyson, even as she’s working a case solely for the purposes of helping Lauren at this point).

Other Considerations:

• Despite my complaints, the sex scene between Bo and Lauren is on par for nudity/skin with the Dyson sex scenes. I really liked the final moments when we see Bo kiss Lauren’s neck as she sleeps. It’s a moment of genuine intimacy unlike anything seen on conventional TV.
• It’s good to see Vex (Paul Amos) and The Morrigan (Emmanuelle Vaugier) again. Just yesterday I was having a conversation about the show and its skewed perspective on Dark Fae. While I don’t think this episode changed any minds about the Dark side should Bo ever choose a side, it is nice to spend a bit more time exploring who some of these other Fae are (even their powers are interesting). I do wish that the show would strike a finer balance between the two sides, however, since both The Morrigan and Vex are clearly “bad guys” compared to the Light Fae we’ve encountered. It’s a little too black and white for a show that so often trades in shades of grey
• Speaking of Fifty Shades Of Grey, what do we think of Vex’s proclivity for S&M? I like Amos as an actor, and as suggested in my Lost Girl interview with Solo, Silk and Holden-Ried, the guy can rock a leather outfit, but the harness and booty shorts were a bit embarrassing. It seems like the show understood this, no?, since Vex gave Bo and Kenzi a wink and a pose after the rescue
• I’d like to explore more of the Dark Fae world, but Vaugier needs to take the camp down a notch or two. It’s like she learned her craft from the Lana Parrilla/Evil Queen school of acting
• Another misstep? The Eye (Marty Adams) as a sexually inept, game playing loser. Haven’t we seen this character a million times on TV? Just because he only has one eye does not change the fact that this caricature is played out
• No Dyson at all in this episode. Annnd I can’t say I missed him…
• Fun fact: Hale’s siren power can help cure hangovers. Man could I have used that at the wedding I attended this weekend! I didn’t try to cure my ails with a happy dance and vomit motions like Kenzi does when she discovers Lauren in Bo’s kimono, but there might have been a comparable amount of sunglasses-wearing and carb-binging action.

Best Lines of the night:

• Tryst (James Cade), an loser former acquaintance of Kenzi’s: “Kinda starting seeing this girl.” Kenzi (immediately): “No you didn’t.”
• Hale (after curing Kenzi’s hangover and she asks him to marry her): “Nah, you drink too much.”
• Kenzi (protesting about having to kiss The Eye): “He smells like old pants.”
• Bo (to the dominatrix about to kill Vex): “I don’t want to hurt you, lady, now step away from the pervert.”
• Kenzi (about a tied up Jason): “This boy’s got a one way ticket to hot bitch rehab.”

What say you, Lost Girl fans: am I off base still thinking that the show has a Doccubus issue? Were you cheering at the return of The Morrigan and/or Vex? Do you wish you could handle a kitana like Kenzi? Sound off below!

Lost Girl airs Mondays at 10pm EST on Syfy