4.11 Ramona The Pest Fresh off of last week’s World’s Most Awkward Kiss, Aidan is full of conflicted feelings about Sally. It all boils down to everyone’s favourite part of the friends-to-lovers trope, namely that he’s afraid he’ll risk their friendship by trying to be anything more. There’s also the whole incorporeal issue to work through, and sure, not being able to touch might be a problem if the delightful Pushing Daisies hadn’t already worked that through several years ago. Someone get Aidan the box set and he’ll be good to go. The writers finally remember that whole Li’l Smokie plot from a few episodes ago as the gang finds that there’s a secret room on the other side of Josh’s closet where her spirit has been trapped since quite possibly the dawn of time. Or the seventies. I’m honestly not sure when exactly Sally saw the witches sacrifice her. Anyway. They crack the room open and find Ramona, Beatrice’s twin and apparent homebody ghost who has been stuck in her bedroom for at least thirty years. I’m going to stop right there and ask you to think about living in solitary confinement for that long, remind you of what that 80s rocker ghost told Sally back in season one about ghosts who “circle the drain” for too long losing their minds, and then ask you to tell me that Ramona’s smile isn’t the scariest thing you’ve ever seen on this show. You can’t. No one’s that good a liar. Meanwhile, things at the house are… horrible. I really wish I had a better word for this, but I just don’t. The English language is failing to accommodate the situation Josh and Nora find themselves in when the pack, including Kenny’s girlfriend Astrid, shows up at the house to hold Nora hostage in exchange for Josh’s continued submission to their will. It gets worse when Ramona seals Josh in the room and refuses to let him go, resulting in him wolfing out from anger and desperation to protect Nora. The pack opens the door and… well. You can figure out the rest. What I do find supremely interesting is that the show almost brushes over this as far as Josh is concerned. This is Josh “I hate everything about myself” Levison. I feel like the realization that he murdered at least half a dozen people should be… graver? More dramatic? It feels like it goes by so quickly, with Sally herding Josh and Nora out to the woods to change for the full moon and Aidan taking care of the clean up. I think maybe it’s meant to make things feel more frantic and desperate but after Josh literally tried to get Aidan to kill him twice in the season opener for a lot less than this, I feel like there was a, “Sally don’t bother trying to help me, just kill me you guys, I can’t live with knowing what I did anyway,” scene missing. It’s Josh. Josh. It’s really starting to hit home how close we are to the series end. After this, there are only two more Being Humans ever, and nothing quite drives that home like finally having Josh confront the wolf and accept that it’s a part of him. Given how much of a driving force it’s been for his character, to see it reach its conclusion truly feels like an ending. But you know what’s not ending? Josh and Nora! Those two kids have finally worked it out! Nora takes one look at him after the full moon and somehow just knows that Josh is in control again. It’s all sorts of sappy and beautiful and I cried a little bit because dang it, most of us have been rooting for these two since season one and it’s nice to see them truly happy and adoring each other before we head into the final two episodes. And then there’s Kenny. Aidan spends most of the episode trying to convince Kenny to leave Boston, which sort of fits with the general theme of upheaval that permeates through this episode. And Kenny’s totally willing to go, even willing to fake his death so that he and Astrid can flee in peace. But this is Boston and this is Being Human. The best laid plans and all. So Aidan lies and tells Kenny that the pack killed Astrid when they learned she wanted to leave, because Sally was right when she told alternate universe-Aidan that he would never turn his back on Josh, apparently even over his own son. Upstairs, Aidan wraps Astrid’s body up by himself, telling Ramona that he kept her separate from the other wolves because she is special. On the floor, tally marks have appeared in the dried pool of Ramona’s blood, because apparently Ramona is a frat boy making notches on her proverbial bedpost. And then, just so we’re all clear that Being Human likes to rub salt in every wound you’ve ever or will ever have, Astrid’s ghost appears to Kenny and tells him the truth of how she died. Oi. Here’s to next week. Bring the tissues and possibly the ale. We’re probably going to need it. Read Kaci’s review of the previous episode, Oh Don’t You Die For Me, here.
