Being Human Recap: Episode 1.10 – Dog Eat Dog
Well, here we are at week ten and with this week’s episode we get a glimpse into Bishop’s back story. This week was a Bishop/Aidan-centric episode with a side of Josh and a sprinkling of Sally. So far this series has done a great job of giving equal time to each of the three major players, but it was nice to finally get to peek behind the curtain that is Bishop.
Bishop is one of those characters that you sort of love to hate. He reminds me a lot of Krychek from X-Files in that sense. We finally get to see another side to Bishop which was a nice change of pace. So far he’s been the instigator in Aidan’s torment, but this week brought about a bit of a role reversal. Told through a series of flashbacks that dealt with Bishop and Aidan we find out that back in the 1950′s Bishop had much better hair and was in love with a human woman named Jane. She knew what he was but resisted his offer to turn her into a vampire. He respected her wishes but couldn’t seem to break free from her, even though Aidan, who looked like a greaser straight out of The Outsiders, urged him to either leave her or turn her anyway. Aidan had an almost sinister quality to him back then telling Bishop that Jane would thank him after it was done. He was kind of a tool about it too.
Remember a few weeks back when Marcus went to that Amish farm and we saw those creepy human shaped cocoons? Well, we finally get to see the occupants. They are indeed the elders who only come out of hibernation every 50 years. We also see them in the flashbacks as they arrive at the funeral home that was originally run by Bishop’s maker. Apparently even though they hibernate all the time, nothing gets past them. In the flashbacks they find out about Bishop’s affair with Jane and end up killing his maker as punishment. Once that deed is done, they tell him to end it with Jane, and he can become the boss of Boston. So that’s how he came to be in charge. Bishop ends up killing Jane and my thought on this is because he can’t just leave her. She was too much of a temptation for him and if she were alive, he’d eventually have a moment of weakness and go back to her. Might as well get rid of that temptation, so he did.
Back in the present day, the elders are back once again. They’re like the vampire Godfathers and just as scary. Aidan shows up at the funeral home and not only has to deal with Rebecca, who’s freaking out because of what he did to Bernie, but Bishop tells him that the elders are there and are due to wake up any time AND he finds out that Bishop had Josh kidnapped and is holding him in a scary basement. Not a good day for Aidan at all.
Apparently werewolf dog fighting is entertainment fodder for vampires and Bishop arranged a dog fight in honor of the elders. The simple act of forcing Josh to participate in this once again shows us the manipulative side of Bishop. He knows that Aidan will do anything for his friend and just as he planned, Aidan agrees to come back to the “family”.
As Josh is being held in a cage, he befriends the other werewolf, simply called The Professor. The Professor is older and stronger and has been chronicling all of the other werewolves he’s had to kill during his 15 years of imprisonment. As the transformation time nears, Aidan makes a plea with Bishop who agrees to his terms, but too little too late. Josh has to fight the old man and ends up killing him. Bishop obviously holds up his end of their bargain because we see Josh at home the next day stewing in his guilt over the death of the old man. Aidan tell him that he was let go because of the deal he made with Bishop and how he can’t get out of it. Both Sally and Josh freak out and question him about it but in the end, he has to tell them he doesn’t really have a choice.
At the end of the episode Bishop tells Aidan that the elders are going to kill him. Now, we know that the elders killed Bishop’s maker as a form of punishment for his relationship with Jane. Bishop is Aidan’s maker so are they going to kill him as a punishment to Aidan? This makes me think back on the trip out to the farm that Marcus made. Marcus has no love for Aidan and wants him out of the picture. If the elder do away with Bishop, will Marcus succeed him and take over Boston? If so, that gives Marcus a whole lot of power and the ability to do away with Aidan once and for all. I’m thinking that’s his end game but I can’t imagine that’s something they will reveal this close to the end of the first season.
Even though there wasn’t much Sally in this episode, she still held her own in the scenes she had. She had a really nice scene with Josh on the front porch and was actually the one who was trying to find Aidan to tell him about Josh getting kidnapped. She also had a great scene in which she pleads with Aidan to help Josh and she even had a minor scene with Rebecca. She also still managed to inject some humor into an otherwise heavy-handed episode.
What I loved most about this episode was the tender side of Bishop we got to see. It was great to see him play up that side of the character and make him likable. His hardened exterior had to come from somewhere and we got to see that. Where they will go from here is anybody’s guess but I really hope we get to see more of Bishop’s back story and I really hope that the elders don’t kill him.
Word came down last week that the series was picked up for another season so we’ll have more to look forward to. The story is finally becoming less and less like the BBC version which is great. It’s finding its own voice and now I can’t really predict where the story is going to go. There are still similar elements, but it’s definitely not following the same story lines as closely as the first few episodes. This has me really excited to see where the writers will take us.
Tags: Being Human, Being Human Recap, Dog Fights, Ghost, Meaghan Rath, Sam Huntington, Sam Witwer, SyFy, Vampires, Werewolves
