Lost Girl Finally Tackles Kenzi’s Latent Heterosexim

Confession time my Lost Girl lovers.

I never thought Doccubus stood a chance.

I like Doccubus. I love the tragedy of a human and a sex sucking fae. I love the tragedy of a human enslaved to a fae and in love with another fae. I love the tragedy of a woman committed to one person and in love with another. I love that Lauren is a straight up super-nerd. I love that they’re two attractive ladies who have no problem getting nekkid while I watch from my couch and consume a ham sandwich.

But I just never thought they’d go the distance. Dyson’s always been far better developed than Lauren. He gets whole episodes devoted to how his wolf brain works while Lauren gets half an episode devoted to her girlfriend going cray cray. Perhaps more importantly, Kenzi, the best character on the show, has been firmly Team Dyson since time began (or maybe since just the show began). Couple that with Dyson’s great exposition and the heteronormative nature of entertainment in general and there’s always been this nagging feeling that poor Lauren was nothing but a lady lovin’ diversion before Bo finds her way back to her big manly wolf dude.

And nearly all of that was addressed last night. Particularly the Kenzi/Lauren enmity. I may have hunkered down and set aside my sandwich when the episode opened with Kenzi mud sliding into a glorious ball punch and then getting raked over BFF coals by Bo when she made some snide aside regarding the doctor. We weren’t even five minutes in and already the episode was tackling my biggest beef with Doccubus.

The B-Team. Actually more formidable than expected.

And it got better from there, taking out the show’s heavy hitting problem solvers and leaving the B-Team to battle porcine fae and their burning irritation with one another. And wow, what irritation. What has previously only been hinted out with raised eye brows and Kenzi snark goes into full-blown Breakfast Club conflict and resolution. I’m talking trapped alone together and forced to face false preconceptions and then forced to grudgingly respect one another.

All while Bo makes out with Tamsin, eats paper and watches Dyson get nekkid.

Bo had it pretty easy this week.

What was truly fascinating about Kenzi’s feelings towards Lauren is that they weren’t entirely rooted in heterosexism as previously suggested. She doesn’t hate Lauren because she wants Bo with a man(wolf). Nor does she hate her because she might supplant Kenzi as Bo’s favorite lady. They’re both factors to varying degrees, but Kenzi’s initial assessment, that Lauren was a duplicitous super smart privileged chick, is her primary reason for hating her. In many ways Kenzi becomes the audience (at least the non-queer one). She’s suspicious of Lauren because outside of some earnest words shared with Bo we and Kenzi really know next to nothing about the woman.

That’s what makes their bonding so much fun in this episode. It’s not just two characters at opposite ends of the personality spectrum getting to know one another, it’s the audience avatar bonding with the new love interest and allowing the audience to understand her through Kenzi. We learn that in addition to being really great at finger banging Lauren’s also got a mean right hook, can create an antiparasitic in a kitchen, and apparently served in Afghanistan after graduating from Yale. Oh and she’s jealous of Kenzi’s innate ease with people and fae and her ability to get through any situation with a beer and a song.

And she loves Bo. That was the biggy. Telling Bo she loved her was one thing, but telling Bo’s über judgemental besty that she loved her and wanted to be good enough for her? That’s the closest this show is ever going to get to an old-fashioned sit down with dad.

While Bo’s best ladies bonded Bo herself played her own version of “getting to know you” with Tamsin and Vex got to know himself (in a non-masturbatory fashion). It was exposition city, with characters unloading major truths (Tamsin might be a valkyrie but she’s not sure) and learning all sorts of things about one another (Kenzi and Vex now know that deep down inside he’s a huggable Spike kind of dude). Except for Dyson. Who just danced for us.

What? It was a good scene.

Notes

• Petulant Bo trying to count in French was nearly the highlight. Followed closely by Coyote Ugly Bo and topless Dyson.
• Tamsin may be a valkryie, a Nordic psychopomp. I was going to do a whole thing about how valkyries are often represented as the handmaidens of Nordic gods much like succubi are the handmaidens of Dioynsus but then I remembered that those are maenads and that succubi are, in fact, rabbinic in origin.
• Kenzi was very nearly a superhero, but she declined. RIP Superhero Kenzi. It’s okay. You’re good at ball punches.
• Vex is being redeemed, I just wish his supreme evilness had been established first. I’ve always considered him puckish.
• So…Kenzi has a thing for Dyson right?
• And Bo was straight up straight as a teenager.
• Speaking of teens, I’m still not even sure what was happening with that parasite. It made them twelve or something? They all seemed much more generic tween than actual tween versions of themselves. It was a missed opportunity for some cool character building.
• But this episode was so chock full of character building that I guess we can let it pass.
• Next Week: Lauren and Bo have to deal with the fact that Bo needs sex to survive and Lauren is only human. Expect lots and lots of sex. And angst. WHERE WAS THIS SHOW WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL. Also Bo goes undercover as a therapist.