Being Human 3x08 - The Wolf-Shaped Bullet

[keep_counting]

Review for the final episode of the third season of Being Human. Spoilers below



I don't even know where to begin. In many ways, I'm glad I waited awhile before watching this. If I had watched it directly after Though the Heavens Fall, I don't think I would have been able to handle anything. Instead, I got to throw it around in my head. I got to think about everything that has happened this season. I got to think about how I basically knew nothing about John Mitchell, until this final chapter of his story - how much we've been pulled in and how, just like George, we as the viewer have constantly been giving Mitchell alibis and excuses, because he's a main character and we love him and we want him to be happy. But really, Mitchell is the villain of this story. He's the supporting villain in season one, with his sudden shift: he's conflicted and then heroic in the end. We love him all the more because of it, for falling off the wagon but then choosing right when it matters.

We're content to ignore it when he crosses the line by the end of season 2. When he slaughters twenty people and gets away with it. We sit in anxiety, on the edge of our seats, as Herrick discovers the book, as Nina calls the police, as Nancy gets closer and closer to the truth. Mitchell getting caught is Mitchell getting caught, and Mitchell is one of our main characters. We've cried with him and laughed with him, and we keep making excuses, because everyone makes mistakes. It's in his nature, after all, and he should get applause for fighting it as much as he already does, really, good job Mitchell, you're trying so hard.

It's been hidden away for two seasons, only coming up in extreme cases, but in season three it is just below the surface, so transparent that sometimes we're staring it right in the face: Mitchell is a monster. He has the capabilities of being a good man, he has the chance. He can love. He does love, wholly and fully, but in the end he is haunted by his own selfishness. In this way, what Lia does is so breathtakingly clever that it makes me want to scream in frustration and admiration. Because as soon as Mitchell has that threat hanging over him, everything else fades into the background. His friendship with George, his love for Annie. It's self-preservation, and as he tells Herrick, that has always come first for him. He didn't do the things he did out of some moral sense, he did it because he was pissed off or because he wanted to make a statement. It's Mitchellmitchellmitchell and it has to end. Because he'll kill again.

This episode as a final stands out a lot from other finales: 3x07 did my head around with all its twists and in a way, I am glad that this episode took a much slower approach. I knew what was going to happen, at almost every turn: of course Herrick was going to get Mitchell out. Of course he would in the end get enough to George so that he would attack Mitchell. Of course Tom would seek vengeance. Of course Mitchell would let George go. Of course Mitchell would kill Herrick.

And of course, of course, it had to be George. Wolf-shaped bullet.

There were two things that took me by surprise, both of them pleasant: Nina surviving (OH THANK GOD MY BABY I AM SO HAPPY YOU AND GEORGE JR AREN'T DEAD!) and the prophecy being a lie.

I actually made a whooping-sound when Lia admitted to making it all up: the fact that this was a made-up prophecy, that it was her little revenge-scheme instead of the comsic universe wanting a part of it, fits with the whole core of the show. This isn't the supernatural. This is the supernatural among the normal, and Mitchell has hardly pissed off the Powers That Be enough for them to make a little prophecy just for him. It's normal, because humans are petty and evil and of course Lia wants revenge. Lia, the sweet little girl who was murdered by a vampire on a non-assuming day. Her brothers get into so many fights now. Her dad sometimes goes into her old room, just to lie on her bed. Doesn't she deserve justice?

This is also why it feels real, when Annie gets her to 'change her mind' with just a few choice words: Lia's cold 'collatoral damage' -line shows how far off the edge vengeance really takes you. It was Mitchell's mistake, it should be Mitchell that pays whatever debt he owes to Lia: and instead it's Nina almost dying in a hospital and Tom finding McNair's body in the attic. And Mitchell is suffering, oh how he's suffering, but so is everyone else. The last victims of the Box Tunnel 20 Massacre. Good job, Lia.

The episode was incredibly slow-paced, with long scenes filled with just dialouge and in a way, it fit. We're saying goodbye to so many things. Goodbye to Mitchell and to Herrick, who has been dogging our heroes footsteps even when they still believed him gone. Goodbye to whatever last piece of innocence George might have left. Goodbye to Hustle Time and dish-washing and tea. Because we will have all those things, but it won't be with Mitchell. John Mitchell finally stopped being selfish, and he staked Herrick, not for himself, but because it was the right thing to do.

Speaking of staking Herrick, go back and watch that scene. Imagine that it is two old lovers reconciling and it ends with a kiss instead of a staking. Literally none of the lines needs to be changed. Show, you are so diabolical and beautiful and you make me want to sob my eyes out.

I am anxious and scared about the next season. Our new villain seems delightful, but our heroes are in such a dangerous position: but the shot where they turn around, away from Mitchell's ash to face Wyndam, it literally gave me chills. The determination cannot be mistaken. They've lost so much and now they're ready to fight.


QUOTES:

Annie: Do you even know who you're in love with?
Mitchell: What do you mean?
Annie: Maybe you were happy to see those people bury their mums and their dads and their children. With no sense of— no justice. Maybe you thought that we were worth it. What the hell made you think I would?

Herrick: Rule Number One of Vampire Club: do not get arrested. Even Seth knew that and he used to point at planes.

Annie: Do you know what I think? I think you are way out of your depth. Don't get me wrong, you are— You're brutal. But I've been doing this supernatural stuff a long time now and trust me, grief and revenge are not things to get drunk on. You know I think you wanted wild and Biblical and rawr! But instead you just woke up somewhere unfamiliar with your underwear on back-to-front.

Wyndam: I'm from Head Office. I'm the man from Del Monte. I am the wrath of God.

George: I'm doing this because I love you.
Mitchell: I know.

What's that barking
It's all starting.
Like a row
of dominoes.
Can you stop them falling
Someone's due a mauling.
Here it comes
the wolf-shaped gun.
Annie, listen
here's your mission.
Mitchell's toast
if you're a scaredy-ghost.
Come to purgatory
stop shit getting gory.
Or the big bow wow
ends his story now.

Comments

[the-silverdoe.livejournal.com]

It was a beautifully written review! :)
3.8 is such an intense episode. I absolutely loved this whole 'Mitchell is the villain' arc in S3, it was risky, but so clever. Now maybe 4.1 will come as a bit of a disappointment, it did for me (I don't know how much you already know about what happens in S4), but from 4.3 and onwards S4 is really good!