Episode 12: Masks
This one starts with Kenzi going on about some family party she’s going to. She invites Bo, but Bo says no thanks; I can’t blame her, since Kenzi’s family sounds a bit … odd. Bo goes out for her morning run and Kenzi gets on the phone, telling someone that Bo “doesn’t suspect a thing”. I guess this is supposed to sound kind of sinister, but we all know Kenzi’s hardly the sinister type, so it’s probably just a surprise party or something that she’s planning for Bo. At the Ash’s compound, Lauren is hauled in front of him, a tad pissed off about being thrown in his dungeon. (We also learn that it’s been four days since last episode.) Lachlan tells her he read the old Ash’s journals and the
person who placed the curse on Nadia was … the old Ash himself. He wanted Lauren’s help with the plague and decided the best way to get it was to make Lauren feel beholden to him. I guess “pretty please” wasn’t in his vocabulary. Lachlan says he’s located the shaman who placed the curse, but he’s Dark Fae. Lachlan says he’ll do whatever he can to free Nadia, but in the meantime, asks Lauren to go back to work. She seems to comply, though she ain’t happy about it.
At the Dal, Kenzi is annoying Hale and Trick, talking about cakes, booze, and decorations; I knew it was a party. Bo comes in and everybody pretends to have big plans for the weekend. Bo says she might call Lauren, but gets a call from her as she’s talking … or from her phone, anyway. It turns out to be Lachlan, asking her to drop by. At the compound, he tells 
her he’s found the shaman (named Tshombe) who cursed Nadia and asks Bo to go after him, since the shaman is Dark Fae and Bo is unaligned. She agrees, but Lachlan says Bo can’t tell Lauren that she’s the one who lifted the curse; the curse can only be truly lifted if the person doing so acts out of total selfless love. That sounds like a load of shit to me, but Bo goes for it. Lachlan tells her to go see his travel agent and book a trip to the Congo.
At home, Kenzi is still in party-planner mode, and we find out it’s a birthday party she’s planning for Bo. But the party may have to be postponed, as Bo breezes in, grabs her sword, and tells them she’s off to Africa. Kenzi presses for details, but Bo won’t spill, probably still thinking of Lachlan’s “no credit” bullshit. Bo goes to the travel agent, who’s a Fae woman named Peggy. She says instead of the boring old “planes, trains, and automobiles” that humans use, she offers a quicker travel method;
she folds the Earth, so the destination comes to the traveler instead of the other way around. After signing a waiver (death being a possible side-effect of dimensional folding), Bo is instantly zapped to the Congo, right to Tshombe’s doorstep. She goes in and finds the shaman lying on the ground. She asks about the cursing nail and he points to a wooden pillar, which is absolutely riddled with nails.
Bo helps Tshombe up and he says he’s close to dying. She asks about Nadia’s nail and Tshombe tells her the old Ash paid him to bestow the curse. Bo is surprised, but Tshombe says Light Fae don’t mind compromise if they feel the ends justify the means; cursing Nadia made Lauren discover the antidote to the plague, saving hundreds of Light Fae. Bo asks what he wants to lift the curse and he says a Fae called a Preta 
stole a sacred healing mask and if she gets it back, he’ll lift the curse. But she has to hurry, since he probably won’t survive the night. At home, Kenzi is auditioning musical talent for the party and tells a couple of axe-shredders she’ll “be in touch”. There’s a knock on the door and it’s Jimmy Olsen. Actually, it’s Nate, played by Aaron Ashmore aka Jimmy Olsen on Smallville. Nate turns out to be an old neighbour of Kenzi’s (who she apparently had a mad crush on), who she hasn’t seen since she was six. She immediately hires him for the party.
At the Dal, Dyson comes in, bitching about his hot girlfriend wanting to buy them a $6.5 million house; some guys just can’t catch a break. Trick reminds him that most men would give several appendages to be where Dyson is, and observes that Dyson hasn’t been the same since he visited the Norn. Before Dyson can respond, Bo comes in asking about the Preta. Trick says she’ll need back-up against a Preta and she gives Dyson a look. Of course, he’s going to help her. Trick tells them that Preta are insatiably greedy, but can never be satisfied. If a Preta is afflicted with hunger, it’s
never full, and if it has overwhelming sexual urges … well, as Bo says, “Fae E.D., I get it.” This particular Preta has an all-consuming lust for treasure and has been stealing stuff from all over Africa. Trick says it was spotted in some catacombs, so Bo gets ready to leave. Trick says she’ll need something to trade and gives her a fancy bracelet that belonged to his wife. She’s surprised, since he’s never mentioned his wife before, and says she can’t take the bracelet, but he says his wife would approve of Bo having it. She and Dyson get ready to leave.
At home, Kenzi gets the box of party favours from her cousin. They’re supposed to be cameras, which he “acquired” somehow, but turn out to be some weird, Japanese animatronic cat-things. Hale points out it’s an 
honest mistake, since it’s hard to read box labels down at the docks in the middle of the night. He tells her the cake is still good and she samples a bit, but gets a nasty shock as there’s a worm in the icing. Hale apparently went to an “organic Fae bakery” for the cake, and belatedly realizes that he should’ve known they’d use worms—ladybugs too. Dyson and Bo go back to Peggy, the Fae travel agent and she zaps them to the catacombs at Sambava. The Preta doesn’t seem surprised to see them and asks if they’re there to trade. He shows them his “gallery” which is stuffed full of treasures he’s looted. He says his curse is a compulsion to touch the treasures, to experience them in a
tactile manner, but whenever he touches them, they crumble to sand. He can’t stop looting, but can’t enjoy the spoils either. Bo pulls out the bracelet and he tells her to set it down, warning her not to touch the piles of sand that used to be treasures, since they retain the properties of his deadly touch and would turn Bo into sand if she came into contact with them. She sets the bracelet down and asks about the healing mask, which the Preta remembers instantly.
At the Ash’s compound, Lauren talks to a comatose Nadia, saying they’ve both been prisoners for the past five years. She hopes Nadia will be awake soon; of course, Lauren knows nothing about Bo’s trip, thanks to the Ash’s bullshit. In Madagascar, the Preta shows Bo and Dyson the mask, but it’s on a dais surrounded by piles of the deadly sand … which 
incidentally are the remains of the last people who came to trade. Dyson says the whole thing was a trap, but the Preta says it’s all just part of the quest. The danger is part of the thrill in acquiring stuff. Bo starts picking her way through the deadly sand piles and Dyson finds some cloth that’s made of the same material as the Preta’s robe, which means it’s immune to his deadly touch. He tosses Bo the cloth, but the Preta opens the door, letting the draft blow the deadly sand around. Bo throws her knife at him, but it turns to sand as soon as it touches his hand. Dyson tells Bo to cover herself in the cloth and starts flinging treasures at the Preta. At first, the Preta thinks it’s funny, since the treasures all disintegrate as soon as they touch him. But that’s Dyson’s plan, and the Preta soon starts feeling the loss of his precious treasures as Dyson flings more and more of them to be destroyed.
Dyson manages to get the Preta away from the door and close it, but the Preta falls on the bracelet and disintegrates it. Bo grabs the mask and uses a piece of the cloth to grab some of the dust that used to be the bracelet, saying she has to bring back something for Trick. Yes, I’m sure he’ll appreciate a handful of dust that’ll turn him into sand if he touches it.
At home, Nate is serenading Kenzi, who’s obviously enraptured. They talk about old times (six-year old Kenzi was a bit of a stalker) and admit that they’re both single now. At the travel agency, Bo heads back to the Congo 
(after turning down the frequent flyer program with its kick-ass free t-shirt) and finds Tshombe almost dead. She puts the healing mask on his face and it’s absorbed. He revives and gives her a crowbar, infusing it with the power to pull out Nadia’s cursed nail. I’m not sure how she knew which nail was the right one—maybe the crowbar was drawn to it?—but she pulls out the nail. At the Ash’s compound, Lauren freaks out as Nadia’s vitals go crazy. The “cocoon” Nadia was in dissolves and she wakes up. She’s thrilled to see Lauren, but Lauren is … well, it’s hard to say exactly what she’s feeling right then. In Tshombe’s hut, Bo starts yanking other nails out and
Tshombe freaks out, telling her that not everyone who’s cursed is innocent; some of them are real pricks and deserve what they got. Bo asks what gives him the right to decide who needs punishing, but he says what gives her that right. She agrees neither of them should be the arbiters of other people’s lives and dumps the Preta’s sand on Tshombe’s box of unused cursing nails, dissolving them all. He freaks out, but Bo takes off.
Dyson goes back to his place and Ciara (who’s looking pretty damn good) tells him she bought a big, fancy house. He pretends to be cool with that.
Bo tells Lachlan about her adventure and he tells her to go say hi to Nadia (and not to sneak up inside a body bag this time). She goes up and sees Lauren and Nadia embracing and sucking face (at least they weren’t going at it). Bo heads home feeling like shit and is surprised to find … well, a surprise party. She puts on a happy face (or maybe she is kind of happy to see all her friends) and is introduced to Nate. Dyson gives her a knife to replace the one that’s now a pile of sand in Madagascar. Lauren shows up with Nadia—which I think is a bit tacky, especially since she obviously hasn’t told Nadia about her and Bo.
Everyone introduces themselves to Nadia and Lauren gives Bo her present … a bunch of shuriken. Wow, the romance sure went out of that relationship fast, didn’t it? Lauren thanks Bo for getting the cursing nail from the Morrigan, but Bo doesn’t take credit for actually lifting the curse, since she still believes Lachlan’s garbage about a “selfless act”.
Trick gives Bo an antique walking stick with a sword inside (do I sense a theme in the gifts?) which belonged to his dead wife. Bo apologizes for losing the bracelet, but Trick says it was for a good cause. Some dude gives Bo a present (a fancy wristband) and she’s thrilled to get something that
isn’t a weapon. He tells her not to be hasty and to read the inscription, but when she tries, she can’t decipher it. I’m no runemaster, but to me it looks like “RZL 12342”, whatever the hell that means. Before she can ask about it, the guy is out the door, so she puts the wristband on. This guy is Lambert, who will be showing up in future episodes. Bo is obviously feeling rather alone, even surrounded by people. Next day, the place is a mess (and populated by those waving cats … they’re weird, but I kinda want one). 
Kenzi brings Bo a morning coffee and Bo thanks her for the party. They talk about all the crazy shit that happened the day before and wonder who the wristband giver was. Kenzi gives Bo her present, which Bo expects to 
be another weapon, but it’s not; it’s a sketchbook of scenes from the party, done by Kenzi’s new boyfriend (I guess?), Nate. At least she knows he’s good with his hands. At the Ash’s compound, Lauren thinks Lachlan is responsible for freeing Nadia from the curse and she pledges her fealty to him. Of course, he accepts, since he’s a lying prick. We’ll see where that goes in future episodes.