Lost Girl Closes Out The ‘What’s Up With Kenzi’ Arc On A High Note

Sometimes it’s tough writing about a show like Lost Girl. The show hits this sweet spot. The performances are all splendid, the story is going interesting places, the characters are behaving rationally and in character, and there’s a bad ass valkyrie we know little about but can speculate on a plenty. It’s all so enjoyable that it puts you in a happy haze. The conclusion to the ‘What’s Up With Kenzi’ arc is just good TV. There isn’t really anything objectionable about it (though the complete lack of Hale this season makes my face sad) and there’s so much goodness that it’s difficult to know where to begin.

We could talk about how Bo and Lauren continue to have one of the most adult relationships on television. Lauren gets so hung up on curing Bo’s murder problem that she ignores Bo’s plea to help Kenzi. Bo gets pissed. Lauren apologizes. Bo says “later” while looking lovingly down at her sleeping BFF. No one screams. No one cries.

Okay. Dyson cries. But that’s because he got Valkyried.

Then he goes in for the hug and it is hilarious.

The point is these two women are proof a relationship can be relatively drama free and still hot as hell and, more importantly, enjoyable to watch. Would that every show devolving into relationship drama knew Lost Girl’s recipe for entertaining drama-free romances.

And would that other shows had as deep and platonic a lady/lady friendship as that between Kenzi and Bo. Over the course of three seasons they’ve gone from best friends because they’re written that way to best friends belonging in the pantheon beside the Golden Girls, Buffy and Willow, and Cristina and Meredith (Kalinda and Alicia used to be there too but their rift is still horribly intact). These two would take a bullet for one another. They can communicate via ice cream flavors! I have problems communicating with text messages half the time.

And Bo can figure out when she’s being played by a kitsune that’s really, really good at Single White Femaleing her way through life. Ksenia Solo dominates the hour with her dual performances. Deftly bring to life this unnatural impostor with languid movements of her body, a feral sense of self and just the right amount of Kenzi charm to make her unsettling. No one is more unsettled than Kenzi. She’s forced to face her worst self. The one she fears deep down inside might be how others perceive her. The clingy, frivolous self-obsessed human.

There are a lot of ways to classify a “good” actor. There’s the ones who have chemistry with anything that moves, that one who arrests your attention with a quiet scene, the one who goes full retard effectively, the one who delivers a speech to bring down the house, and the ones who disappear into a role so effortlessly the actor ceases to be. Then there’s the science fiction/fantasy actor. They’re asked to do something no one else will have to do. They’ll have to have a relationship with a CGI dragon or act opposite nothing at all in a flat green room or they’ll have to experience every single emotion of a lifetime in two minutes. Ksenia Solo gets to do one of my favorite genre tropes. She has to play Kenzi and she has to play this clever as hell crazy woman who knows how to be Kenzi. That’s difficult enough to wrap your head around, let alone being asked to act it. But Solo digs deep, embodying these two vastly different women. At the same time she continues to do what she’s done from the beginning: she anchors the show and sets the tone. The show is about Bo and her journey of self-discovery but the heart of the show is Solo’s performance as Kenzi. The cast seems to gravitate towards her and they all do just a little better when she’s in the room.

This is also why some sort of quantum state of awesome is created when she acts opposite herself.

Ostensibly this episode was about securing Kenzi’s place as Bo’s numero uno person (which says nothing good about their relationship in the season finale). It also secured Tamsin’s place as the snarky outsider this show full of besties has so desperately needed. She’s the show’s Cordelia or Anya. Fringe enough to not especially like everyone, prickly enough to lob a drama grenade when needed, but just lonely enough to willingly hang out with people she despises. Tamsin is the best kind of bundle of quirks and judging by the way she’s accidentally sliding into the affections of the audience and Bo she’s probably going to be around a while–expanding Bo’s stable of blonds love interests and making us all wonder if maybe, just maybe, polygamy could be end game.

But this is okay too.

Notes

• Dyson. Lauren. Tamsin. All blond. All series regulars. All look excellent with their tongues in Bo’s mouth.
• The Kitsune sorority was fun but it was odd see a traditionally Japanese folk tale creature appear as blind white girls in a Greek house.
• This episode confirms Kenzi has a thing for Dyson right? And that they’re kind of incredibly attractive as a couple when she isn’t a crazy fox lady?
• This episode was not Dyson at his best–even before he was getting Valkyried and freaking out.
• Bo is undergoing Fae menopause. It’s no actually menopause but when they started talking about changes and Bo being too young that is where my head went. Guess she’s an early bloomer.
• Mad respect for the show keeping the Lauren/Bo/Dyson triangle even by having both Lauren and Dyson doubt Bo.
• In myth the Valkyries are psychopomps who guide the best dead to the best heaven. Now Tamsin’s skull face and ability to pull a dying man out of a coma for information. This is going to go someplace deadly. I’m busy being happy that Valkyries aren’t just über strong angel stand ins on this show…yet.
• Tomorrow: Bo has to get back to her roots to understand her fae menopause. Drama with her mama ensues.