Lost Girl "Oh Kappa, My Kappa" Review

"Oh Kappa, My Kappa" felt like homage to those late 90s early Buffy and ANGEL episodes. Now, I want to limit the comparisons between Lost Girl and Joss' shows for the obvious reasons, namely because Buffy and ANGEL are two of the greatest shows ever produced. Lost Girl is very fun, but I'm not prepared to claim its future alongside the Joss' two shows. Michelle Lovretta's script had the same self-awareness as Kevin Williamson's Scream. The evil frat and/or sorority storyline's been used throughout the years by genre shows. Mutant Enemy-wise, I immediately think of "Reptile Boy" and "Help" (even though "Help" is set within high school, but it follows the same beats of the evil college fraternity storyline). Lovretta probably knew the audience would consider itself smart enough to know the twists of the episode before the twists happened, or she, too, tired of the same old in genre television, so she chose the Scream route, and wrote a terrifically fun 42 minutes of TV.

The episode opened as a young college co-ed ran through the dark Canadian woods away from some menacing figure we couldn't see, as it was a POV shot. Later, the co-ed awoke in a damp hole in the ground, where another hole in the ground lay mere feet from her; a creature in the hole caused a disturbance in the water, slowly climbed from the hole, and tried to INGEST our co-ed from where she sat. The young co-ed crawled behind a rock where the creature couldn't reach her because of its chains. The creature looked like a monster from season one of Buffy, which operated on a shoe-string budget and aired on the almost-invisible WB network. I've no idea what the budget for genre TV is in Canada, but I assume Lost Girl operates on a shoe-string budget. The creature's lair looked like a set from old Buffy as well, and that just warmed my genre geek heart.

Of course, a young co-ed doesn't voluntarily move into the residence of a creature. Indeed, she went missing, and somewhere someone needed to find her. Kenzi surprised Bo with a pamphlet detailing Bo's Private Investigative Services. Bo resisted the business at first because several of the facts were plain lies, but Kenzi's persuasive powers won the day. Kenzi reminded Bo about her succubus nature, added that she, herself, is a thief and therefore unemployable. So Bo and Kenzi meet with Gina's, the missing co-ed, mother, even though they won't earn much coin from the case. Again, my genre geek heart was warmed by the existence of a supernatural private investigation company complete with clients unable to pay much for services. All that was missing was a morose vampire with a soul and Cordelia Chase to enthusiastically pursue money; of course, Bo settled in nicely as the Angel to Kenzi's Cordy. Bo took the case regardless of payment while Kenzi fussed and pouted in her chair.

Gina pledged a sorority and was two days away from rush, or something (I lost all respect for fraternities and sororities the day a frat opted against filming a commercial because of a moderate drizzle; therefore, I will not research the ins and outs of a frat/sorority). Bo and Kenzi travel to the college to investigate. Bo disguises herself as a security guard. Kenzi's given the duty to go undercover as a sorority hopeful. There are several red herrings throughout the story. The girls don't allow certain people into a room. The dean of the university used to be a kappa. The college has a history of covering up disappearances and other crimes to maintain its excellent reputation. The head of security is sort of controlled by the dean of the college. All signs point to the sorority as evil and using new pledges to feed its supernatural creature in the locked room

Of course, Bo and Kenzi SUCK at their jobs right now, which is awesome. Lovretta was able to subvert expectations whilst remaining true to her characters. Bo and Kenzi, literally, just began work as private investigators. Of course they're going to be terrible at their jobs. Kappa Omega Beta locked that room because it was for the new pledges' post-rush party. I adored the time spent on a complete red herring. The kappas descended a stairwell in red robes, chanting Latin, and I thought, "Here we go: some "Reptile Boy" style camp is about to go down," because "Reptile Boy" followed evil frat guys who fed a reptile-like demon co-eds. I was wrong, and I tip my hat to Michelle Lovretta for a genuine surprise.

Bo's boss, the security guard, is actually the man responsible for the missing co-eds. The dean never controlled him as much as he never pursued leads and kept the dean in the dark. The security guard murders the dean before he kidnaps Bo. The security guard's reasons for murdering young co-eds is an issue of eternal youth. The fae produces a water that stunts the aging process. In exchange, the security guard feeds the fae young women; it's a terrible and morally bankrupt deal. Bo kicks ass in that dank hole in the ground and saves Gina's life.

Meanwhile, we learned a bit more about Dyson. It turns out the Light know a great deal more about Bo than they're letting on, including Dyson. Dyson's also a player (or playa), which broke Bo's heart, because she already fell in love with him after their first 'healing' session. The healing session led to my favorite moment in the episode, which was Kenzi excitedly dancing for five seconds. Romances are never simple nor easy in the world of genre television. Bo and Dyson's relationship won't be of the stuff dreams are made on. I should mention that Dyson's a shapeshifter, just like Sam in True Blood, so that's LAME.

Other thoughts:

-I read the Lost Girl forum on TWoP last week. Apparently, I'm the lone Kenzi fan in North America. Kenzi's dancing delighted me; more so, though, Ksenia Solo's line delivery delights me. She's a ball of energy with an infectious way of saying things. I'd probably listen to anything she said to me.

-Faes have joined the Dark to take revenge on the Light. I'm unsure if I'm looking forward to a big mythology episode or dreading it. The Ash and Morrigan were fairly lame in the "Pilot."

-Michelle Lovretta wrote the episode. Paul Fox directed it.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK