Summer TV Rewind: Lost Girl 1.07: "Arachnofaebia"

“Truth is, humans sometimes just kill each other, you know? You take away their flat screens and their minivans, and they’re just still barbarians.”
-Dyson

So here’s the thing. I hate spiders. Hate snakes too. I once had a bit of a freak out in front of coworkers when I saw a water snake in a state park during an employee recognition event. Anyway, this episode of “Lost Girl” heavily featured an especially nasty spider, so needless to say, it kind of squicked me out. Big time. This was pretty much a bottle episode, with the bunk of the action taking place in Bo and Kenzi’s apartment, and just a few scenes taking place elsewhere. While the spider was the physical manifestation of the threat, the episode overall was very much a psychological thriller. The spider is actually a type of underfae called a Djieiene that feeds off of people’s rage. Kenzi and Bo have their first real fight, and of course the spider escalates it. I think it was a good effort to delve a bit deeper into the characters in the context of a case of the week. But I really freaking hate spiders.

Anyway, the episode begins with a fairly simple home life scene between Bo and Kenzi. It’s designed to set up their conflict later in the episode, and it serves as their first real fight. Kenzi is flirting with the pizza delivery guy, and Bo is kind of grossed out by it, so she uses her succubus powers to get the delivery guy to leave. Kenzi is not pleased by this, and the argument devolves into Kenzi being pissed at Bo for trying to run her life and Bo being pissed at Kenzi for being such a slob. They both decide to call a truce once they come to the realization that they’re having their first fight. Mostly, they think it’s kind of amusing that they have finally hit that milestone.

Elsewhere, we get the set-up for the case of the week. It involves two elderly sisters, one of whom is visiting the other. The visiting sister finds the front door unlocked and just goes right in on complaining about the housekeeping. She then gets stabbed viciously with knitting needles by her sister. This is the case that Bo and Kenzi find themselves involved with, although not in the usual way. Kenzi’s got a side job going on as a shaman. She dresses up sort of like a Russian gypsy and tries to convince people she can cleanse houses of evil spirits. She is hired by a realtor to cleanse the house where the two sisters died, and Bo, who just found out about this side job, decides to tag along to see the show. While Kenzi is pretending to perform her cleansing ritual, the big, nasty spider crawls into her purse. Bo also continues to make a mess of her love life, by working on the case with Dyson at the Dal just before she’s supposed to meet Lauren there for drinks. The three of them have a very awkward session of sitting on the couch while Bo downs shots to ease the tension.

Later, Kenzi reaches into her purse and feels something bite. Hale, who is with her at the time (they’re both at the Dal) starts pulling weapons out of Kenzi’s purse. He figures she must have cut herself on something rather than being bitten. Later, Kenzi starts not feeling well. She’s got a migraine, and she’s itchy. This makes her even more irritated than usual with Bo’s sanctimony. Meanwhile, Bo gets a spider bite of her own. Hers happens while she’s in the shower (of course). Once both Bo and Kenzi aren’t feeling well, they really start sniping at each other, although they stop sniping long enough to go see Lauren for a check-up. Lauren thinks they both have the flu, but later, after Dyson and Hale figure out how all the recent murders they’ve investigated are connected, Lauren has second thoughts. She does some research about the Djieiene and figures that it is the culprit.

Once Lauren realizes the cause of Kenzi and Bo’s distress, she put in a call to the Ash. Hale is the first to arrive at their apartment. Kenzi and Bo, in their paranoia, immediately proceed to tie him up with saran wrap. Bo then decides she needs to heal, and she decides that the best food source would be Kenzi. Kenzi doesn’t want to be food, and she runs away. Bo the decides to feed on Hale (just with a kiss), and she is actually completely healed from the Djieiene venom. She soon has bigger problems though. The Ash has sent his head of security (an ex flame of Dyson’s) to just completely incinerate Bo and Kenzi’s apartment, along with Bo and Kenzi. Dyson does his best to try and delay the incineration and save Bo, Kenzi, and Hale’s lives, but security chick will only give him two hours. And thus we have the episode’s ticking clock to raise the stakes. It’s the second time in two episodes that at least one major character’s life has been in danger, and I’m not sure I approve.

In the end, as it often is with “Lost Girl,” it’s research that saves the day. Lauren does more research and figures out exactly what they need to do to kill the Djieiene. Apparently the critter implants its heart in a person, and you have to destroy the heart to kill it. So Bo trying to cut the spider itself in half does no good. Trick then gets involved, and using a list of possible suspects that Bo provided to Dyson before the quarantine started, he’s able to figure out the likely culprit. There’s a rare magical creature/underfae dealer passing through town. They round the guy up, and the Djieiene is indeed his. And the heart is in his body, requiring Lauren to cut it out of him. Lauren pretty happily destroys the heart and calls off the quarantine and firebombing. Dyson isn’t happy with Lauren for putting Bo’s life in such danger, of course, but for now, all is back to being well in the world of Bo and Kenzie. Each now has more appreciation for the other, in spite of their annoying habits.